WEBVTT 00:02.397 --> 00:03.517 [SPEAKER_00]: Christian parenting. 00:05.898 --> 00:12.260 [SPEAKER_00]: I promise that I am not adding one more thing to your to-do list on this podcast episode. 00:12.740 --> 00:17.521 [SPEAKER_00]: But the summer typically means a break from academics for most homeschool families. 00:18.141 --> 00:25.623 [SPEAKER_00]: Now the curriculum is great, but if your child is not prepared for the world when they step out on their own, they'll have a lot of catching up to do. 00:25.983 --> 00:30.164 [SPEAKER_00]: No matter what level of math they have achieved, the science experiments you did or the 00:32.285 --> 00:37.132 [SPEAKER_00]: Now don't get me wrong, those things are fine, but there is more to life than book knowledge. 00:37.733 --> 00:46.665 [SPEAKER_00]: There is real life where they'll need to know how to interact, get along with, and function well with others if for no other reason than for their Christian witness. 00:47.645 --> 00:58.017 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm hoping you have a little more brain space with your usual routine set aside for the summer to focus on teaching and growing soft skills in your homeschool or of any age. 00:58.618 --> 01:00.920 [SPEAKER_00]: I've got a lot of ideas for you in this episode. 01:01.341 --> 01:07.508 [SPEAKER_00]: Just pick one or two that's seen the most important and see how you can be intentional this summer. 01:08.690 --> 01:16.802 [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Little By Little Home School Podcast where we are here to encourage you in your homeschool journey no matter where you find yourself. 01:17.183 --> 01:21.529 [SPEAKER_00]: I am the host, my name is Lee Nguyen, and I am blessed that you are here. 01:22.320 --> 01:30.444 [SPEAKER_00]: Recently, a little couple weeks ago, graduated my final homeschooler, and the season of life has shifted, and it's just different. 01:31.184 --> 01:34.746 [SPEAKER_00]: But if I could go back, when I homeschool again, absolutely. 01:34.826 --> 01:35.646 [SPEAKER_00]: What I do things differently? 01:35.906 --> 01:40.248 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh yeah, we can say that about everything, but it has been the biggest blessing. 01:40.668 --> 01:51.193 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna share in a couple of weeks a little bit about the graduation ceremony and some things that he said during that time, during his little speech that we required him to do, and because it struck me. 01:51.793 --> 01:53.175 [SPEAKER_00]: and I really think it will encourage you. 01:53.395 --> 01:54.997 [SPEAKER_00]: So, enjoy today's episode. 01:55.157 --> 01:58.061 [SPEAKER_00]: I'll be back again in a couple more days with another episode. 01:58.081 --> 01:59.703 [SPEAKER_00]: I hope that this one really encourages you. 01:59.743 --> 02:04.288 [SPEAKER_00]: This is something I did not think about in the very beginning of homeschooling, but I saw how important it was. 02:04.649 --> 02:08.934 [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm gonna tell you right now with three graduates, this is really extremely important. 02:09.395 --> 02:10.636 [SPEAKER_00]: So, enjoy today's episode. 02:11.617 --> 02:12.717 [SPEAKER_00]: What are soft skills? 02:13.038 --> 02:17.019 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to give you my definition first before we give you the official definition. 02:17.879 --> 02:26.242 [SPEAKER_00]: My definition is that soft skills are basically the things that help your home schooler not be automatically pinned as a home schooler. 02:27.342 --> 02:27.743 [SPEAKER_00]: That's funny. 02:27.803 --> 02:28.543 [SPEAKER_00]: That's meant to be funny. 02:28.623 --> 02:29.424 [SPEAKER_00]: So you're laughing, right? 02:30.304 --> 02:40.292 [SPEAKER_00]: So the soft skills are the things that your kids can do and the way that they are So that they aren't automatically seen as a homeschool or labeled a Weirdo. 