Our four boys came in “sets of two”. Isaac and Noah were born in 1985 and
1987. Joshua and Gideon came along in
1993 and 1995. A lot of our family and
parenting experiences were formed by the two sets of brothers sharing similar
experiences at close to the same time.
When the oldest two brothers began to drive, I realized I
had failed miserably in helping them understand their physical world. Let’s say they were “cartographically
challenged” – they did not excel at map skills.
The stories of getting lost are still favorite bits of family chatter.
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| Beautiful, orderly Johnson County, Kansas |
Nonetheless, when Joshua and Gideon came along, I determined
that they would know their compass points and town layout like the back of
their own hands. We’re fortunate that
the layout of our home turf is based on basic survey designations of township
and range lines. All our major thoroughfares
run true north & south / east & west and are a mile apart.
I printed out maps for each son, a simple grid, and labeled
only one north-south street and one east-west street. Then the fun began. When they were elementary age, I had Friday
afternoons off from work while my wife was at work. Field trip!
As we drove around town sampling ice cream, looking at gun stores, or
playing in parks, I’d have the kids pay attention to where they were and what
they saw.
“Look guys, we’re one mile east of Quivira. What’s this big street we’re coming up to?” And the boys would scribble “Switzer” on
their map cards. I’d have them mark the
location of church, the swimming pool, and of course, the ice cream store. It was complete fun (they had no idea how
much they were learning!).
Pretty soon, I started having the boys calculate distances
to our destination without their
maps. Major streets on our grid are
exactly a mile apart, so estimations were pretty easy. Developing this kind of command of their
(local) world has given the boys tremendous confidence to travel about. I dare say I use a GPS more than they do! And neither Joshua or Gideon ever get lost (ruining
prospects of more dinner table teasing).
What started out as play has become an empowering experience
for my (younger two) sons. The whole “map
skills” topic also reminds me how much I didn’t know about being a dad when I
started out. I learned and matured a lot
through parenting Isaac and Noah. I wish
I had been more equipped.
And that’s the point of this blog isn’t it? I’m sharing some ideas and encouragement that
might help young dads start faster than I did.
I’m honored to be an “Official Blog” of the National Center for
Fathering. My friends at NCF are doing a
terrific job to help dads at all stations of life be even better dads. Please check out Fathers.com
website and friend them up on
Facebook. You, and the people you influence,
will be better dads for it.
Pssst… and it also helps a ton when you SHARE one of my IGTBTD
posts on Facebook. Just a hint.
Clark H Smith
