How She Discovers Kids' Talents

Having kids is like Forrest Gump’s proverbial box of chocolates. We really never know what we’re going to get. Maybe she will be a beautiful writer. Maybe he will have a knack for making everyone laugh. Maybe she will be a natural leader. Maybe he will be able to make a violin just sing.

As mothers, we get a front-row seat as these people unfold before our eyes. And though we don’t get to choose what their talents will be, we do get to help them discover their talents and passions.

Jen Brewer—a mother of seven, a writer, a dietitian, and humanitarian—went through this process recently with one of her sons:

He took a physics class when he was a junior, and instantly fell in love with it. He had no idea he was in love with it. All he did was talk about how hard it was. But six months in, every conversation we had, he would turn back to physics: “Oh, Mom, let me explain the physical law behind this. Let me explain what’s happening.” And it wasn’t until he was into his senior year and doing college applications that he was like, “I don’t know what I want to study. What do I even major in?”

That made my chin drop. Because I just thought, “Are you kidding me? Every other sentence out of your mouth has to do with physics.”

I wish I could go back to my 17-year-old self and say, “Look, you love doing this. Own this part of you.” It would have saved me 20 years.

This is the gift we can give our kids. To help them figure out their inherent gifts. Some talents are obvious. Many of the moms I interviewed started off by listing some of these visible talents in art, music, or athletics. So I started digging deeper and asking about less tangible talents.

Then I talked to Becky Squire, editor of Latter-day Woman Magazine, who specializes in helping people recognize their gifts. When I asked her about less tangible talents, she said,

I don’t think we need to differentiate [talents]. Whether you use them in spiritual ways or physical ways, they’re all qualities. And if they can be used to bless the lives of others, then it’s a spiritual gift in my book. And you can use so many qualities, so many gifts and strengths to bless others. Somebody who loves to laugh–you want to be around that person, right? That person makes you happy. Somebody who is determined is going to be a great leader, and can bless many people’s lives. Somebody who is confident is a great example and can help you feel included. There are just so many. And of course, somebody who is a beautiful pianist, and somebody who’s a great athlete, you can use all of those things to bless the world.

I love this approach. Yes, we want to help our kids recognize how amazing they are, but also how they can use their gifts to bless others.

To help us on our way to identifying our kids’ talents, Becky has compiled a list of 72 spiritual gifts, from the Bible and various other sources, with gifts such as gentleness, kindness, optimism, self-control, responsibility, faith, work, humor, gratitude, endurance, friendship, efficiency. I’m not going to read all 72, but it’s a great starting point.

I printed it off and we used it just this past Labor Day weekend at our annual family retreat. I had each kid use the list to identify five of the gifts of every family member. Then we wrote them on post-it notes and stuck them to the wall, so each kid could see the gifts that everyone else identified for them. Surprisingly, they all took it really seriously and did a great job identifying each other’s strengths.

Another great list of strengths comes from a wonderful book by Mary Reckmeyer, called Strengths Based Parenting. This book is based on an assessment many businesses use to help identify the strengths of their employees, the Gallup CliftonStrengths Assessment. It’s kind of like a personality test, but really focused on talents. I love this specific book because it focuses on identifying your strengths as a parent and then also identifying the strengths of your children.

I took the online test, and my five highest strengths, out of the 34 talent themes were Achievement, Connectedness (I like to make connections between people, things, and ideas), Ideation (I am fascinated by ideas), intellection (I like to think and solve problems), and Learning. Hmm. Is there any wonder what drove me to start How She Moms?

Anyway, their list of talent themes is smaller for young kids, under 10, as they are just beginning to demonstrate their specific gifts. This list includes: Achieving, Caring, Competing, Confidence, Dependability, Discoverer, Future Thinker, Organizer, Presence – like they enjoy being the center of attention – and relating – good at starting and maintaining friendships.

Reckmeyer says: “The best way to start discovering your young child’s talents is by observing her in a variety of situations and settings over time.” Which is something parents are well-positioned to do. Reckmeyer says,

Watch for clues to talent. Note when your child displays:

Yearnings: What activities or environments is your child repeatedly drawn to or eager to try?

Rapid learning: What new skills or activities does your child pick up quickly and easily?

Satisfaction: When is your child most enthusiastic and fulfilled? Which activities is she excited about doing again and again?

Timelessness: When does your child become so engrossed that she seems to lose track of time?