02:40.532 --> 02:46.437 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm paying homage to a Episode a couple back we talked all about socialization and weirdos, but 02:47.177 --> 02:48.038 [SPEAKER_00]: homeschool are not. 02:48.499 --> 03:02.979 [SPEAKER_00]: Right now our culture is just so focused on hard skills or maybe you want to call them performance skills or technical skills that a lot of the soft skills are not really happening, but guess what? 03:03.780 --> 03:06.004 [SPEAKER_00]: I believe that it is a parent's job. 03:06.424 --> 03:11.191 [SPEAKER_00]: Not the schools job to teach soft skills to their children. 03:11.371 --> 03:12.213 [SPEAKER_00]: And guess what? 03:12.753 --> 03:18.302 [SPEAKER_00]: You are in the perfect position to do this since you are homeschooling and your kids are home. 03:18.762 --> 03:31.865 [SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, soft skills need to be a part a new might be doing this and you don't even know that you're doing it and I'm going to give you a virtual high five as we go through this episode if you're saying oh, I'm already paying attention to that. 03:32.025 --> 03:35.606 [SPEAKER_00]: Oh, we're already working on that or oh, that's already on my radar. 03:35.946 --> 03:40.847 [SPEAKER_00]: Then good job mom for recognizing that these are the things that are going to help your 03:48.669 --> 04:04.163 [SPEAKER_00]: qualified for a job, for a position or a volunteer position, whatever it is, but the person that is going to take you on or hire that child, I'm saying child, because they're your child, but they might be a young adult at this point. 04:04.563 --> 04:05.144 [SPEAKER_00]: Might say, you know what? 04:05.224 --> 04:06.365 [SPEAKER_00]: I see a lot of potential. 04:06.865 --> 04:14.632 [SPEAKER_00]: I see that they want to learn, I see that they are receptive to this and they are kind, and I just think that they would really work well in this. 04:15.670 --> 04:37.035 [SPEAKER_00]: place and that in this business or whatever it is and I think a lot of opportunities will be open to our children if they have really good soft skills but we can get super focused on soft skills and only being focused on it being for a job or career but I really think that soft skills are biblical. 04:37.755 --> 04:42.716 [SPEAKER_00]: I believe that they have their foundation in that and as a Christian 04:46.217 --> 05:06.267 [SPEAKER_00]: someone who is working to, trying, I mean, I know it's not of our own works, but wanting to glorify God and just want to be in a right relationship with Him as much as we can, as much as we kind of reading the word and seeking sanctification and all of those things that go along with being a believer. 05:06.967 --> 05:11.048 [SPEAKER_00]: I think that soft skills should kind of automatically be a part of that. 05:11.408 --> 05:14.990 [SPEAKER_00]: When that character is built, these things are easier to do. 05:15.310 --> 05:17.010 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, yes, there's going to be personalities. 05:17.030 --> 05:23.892 [SPEAKER_00]: There's going to be kids who aren't going to be as outgoing, and you're really going to have to work on their communication skills. 05:24.272 --> 05:28.734 [SPEAKER_00]: And then there's going to be kids who are extremely outgoing, and you're going to have to work on, okay. 05:29.414 --> 05:31.134 [SPEAKER_00]: This is not the time to be talking. 05:31.274 --> 05:32.855 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the time to kind of sit back, 05:33.495 --> 05:39.965 [SPEAKER_00]: others talk and allow others and that would be a part of, we would say, the teamwork when it comes to soft skills. 05:40.500 --> 05:49.865 [SPEAKER_00]: I did a quick Google search on the definition of soft skills and some examples and just on page one there is tons of reading. 05:50.205 --> 06:04.712 [SPEAKER_00]: So if you want to follow up after this episode and just search something like what our soft skills are, what our some soft skills or definition of soft skills, you'll get a lot of information and just even on page one will just, it'll be a lot, it'll be too much. 06:05.232 --> 06:06.213 [SPEAKER_00]: So if you want, 06:07.053 --> 06:10.959 [SPEAKER_00]: you can go ahead after this episode and do a quick search and go a little bit deeper. 06:11.419 --> 06:15.164 [SPEAKER_00]: But right now I'm just going to give you the home school cliff notes version. 06:16.245 --> 06:25.247 [SPEAKER_00]: Now the definition, I alluded to this already, is solely focused on soft skills being acquired to use for a job or a career. 