Sometimes it’s fun to live vicariously through your children. They learn so fast and have so much fun doing it. Plus they get rewarded for their efforts.

My daughter just learnt to ride her bike. There’s a video here to prove it, but more on that later.

When was the last time you got a certificate in recognition of your achievements?

No one’s going to give me the Nobel Peace Prize, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been doing anything worthwhile, or worthy of at least a little pat on the back.

So what have I been up to since February?

Let me see…

• I washed and dried 256 loads of laundry. Approximately.
• I shopped for, prepared and served 392 meals. More or less.
• I learnt how to set up and publicise my blog, then wrote 83 articles for it.
• I finished my 68,000 word manuscript. It still needs oodles of work, but what I’ve done so far is a reasonable start.
• I got a travel article published in a national newspaper and some financial remuneration for my effort.
• I entered a couple of writing contests. Didn’t win but we tell the kids it’s all about taking part and having fun…
• I helped about 50 kids (not all mine) with their spelling or reading.
• I launched Mucho, our new web design and Internet marketing business, with my hubby.
• I wrote a shed load of web copy and sales copy emails.
• I got out and about networking at business meetings and meeting some good people for fun.
• I surfed. Not as much as I should have but I pulled on my wetsuit and gave it a go.
• I resisted the urge to give up on several projects and kept on slogging away at them.
• I taught my four year old to ride a bike. Now that’s a major parenting achievement and not as easy as it sounds.

Just look at all those action verbs.

Then there’s the vicarious living through my kids…

My 11 year old son won a prize for dancing at the school disco. He was the only kid in his class chosen to take part in a national science exam and was chosen to be part of a special reading program run by a university in Queensland because he’s a super reader. He loves learning the guitar and playing basketball.

My 8 year old son got sent out of his violin lesson for laughing. The the same thing happened in his drama class a few days later. When he saw a book called Puberty Boy with diagrams of a penis he wanted to know if I had a book with pictures like that of girls. I lied and told him I didn’t. He was the only kid in his class who was nominated to take part in the national maths exam and got a credit.

Both my sons have reading levels well above average for their age group despite the fact that they have been bandied around Central America of 18 months and spent a year being educated solely in Spanish in the Costa Rican education system.

My four year old daughter just got an orange belt in karate. She’s been doing karate for 10 months and in order to get her orange  belt she earned stripes for co-ordination, fitness, discipline, memory, teamwork, control, balance and focus. She kicks butt and keeps her family in line, especially her older brothers.

She just learnt to ride a bike too. Oh, maybe I mentioned that already?

4 Tips on Learning Something New

Because we bloggers are supposed to provide our readers with useful information here are a few lessons gleaned from the learning to ride a bike experience. You can apply them to learning any new skill or doing something you’ve never done before.

1. Make sure you’re wearing the appropriate safety gear. You will crash from time to time.

2. Start down hill. Make life easy on yourself, and don’t try to go too far to begin with.

3. Find someone patient to help you. If you can find more people to clap and cheer you on that’s even better.

4. Go easy on yourself. If you can just balance and pedal you’re off to a flying start. Learning to steer, stop gracefully, wave at people as you go by and ride with no hands can come later.

Check out the video

I think you’ll enjoy this 18 second video of my daughter riding her bike without trainer wheels.

Hear the proud mummy praise her, see how her little face glows with achievement, then cast your mind back to something you’ve done recently to be proud of. I’m sure there’s heaps of stuff you haven’t even had time to consider.

Thanks for reading

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