School is great, but they miss a lot of teaching in fundamental life knowledge. In general, and my perspective, is the trivial knowledge of history, math, science, etc. is from your school. Life lessons, personalities, respect and beliefs are at the parent level. Nothing ground breaking here, but again, I am not the brightest guy but I spread what little I do know to my children. I know a few Spanish words, so I teach them. I know how to read P&L's, so I teach them. I know some sports and their rules, so I teach them. I focus on them being a sponge and unloading my entire library of knowledge onto them to the best of my ability.
Most importantly - things they don't teach in school. Balancing a check book. What APR is. Credit reports. Savings. Roth IRA and retirement. How to use your hands to build things. How to be grateful and give-back to the community and charities. Things I learned, hard-knocks, for them to have the knowledge and equipment needed for the real world.
If you don't play for tomorrow, you'll always be behind today.
You must always save extra cash and plan for contingencies.
There is nothing to fall back on but what you can build yourself.
And lastly... enjoy the ride!
A lot of times I see my children complain about something and always teach them to look at things differently. When its a beautiful day, lets play outside. If they want to stay inside and watch TV, it's important to remember there is some kid in a wheelchair looking out a window wishing they could run around. There is just so much to be grateful about that we need to constantly take into consideration and teach our children.
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