[SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the podcast.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, you are in store for something new and fresh.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think really anybody's talking about in this way.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is essential for equipping your children from unprecedented times.

[SPEAKER_02]: No, today we dive into the importance of stimulating your kid's right brain when it comes to their education and that it's actually more than education.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's more than then being a well-rounded student.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's about them being fully who God made them to be because he is a creative creator and he made your kids and you and his image.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you've got to work those creative muscles.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to share actual examples of what we've done with our children.

[SPEAKER_00]: You'll even see some behind us if you're watching YouTube.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going to give all the reasons why when you work the creative side, how helps them for the things that machines in AI will have a hard time replicating in the future that's going to make them more equipped for the future world we're going to live in that's dominated by AI.

[SPEAKER_02]: Not only that, you guys, there's like obvious things that we need to stimulate the right side of the brain.

[SPEAKER_02]: It helps with emotional intelligence, which they call EQ, and different things like that, as well as communication skills, interpersonal skills.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's just so much this is a power packed episode, do not miss our episode today.

[SPEAKER_00]: All right, join us.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're doing something a little differently today and you might, if you're looking on YouTube, you can actually see the artwork of our children and not a show just to show off our children's art, but more to show the importance of equipping your children for your different future that they're going into.

[SPEAKER_00]: The future will be [SPEAKER_00]: largely dominated by AI.

[SPEAKER_00]: And one of the vital things is to cultivate art within your children.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there is a massive or a large number of reasons why that's important.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll get into today on this important episode.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, when people hear the word art, they oftentimes will think of things like paintings, drawings, they'll think of maybe they'll think of sculpting clay and things like that.

[SPEAKER_02]: And of course, art does include those things, but there's actually art is actually a lot larger of a category than just those three.

[SPEAKER_02]: things that I mentioned, art can include music, it can include dancing, it can include presenting and dramatization of plays and those kinds of things.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's really, it's anything that is of the creative nature.

[SPEAKER_00]: actually.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, what is your art?

[SPEAKER_00]: What is the, what are the things you create?

[SPEAKER_00]: Whether it's speaking, whether it's engineering, building things, physical things, whether it's drawing things, whether it's the way you put words together on paper and you're writing it.

[SPEAKER_00]: You bring into the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everybody has art in them, but fewer and fewer people are working the discipline of discovering the art and using it in the world and contributing in that way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Is it no wonder more children are depressed and have anxiety than ever?

[SPEAKER_00]: Wait a minute, it's not just children.

[SPEAKER_00]: More adults than ever have depression and anxiety in this world.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's because the confidence isn't being built from a young age of developing their art [SPEAKER_00]: creating something that never existed that's unique based on how God made them and contributing to the world with that.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's so satisfying.

[SPEAKER_02]: I just even think of for more ideas of creative things you can potentially encouraging your children.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think of the baking days of creating a beautiful cake or little mini desserts and designing them and arranging them.

[SPEAKER_02]: What about flower arranging?

[SPEAKER_02]: How about planning out planting a garden and creating beauty from dirt and seeds, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like the Lord brings the increase, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: But we as God's creation who were created in God's image, we've been given this awesome [SPEAKER_02]: awesome opportunity to partner with him in creating and caring for and bringing forth more beauty and you know it's interesting we were talking about this is this is such an important conversation you guys because in a day where AI is [SPEAKER_02]: increasingly rapidly changing the future, and it will be.

[SPEAKER_02]: And Isaac's going to talk a little bit about that during today's podcast.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, courageous parenting tagline is equipping courageous, confident kids for an uncertain world.

[SPEAKER_02]: And they're, you know, we always do an unprecedented times tip at the end of the podcast.

[SPEAKER_02]: You've got to make sure you listen to that.

[SPEAKER_02]: But I think that, you know, into [SPEAKER_02]: Today's society when parents are parenting our kids and we're, we have a lot of decisions to make, don't we?

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that sometimes it can be overwhelming, but here's the deal.

[SPEAKER_02]: In a world that largely values the left-sided brain activities.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now, you know, I think that obviously our world definitely appreciates music, our world appreciates sports.

[SPEAKER_02]: And but then when you look at the education system largely a lot of the subjects that are are studied focused on and evaluating children on and they're finding their value based on the valuation of how they do and those things a lot of those subjects are actually left brain subjects right and so you think of math science [SPEAKER_02]: memorization of different things and then regurgitating that information.

[SPEAKER_02]: A lot of the papers are not necessarily, they're not encouraging creative writing as much like poetry and coming up with writing stories, but it's more like research and creating keyword outlines and then [SPEAKER_02]: be able to put all that information into a paper or a thesis or an essay that is taking other people's thoughts and works and research and then bringing it all together to come up with a, I have, so more information driven, memorization driven versus creative driven, which by the way, half the society learns better on the creative side of the right brain people, but it's not exclusive to left or right brain either.

[SPEAKER_00]: we all can learn better with an element of creativity.

[SPEAKER_00]: And if somebody's teaching, they need to bring that perspective into it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Otherwise, certain people aren't even going to be able to really understand what you're saying.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it's interesting because I think every parent, Isaac, I think every parent listening would want their kids to be a well-rounded student.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sure you want your children to be well-rounded.

[SPEAKER_02]: When we first started out, whether we were going to be homeschooling or doing public school, that was one of the things that we talked about a lot is, how can they be well-rounded?

[SPEAKER_02]: We want them to be able to discover what they're gifted in, and so we need to expose them to things that maybe we weren't necessarily gifted in.

[SPEAKER_02]: things that we weren't even necessarily exposed to and see if it just clicks for them or if they really love it, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: And so we would try many different sports from karate, to soccer, to swimming, to dance, to, you know, to musical things like plain violin or piano or guitar or drums or just different things, choir singing.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that there was a lot of benefit in exposing the kids to those things.

[SPEAKER_02]: And you see certain kids will like definitely be more prone or drawn towards different things than other kids in your family.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that's really a cool thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: But here's the deal.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think sometimes we get so in our society.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is what I see.

[SPEAKER_02]: I see parents.

[SPEAKER_02]: narrowed in, zoned in on the fast track.

[SPEAKER_02]: How can I get my kids on the fast track?

[SPEAKER_02]: What is the most successful, successful profession?

[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm gonna start having them doing like coding books when they're six years old.

[SPEAKER_02]: Now, I'll say something, I think I fell into that a little bit.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, I went and bought the coding books and I was like, oh, you seem to be weird like this.

