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Posts Tagged ‘Kids’

Encouraging Kids To Be Entrepreneurs

October 20th, 2010

Encouraging Kids to Be Entrepreneurs

My son came up with another clever business idea, where he decided to create a comic club that would sell comic strips. He decided that he would recruit his friends, and they would all draw comics and sell comic strips. So they created a series of 8 episodes and were able to sell them to few of the surrounding neighborhood kids.

My 6-year-old daughter saw what was happening, so she and one of her friends started another comic club too. My daughter has been writing books (8 pages long) since she was 4, so she could really crank these out fast! But instead of trying to sell the comic strips to kids, my daughter went after the market segment called “my wife and I” (and the grandparents) as potential buyers. Now there is no way I could turn down my daughter so I bought 6 comic for a quarter a piece. My wife bought some too. All said and done, sa far she has made $4.00 on selling comic strips that she creates. not to bad for a 6-year-old!

I felt bad about my son because he wasn’t make as much, and they put a lot of effort into the comic strips. I was going to ask him if I could buy some, but he beat me to the punch and asked me if I would be interested in buying some. I happily said “yes”.

The beauty of my son’s sales proposition, is that he realized that he was missing a potential market and adjusted his sales techniques. I’m happy because he came to that conclusion by his own thought process instead of me twisting him into thinking that way.

What Did My Son Learn

I’m not sure if he realized it or not, but he learned quite a bit about marketing! If you don’t ask, nobody’s going to come to you for it. He also learn to adjust this sales tactics to reach a broader market.

What Did I Learn From My Daughter

Some times people are just naturals. My daughter knew that her mom and dad were excellent candidates for buying the comics, so she jumped on the opportunity with enthusiasm and determination. She really sounded like a sales person! I was floored again!

Maybe I over-analyze my kids, but they are awesome to watch!

Do you have kids (or have similar relatives) where you have seen the lightbulb go on, extra bright?

-MR

16 comments »

Posted in Entrepreneurship

Tags: comics entrepreneur Kids marketing selling

Trophies in Life, Which Holds The Most Value?

October 19th, 2010

When I was younger, I studied Tae Kwon Do. I was pretty good at it because at my first tournament, I won first place for my division. What especially made the victory “oh so sweet” was that everybody in my dojo said it would be a great experience for me, but said I wouldn’t win. They based this believe on the fact that the tournament was a state-wide one with people coming up for it that lived hours away. It was a very big tournament!

The 2 1/2 foot trophy is great, and I when I look at it, I still live some of the tournament challenges in my mind… I remember the special kick that I invented and how I got nailed in the head with a spinning back kick from an opponent and how I overcame that opponent; and then how I won the last match after being down by 2 point. But that was then and this is now!

As much as that trophy hold value for me, the picture of my family at Disney and the memories that it invokes is worth much more to me than my old karate trophy! You see, my karate trophy is a memory that only I have… My family isn’t part of it so it has little meaning to them, but the family picture of when we went to Disney, everybody remembers. The karate trophy was one day in my life, whereas the Disney family picture was for a shared week for my family!

So while I like and value my karate trophy, I still value the photo of my family and I in Disney with Cinderella’s Castle in the background more so.

What common items have more value than your past trophies? If there was a fire in my house and I had to choose between our Disney Family picture book or a my karate trophy, I wouldn’t even hesitate to grab the Disney family pictures…

-MR

13 comments »

Posted in Family

Tags: Disney Family family experiences family values karate Kids trophies trophy

Losing Technical Relevancy With Kids

September 16th, 2010

I just realized something today, I’m losing technical relevancy with my kids. Not in the way that they think of me as their dad, no… more along the lines of knowing what’s important in their lives!

I thought I would be able to cherry pick the best things from my childhood and let them share in those experiences that I deemed incredible. Well, now I realize that what I thought was important is no longer relevant! Time has moved on and my personal childhood joys are now obsolete.

I would like to say that kids are different today, but really they aren’t. What different is technology and the way kids adapt to it and thrive!

From an early age, kids are exposed to electronics… even at the infant stage! They push a button on a bear and it growls, or its eyes light up, or it sings a song or whatever the new fancy is. Next, it’s the portable gaming systems like the Nintendo DS, my kids (including my 6-year-old) take them everywhere! Then it’s cell smart phones, like the Apple IPhone, that do everything except iron your clothes! My son and daughter already plan on laptops, soon I’ll hear one of them ask for an Apple IPad for a Birthday or Christmas… it’s just a matter of time.

Electronics and computer (and computing devices) are exposed to them constantly… and they soak it up like a sponge! The stuff I had as a kid looks like a joke compared to what kids have these days!

Then there is the sports! Kids need to start sports when they are young because the competition is so fierce! If you didn’t start your kids out in sports around the ages 5, 6 or 7… it may be too late! And the other parents involved; OMG, you would thing that sports were a matter of life and death.