But sometimes it also helps to get an outsider’s perspective, or other insiders, like teachers, extended family and friends. Becky Squire recently had a great experience with observing talents in girls she didn’t even know. She was asked to speak at a girl’s camp on this topic of identifying talents. She says,

I was invited to go to dinner before I spoke, so I got up there about an hour earlier than I was supposed to be speaking. I sat down with a couple leaders and a bunch of girls. And I kind of sat there at my dinner, just listening to the girls. They were talking about school, talking about friends, talking about boys. And as I was listening, I picked up on some gifts that these girls had, even though I had never met them.

So as I stood up to speak, finally, I asked them to point out gifts in each other, because they were obviously friends, they know each other, they’re in the same group. I asked them to point out gifts in each other, and it was just dead silent. And so I felt really bad. I was like, “Man, these guys can’t even point out gifts to each other.”

And maybe they were just put on the spot. So that’s when I decided, you know what, I’ve been sitting with these girls, and I still barely know them. But I can tell that this girl–she likes to make people laugh, and she’s really silly, and that is a strength. And there was one girl, I just could feel such a good spirit about her. I couldn’t even put my finger on it, I could just feel it. So I told her that. I went around to probably about five girls and told them things that I saw in them.

I wish I could always see their faces in my mind. I hope I never forget how happy they looked when I said that. So if I can do that, as somebody who just barely knows somebody, think about the impact you can have by telling your friend or your spouse, or your children, what gifts you see in them. And then especially what you could do about telling yourself that.

I also asked Becky how she applies her own advice at home with her kids.

I try to frequently have them point out each other’s strengths—usually when they’ve been fighting. That helps us to see things that we might not see in ourselves ,and also to see things that we might not see in others. And, of course, it builds a little bit of confidence too.

Regularly talking about our strengths doesn’t have to be a prideful thing. Whenever we do it in our family, I always add the caveat that your strengths are to bless other people. That’s the reason we talk about them–not to put ourselves up on a pedestal and say how great we are. And then we talk about how we can use them to bless others, whether it’s just friends, close friends, neighbors or maybe using social media to reach all the corners of the world.

Another really interesting thing that came up in several of my interviews is that sometimes a child’s strengths show up in their most challenging behavior.

Rebecca Brown Wright, a writer and the host of the podcast Pause and Connect, was one of the women who brought this up:

I am constantly noticing what they’re gravitating to—and even what they’re bad at. Their weaknesses are often actually their strengths. For example, my oldest is really intense, and stands her ground in a really difficult way for parents, because she will not back down. Maybe she did something wrong, but she will not admit it. That used to be really, really hard.

But then I wanted to see, well, how can this weakness be a strength? I realized, even though she might be being difficult right now, in a disciplined way, she’s actually got this really great confidence in herself and she stands up for what she believes in. So I tell her that when she’s doing this thing.

I say, “Hey, you have this incredible strength of will, and I am so happy you have that. And right now, it’s not working for this situation, because x y, z, but this is so, so good. And I can see it’s going to help you in piano, and I can see it’s going to help you with your friends, and I can see it’s going to help you in your grades.”

Then that becomes a talent for her where I think it could have become her worst feature, if I didn’t point out that this difficult thing is actually a really incredible talent.

This concept warranted a whole chapter in one of my favorite parenting books of all time, which I’ve read and re-read: The Blessing of a Skinned Knee by the amazing Wendy Mogel. The book is a guide to parenting with principles of the Jewish faith, and the chapter is called “The Blessing of Self-Control: Channeling Your Child’s Yetzer Hara.” Wendy Mogel describes the Hebrew concept of yetzer hara as:

“the evil impulse that is also the source of all passion and creativity. The yetzer hara is a warehouse for our curiosity, ambition, and potency—it’s the yeast in the dough. Jewish wisdom teaches us that our child’s unique yetzer hara contains the blueprint for her greatness. Our job as parents is clear-cut, if not simple. We are to identify these traits and remove ‘stumbling blocks before the blind’ so that our children’s yetzer hara can be channeled and expressed in a constructive rather than a destructive way.”

These words have gotten me through many a playground tantrum and sibling brawl. Luckily I read this book early on, and I’ve read it probably a dozen times now. My oldest son’s stubbornness has indeed started to turn to strength of character. Another son’s abundant energy has channeled into amazing feats of creativity and athleticism.

