In last week’s TECHNOTES, we talked about finding your passion. Many times a clearer way to find your passion is to reflect on the things you LOVED doing as a child.
Considering how you have a front row seat to your child’s life, it makes sense that you may be able to help your child identify his/her passion(s) early in life.
Is your child passionate about soccer?
Does he love to draw?
Is she amazingly creative when creating jewelry?
Does your son spend hours and hours outside doing tricks on his bicycle?
Is your daughter always writing?
Does she write her own songs?
Does your son LOVE to cook?
It’s not always identifiable what a passion may be. But when you identify a hobby your child has, the best thing to do is get him/her lessons. Let your child explore what’s possible. If s/he can’t wait until the next lesson, it’s a good sign.
Sleuthing?
Taking kids to museums is a good way to expose them to things they may have never known about. Last year, while vacationing in Washington, DC, our family went to A LOT of museums. We heard that the Spy Museum was fun, so the four of us went.
To my surprise, my daughter left there telling us she wanted to be an FBI agent. Wow, I never thought of that as a career for her!
We made sure to hit the Newseum (they have a section devoted to the FBI there) and arranged for a tour of the new museum at FBI headquarters in Washington. Now that was a trip!
My daughter is a sophomore and has some time before attending college, but now I am much more attuned to the studies she may need to take to learn more about this new revelation.
Cooking?
My son began cooking in our kitchen around seven years of age. I didn’t notice that it was his passion back then, but I allowed him to use the stove and oven (with supervision and instruction) because I could see he enjoyed it.
For his 9th and 10th birthdays, we put on an Iron Chef birthday party where my son and his friends split into teams of two and had to do a cook-off, using specific ingredients as well as choosing from numerous others. His team won both years and everyone had a blast.
My son loves to bake and jumps into action to treat guests anytime someone comes over to the house. The same is true for when he or my daughter has a sleepover. He’s already prepared the from-scratch pancake or waffle mix the night before so he can serve up hot cakes the next morning.
There is no doubt in our minds that our son will be a chef/baker one day.
Instilling Your Child’s Passion
I have two years before my son is going to be bogged down in high school academia. He is in 7th grade and goes to a public (charter) school, but I just started homeschooling him in his passion area…cooking!
You would think that this means he cooks dinner with me every night or makes desserts on the weekend. No. He does this, yes, but it’s not the homeschooling I’m referring to.
I’ve written before about the free resources available at the local library before. Libraries offer so much more than books nowadays. They offer access to free online classes, tutors, music, language learning, movies, and more.
I obtained a library card from my neighboring Los Angeles Country library so I could have access to their expanded library card benefits, some of which were not offered in my county.
I searched through all of the Los Angeles County library online resources and choose culinary classes for my son. I also did some google searching. I found some great cooking educational classes, all free, and trust me, the normal costs of these classes are hefty).
I’m sharing with you all of my research for several reasons:
- In case your child loves to cook, you can use these resources (as long as your county library gives access (or you can get an LA County library card))
- So you can see the breadth of classes available in one particular passion area
- To motivate you to look online to find resources to inspire your kids’ passions in other areas
Here are the classes/online resources we are using for homeschooling in cooking…
Math Conversions
- Measuring Cups (khan academy)
- Measuring ml (khan academy)
Nutrition/Wellness
Knife/Chopping
Baking
Cooking
Catering/Events
Culinary Textbook
- Culinary Essentials (2010)
Based on these free classes, I have set up a schedule for my son to take these classes and read from the Culinary Essentials textbook. I added metric conversions and nutritional basics to help round out his education.
Some of these classes count as continuing education units and there is a “live” instructor who checks his work in some of the classes.
The Catering class from Gale.com has been one of his favorites so far. Twice a week he gets new recipes to “test” out. They are also great recipes to use if you want to start your own catering business one day. At the end of the 6-week class, he will learn costing and pricing.
My son’s chocolate covered strawberries turned out so good, we set them out at my husband’s high school reunion. They were eaten in a flash!
The warmed spinach dip my son made from this class was the best I’ve ever had and his chocolate dipped strawberries turned out beautiful. Later this week he’ll make a cheesecake.
Life is good for him and for us!
Helping your child dive more into his/her passion doesn’t need to be costly. If your daughter loves sports, there may be classes or YouTube videos on possible jobs or activities around sports, like sports medicine, sports marketing, coaching, etc.
If your son loves photography or graphic arts, there are a TON of free online resources to learn more about this passion. Most of the classes above are from UniversalClass.com, which usually costs $189/year to take all the classes you want. Using our library card is saving us tons of money and exposing my son to different areas of cooking he wouldn’t have learned about on his own.
Make a conscious effort now to help your child discover his/her passions, it could lead to a lifetime of personal and professional fulfillment.
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