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you like this?

[SPEAKER_02]: And they do the little puzzles and they start doing that come on books.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, they were on coding and they liked them.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not saying it's bad.

[SPEAKER_02]: I just see that there's this tendency for parents to like narrow in and then maybe even push out their kids experiencing other more creative things.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, everybody, I understand all of us want our children.

[SPEAKER_00]: to stand on our shoulders and do better than we did.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that includes financial, I get it, and things aren't cheap, I know.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have a big family.

[SPEAKER_00]: So don't hate on that, be courageous ministry.org.

[SPEAKER_00]: But anyways, but it's so important that we realize the world we're going into.

[SPEAKER_00]: In an aid to AI-dominated world, a lot of the soft skills are going to be critical.

[SPEAKER_00]: The ability to be flexible, to be creative, to problem solve, to be resilient, all of these things are helped by doing art when you're younger.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we should kind of dive into that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, you know, art sets your kids apart in an AI-driven future.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, the question is, well, what's going to happen in the future?

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, right now that AI-R is okay, I think you'd agree with me.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can kind of tell when someone's putting AI art out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: But less and less, some of it is getting so good.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, movies are gonna start utilizing it all kinds of things.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, and you won't be able to tell.

[SPEAKER_00]: Very soon, you won't be able to tell the difference between art and pictures and videos that were created by AI or created by humans.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's already kind of the case in some cases.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, why is it important then still to develop art?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why is it important to still [SPEAKER_00]: work the strength of writing, for example, because brain development, it is required to do art if you want a really resilient smart problem solving emotionally intelligent child in the future.

[SPEAKER_00]: And all of those things are going to be hard for [SPEAKER_00]: AI to replace hard for the machines and people's homes.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, that's very soon to replace is those things and it's very important.

[SPEAKER_00]: So really sets kids apart if you're having them do arts.

[SPEAKER_02]: sets them apart from the machines.

[SPEAKER_00]: It does.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right?

[SPEAKER_02]: It makes them, they're going to be certain things.

[SPEAKER_02]: We've talked about this in other podcast episodes in regards to AI, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: And with some of the unprecedented tips and like, what are the professions that are going to be irreplaceable?

[SPEAKER_02]: And when you think about your children, it's not just your children.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's also a lot of times parents will hand down the skills, the soft skills, the hard skills that they have to their children, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Because it's the most natural, easiest thing for you to do.

[SPEAKER_02]: So like you see firefighters with multi-generational firefighters.

[SPEAKER_02]: You see that with woodworkers.

[SPEAKER_02]: You see that with doctors.

[SPEAKER_02]: You see that with a lot of dip chiropractors musicians.

[SPEAKER_02]: You see it often where it's like the third generation musician in a family that right or even Hollywood actors with dramatization and you know it's [SPEAKER_02]: It's something that it has been in the past.

[SPEAKER_02]: The thing where farmers would teach their sons how to farm and moms would teach their daughters how to mother.

[SPEAKER_02]: And today it is still happening.

[SPEAKER_02]: It just looks very different.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that is a good thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's a good thing to pass down the skills that you have.

[SPEAKER_02]: But here's the deal.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you want your kids to do better than you, you have to be willing to open them up to learning things that you don't even necessarily know.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that takes humility.

[SPEAKER_02]: It takes humility, not pride, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: And so like for us, when we started out with our kids, we were like, okay, yeah, we want them to be well-rounded.

[SPEAKER_02]: We want them to be exposed to many different things.

[SPEAKER_02]: We want them to love what they do.

[SPEAKER_02]: I've always said to other wives that it's better to be married to a man that loves what he does for work than someone who's just male in it in.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's just shipping it in, doesn't enjoy what he's doing.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that that understanding how much that impacts the marriage, how much that impacts the family dynamics, how much that impacts, just the husband having joy in life and feeling fulfilled literally leads the family countenance.

[SPEAKER_02]: in a really big way.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm thankful that my husband loves what he does.

[SPEAKER_02]: It literally is a game changer for his countenance.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I know that that's true for every human being on the face of the planet.

[SPEAKER_02]: And God has designed you as well as your kids for unique purposes.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so how do you like prepare your kids so that they can find that unique purpose?

[SPEAKER_02]: And you know what, while there isn't an equation [SPEAKER_02]: that's going to be perfectly, oh, have them do this and then this and then this, that that's not how life works.

[SPEAKER_02]: The journey is actually the process, the sanctifying process that prepares them.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we all want our children to be confident, but in this new world we're going into, if they are not working the muscle of their brain in creative ways, then they are not going to grow in confidence.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's an incredible thing that happens when [SPEAKER_00]: They create something that's never been, that's unique, and it looks good, or it solves a problem, or it contributes in some way, or they get positive feedback about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It builds a different kind of confidence that is important, and the process of creating it is wiring their brain [SPEAKER_00]: and actually connecting more neural connections.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's proven.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's very, very important that they're working their brains in many different ways, not just the math, not just the purely academic, but on the creative side, both are important.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you've got to do both.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not like maybe the old mentality of where we have to do math, science, and all these things.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's the most important.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then, oh, here's your little art class.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think you have to have a equal importance on both of them and you might even put a little more emphasis on the creativity side since that's the human differentiator of the future.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's so important it creates resiliency as well and it creates confidence.

[SPEAKER_00]: You want your children to walk in confidence that they are matter [SPEAKER_00]: that they bring value to the world starting when they're young and as they grow older and when they launch and continuing because even if they never do art again, it has formed their mind in a much stronger way and then they're going to walk in a much more confident way through society and the way things are changing.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's super important.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, it's interesting with our podcast.

[SPEAKER_02]: We're always trying to look at scripture and bring scripture into the topics that we're covering and, you know, actually today was really easy.

[SPEAKER_02]: It was probably one of the easiest days as far as finding scripture that talks about this because our God, we call him the creator.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like, that is one of his names is creator, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: He is the creator.

[SPEAKER_02]: He created all things.

[SPEAKER_02]: in him, all things were made.

[SPEAKER_02]: Nothing was made without God.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so what's really cool is generous.

[SPEAKER_02]: Genesis, one twenty seven says, so God created mankind in his own image in the image of God.

[SPEAKER_02]: He created them male and female.

[SPEAKER_02]: He created them.

[SPEAKER_02]: I just love that.

[SPEAKER_02]: It goes back to creation and in that God is the creator.

[SPEAKER_02]: He created us.