Wendy Mogel gives a whole list of ways we can turn around the way we think of difficult behavior. She says,

It’s essential that you learn to see those intense, often irksome traits as the seed of your child’s greatness. Try thinking of:

Your stubborn or whining child as persistent.
Your complaining child as discerning.

Your overeating child as lusty.
Your argumentative child as forthright and outspoken.
Your loud child as exuberant.
Your shy child as cautious and modest.
Your reckless, accident-prone, or rule-breaking child as daring and adventurous
Your bossy child as commanding and authoritative.
Your picky, nervous, obsessive child as serious and detail-oriented.

I love this list, but man, it’s easier said than done.

This concept of identifying strengths in weakness is especially important when we’re dealing with neuro-exceptional children with conditions like ADHD or autism or children with mental illness. This is the whole concept behind the company Tiffany Feingold and her husband Cyle started, called Guiding Bright Minds. They help Colorado families with children diagnosed with Dyslexia, Autism spectrum, ADD, ADHD, Dyscalculia, and executive functioning disorder find resources and professionals to help them. I love their mission statement:

To TRANSFORM our community to RECOGNIZE the brilliance in each diverse learner’s mind, EMPOWER each child to use their strengths while finding their superpowers and EMBRACE their needs so today’s diverse learners can become tomorrow’s leaders.

Tiffany and Cyle’s son has ADHD, so they’ve been able to practice their philosophy first-hand. They teach their son that there’s nothing wrong with having ADHD, it just means his mind works differently.

We talk about ADHD being a superpower, not a barrier. Not just how you learn differently, but also what that brings to the table. So not just focusing on the idea that because I have ADHD I bounce off the walls, or I can’t sit still. But because of ADHD, you can sit down and do an entire LEGO set in three hours and not leave the table, because you also have that hyper focus and concentration and passion. We all have weaknesses, and we all have strengths.

As the mother of at least one child with ADHD (and the jury’s still out on a couple more) I really appreciate this perspective. The energy that often comes with ADHD and the ability to focus on what he’s really passionate about have definitely been true for my son.

Two of Chantel Allen’s kids in particular have really challenged her.

I have an anxious son and rebellious daughter. But I kind of switch it around. Like, they are going to be so amazing as adults because of these things that they’re going through. My daughter is going to be super stubborn, which is going to be so great in the business world to be able to get what she wants.

And depression and anxiety may seem like a weakness to some, but it is also such a strength that they get to have that and work through that. They’re going to have such a different knowledge because of that, and they’ll be able to help other people because of it.

Chantel does not downplay the difficulty of depression and anxiety, but she has a really interesting perspective of how her own anxiety has helped her see the world differently. You can hear more about how she manages her anxiety here. She also has her own podcast, Living and Loving Your Life, and she’s a life coach at chantelallencoaching.com.

Vanessa Quigley owes her career as an opera singer to the fact that her parents encouraged what she thought was a weakness.

I was the oldest of 12. So my parents had a lot to pay attention to. I remember them once pointing out that I had a talent that I actually thought was a weakness. I loved music, and I love to sing. But every time I would sing, I would feel like I was gonna cry. Like, it would physically make my nose start to tingle. So I only sang in my bedroom, because I was afraid that I would just start crying. And that would just be horribly embarrassing. But they could hear that there were nice sounds coming out of my bedroom. So they were constantly encouraging me to develop those talents. They had me take piano lessons and anything in music to help me develop this talent. I’m so grateful today, because I ended up majoring in music. In college, I was an opera singer and music has been an important part of my life. I’m grateful that they pushed me outside of my comfort zone to develop that talent.

Vanessa doesn’t sing opera very much anymore, because she’s busy taking care of her own seven children, now all teenagers and up, and being the Chatbooker-in-Chief at Chatbooks, which she co-founded with her husband, Nate. You can hear more from Vanessa in episode 71: How Vanessa Tells Her Family’s Story.

Vanessa is also going to lead us into our next point:

It’s first important to acknowledge that every child is different. Not only are they different from each other, but they are different from me. I thought that all my kids were going to be just like me. I would know exactly how to parent them because obviously they would like what I liked. But that is definitely not true. But because music was important to me, I made it a requirement for all of my kids to take piano lessons. They were all going to be pianists. I had to surrender at one point when my daughter decided she wanted to play the guitar and my son wanted to do the saxophone. I mean, granted, they were still wanting to play music, but in their own way. No one had any interest in being an opera singer.

This is a common assumption. These kids have our DNA, aren’t they going to like some of the same things we do? Well it’s lovely when it works out that way, but don’t hold your breath.