06:26.027 --> 06:34.429 [SPEAKER_00]: But we are seeing now, as homeschoolers here in 2025, and in the past couple of years, we're seeing that there is more to life than just a job. 06:34.850 --> 06:44.152 [SPEAKER_00]: There is more to life than just acquiring skills to give to an employer or to give to your own business because you're an entrepreneur. 06:44.872 --> 06:46.273 [SPEAKER_00]: there is more to life than just that. 06:46.333 --> 06:48.354 [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, we need some type of income. 06:48.595 --> 06:55.619 [SPEAKER_00]: So definitely, somebody's going to need some soft skills to be able to acquire some income to keep your family moving forward. 06:56.500 --> 07:02.624 [SPEAKER_00]: So it isn't something that you, I'm not cutting, I'm not cutting it often saying, oh, it's, it's silly to talk about it when it comes to job. 07:03.025 --> 07:03.485 [SPEAKER_00]: But it's, 07:03.905 --> 07:07.567 [SPEAKER_00]: skills like I mentioned earlier that can just be used in all of life. 07:07.828 --> 07:08.848 [SPEAKER_00]: It can be used in church. 07:08.868 --> 07:10.029 [SPEAKER_00]: It can be used with friendships. 07:10.069 --> 07:11.950 [SPEAKER_00]: It can be used in relationships. 07:11.970 --> 07:13.551 [SPEAKER_00]: It can be used just with strangers. 07:13.571 --> 07:15.853 [SPEAKER_00]: It can be used when you go and run errands. 07:15.933 --> 07:22.317 [SPEAKER_00]: It can be used in so many different situations where you can make that situation that you are in and then now 07:22.665 --> 07:28.069 [SPEAKER_00]: that you're teaching your home-school child to be in, they can actually make this situation so much better. 07:28.489 --> 07:33.553 [SPEAKER_00]: And we should want these soft skills because of our faith. 07:34.073 --> 07:51.567 [SPEAKER_00]: And because then that means that we can add goodness to the world and we can be the good and we can be the light just by carrying ourselves in a way that we can relate to others and that we can do well in whatever position or volunteer or in your neighborhood in anything. 07:52.427 --> 07:58.779 [SPEAKER_00]: Basically, soft skills are attributes that you have that helps you interact well with others. 08:00.280 --> 08:01.360 [SPEAKER_00]: I found a few lists. 08:01.560 --> 08:05.001 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to give you just one list that is a little bit short. 08:05.021 --> 08:06.762 [SPEAKER_00]: So there's some of them are like, oh, seven. 08:06.802 --> 08:09.182 [SPEAKER_00]: And then there's 10 or 20 and one, I'd like 105. 08:09.322 --> 08:10.983 [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, okay, that's a little much. 08:11.423 --> 08:12.863 [SPEAKER_00]: But these are just going to be categories. 08:13.504 --> 08:16.444 [SPEAKER_00]: So this one list gave me seven soft skills. 08:16.524 --> 08:19.045 [SPEAKER_00]: And I thought these were good categories to bring up. 08:19.505 --> 08:21.106 [SPEAKER_00]: The first is adaptability. 08:22.006 --> 08:23.826 [SPEAKER_00]: Second is communication skills. 08:24.687 --> 08:26.007 [SPEAKER_00]: Critical thinking skills. 08:26.510 --> 08:34.697 [SPEAKER_00]: interpersonal skills, presentation skills, problem-solving skills, human skills, and teamwork skills. 08:35.177 --> 08:46.146 [SPEAKER_00]: So from that list and just from some others that I have incorporated into my own family's life, or ones that I have observed, I'm just going to give you a list and some ideas. 08:46.647 --> 08:52.551 [SPEAKER_00]: And what I'm going to encourage you to do is to write some of them down and say, okay, this is what we're going to work on this summer. 08:52.611 --> 08:53.892 [SPEAKER_00]: You can't do everything. 08:54.753 --> 09:00.098 [SPEAKER_00]: and I'm speaking to you and I don't quite know exactly the ages of your kids. 09:00.458 --> 09:02.159 [SPEAKER_00]: So you have to look at your children. 09:02.560 --> 09:06.403 [SPEAKER_00]: You might have the oldest might be five years old or your oldest might be 15 years old. 09:06.803 --> 09:12.408 [SPEAKER_00]: And so take a look at their ages and for each of these you might be at the beginning stage. 