Doctors, lawyers, engineers, ...good paying jobs...or maybe it's not those particular careers, but whatever careers that look promising for hiring now and in the future...that's what we want for our kids, right? We want our children to be "successful." We want our kids to not have to struggle. So we encourage them. We push them. We give them advice. We do what we can to make sure they're able to stand on their own two feet. 

But have we asked them what they love to do? Have we considered where their passions and interests lie? What if they want to be a musician, a beautician, a Classics major, or a skiier? 

I can tell you for certain that my passion and my heart is providing educational programming for children. How do I know that? Number one, I know it is because I love it. I can stay up until midnight or later when I'm on a roll looking for new ideas and planning out new programs (and I'm a morning person!). My brain doesn't get tired when I'm researching new activities and writing out lesson plans (which is amazing considering I can fall asleep standing up during a prayer at church). But number two, I figured it out even more when the kids programming I had done for years dissolved with the economy. I accepted a different position in order to have a job. I had always been extremely passionate and outspoken about my work. But, as Sir Ken Robinson says in the above video, "You can't promote things to which you are insensitive." He's so right.

_DSC0088 I started Believography so that I could create programs/parties for kids that allows them to explore various opportunities and careers that they may or may not be exposed to over their lifetime. The very first learning party I did, Minds Under Construction, I watched a 9-year old boy stay most of the 90-minutes at the "architect" station looking at the blueprints and drawing his own plans in a very detailed fashion. I asked his mom afterward if she knew of his talent in that area. She said she had no idea. I watched another little boy who I knew as a pretty over-active child engage for at least 45 minutes at the "building engineer" station, collaborating with another little boy he had never met before to build a house. 

Each of the learning parties are designed for kids to discover something new--either about a career, an interest, an idea, or whatever else develops out of it. A lot of times, their ideas help me to adjust the party for the next group of kids...because theirs and the parents' ideas are usually something I had never thought about before.

Watch the video above. If you don't have 50 minutes, start at about the 27:20 mark (that's when he really gets going with stories and examples). If you only have five minutes, start by reading the article in Good. I promise you he's engaging and challenges us to think about how we approach our children. At the risk of changing the tone of this to a sales pitch, I would say take a look at the Learning Parties for kids that we offer. Try throwing one as a back-to-school fun event for your kids. Brush up their math and science by letting them cook and create with Kickin' it in the Kitchen, experiment, measure, and blow things up with Blow Your Mind, or draw, imagine, and build with Minds Under Construction...and watch to see what talents and interests they have that might inspire you to engage them in activities they don't even know they'll enjoy.