Adrienne Cardon was just as surprised.

I played soccer. Growing up, I was a state champion soccer player. I really wanted my kids to love soccer because I love soccer. But I also don’t want to be the stage mom, who’s pushing, pushing, pushing, where it’s never gonna be a thing that they love. I need to be okay with and respect them–especially the perfectionist kids who just have a really hard time jumping into things that feel like work for them, or feel like they’re, they’re going to fail.

And so, Adrienne encourages those perfectionists and her other children as well to experiment and try new things. This is our next tip for the day—sometimes the only way to discover your kids’ talents is to try out a wide variety of activities until you find one or two that really resonate with them.

For one of Adrienne’s sons, that new thing this summer was swimming.

My son Milo is nine. This is his first year doing swim team. We’ve been doing it this summer. And he hated it. After the first day, he said, “I’m going to quit. I’m not coming back tomorrow.” And I said, “Well, you’re a little out of shape. Maybe because of covid. We’ve been doing a lot of inside things.You know, it’s been a while since you exercised regularly on a soccer team or something.” I said, “You just have to stick it out this week.”

This is the first time I have had a kid want to quit an extracurricular, and I didn’t know how to handle that. It’s like we’re obsessed with not letting kids quit, which is probably a good impulse. But I didn’t want to be the mom who’s pushing him to do something that’s truly miserable for him. So I said, “Just wait a week. And if you still want to quit at the end of the week, you can quit.”

I was praying that he wouldn’t, of course. Even in a week he was getting in better shape. He was more confident in the water. He was so excited and then he decided to stay on. His very first swim meet ever, he took first place in his backstroke race and second place in his freestyle race. He was beaming. He said he might even be interested in doing it next year.

Oh, don’t you love when it works out that way? Adrienne is quite an experimenter herself, always trying new things and cultivating her talents, from writing to exploring outdoors to cooking and raising kids. I’m so excited to share the incredible story behind Adrienne’s recently published book of poetry in an episode at the end of this month. It’s so great!

But I digress. Let’s go back to Adrienne and hear more of her thoughts on trying new things.

I was also thinking about the idea of this phrase that I hate, “fake it till you make it.” On principle, I do like this phrase because I think it’s a smart thing to do. And I’m not someone who’s afraid of failing. I like to try a lot of things. So therefore I will fail a lot. That’s just how the equation works out. But I wish we could reframe the part about faking it. Because it’s really not faking anything. You’re really just taking that first, hugely intimidating step. That requires a lot of faith. And I don’t think there’s anything more real than that. I think signing up for a new class that you’ve never done before, or cold calling a potential client isn’t faking it till you make it. I think that’s working towards making it.

This idea reminded me of an Instagram post by another one of my favorite writers, Brooke Romney. In July, Brooke posted a great quote on Instagram that has morphed into a new family motto for us. She talked about making some big mistakes in her business and talking to her husband about how stupid she was. He turned to her and said, “Stop saying that. You are not stupid. You are new at this. You are trying to do something you have never done before. That’s not dumb. It’s inexperience and bravery.”

So now in our house, whenever someone says they’re bad at something, we say, “You’re not bad at this, you’re NEW at this.”

Brooke is also an advocate of encouraging kids to try new things, but she warns that encouragement might not always be enough.

Sometimes when I force myself to do things, it turns out great. And sometimes it turns out like, “Okay, great. We’re gonna check that off the list. I don’t want to do that again.” But I think that’s also an important process. There’s a really big push to have self driven kids. That is the ideal. But if you have teenage boys, their probable default is “I would like to be lazy. And I would like to not try things. I don’t want to be seen as somebody who can’t do it.” Or, “I don’t want to do it if I’m not going to be the best.”

And so sometimes it means that you force activity, and you force involvement. I have one child who is so self driven, we have to ask him to pull back sometimes. There’s too much going on for him personally. But that’s only one out of four. With the other three, part of being a parent is helping them explore lots of different things– forcing them to do things when they would prefer to sit on the couch or play Xbox.

This advice applies to one of my sons in particular. He is passionate about whatever he’s doing at the moment. So when it’s time to do something else, he doesn’t want to. If he’s at home working on a project, he doesn’t want to go swimming or go for a hike, but when you convince him—or force him–to come, he has the time of his life. I had to force him to go to soccer practices for one whole season when he was younger, even though soccer was his idea. We’re talking kicking and screaming. The next year when he asked there was no way I was signing him up. But two years later, I let him try again and he loves it.