09:13.248 --> 09:26.593 [SPEAKER_00]: of introducing the soft skill or working on the soft skill or it might just be we need to take things to the next level or this next next level depending upon the age of your children. 09:27.354 --> 09:28.834 [SPEAKER_00]: So let's talk about teamwork. 09:29.215 --> 09:32.176 [SPEAKER_00]: How can you incorporate teamwork into your summer? 09:32.916 --> 09:41.222 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, an idea would be to assign your children the siblings a project or maybe a chore that they have to do together. 09:41.683 --> 09:42.784 [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't have to be siblings. 09:42.804 --> 09:49.008 [SPEAKER_00]: You can do something with friends or some other way, but this is just a very easy way to be able to do it at home. 09:49.409 --> 10:00.758 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't have to go anywhere and maybe these, this could be really good for kids if you're at the beginning levels of teaching soft skills of teaching teamwork to them. 10:01.418 --> 10:10.940 [SPEAKER_00]: because at least then if they're going to get into an argument or the teamwork is not very good, then you can say, okay, it's just my kids here, and I'm gonna teach them this here. 10:11.460 --> 10:23.122 [SPEAKER_00]: Or it could be that maybe your kids are just not clicking they're not getting along and having some type of chore or some type of project to do this summer would really be good for them to work on their teamwork. 10:23.242 --> 10:28.703 [SPEAKER_00]: And hopefully then it will also build better relationships with them and help them work on their communication 10:30.683 --> 10:32.584 [SPEAKER_00]: problem-solving that has to go on? 10:33.585 --> 10:46.213 [SPEAKER_00]: There is problem-solving in our life where it's us just having to problem-solve on our own and it doesn't necessarily directly affect or at that moment, it doesn't affect any bells or we are responsible for problem-solving. 10:46.453 --> 10:51.056 [SPEAKER_00]: Think about all the problem-solving that you do day in and day out as a mom. 10:51.885 --> 11:15.961 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, you just, something presents itself and you just, you have to decide it's not important for you to maybe consult your husband on that for bigger things, yes, but you just have to decide at that moment, maybe you're going to go to the pool and everybody is just having a meltdown and you're like, okay, how can we make this work with still going to the pool and there's just some problems solving after you. 11:16.762 --> 11:23.645 [SPEAKER_00]: but in teamwork, it takes it to a whole new level when you have to problem solve and you're going to have some kids. 11:23.665 --> 11:25.526 [SPEAKER_00]: They're like, no, this is how we have to do it. 11:25.606 --> 11:34.710 [SPEAKER_00]: I know this is how it's going to work and so you're going to help them work on their problem solving, work on their communication and work on sometimes allowing their sibling to 11:35.550 --> 11:37.211 [SPEAKER_00]: say I want to do it this way. 11:37.271 --> 11:48.156 [SPEAKER_00]: This is the way we need to do it and another child knowing that it's not going to quite work that way and you're able then to teach that other child who knows it's not going to work like it's okay. 11:48.436 --> 11:54.778 [SPEAKER_00]: It's okay to let them fail and so there's just there's no exhaustive list when it comes to soft skills. 11:54.858 --> 12:01.201 [SPEAKER_00]: I think when you start as I'm talking here I'm talking about teamwork and then it's growing into problem solving and then it's growing 12:03.082 --> 12:06.564 [SPEAKER_00]: So, there's just, they're all, I think, just intertwined. 12:06.964 --> 12:10.447 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't think we can always just put it underneath one category. 12:10.807 --> 12:30.139 [SPEAKER_00]: And again, these soft skills are things that are going to help your children in relationships with other people, whether it is strangers, or it is people in a place of authority over them, or if they are in a leadership position and it's people that are below them, whether it's employees, or just somebody that has to answer to them, 12:30.599 --> 12:42.486 [SPEAKER_00]: it can be in church, it can be with friends, it can be in a relationship with boyfriend or girlfriend someday and just so many different ways that they can then apply this. 12:42.507 --> 12:45.348 [SPEAKER_00]: All right, so let's then get into communication. 