This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of New York Life. All opinions are 100% mine.

A good friend of mine used to joke about her four kids:

I need one doctor, one lawyer, and one accountant. The other one pick what s/he wants to do.

Sam and I have six children and they are all over the map in what they are most interested in — even within a single individual. One daughter is a computer tech wizard and a competitive ballroom dancer. Another loves anything to do with animals and plants. A couple of our children love nothing more than musical theater. One son loves games and computers and surfing. Another likes anything involving lots of people.

While we may have particular dreams or goals in mind for them, those ideas must always be modified or tempered as a child's true genius and passion begins to emerge. 

Homeschooling has given us many avenues to pursue these dreams, while still keeping their future options open with typical academic work. This has come about mostly as a result of the efficiency of homeschooling. Work that takes all day (and well into the evening) in a typical school setting, can often be done in a thoughtfully planned morning, leaving many hours to pursue interests.

By the time she entered college, one daughter was already an expert web programmer, due simply to the fact that she had time to immerse herself in the technology over the years. Because of that, she not only had real world experience that gave her an idea of how she might further her studies, she also had the (enormous!) advantage of never having to take the lowest paying manual labor jobs available, because she had extraordinary skills.

Like the family in My All-Star Daughter, we love to support and encourage the positive dreams of our children, no matter what the subject matter. Whether in science, sports, arts, humanities, we have always felt there were good and productive things that could be found and accomplished.

How have you taught your children “in the way they should go” while still supporting and encouraging their dreams and passions?

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