Brooke especially encourages experimentation with lots of different activities in middle school.

If I could just put a plug in for parents of junior high kids: force them into everything you possibly can in junior high. Especially if you’re someone who can’t afford all of the private stuff when they’re young. It’s such a great time. They’ll get so many opportunities if they’re willing. You never ever, ever get the chance to explore your talents like you do in junior high. And when you’re a kid, no one cares. So during these years, try out as many things as possible. No one will ever switch your work schedule so that you can play a basketball game ever again. So really dig in and try to make the most of those years. Have a great time. Develop talents and relationships.

Not all of these experiments are going to be successful. One of Brooke’s sons is a great example of embracing failure.

One of my boys tries out and does almost everything. And he is 100% okay if he doesn’t make it. At that age, I would have never been that brave to just keep trying. And he knows he’s not even a good basketball player. He tried out for the basketball team because he thought it would be fun to go to all the clinics and have fun with his friends and just turn up. He knew there was no chance that he would make it. I can’t tell you how happy it made me.

Tiffany Feingold prepared her son for the inevitable failures by normalizing failure.

First, so many kids with ADHD, autism, or some neurodiversity, won’t try something because they fear they’re not going to be good. And so I’ve shown him videos of people who’ve fallen over and over and over– even to the point where I don’t think I would try again–until they get the balance beam or master a motorcycle, or whatever.

Seeing other people work through their failure helps him with courage to keep trying. And they’ve tried a lot of things.

We started so early. At three and a half, we got into soccer. And it did not work out well. Then we focused on individualized sports. We went with swimming. We did do some small groups, which worked okay, but we were just trying different things. We noticed he has great athletic ability; he has great eye hand coordination. So we would go watch friends play, whether it was football, soccer, baseball, different things, to see what he really looked excited for. Why not give him the opportunity and see what really resonated?

I love Rebecca Brown Wright’s approach to experimentation.

One thing that’s really fun is to put them all on the same sport and see how they all react to it. We put our kids in sports thinking we were gonna have them learn a sport. And, that was our goal. Then we saw that only one of our kids likes sports, so far. The other ones might find a sport that they love eventually.

But we found that one just likes to socialize. When he was in T ball, after the game, we’d say, “Oh, it was so great. You hit the ball!” And he’s like, “Oh, yeah, that was cool. But um, I talked to this kid, and his mom is 32. And her favorite color is purple. And I talked to this other kid, and his favorite animal is an elephant.” And then he would go through the whole team. He remembered their names. He remembered all these things about them that I wouldn’t even think to ask at that age. So we thought we were putting him into sports, but now we’re trying to figure out how to help him develop that talent of this friendliness. And it’s fun.

All this trying things out can be expensive…

There’s a lot of opportunity to be self taught, like with YouTube. There’s never been more opportunity for our kids to be able to pursue something. It might mean that you sit down with them at the piano with a YouTube lesson if you can’t afford piano lessons, or that you take your kids out on a run if they want to be able to run track later, or that you play tennis as a family. You know, there are lots of chances for us as parents to be able to give them the opportunity. And sometimes it looks like putting out watercolors and crayons to give them the chance to explore their own creativity in those ways when they’re young.

Cost aside, they can also take a lot of your time, especially with high-intensity club teams. But you can often find less intense options.

My girls at one point got really into theater. They felt like because they hadn’t been dancing since they were three that they couldn’t compete at the level of dance that these other girls were dancing. I found what was called a no pressure studio. It was not the most glamorous dance studio, and they didn’t have the fanciest recitals. But it was a studio especially for girls who just wanted the joy of dancing with girls their own age. If they were to be put in the same level of ability with other girls at the studio that all their friends were going to, they were going to be teenagers with a bunch of elementary aged girls.

So look around. They don’t have to be on the travel soccer team. They can do rec soccer. They can do the no pressure dance studio. There are other ways to enjoy and develop talents that aren’t like making the headlines and getting the scholarships.

We followed the same playbook with the soccer-playing son I mentioned earlier. Since club soccer is one of the only options for playing soccer in our town, which is really pricey and has an intense practice and game schedule, we found a rec league in a neighboring town that was much less intense. This is just the jumpstart he needed to start on the middle school team this fall, which practices and plays games right after school, so I’m not driving him all over the place.