12:45.368 --> 12:46.449 [SPEAKER_00]: So maybe teamwork. 12:46.489 --> 12:47.249 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's go to teamwork. 12:47.290 --> 12:48.050 [SPEAKER_00]: I really like this one. 12:48.350 --> 12:49.691 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to encourage you to do this one. 12:50.031 --> 12:53.273 [SPEAKER_00]: Come up with some type of project or some type of chore. 12:53.613 --> 12:55.254 [SPEAKER_00]: Not like a, oh, I need the 12:56.295 --> 12:56.975 [SPEAKER_00]: bathroom's cleaned. 12:57.435 --> 12:59.056 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's, I need the bathroom's cleaned every week. 12:59.076 --> 13:01.056 [SPEAKER_00]: Like I want maybe like a bigger chore. 13:01.517 --> 13:03.057 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's cleaning out the basement. 13:03.157 --> 13:06.858 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it is going through and decluttering something. 13:06.978 --> 13:08.018 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's a playroom. 13:08.459 --> 13:12.840 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's cleaning up the garage or working on a garden. 13:13.260 --> 13:20.102 [SPEAKER_00]: Some type of chore or project that's bigger than just taking a couple of minutes or even just taking 13:20.622 --> 13:21.303 [SPEAKER_00]: a couple of hours. 13:21.343 --> 13:23.404 [SPEAKER_00]: Something that maybe was going to take them days to do. 13:23.805 --> 13:25.986 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you want them to build a dog house. 13:26.387 --> 13:32.852 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you want them to design, I don't know, a tree house, and dad's going to help them them build it. 13:32.952 --> 13:33.272 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know. 13:33.612 --> 13:38.956 [SPEAKER_00]: Just think of what you can have your kids do, and think of something that's not just... 13:39.937 --> 13:45.840 [SPEAKER_00]: going to happen one time, but that's something that they have to really work through and maybe by the end of the summer. 13:46.261 --> 13:50.983 [SPEAKER_00]: This big chore or this big project is complete and that would be a fun way to end the summer, right? 13:51.764 --> 13:53.284 [SPEAKER_00]: All right, let's go on to communication. 13:54.405 --> 14:03.010 [SPEAKER_00]: Right now, with maybe your schoolwork, your curriculum put aside, I think you might hopefully find yourself with a little bit more brain space. 14:04.027 --> 14:24.037 [SPEAKER_00]: Because during the home school year, we can just get so focused on our curriculum and we forget about some of these soft skills and we forget about our kids doing things that basically that we are doing things for them that they could be doing that would actually be helping to teach them things, especially when it comes to communication here. 14:24.617 --> 14:47.696 [SPEAKER_00]: So things like maybe you're at a restaurant or maybe you stop somewhere at an ice cream shop one evening I know we like to we like to do that often now don't we right when the weather gets warmer Stop for some ice cream and instead of you ordering for your child you have them order themselves You show them this is the list and maybe they can't even read that's okay read off the different ice creams and then 14:48.637 --> 14:54.802 [SPEAKER_00]: talk to them about the different sizes and you can decide if you're going to get something bigger than just a small or a kitty size. 14:55.282 --> 15:15.058 [SPEAKER_00]: But telling them what exactly to say and you might have to pick them up to the counter so that they can communicate with probably the teenager on the other side of the counter what exactly that they want and walk them through that process of deciding and then knowing exactly how to say it and being able to communicate that afterwards giving them the money then getting the ice cream and saying thank you. 15:15.900 --> 15:27.500 [SPEAKER_00]: It could be out to dinner, it could be anywhere, it could be at the post office, the bank, the grocery store, encourage your children of any age to be the one that then interacts with the other person. 