[SPEAKER_02]: He created us in his image and with the ability, because we're made in his image, we have the ability to think and to create and to partner with him in his creation, to steward it, but also to help with the nourishing of the creating, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's super cool when you think about how much we have impact on the world, like as humans.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that passing that down from one generation to another is actually important, but taunt to pass.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's a confidence builder to say, God made you in his image.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's giving you gifts to create things, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: But here's the deal, like in a day and age where we have so much screen time.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so much entertaining and so many things coming at us with screens, what it does is it numbs the mind down to where they're not actually creating anything.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then if that goes on for generation after generation, after generation, imagine people not even necessarily [SPEAKER_02]: stimulating the right portion of the brain.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, it's the right side of the brain.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to something so important.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have been conditioned in the recent generations to be fed information to be fed.

[SPEAKER_00]: To not go, to literally just be walking through life, doing our main responsibilities, but then constantly getting fed information, getting fed insights, [SPEAKER_00]: getting fed creativity from other people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what happens is a majority of people are consuming content from people that are living their dreams while the consumers are not living out their own dreams.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so you're supporting other people's dreams.

[SPEAKER_00]: But are you also supporting your own dreams and are you making sure your children are disciplined because it left to themselves?

[SPEAKER_00]: They can't be disciplined usually to not just watch other people live their dreams and consume everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's why about ten years ago we launched producers versus consumers is one of our culture driving statements for our family.

[SPEAKER_00]: because I saw this coming and I realized as our kids are getting older, this needs to be ingrained in their minds, but not just a culture driving statement, but then tools and investments and practical energy put towards helping them to be able to do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So before they leave our house, they have created something and they've sold something.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they've seen their creation benefit other people.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's essential for their confidence.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, and we've talked about in the homeschool blueprint course, the importance of trying to facilitate a confidence where kids can at least try out entrepreneurship while they're in your household, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: And not, you know, we saw in COVID how so many people's like, yeah, you do work for a master because if they're telling you to wear a mask or they're telling you to vaccinate or you lose your job, yeah, you have a master.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so we've taught our kids like you have a choice and who you choose to have as your master, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: And if you have a choice, then you need to develop a skill, a passion, find something [SPEAKER_02]: They can sustain and support.

[SPEAKER_02]: a livelihood, a family that is not going to be dependent upon somebody else necessarily, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Working with your own hands, I think of that verse of working quietly with your own hands and not owning any man, anything.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's something really powerful about that, but here's the deal.

[SPEAKER_02]: Kids are not going to have confidence to go and do that sort of thing.

[SPEAKER_02]: If all they've ever known was only working for someone and they've never experienced what it feels like to create something with their own imagination in their hands and their ingenuity and their hard work.

[SPEAKER_02]: and then sell it for a profit.

[SPEAKER_00]: So some of the examples are behind us, which you can see in the American flag up here.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's Drew's business that he created and he figured out and there was a lot of mistakes and learning.

[SPEAKER_00]: I have his original very first one.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was rough, but I love it, because it's first one.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's on our building right over here, old, hundred year old building.

[SPEAKER_00]: It'll work shop area.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's right above, and it's just, but this was something that he started making.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think he was fifteen, fourteen, fifteen years old, and he sold these for a good two or three years.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then he hired his younger brother to train them how to do the stars, because that was starting to aggravate him.

[SPEAKER_00]: It took a long time.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he trained his brother and he figured out the pay and they had a happy agreement and they worked together and he would sell these these flags and so what a great experience and he sold him for two to three hundred dollars each so that was pretty amazing also Luke there's one up here and there's one down here which is the shelves [SPEAKER_00]: and he's he probably made you know four five thousand dollars sewing shelves which is I mean he was twelve thirteen fourteen years old when he was doing that and he put them all together and I remember so many frustrating moments and teaching moments and like why is these angles not working together [SPEAKER_00]: And I go, well, sometimes you can't trust the machine.

[SPEAKER_00]: I just remember those one times.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it goes, no, the machine, you put it on the right degrees, it should work.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've looked it up on YouTube and that should work.

[SPEAKER_00]: I go, what if what the machine says is the right degree is actually the wrong degree because the machine's wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: See, all these lessons, sometimes the machine's wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I go, so make it wrong and test a bunch of pieces and sure enough, the machine was wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he found out where it's wrong so that the joints fit together perfectly.

[SPEAKER_02]: You know, there is a lot of shipping lessons in that too, which has to do with human error.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you have to, you have to, and costs and budgeting and P&Ls, the kids learned.

[SPEAKER_02]: They even built website.

[SPEAKER_02]: You taught them how to build a website at first for, and that was a good experience for them, too.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then deciding, oh, I don't know if I want to pay the server fees for this.

[SPEAKER_02]: and all of these things, we didn't put these out to show, to try and impress you with the things that our kids have made.

[SPEAKER_02]: A lot of people can talk about things that they did in the past, but we wanted to inspire you to have your kids think about things.

[SPEAKER_02]: These ideas, the shelves and the flag came from thinking.

[SPEAKER_02]: It came from sitting and going, well, if I was gonna make something, [SPEAKER_02]: that people were going to buy, then it's going to have to meet a need.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I was like, well, at the time I was selling essential oils, I was selling an essential oils, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't do that any longer.

[SPEAKER_02]: But it was like the perfect combination because I needed essential oil shelves and so did a bunch of people who were on my team and people that I knew and it was like, okay, here's a problem.

[SPEAKER_02]: Make a solution.

[SPEAKER_02]: which is the whole process that when you're helping your kids to make a business from the ground up, you usually want to look for a problem first and come up with a solution to something.

[SPEAKER_02]: Those are going to be the most successful business.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then we invested in this art school back when we were living in the outskirts of Portland.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it was really helpful and they learned how to do how old was.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I don't even remember the kids when they did these.

[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, so if you're looking at the YouTube channel, we did put some of the acrylic art that the kids did, but you know, our first three kids, they participated in this fine arts academy.

[SPEAKER_02]: It was for home schoolers.

[SPEAKER_02]: And you had to be, I think, nine years old to do it.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so I think one of the kids only did it for a year.

[SPEAKER_02]: One of the other kids did it for two years and the other did it for four.

[SPEAKER_02]: And this is just to show you guys what kids from the ages of nine to twelve or nine to fourteen.

[SPEAKER_02]: are actually capable of.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that that's what is so inspiring.

