just a tish NE of central ND | Keep working with them, all of a sudden you will notice that they take a hold on their own ......as long as you are working with them and let or even make them do important stuff as well as clean up.Cleanup needs to be demonstrated as important also)If you make the kids have to stand and watch and never get to do important stuff they will go do something else, like play basketball or TV. It is protrayed as important so that is why they want to be around that.
My neighbor was upset with his 16 year old because he did not know how to shift the 4620 that Grandpa bought 3 deckades ago .I explained that if he had never worked with the tracotr , how is he supposed to know?He never seemed to let his kids run certain stuff in his operation, that tractor was of the things he seldom even got in to except to clean.I'd watched the kid with the skid steer loader and he was absolutely great with it so I KNOW he can run a syncro-range transmission and a clutch with a little practice.You have to put faith in your kids in some way other than just in sports and schoolwork.Otherwise they have no reason to learn stuff on a farm.What they learn here will go a long way in life .if they miss it all it is too late.
For the original post,working with your kids and letting them try stuff and prove to them selves in the shop/farm/ what they can do is the best thing a farm family can do for thier kids as long as it can be done safely.(IMHO) But you have to be there to help them learn.Working with stuff makes "common sense kick in."You have to kind of decide how much and how fast they can do stuff one step at a time.You ahve to get the feel of their skills and desires.
I once had my town raised nephew try to drive drive my stick shift pickup through a gate while I was holding down a baby calf I was going to load on the back and take to the barn. I asked and he said he could drive it that far. He got in a floored the pickup and couldnt figure out why it did not move forward like his dads pickup (automatic) did.The kid had never knew there was such a thing as a stickshift or a clutch. He was 13!!! It still makes me chuckle! (I guess in vidieo games there must not be any clutches huh?)
Im down to my 13 year old with basic teachings and wish I would have had more kids of my own to work with.Ive got 3 boys and they are learning more than I ever knew. |
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