15:28.550 --> 15:30.732 [SPEAKER_00]: interacting with those in our neighborhood. 15:30.832 --> 15:32.514 [SPEAKER_00]: Interacting with those in the church. 15:33.335 --> 15:36.097 [SPEAKER_00]: Again, this is something that we should be doing all year long. 15:36.498 --> 15:42.123 [SPEAKER_00]: However, I know that our brain space can kind of just get so full and so much is going on. 15:42.183 --> 15:45.466 [SPEAKER_00]: So I want to encourage you now that maybe you have a little bit room to think about this. 15:45.987 --> 15:49.070 [SPEAKER_00]: Instead of you going up and doing it, be like, no, no, let me step back. 15:49.630 --> 15:50.911 [SPEAKER_00]: and let me have them do it. 15:50.931 --> 15:53.212 [SPEAKER_00]: Let me empower them to be able to do this. 15:53.592 --> 15:58.834 [SPEAKER_00]: Now older children, in example, could be maybe they have a driver's license and they go do grocery shopping for you. 15:59.214 --> 16:03.096 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe not a whole big order, maybe it's just a couple of small things. 16:04.109 --> 16:05.990 [SPEAKER_00]: But let's make sure they know where things are. 16:06.010 --> 16:07.570 [SPEAKER_00]: And the grocery store talked to them through it. 16:07.610 --> 16:08.390 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you do it. 16:08.590 --> 16:10.111 [SPEAKER_00]: They come with you more often. 16:10.151 --> 16:11.131 [SPEAKER_00]: And they see what you're doing. 16:11.151 --> 16:13.072 [SPEAKER_00]: And then you can just send them out. 16:13.092 --> 16:17.373 [SPEAKER_00]: Just a little bit of things like that, running some errands for you, where they are doing it themselves. 16:17.393 --> 16:19.674 [SPEAKER_00]: So this is taking it to another level. 16:19.954 --> 16:27.456 [SPEAKER_00]: This is assuming that you had that little child that you're picking up and that they are putting an order at the grocery, I mean, at the ice cream store. 16:27.896 --> 16:31.360 [SPEAKER_00]: And now they're older and they're just going to the grocery store for you. 16:31.601 --> 16:35.185 [SPEAKER_00]: You give them a list, you give them some cash or a credit card and they go ahead and do it. 16:35.525 --> 16:37.608 [SPEAKER_00]: And so it's taking it to another level. 16:38.329 --> 16:40.031 [SPEAKER_00]: So that would be oral communication. 16:40.171 --> 16:42.053 [SPEAKER_00]: There's always also written communication. 16:43.017 --> 16:43.717 [SPEAKER_00]: You know what would be fun? 16:44.218 --> 16:46.258 [SPEAKER_00]: How about maybe some pent pals for the summer? 16:46.559 --> 16:47.439 [SPEAKER_00]: Now don't roll your eyes. 16:47.519 --> 16:49.420 [SPEAKER_00]: I know sometimes like, oh no, that's more work. 16:49.660 --> 16:55.243 [SPEAKER_00]: But maybe it's just your older child or one child that you have that's interested in communicating with somebody else. 16:55.603 --> 16:57.804 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's a cousin that lives further away. 16:58.004 --> 17:00.745 [SPEAKER_00]: And I know, you can get on to FaceTime. 17:00.925 --> 17:06.448 [SPEAKER_00]: They can go through maybe your cell phone and text to their cousin or something like that. 17:06.828 --> 17:09.689 [SPEAKER_00]: But there's something about writing an old fashion letter. 17:12.729 --> 17:15.871 [SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely, nobody just likes getting mail. 17:16.292 --> 17:17.753 [SPEAKER_00]: Everybody loves to get mail. 17:18.013 --> 17:19.374 [SPEAKER_00]: Think about when you go to the mailbox. 17:19.654 --> 17:22.316 [SPEAKER_00]: I still get mail, I'm like, ooh, what is this? 17:22.496 --> 17:27.160 [SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty much junk mail, or most of it's for my son who owns his own business. 17:27.240 --> 17:31.563 [SPEAKER_00]: I would say probably 98 to 99% of the mail that comes through is for him. 17:32.023 --> 17:36.807 [SPEAKER_00]: So I go through the mail, I just put it at everybody's seat in the dining room table, and the rest is usually junk but still. 