[SPEAKER_02]: Some of the kids would spend countless hours after they had done some of the artwork was with a teacher hovering over them, helping them move their brush in the right direction and then letting them go at it, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: And then by the time that they got into the third or fourth year, they were looking at images, drawing things out, [SPEAKER_02]: And then painting it all by themselves.

[SPEAKER_02]: And if they had a hard time with a specific kind of brush stroke, they would go over to the teacher and they would show them on a different piece of canvas and then they would take that on onto their canvas.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I know that some of these took, I mean, hundreds of hours of work to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: What's really cool is all our kids are wired differently.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we didn't see a different outcome in the quality of what they're able to create.

[SPEAKER_00]: when they were taught.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, and then I literally witnessed, I walked through this, they had like a showing of all the kids' arts that were involved, and they were awesome.

[SPEAKER_00]: And every single one of them was really good.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, no matter what their wiring was, no matter what the personality was, they could all accomplish something with direction.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, that was a bigger investment and harder than what we used today.

[SPEAKER_00]: creating a masterpiece which has been incredibly important and incredible help to our children because we can do it right within our home.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what we've seen from this is also, you know, now like one of our kids, older kids, is learning trading, for example.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you can see the art kind of helping them understand patterns and understand the pictures of trading, the art of trading.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when you understand that well enough, [SPEAKER_00]: then you can know what's predict what's going to happen on those graphs.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so I see this bleeding into all the different interests that our kids have.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have another older child that's in a form of sales now and that creative writing and that speaking experience and all the things that we put them through in creative ways [SPEAKER_00]: is helping him immediately achieve success as he's pursuing this new thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you just see it in all the ways they do to have, it's almost like there's, there's an advantage.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm seeing it as they try their different things.

[SPEAKER_00]: They have an advantage and I take that back to not their math skills.

[SPEAKER_00]: I take that back to the creative side of things.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, and the emotional intelligence, you know, when we were talking about this original concept, um, one of the things that I have mentioned many times as I speak at homeschool conferences or even in our homeschool blueprint course, um, I share things that I wish I wouldn't have done, you know, after having parented for twenty five years, um, homeschooling for twenty one years, of course you're going to learn a lot about yourself.

[SPEAKER_02]: Of course you're going to learn about, well, if I'm [SPEAKER_02]: really honest yeah I kind of made an idol out of academics those first few years and I I for sure did I thought that school had to look a traditional way that mimicked what I experienced because I liked my schooling experience even though I went to the public education system.

[SPEAKER_00]: I did not like my school.

[SPEAKER_02]: So yeah, so having his experience, my experience, very similar, but we're wired very differently.

[SPEAKER_02]: That helped me to evaluate and go, you know what, our kids are not all going to be wired the same.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so one of the benefits of being able to bring things home is that you can actually kind of cater, curate [SPEAKER_02]: some of the educational process so that your kids enjoy and love learning.

[SPEAKER_02]: And really at the end of the day, isn't that one of the most important things because life is about learning.

[SPEAKER_02]: And you never want to become so prideful that you don't have a teachable heart.

[SPEAKER_02]: You need to always be learning.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like when we launch our kids, they're going to have to still have a teachable heart.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're going to have to seek out mentors who can teach them skills that are in different professions.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's nine kids.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're all going to potentially do something different.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in this world, they're gonna have to re-figure out how to provide.

[SPEAKER_00]: I remember when I was forty years old with our seventh child on the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: I lost my company and I had to figure out a new way to provide when I had exhausted all my resources had been exhausted.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so just that resilience, that importance of that, maybe that experience has helped me to realize, wow, it's far beyond the age where someone works for a company [SPEAKER_00]: for a large number of years and they retire and do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is not what I'm hoping for my kids.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not hoping they work for one boss for their whole life because that is not how things work anymore.

[SPEAKER_00]: is literally either entrepreneurial.

[SPEAKER_00]: I hope for that for many of my kids or they are going to work for many bosses and they're going to be resilient and they're going to have a side thing and they're going to still be home for dinner and they're going to be efficient with their time.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to be creative.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're going to create leveraged situations for a great revenue and they're going to thrive in the unique calling that God has for them.

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[SPEAKER_02]: Hey guys, I want to share with you about a program we've been loving at the Tollpen household.

[SPEAKER_02]: Studies by University of Arkansas, Ohio State and American Psychological Association and more show that pre-teens who participate in art show increased brain activity in areas responsible for focus, planning, and critical thinking.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's why we're partnering with Creating a Masterpiece.

[SPEAKER_02]: They offer award-winning online art programs for ages four to a hundred and four.

[SPEAKER_02]: Get on-demand access to drawing programs art lessons, art history, watercolors, charcoal sketches, and so much more.

[SPEAKER_02]: and all at one low rate for your entire household.

[SPEAKER_02]: Just a lesson or two a week can nourish your child's brain in a really powerful way.

[SPEAKER_02]: So visit creatingemasterpiece.com to sign up today.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's creatingemasterpiece.com because anyone can create a master.

[SPEAKER_02]: But what's cool about that is that in every one of those experiences, their perspective should be, oh, that boss I didn't like, I can learn from that.

[SPEAKER_02]: What was it I didn't like about working for that boss?

[SPEAKER_02]: And then they become a better manager of people, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like every specific potential trial, tribulation, failure, whatever it is.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like a lot of people say growth happens in the valley.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like your failures can be your biggest lessons in life.

[SPEAKER_02]: that have the most value, that actually like that's where the rubber meets the road.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's like if you're squeezed and Christianity comes out of you, Christ comes out of you, then it's a reflection of who you are in Him, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like that's what we all hope for.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's what we hope for for our kids because we know that an easy life is not promised by God.

[SPEAKER_02]: In fact, we know that persecution is gonna come and so we want our kids to be able to handle that well.

[SPEAKER_02]: What I'm talking about right now is a whole bunch of emotional intelligence, which is actually something that [SPEAKER_02]: can grow and neurological stimulation for having better emotional intelligence happens actually when your right brain is stimulated.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so there's something really important about purposefully, yeah, we want our kids to be able to like have confidence when I look at all this stuff that's everywhere.

[SPEAKER_02]: And we even have some artwork from our younger kids here that they this is recent state.

[SPEAKER_00]: from the younger so how old is this person?

[SPEAKER_02]: Well that one was two people did it together so Ethan sat and helped Zander when he was three years old and I think Ethan was thirteen fourteen and we were doing a program called Creating a Masterpiece which we've shared about it here on the podcast a lot but I'm actually going to show you guys on the computer as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: So you like did this this year?