The last tip I’m going to share is kind of the polar opposite of the try all sorts of things approach we’ve been talking about. It’s letting our kids have downtime. I know, I know. Where can kids find downtime if they’re so busy trying stuff? Quarantine was a great reminder for all of ourselves that we might just need to take a break from it all once in a while.

Chanelle Neilson, a mom of four and a business coach for moms, is all for boredom.

I have to mention this book, Simplicity Parenting by Kim Jon Payne, one of my absolute favorite books. He mentions letting kids be bored. I think that’s one of my parenting superpowers. I let my kids be bored. When the kids are bored, amazing things happen. I feel like when my kids get bored, they get creative. It looks different for all of them. When my daughter was little, I remember that she could make anything out of paper. She made shoes out of paper and she’d wear them around. The other day my son made a Nacho Libro mask.

When they are bored, I just say, “Oh, you’re bored.” And that’s it. Then sometimes if they persist, I’ll be like, “Well, you know what I say about being bored. That’s awesome. Something awesome is about to happen.” And they usually don’t come to me with being bored anymore. But that’s something that I’ve tried to cultivate in them. You may be surprised about what talents come forward when kids have unscheduled time to themselves.

Ok. So after all of these interviews, one of my new favorite things in the world is to hear moms describe their kids’ unique talents. It’s a beautiful thing to hear the love and excitement in their voices, but it’s also really useful to hear about the strengths of other kids that you might be able to recognize in your own. So I just want to end the episode the way I began it, with a couple of these moms talking about more of the talents they’ve discovered in their kids. There are just so many possibilities!

We’ll start with Tiffany Feingold.

Oh, he has such a kind heart. His superpower is truly giving. He loves writing notes too. So he will find any cards that I have laying around. He’ll just write notes to all the neighbor kids and other people. Then he’ll take pennies and quarters and stick them in there because he wants to give them gifts. So I tell him, “Wow, you have a heart of gold. You want to make people smile and to feel accepted.” That’s just a wonderful gift that he has such a big heart.

Next up is Becky Squire, talking about some of the talents she’s recognized in her own kids.

My firstborn son is very obedient. That’s probably like his biggest quality. He’s just obedient. And it’s funny because my husband and I thought we were the best parents because he did everything we told him to do. And he still pretty much does.

Then we had my daughter 19 months after him. And we thought, “Oh, we’re gonna rock this parenting thing, because we’re just so awesome.” And she is not obedient. I mean, she’s a very good girl. But she has her own ideas. Some of the words that I’ve always used to describe her have been independent, determined, and feisty. But at the same time, I’ve always known that she was going to be really strong– mentally strong–and that she would change the world.

My other son is a social butterfly. He makes friends wherever he goes. He just started junior high. Three days ago, I kept telling him, “Do not let junior high school change you!” He’s just so innocent. He’ll go up to anybody, and just talk to him like they’ve been best friends their whole lives. On his first day of kindergarten, I went to pick him up, and as he was walking toward my car, all ages of kids, even up to the sixth graders, yelled, “Bye buddy! See ya.” And I was like, “Who are these kids?” And he said, I don’t know. Everybody just loves Eli. That’s him.

My youngest is two. I love seeing him learn and grow and just be his own person. He’s just loyal and good.

They’re all changing the world in their own ways. I think if you have even just a little fleeting thought, like, “Oh, I love the way that you do that.” Tell your children, it’ll make a big difference.

And finally here’s Vanessa Quigley talking about her youngest son.

He’s just breaking all of the molds. He has an insatiable curiosity for things and how things work. Over the last couple years, his interest has piqued on everything from yo-yoing–not just like “learn how to yo yo,” –but learn all of the benefits of the variety of yo-yos, learn about the professional world of yo-yoing, know the accessories, learn how to build his own yo-yo, how to film yo-yo videos, and he’s joined yo-yo forums.

Then once he feels like he’s got that figured out, he moved on to origami. That was the next thing. Origami is a deep, exciting, wonderful world. He has boxes and boxes of origami creations in his room that we still can’t part with. He got into fly fishing and tying flies. Now he’s into cooking. In fact, just a second ago, I heard my door open and I looked over and he’s holding a plate of spam musubi. He’s also into anime right now. Japanese cooking was a natural evolution from that.

In fact, a few minutes later, this talented kid came into the room with said Musubi. So we’ll leave Vanessa to enjoy her musubi, and I’ll leave you to discover and enjoy the unique talents of your own children

How She Discovers Kids’ Talents