17:37.307 --> 17:46.575 [SPEAKER_00]: Once in a while, there is something fun in there, which lately I've been getting some graduation announcements and graduation party invites, so those are early exciting to get. 17:47.376 --> 17:50.518 [SPEAKER_00]: So another child is going to love getting a letter. 17:50.858 --> 17:56.723 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's just a postcard, or maybe it's a whole letter, but don't take this to like the level of. 17:58.083 --> 18:03.407 [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to really work on our writing skills, and this is a child that may be cries when you're talking about writing. 18:03.427 --> 18:10.912 [SPEAKER_00]: If you have done a couple of episodes about writing, you can put a, take your home school mom head off and just let them have some fun with it. 18:10.972 --> 18:12.393 [SPEAKER_00]: So written communication. 18:12.693 --> 18:15.135 [SPEAKER_00]: Get a pen pal and have them write some letters over the summer. 18:16.075 --> 18:17.817 [SPEAKER_00]: Another one is adaptability. 18:18.815 --> 18:26.457 [SPEAKER_00]: It is a skill that is often I would say lacking and easily lacking with children. 18:27.257 --> 18:28.678 [SPEAKER_00]: What do I mean by adaptability? 18:29.178 --> 18:34.679 [SPEAKER_00]: It basically is when things are not going their way, we teach them how to react better. 18:35.439 --> 18:37.240 [SPEAKER_00]: We teach them that, okay? 18:37.880 --> 18:43.101 [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, we really wanted to go and do this, but we can't do it because of whatever the reason is. 18:43.501 --> 18:45.961 [SPEAKER_00]: So let's adapt, or we did get here. 18:46.322 --> 18:50.602 [SPEAKER_00]: We had this whole day planned, and for some reason, the place is closed or something. 18:51.422 --> 18:58.684 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, I remember when my kids were really young, and they were on my husband and I said, they were on a need to know basis, and they didn't need to know much. 18:59.244 --> 19:04.005 [SPEAKER_00]: I remember when they were really quite young, we had a day plan to go to the zoo. 19:04.045 --> 19:04.945 [SPEAKER_00]: We lived just a... 19:05.445 --> 19:08.748 [SPEAKER_00]: maybe two, three hours from Washington, DC. 19:08.788 --> 19:10.390 [SPEAKER_00]: And so we are going to go to the National Zoo. 19:10.850 --> 19:13.052 [SPEAKER_00]: And this is when you didn't have weather apps. 19:13.292 --> 19:18.837 [SPEAKER_00]: You only had the weather from what you could watch on the news at the five o'clock news. 19:19.078 --> 19:20.919 [SPEAKER_00]: And that was pretty much it. 19:21.480 --> 19:22.841 [SPEAKER_00]: And so we had this day planned. 19:22.901 --> 19:24.923 [SPEAKER_00]: My husband had already had off and everything. 19:25.203 --> 19:28.687 [SPEAKER_00]: And we woke up that day and it was pouring rain. 19:29.556 --> 19:30.717 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, we hadn't told our kids. 19:30.737 --> 19:32.318 [SPEAKER_00]: I think at that time, we only had two kids. 19:32.678 --> 19:40.022 [SPEAKER_00]: We hadn't told them, and we were like, oh, I am so glad that we did not tell them what I'm glad they are in a need to know basis, because they would have been devastated. 19:40.242 --> 19:43.504 [SPEAKER_00]: And at those ages, I was like, it's not even worth it. 19:44.024 --> 19:46.786 [SPEAKER_00]: They have learned to adapt to things. 19:47.146 --> 19:49.767 [SPEAKER_00]: So there are sometimes in some ages, and you're like, you know what? 19:49.787 --> 19:52.889 [SPEAKER_00]: Today, you're in a need to know basis, and they don't need to know very much at all. 19:53.289 --> 19:54.110 [SPEAKER_00]: But now that they're older, 19:54.870 --> 20:07.505 [SPEAKER_00]: I can tell them we're going to do a go and do this and oftentimes I'll say as long as the weather is okay, but it's working through that so that they can then adapt to a situation or you get somewhere you think it's going to be a certain way. 20:07.886 --> 20:11.991 [SPEAKER_00]: I find this happens a lot when you go to volunteer places like okay this is what it's going to be and you get there. 