[SPEAKER_02]: And he was five and six years old so I don't if it was up the game the year no he was six when he did that.

[SPEAKER_00]: You did this one?

[SPEAKER_02]: uh Zander did that one when he was three that's charging the glass from the yep from the from the computer which you know and creating a masterpiece is unique because they their Zander three year old [SPEAKER_02]: That's right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yep.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's cool, which is really fun.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then the last one we're going to show you that's Ethan Helping Zander again, making a wolf.

[SPEAKER_02]: And you know, it's interesting because.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, Ethan did that one by himself.

[SPEAKER_02]: That was when he was fourteen, I think.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's an owl, but you know, there was a lot of drawing that is in creating a masterpiece, but there's more than just drawing.

[SPEAKER_02]: Like we showed watercolor, we showed charcoal and we showed pencil and pencil drawing pictures and pen drawing pictures to you just now if you're watching YouTube.

[SPEAKER_02]: But one of the reasons why we're bringing this up is because as parents, sometimes you can like, depending on what your educational choice is, maybe art isn't offered.

[SPEAKER_02]: Right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe there isn't art classes aren't available until middle school or junior high or high school because a lot of high schools are offering like pottery classes or wood shop or things like that.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I would say that it's a must today in order to have a little bit more of a well-rounded education.

[SPEAKER_02]: You need to be challenging both the right and the left hemispheres of your brain equally if you want to be a holistic person.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that looking at the different classes, you can evaluate very quickly, which subjects are left brain, like the logical analytical, even some writing can be on left brain, but then some can also be left brain and right brain.

[SPEAKER_02]: If it's creative writing, for example, music would be right brain.

[SPEAKER_02]: Some aspects of music can also stimulate the left brain as well, which is really cool.

[SPEAKER_02]: But there is not only scientifically proven that music, for example, helps people with [SPEAKER_02]: like ailments and health issues or anxiety or stress, but it's actually biblical.

[SPEAKER_02]: I have to share with you guys some cool verses.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is really rad.

[SPEAKER_02]: It says in first Samuel, sixteen twenty three, if anybody is studied the life of David or Saul, that you're going to remember this.

[SPEAKER_02]: It says in first Samuel, sixteen twenty three, [SPEAKER_02]: And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the lear and played it with his hand, so Saul was refreshed and was well in the harmful spirit departed from him.

[SPEAKER_02]: Another one, which is interesting.

[SPEAKER_02]: I just want to share this with you because I actually think that music and being able to express ourselves and to communicate [SPEAKER_02]: with kindness and with empathy, which when you listen to music, you hear empathy.

[SPEAKER_02]: When you listen to music, you're hearing stories that will cultivate within you the sense of empathy or like your tears or your emotions will be triggered, will be stimulated in a sense, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: To where it reminds you of a memory that you had, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like I can listen to butterfly kisses and I remember dancing at my wedding with my dad, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: It brings up her.

[SPEAKER_00]: It brings up a great point and should that it's proven that if there's an outlet for expression through art and music, that they are way, they're going to mature faster and properly, they're going to have less anxiety and less emotional distress in or turmoil.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's happening because they're expressing themselves in more ways.

[SPEAKER_02]: Another verse that comes to mind is Ephesians five, eighteen through nineteen it says, and do not get drunk with wine for that's debockery, but be filled with the spirit addressing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.

[SPEAKER_02]: This is something that God's telling people to do something and to not do something.

[SPEAKER_02]: He's literally saying, don't do this, do this instead.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so he's literally telling his people, sing and make melody to the Lord with your heart, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: And so if a kid is never exposed to music or making music or being able to sing songs, like we're literally holding our kids back from being able to do something that God created us to do.

[SPEAKER_02]: Another, this is the last verse on music that I want to share with you guys.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's in Colossians, three, sixteen.

[SPEAKER_02]: I love this because it says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly teaching and admonishing one another and all wisdom.

[SPEAKER_02]: Stop right there.

[SPEAKER_02]: That would be like a lot of left brain, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: like you're dwelling in the Word of God, you're reading the Word of God, you're understanding it, you're maybe preaching it, you're teaching it, you're there's some left brain, like understanding happening there, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: And that says singing, Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness to the Lord in your hearts to God.

[SPEAKER_02]: And there's the right brain coming in, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Like God created us for both of those things.

[SPEAKER_02]: And when we are able to teach our kids to, and can I say it's teach them, but also let them be bored.

[SPEAKER_02]: like let them be bored because that's really when a lot of creativity comes in.

[SPEAKER_02]: So if you teach them the skill of how to write for example, but then you let them be bored a little bit to where they're thinking and they're creative and they can write, they can write their thoughts out and it could become music.

[SPEAKER_02]: It could become song.

[SPEAKER_02]: It reminds me that we did a collaboration a long time ago with kids with screen strong.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can go look at that podcast episode, but she has something in her textbook here.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's called Kids Brains and Screens on page twelve.

[SPEAKER_02]: It says interestingly, being bored is one of the best things for our brains.

[SPEAKER_02]: I just want to say that again, being bored is one of the best things for our brains.

[SPEAKER_02]: I've heard a lot of moms say jokingly, yeah, oh, being bored as off limits at my house.

[SPEAKER_02]: I think I've even said that where like if a kid, my kids don't ever say I'm bored because they know if they come to me saying I'm bored.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm going to give them a job to do because but here's the deal.

[SPEAKER_02]: Listen to her.

[SPEAKER_02]: It says interestingly, being bored is one of the best things for a brain studies reveal that our brains become like an inch [SPEAKER_02]: like an empty canvas ready for creative innovative ideas when we're bored.

[SPEAKER_02]: However, many people are afraid to be bored, so they fill their free time with screen clutter instead.

[SPEAKER_02]: Stunting creativity.

[SPEAKER_02]: I just love that because that is actually what's happening largely to children today is that parents are just letting them be in front of the screen.

[SPEAKER_02]: and they're looking at creativity that was done by someone else, just downloading to them.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's leaving them in a posture and in a place of not necessarily being creative.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that you can use technology for your benefit, like I love creating a masterpiece because we call her grandma Sharon.

[SPEAKER_02]: She's an older, older grandma figure, who she's in video and she'll tell you guys, here I'm just gonna show you guys, she'll show you, [SPEAKER_02]: on creating a masterpiece when you're using this to learn art, which this has been a hugely helpful tool to us.

