Ten Most Important Thing to Teach Your Four Year Old Children

We live in Java, my wife, my two children and I. It is a volcanic island, one among 10,000 islands of Indonesia. It is about the size of Britain, with about 140 million people. In my travels around the world I have come to realize that quite a lot of the people in the world have never heard about us. No matter, we haven’t heard of many of them either. Whether we know of each other or not we all agree that it’s a masochistic world that we live in. “The days of cheap food are over!” So is the affordability of education, health care, births, deaths, water and perhaps air. Peace has is on hold. We also agree that our children need to be well equipped to cope when they grow up. Some parents have jobs and inheritances waiting for their children, while others can only hope to instill sensible attitudes.

What is important for them to know? Below is my list of things I am going to use with my four year and three year old boys.

Learn to Make an Omelet

Making an omelet is within every child’s motor ability. Making instant noodles is also well within a child’s ability. If ever the time calls for it my sons can at least fend for themselves and even relish a bowl of noodles each with an egg on top. A nice tummy warming meal for less than 50 cents.

In Java these are fortunately enough food around to satisfy hunger. We have a lot of eggs, because we have more chickens than people. We also have in Java the biggest instant noodle maker on earth. An egg costs one cent. A packet of instant noodles cost 35 cents. If they skills to innovate up more exotic meals with noodles and egg the more, I shall be relieved. For dessert there are always bananas growing in someone’s garden or plantation.

Eat Chocolate

Readers may think I am being facetious. I assure you I am not. I have worked for global chocolate manufacturer for most of my life and I know everything about the health values of good chocolate. I will pass on this knowledge and will encourage my boys to eat a small bar a day. If all this sounds a bit dubious go to barry-callebaut.com and look up Chocolate and health. What will they drink? At least four glasses of water a day and half a glass of red wine. Java is blessed with many mountain streams. We have drunk from some of them. Along the coast we are depleting our ground water and piped water is getting expensive. To get table wine regularly requires knowing the right people. I will do my best to keep my children modestly supplied.

Learn to Surf the Internet Soon

I can’t afford to send them to expensive and “good” schools. To raise the Entrance Fee and pay the monthly fees will plunge other basic needs into a very precarious area for years. Especially stressful and fearful is that these payments are most intimidating in US dollars not Indonesian Rupiahs. The internet thankfully will develop them into knowledgeable people. I will also have to teach them to be discriminating and selective in their searches. A lively interest in the intellectual potential of this medium I trust will also encourage them to be furious readers.

It is not necessary to aim at being a doctor, lawyer or a professional golfer

In Java these are the dream careers of parents for their off spring.Various kinds of indoctrination, available on CDs or tape, begins with still dribbling toddlers. For children

I am sure it will be more rewarding, less stressful and easier on their conscience if they aimed to be plumbers, electricians, good cooks(not starred chefs who perform great wonders with Kobe Beef and French truffle) farmers, pastors or priests, waste disposal specialists, forest rangers, marine biologists, conservationists, writers and chocolatiers. There is ample need for all these occupations in Java.

Memorize “The Tiger”

I relish this poem by William Blake. Every child from four onwards should know how to recite all six verses. I can’t imagine anyone who could accomplish this will ever be anything but civilized. This poem is available for print-out from Bartleby.com. Great Books Online, Arthur Quiller Couch Edition of the Oxford Book of English Verse.

Pray

I will teach my children to pray, as well as to listen to God. Pray for everything and for every reason. Listen for answers. I am, only now learning how to listen to God so it may take some time before I will be able to pass this skill on to my children. In the meantime I will teach them the Lord’s Prayer. Make them understand that in this Prayer we ask Him for everything we could possibly need. We only need to give Him one thing in return; forgive others as He forgives us. This also may be the right time to tell them about the most important, and oh dear, the most difficult, of God’s Commandments, “Love one another.”

Listen or Watch CNN and BBC

I am not in the pay or staff of either of them. These Channels, radio or television, try their best, most of the time, to present balanced and factual reports. I am convinced that these windows to our world are important to keep my children informed and adequately globalized. Both CNN and BBC are available by subscription or free in the better fitness centers in Java.

Learn to Grow Something.

There are many options available in Java. Coconuts and bananas almost need no teaching. Some coaching is needed to be able to grow roses, dahlias, decorative plants, herbs, spices, cabbages or tomatoes. I would, however like to teach them to grow mushrooms. Mushrooms fetch more in supermarkets that say, cabbages. It doesn’t need much in start-up capital. They can be raised in your backyard from beds rice straw or banana leaf. In Java we have plenty of rice straws and dried up banana leafs. They cost nothing. Harvest is fast and the first crop can be taken 10 to 14 days after planting. Even boys as impatient as mine can be coaxed to wait that long. The harvest likely to be about 1.2kg of mushrooms per day, from a bed four meters long will be sufficiently motivating. An eventual yield of 12kg of mushrooms worth $90 in the supermarket should do much for their enthusiasm.

Learn to Fish

We are among the largest group of islands. Our archipelago begins in the Indian Ocean below the Andaman Islands and stretches to the northern Australian coastline. Lots of sea.

It would be eminently sensible for my children to learn to fish to enjoy good food and enjoy the peace of mind that a great source of food is awaiting just down the road.

Give

My children I hope will be a part of this movement. To give freely and discreetly to those that need. To pay their hospital bills, for their funerals, weddings and births. Help pay their debts for which they are being harassed. Help them to buy rice, noodles or fish for their daily meals. Help to send their children to school.Dont teach a person how to make money when he asks, give instantly. “Give a fishing net, not a fish”, is preposterous and cruel. Keep the lessons for later when when his need has been taken care of. Give even though it hurts.

Direct no-questions-asked help is one industry that we can keep away from the Big Boys. It is the only industry that in its simplicity will sustain the earth. For all you know my children and yours may be part of the movement that will save the world.