20:12.391 --> 20:18.913 [SPEAKER_00]: And you're like, oh no, this is definitely now this is like, and you have to adapt to the situation that you are put into. 20:19.333 --> 20:20.814 [SPEAKER_00]: So teaching them to react better. 20:20.914 --> 20:25.635 [SPEAKER_00]: Again, we have a little bit of more brain space, and we can sit down and talk through things with them. 20:25.835 --> 20:32.177 [SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes this all feels so tedious and you feel like, is this actually going to be worth it? 20:32.317 --> 20:34.058 [SPEAKER_00]: I promise you that it is worth it. 20:34.858 --> 20:35.839 [SPEAKER_00]: How about time management? 20:35.859 --> 20:36.900 [SPEAKER_00]: I've got two more here for you. 20:36.920 --> 20:37.661 [SPEAKER_00]: Time management. 20:38.021 --> 20:44.248 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's teaching them maybe to be more just better with their time. 20:44.588 --> 20:45.990 [SPEAKER_00]: That's basically what time management is. 20:46.270 --> 20:47.271 [SPEAKER_00]: So what is an example? 20:47.651 --> 20:48.793 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe their chores. 20:49.133 --> 20:57.442 [SPEAKER_00]: Instead of varying the homeschool year, you might say you have this 30-minute window from the time that we finish breakfast until we want to do our morning time to get your chores done. 20:57.882 --> 21:22.139 [SPEAKER_00]: maybe in the summer you give them a little bit more time and just see how long it takes them and find they find out oh it took me two hours I didn't get to play it all because I was too busy complaining about having to make my bed but giving them some ways that they can manage their time this is going to be also depend upon their age as they get older we want to increase this even more we want to give them a little bit more responsibility for managing their time because 21:25.141 --> 21:30.544 [SPEAKER_00]: And having that skill, oh, it's going to be so helpful for them. 21:30.564 --> 21:32.245 [SPEAKER_00]: They are not wasting their time. 21:33.085 --> 21:34.306 [SPEAKER_00]: Last one here, I'm going to close it up. 21:34.986 --> 21:38.448 [SPEAKER_00]: And this is not one that I found on any list, but this is my own personal one. 21:39.088 --> 21:41.449 [SPEAKER_00]: How about the soft skill of observation? 21:42.510 --> 21:45.631 [SPEAKER_00]: How many adults are completely oblivious? 21:46.111 --> 21:47.172 [SPEAKER_00]: They don't even see things. 21:48.730 --> 21:59.783 [SPEAKER_00]: A actual example that just happened a couple weeks ago is someone near me, who was nearby, had styrofoam all at the top of their garbage can. 22:00.024 --> 22:02.547 [SPEAKER_00]: And the lid flew up, it was a very windy evening. 22:02.627 --> 22:06.051 [SPEAKER_00]: And their styrofoam was all over the neighborhood. 22:07.569 --> 22:10.690 [SPEAKER_00]: This neighbor came out, saw it, got in their car, and drove away. 22:11.470 --> 22:13.431 [SPEAKER_00]: And other people had to clean up the styrofoam. 22:13.911 --> 22:29.457 [SPEAKER_00]: So I don't know if this person saw it or not and chose not to see it, but that's just a small, just like a one time example of something like, oh, okay, I do not see it, do you see it, but not really see it? 22:30.392 --> 22:31.752 [SPEAKER_00]: the skill of observation. 22:31.932 --> 22:34.853 [SPEAKER_00]: A being able to see things and to notice things. 22:35.193 --> 22:37.393 [SPEAKER_00]: But then also tie that into, especially young kids. 22:37.413 --> 22:40.234 [SPEAKER_00]: A lot of young or kids will notice things and they'll say things out loud. 22:40.254 --> 22:44.695 [SPEAKER_00]: We're like, no, no, that's not how we, we don't want to say it out loud so everybody knows. 22:44.735 --> 22:52.556 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe let's be a little discreet to tell the woman who has her skirt tucked into her underwear in the back after she used the restroom. 22:52.897 --> 22:57.117 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's do it a little bit more discreetly, but just the soft skill of observation. 23:00.558 --> 23:06.126 [SPEAKER_00]: interpret kind of how people are reacting to something and to notice things around us. 23:06.246 --> 23:10.592 [SPEAKER_00]: I feel like it's a skill that is really going to serve kids really well.