[SPEAKER_02]: We've used this for the last year.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I hope you guys can see this if you look on the YouTube channel.

[SPEAKER_02]: We'll try to zoom in here.

[SPEAKER_02]: But there's many different topics of media that she teaches in these videos.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're between five and twenty minute videos.

[SPEAKER_02]: And if there's a lesson that's like an hour long, she breaks them into different videos.

[SPEAKER_02]: So it's easier.

[SPEAKER_02]: for kids to follow along.

[SPEAKER_02]: But there's essentials for learners.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's all these different options that you can open up.

[SPEAKER_02]: Here's the charcoal bunny one that we had done before.

[SPEAKER_02]: You can view the supply list right away and it'll tell you what to get.

[SPEAKER_02]: It says get drawing paper, get a pencil, a six B willow charcoal, soapy racer, and a retractable pencil.

[SPEAKER_02]: So as a mom, like you can go and you can get that.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, you can purchase the supplies there.

[SPEAKER_02]: or you can look and see where they are and get them cheaper online.

[SPEAKER_02]: And then you can go and watch the videos that she has for you on how to actually do draw the bunny, which we showed you a picture of.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so there's drawing lessons, there's charcoal, there's beginning drawing, beginning drawing too, that the different parts get harder and harder, there's [SPEAKER_02]: In the column here, if you're looking, there's acrylic painting.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's block printing colored marker.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's copper tooling.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's faux metal working glass edging.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's so many ink mixed in all ages, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: Well painting, yeah, it's one of the things.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've been they've been a sponsor, but we only have sponsors of things we use and things we believe that we really care.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we weren't even asked to do this episode for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: We just thought this topic was really important more kind of incorporating in.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's one of the troubles we use that now from the comfort of our home not all of us live near where there's lessons for everything we're out in the country in a town of about a thousand people so we're using online things in it, you know, for online teachers largely [SPEAKER_00]: Well, and to augment the grim person with Angie and the workbooks and all the things in all school.

[SPEAKER_02]: And a lot of times I know that right now, like we're in July right now, but this is something that a parent could pick up at any point in the year.

[SPEAKER_02]: You could start a subscription and you could start learning from your home how to do art.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I was telling Isaac, because he was asking me, so how did you use it with the kids?

[SPEAKER_02]: And I said, you know, I used a lot of different ways.

[SPEAKER_02]: There were times where I wanted to sit and learn along with the kids and it was like a fun experience if we tried to do a harder project like there's neoclassical classes um period a and apple it's oil painting right or there's um there's different artists like we did Abraham Lincoln because we were studying Abraham Lincoln and we [SPEAKER_02]: We learned how to do a grid drawing and we would do box by box and so it did it taught us how to draw a Abraham Lincoln and that was like a two hour project sitting down with kids of all different ages.

[SPEAKER_02]: Some got done a little sooner than others and there was about four different videos and that was when I sat down for.

[SPEAKER_02]: with the kids and it was fun and we learned something fun together.

[SPEAKER_02]: But then there's the times where I like needed to be cooking and I was able to put on an easier drawing lesson that was maybe going to be a twenty minute lesson and I could sit the kids there with their crayons and their pencils and they'd come running to me with these truly they were pieces of art that were fun to hang on the fridge versus like you know how when kids just start drawing because they like drawing [SPEAKER_02]: and maybe they're drawing the same kind of picture over and over again, it's not really improving.

[SPEAKER_02]: You put it up on the fridge because you're proud of them and you want them to be confident and you're excited about it.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I have to tell you, there's something totally different than with your kids every time coming to you with a totally different pain team and you're like, you're in awe.

[SPEAKER_00]: in huge progress.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's huge progress.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're literally learning different things like a boat, an owl, a wolf, Abraham Lincoln's face.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's just face it if they don't make progress.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're desired to continue doing it.

[SPEAKER_00]: Will Wayne as they get old?

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so it just was such an easy tool for us to use throughout this last year.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it would be an easy thing for a parent if they wanted to like stimulate their kids right, brain, right, or do art.

[SPEAKER_02]: have art class.

[SPEAKER_02]: Have it be something that is like an extra subject that you're doing with your kids, whether you're homeschooling or you're doing public school, you can do it from the comfort of your home.

[SPEAKER_00]: So create creating a masterpiece.com forward slash courageous.

[SPEAKER_00]: So creating a masterpiece.com forward slash courageous.

[SPEAKER_00]: I want to give you some impact points real quick on the impact of what happens to children's to children when they're doing art like this.

[SPEAKER_00]: First of all, find motor skills.

[SPEAKER_00]: The ability to focus for a long period of time and do fine work with their hands.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is going to vote well if they go into carpentry, if they go into being a doctor, if they go into building things and all kind of using tools.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's going to be so helpful to have that precision motor skills in their hands that's lining up with the brain.

[SPEAKER_00]: So problem solving skills, huge, this is a central skill for unprecedented times, even more so, is the ability to solve problems in creative ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: New neural connections.

[SPEAKER_00]: We talked about this, but there's literal brain connections connecting that wouldn't have [SPEAKER_00]: in their brain.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you're doing something artificial, there's a treat that human beings never use even most of the brain.

[SPEAKER_00]: They use very little of the brain capacity actually in their whole lifetime.

[SPEAKER_00]: If a lot of studies show, so there's so much opportunity to make new connections in your brain, which isn't just making you smarter, it's making you more versatile.

[SPEAKER_00]: is having more strength than many different areas.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's what art, music, speaking, creative, public speaking, influencing people through speaking, creative writing, all of these things are making the person more resilient, more versatile, ability to provide in different ways.

[SPEAKER_00]: ability to be a mom and multi-dimensional ways that helps children for all kinds of things they're going to be equipped for down the road.

[SPEAKER_00]: Spatial awareness, you know it's interesting that is a personality thing too where you can see if something's off and some people really can't.

[SPEAKER_00]: They have a sense for design or they don't have a sense for design.

[SPEAKER_00]: But whether someone's personality is that or not, everybody improves at this when they do art.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's critically important actually to be able to have that sense for spatial awareness and to see what's right and wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, someone is going to do an Airbnb for example.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have to have spatial awareness.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're not going to remodel things in the right way that attract people in the pictures on the website.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't have spatial awareness, you're going to provide the right furniture.

[SPEAKER_00]: You're going to have to spend fortune having someone else do that for you and put it all in there.

[SPEAKER_00]: You could do that, or you can work that muscle and help them work that muscle, whether you're young, and they can have a great Airbnb business someday.