Yes, it was different when I was a kid, the things back then now seem very slow and hokey to kids today. Electronics and the internet have really changed the game with respect to kids.

My poor parents can no longer understand what I do on the computer, let alone my kids. My parents are truly of a different time, and watching them on a keyboard is like watching a fish out of water flop up and down in the grass. The technical chasm between my parents and my kids is huge!

Readers, do you feel the same as my parents sometimes?

I know that I’m personally trying my best to keep up… I don’t want to become totally irrelevant with respect to technology!

-MR

7 comments »

Posted in Kids

Tags: electronics Kids technical relevancy

Are Kids Being Raised The Best They Possibly Could Be?

July 20th, 2010

I’m starting to doubt that my kids are being raised correctly.

I starting to believe that my kids (really all of our kids) are not being raised the most optimally as possible!

Why do I use the word optimally? Because our kids are raise much better than some countries and overall, they have a very easy life. But in a world where kids watch that very influential educator Mr. TV, are they really learning developing a sense of what is important in life?

Are we molding our children’s mind based on the teaching of the very influential Sponge Bob? Are they learning to be goofy goobers?

What if we readers, were also raised as goofy goobers, but in a different generation? Now we have a society of older goofy goobers teaching kids to be new goofy goobers, by letting them watch mind numbing shows similar to what we watched as kids… No wander immigrants are more inclined to become entreupenuers that the local born population.

But even more importantly than restricting the amount of TV they watch, are we teaching them on how to be responsible and helping them to develop skills? Currently, my kids don’t do any chores at all. I’m starting to think this may be spoiling them. Perhaps they believe that things should just magically happen for them? I think that if all they experience growing up is good times, then when they are an adult, life may be difficult for them. Any mild downturn, may confuse and frustrate them. Will adult life be disappointing and unfulfilling for them? Perhaps a little pain growing up make the pain later in life more manageable?

While nothing has caused me to write about this topic, it does have me wondering if I’m doing the best job of teaching and raising them as I possibly can.

I’m don’t have a manual for what to do, so I try to give an equal balance of things that I think are important for them and their growth.

Ironically, I believe I have a good grasp around the financial teaching… it’s the other stuff I’m worried about! This seems to be opposite to the general population.

-MR

7 comments »

Posted in Kids

Tags: Kids raising kids raising kids right

My Perfectly Frugal Fathers Day

June 21st, 2010

As a father of 2 children (9 year old boy and a 6 year old girl), I always thought that “Fathers Day” was about me! Ordering the kids around on Fathers Day … “Hey son, get me the paper” or “Daughter, get me my slippers” almost seemed like that thing to say. Afterall, it’s my day and I’m in charge (imagine my evil laugh… Mwahahahaahhaha). Of course, I’ve never do that, but I can see where Dads could easily assume that’s what Fathers Day was about. But yesterday (much like when the Grinch’s heart grewing 3 sizes that day), I’ve come to realize that Fathers Day is about my kids and the memories we can create together.

I want my kids to look back and think of me with fond memories someday, and if I do this parenting thing right, I get to enjoy the experience along the way too . So from now on, Fathers Day will be about me trying to create some great memories on that day with my kids. And that is what I did this Fathers Day!

Here is my list of our frugal Fathers Day activities.

Opened my Fathers Day present, which was a new portable Fire Pit (Dad acted reasonable excited)
Went to pickup McDonalds breakfast for the kids
With help from the entire family, we moved our old furniture back into the Family Room, letting my son and daughter help with moving and decision making
Packed up and went swimming at the grandparents.
Swam as certain monsters (shark, blob and Orca).
Was an Orca Daddy to my younger daughter. And let the kids ride on the Orca
Watch Kids play as a trainer and dog trying to learn to swim.
(Helped Grandparents with some manual labor, digging and moving dirt took at least an hour… yuck)
Let son take 2 small wheelbarrows of dirt to dirt pile.
When home and kept an eye on my son while he started up the fire pit (we got the wood for free from grandpa)
My wife made pizza pies to cook over the fire pit.
Daughter and I weeded and water the flower bed (from mother’s day)
Son cooked the pizza pies over the firepit
We all at the pizza pies and toasted marshmallows.
Son and Daughter threw the ball for our dog to chase (until the dog got tired and stopped).
The kids and dad went on a lightning bug (or firefly) hunt. We caught about 15 lightning bugs and put them in a bug container for my daughter to watch at night.
Played with kids right before they went to bed.

And that was my Fathers Day, other than the McDonalds meal, it was a very frugal Fathers Day, but one filled with fond memories. Its funny how watching my kids playing or working reminds me of Normal Rockwell scenes… except better!

In my mind, I took so many great photos of the kids doing various things today!

This was by far the greatest Fathers Day I ever had!!!

-MR

10 comments »

Posted in Holiday, Kids

Tags: fathers day Kids love my kids making memories pizza pies swimming