[SPEAKER_00]: See this, if you're re-flipping properties someday, you have to have an understanding of what colors are going to work and where they're going to go and how to remodel the kitchen and spatial design and what a human's like.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, that art in working that part of your brain is critical for all of these practical things.

[SPEAKER_00]: What if your home builder?

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you're going to get plans and so forth, but if you want to be exceptional, you're going to put those exceptional differences in your homes that's going to make it sell faster than the other competition.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about thriving in a person at times, not just existing and doing everybody else's, give your children an edge through these things.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about improving memory, which is proven to happen [SPEAKER_00]: With art skills, it's about emotional intelligence that Angie talked about earlier, which is so important, that's ability to see what people are saying when they're not saying it.

[SPEAKER_00]: To understand situational awareness, to understand what's happening when it's not obvious in relational and social circles.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's essential for leadership, leadership is essential for many things in thriving in the unprecedented times ahead.

[SPEAKER_00]: differentiating from machines.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is all so important.

[SPEAKER_00]: So working the muscle of music are speaking and creative writing are so important in your kids' lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is just one of the tools that we thought we wanted to bring forward that would help you get.

[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah.

[SPEAKER_02]: Aside from art, when you think about what you're raising your kids to be, we found an interesting article in Epoch Times.

[SPEAKER_02]: It actually came out this week.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's called what's behind the rise in narcissism in teens, very interesting article.

[SPEAKER_02]: I just highlighted a couple things I wanted to share with you guys because yes, it I believe it applies to this because it's how we're raising our kids narcissists tend to think very selfishly.

[SPEAKER_02]: They think about themselves.

[SPEAKER_02]: They have this urge for control.

[SPEAKER_02]: There's obviously pride that's involved in the process because they [SPEAKER_02]: want control right they think there's this illusion of eye can do things the best way.

[SPEAKER_02]: And what's interesting though is that they've seen a big rise in it's actually a large rise in the last couple decades in children.

[SPEAKER_02]: with narcissism and they are saying that people who were more narcissistic than averages, children remained more narcissistic than average as adults.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so that's a huge warning right there.

[SPEAKER_02]: But what's interesting is that one of the scientists or I think it's a psychologist that is contributing to the article says they believe that corrective measures.

[SPEAKER_02]: So you can actually correct someone who is starting to have some narcissistic tendencies.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's not just a [SPEAKER_02]: a thing that you have to live with your whole life.

[SPEAKER_02]: Parents can actually help their children.

[SPEAKER_02]: He says that he believes corrective measures are rooted in traditional family values such as marriage, family, owning up to and working through one's own struggles.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so it's just interesting there that, you know, in a society where you have a lot of like the generation Z, there's this popular term or acronym, a Dink.

[SPEAKER_02]: where someone doesn't want to actually have responsibilities really the epitome of it.

[SPEAKER_02]: They don't want to be married.

[SPEAKER_02]: They don't want to have children.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're going to have a lifestyle without having children.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're very self-focused people.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that what's interesting is a lot of what they're saying is that it stems from their childhood.

[SPEAKER_02]: Their childhood traumas or childhood hurts that they have not dealt with or processed in an emotionally healthy way.

[SPEAKER_02]: So what's interesting is that the right brain actually plays a crucial role this is scientifically proven.

[SPEAKER_02]: It plays a crucial role in emotional intelligence.

[SPEAKER_02]: They call it EQ.

[SPEAKER_02]: Not IQ EQ.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so it plays an important role by processing emotions, fostering empathy and facilitating creative problem solving.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm just reading this right now.

[SPEAKER_02]: It says it helps with emotional awareness, self-regulation, and interpersonal skills.

[SPEAKER_02]: All of these things are probably things that narcissists struggle with.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sure you would agree.

[SPEAKER_02]: What's interesting as well is that that concept of it's all about me.

[SPEAKER_02]: If you don't give me what I want, I'm going to make your life.

[SPEAKER_02]: Hell, excuse the language is what the article says in the epoch times.

[SPEAKER_02]: And that's their perspective is like you do things my way or the highway would be another term that I remember hearing way back when when I was a childhood, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: And there's a lot of negative aspects to this because the narcissistic behavior can actually get passed down from child to child from from one parent to a child.

[SPEAKER_02]: So what the article says, and so it says that a narcissistic parent either completely neglects their child, or they try to live vicariously through them with unrealistic expectations.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's interesting they say the baby boomer generation is one of the most narcissistic generations because they even had commercials in the eighties and nineties that said, hey, it's ten o'clock.

[SPEAKER_02]: Do you know where your kids are?

[SPEAKER_02]: And it was a public service announcement because the boomers were so focused on themselves and not their children.

[SPEAKER_02]: What's interesting is that a pastor here from Pennsylvania also says that there's more peer pressure on parents now to cater to their children's every need.

[SPEAKER_02]: Providing travel with sports and expensive time consuming, for example, the world revolving around kids, giving them cars.

[SPEAKER_02]: All of these things are saying contribute to the narcissistic attitude that's in this next generation where they have an entitled attitude.

[SPEAKER_02]: And they think that love comes from giving them money, giving them things.

[SPEAKER_02]: And it's really a very unhealthy and selfish perspective.

[SPEAKER_02]: Is it really crazy because this article even says that somewhat naturally selfish, teens are somewhat naturally selfish, which we all know that, you know, obviously they're lacking this certain amount of maturity, the frontal lobe is not fully developed, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: And it says it's not unusual for them to think everything revolves around them.

[SPEAKER_02]: But the problem is that social media exacerbates this generation gap and parents often appear less interested, less interesting than the virtual world that they're exposed to.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I want to bring this up for a second because social media is like actually creating a dopamine release that addicts your child to other people's lives.

[SPEAKER_02]: So then they're not liking their life.

[SPEAKER_02]: They're comparing their realities to somebody else's highlights, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: They're watching somebody show their art.

[SPEAKER_02]: Let's just think about this for a second.

[SPEAKER_02]: moms even do this like think of the mom on social media where she looks at the mom who has a beautiful flower arrangement that she's just made and she is potentially comparing saying, oh, I could never do that.

[SPEAKER_02]: That's so beautiful.

[SPEAKER_02]: They get addicted to looking at it because it like brings them satisfaction to look at something so pretty, but yet they've not even tried themselves.

[SPEAKER_02]: Literally not even tried to push themselves out of their comfort zone.

[SPEAKER_02]: Maybe go get some flowers, it's Rater Joe's and Stri-Putty.

[SPEAKER_02]: Start trying to put a bouquet together, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: And so I think that one of the the healthiest things we can do as parents is we let our kids fumble a bit.

[SPEAKER_02]: We give them these opportunities to do creative things.

[SPEAKER_02]: And when they're busy with their hands, there's no time to have a phone up looking at social media, comparing, getting depressed and anxious.

[SPEAKER_02]: And if we're just buying them the pretty bouquet, the perfected thing, then of course they're never going to want to try to put it together because they're looking at this professional thing and going, I can't do that comparatively speaking, I can't, that's out of my, my comfort zone, that's out of my wheelhouse.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm not going to try it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think when you start giving your children tools to be creative and they can actually make progress, move beyond stick figures, for example, move beyond basic chords with the guitar and they actually can make progress because you're investing and you're giving them direction or somebody's giving them direction, then you are starting to see how much more capable they are faster and earlier in their life, which is essential as their leaders, [SPEAKER_00]: because now you can foster greater progress faster, which they're hungry for at a younger age than you actually realize, and it'll blow your mind.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right now, for example, my mind is blown because the older gentleman that runs audio at our church has empowered Solomon because he took interest in audio to learn how to control the audio on the iPad for the musicians up on stage and for the last few weeks.

[SPEAKER_00]: because literally been doing it in the musicians are super happy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the gentleman is telling me how much confidence he has in my nine-year-old boy Solomon.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's blowing my mind.

[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, you don't even know this, but this last Sunday yesterday, I was watching Solomon because the internet was down.

[SPEAKER_02]: So we didn't get to do the live stream, right?

[SPEAKER_02]: And so some of the equipment wasn't working quite right.

[SPEAKER_02]: Well, here's Solomon.

[SPEAKER_02]: He runs down from the church building.

[SPEAKER_02]: He comes in the tent, crosses his arms.

[SPEAKER_02]: looks at the stage, observes, okay?

[SPEAKER_02]: He's observing the whole team and then he turns around and he runs back into the building to work with the actual sound board that's there.

[SPEAKER_02]: I followed him in one time because I was going in to tell him, oh, something changed because I knew that the mic had changed for you when you got up to do your sermon, the sound changed and you made a comment about it.

[SPEAKER_02]: So I went in to talk to him and there he is sitting behind the sound board.

[SPEAKER_02]: He can barely like his eyes are literally like when I walk in all I see is nose on up.

[SPEAKER_02]: Okay, he's sitting there and he's got the earphones on and he's just like moving the little thing and I tell him what the problem he is doing.

[SPEAKER_02]: I know exactly what the problem is mom and he fixes it right away.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like [SPEAKER_00]: Was that lie, Mike?

[SPEAKER_02]: That was your bike.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, because I guess soft.

[SPEAKER_02]: It got soft and he was like, he was all I know what that is.

[SPEAKER_02]: And he does it like on the cell board.

[SPEAKER_02]: And he's in there by himself.

[SPEAKER_02]: My nine year old son with the biggest smile on his face contributing to the body of Christ literally running the sound for the whole church.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm like, [SPEAKER_02]: I love it.

[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like speechless.

[SPEAKER_00]: It blows my mind.

[SPEAKER_02]: What does creativity, observation, people to hear, being able to listen, following instructions from your teacher, like learning something that is actually a creative thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It is a creative thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we hope this was encouraging to all of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: We hope that this tools helpful.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you want to use it, if not, we hope that the content in this episode was helpful.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every single time we're trying to bring something forward, they can help you equip confident Christian kids for unprecedented times.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the final tip is that [SPEAKER_00]: You've got to do things differently.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can't just go along the status quo.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you go with the status quo of education for your kids, regardless of its public school or home school, even the status quo of home school, you're going to fall short compared to what's possible to see your children come alive with a passion for learning.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so if they don't try things creatively, they won't learn what they're good at.

[SPEAKER_00]: They won't stumble and discover what they can do and what they're capable of, math and science are essential.

[SPEAKER_00]: Absolutely, you gotta do those things.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we're heavy handed on this in this episode because these are areas that often get missed.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think as AI comes stronger into the world, they're gonna get missed even more by a majority because machines can do it like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's a perception that machines can do it like that even better will be the future perception, but better doesn't mean that's the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: We will never use AI to create written content.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll never use AI to make up videos of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll use AI to create efficiencies like to cut original video we do into good splices that saves me a little bit of time, but it's still our original content coming out.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that is a promise we have.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're going into a future where we're not going to be able to tell.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't mean we should not use our creative brains.

[SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't mean we shouldn't still come up with original content because we have the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit's driving us, not machines.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you're always going to get with the Holy Spirit's driving it, be courageous ministry.

[SPEAKER_02]: I heard something really cool today.

[SPEAKER_02]: I heard someone describe it as AI is artificial.

[SPEAKER_02]: It's artificial intelligence.

[SPEAKER_02]: And God has given us divine intelligence.

[SPEAKER_02]: And so nothing is going to compare with that.

[SPEAKER_02]: But when I look at the word, I have two verses I want to end on with you guys as an encouragement.

[SPEAKER_02]: Isaiah, sixty four eight says, but now, oh Lord, you are our father.

[SPEAKER_02]: We are the clay and you are our potter.

[SPEAKER_02]: We are all the work of your hand.

[SPEAKER_02]: When we view our kids as the work of God's hand and that they were made in God's image and that he's a creative God.

[SPEAKER_02]: And they are made to be creative also.

[SPEAKER_02]: We realize then that it part of our job as parents is to allow them to try to express that creativity that God put in them.

[SPEAKER_02]: And Exodus, thirty-five, thirty-five.

[SPEAKER_02]: says he has filled them with skill to do every sort of work by an engraver or by a designer or by an embroiderer in blue and purple and scarlet yarns and fine twined linen or by a weaver by any sort of workmen or skilled designer.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I look at these scriptures that are talking about, God has so many scriptures that talk about him crafting and working, all things out together from good.

[SPEAKER_02]: And like, are we that in tune with how God made us?

[SPEAKER_02]: Or are we just so focused on [SPEAKER_02]: the other aspect that we're losing inside of a part of who God is and a part of who He made us to be.

[SPEAKER_02]: And I think that we all, yeah, the idea of a well-rounded intellectual child, yeah, that's great.

[SPEAKER_02]: So don't we want even more so for our kids to be fully who God made them to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for joining us.