Winter 2019

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WINTER 2019 HOMESCHOOL IOWA 15
Tel: 515.225.8513
1721 25th Street, West Des Moines, IA 50266
We help you stay on the
pathway to success!
Superior Solutions
A Consulting Program for Homeschoolers
• Pre-Academic Assessment
in math, reading, writing, comprehension, and
for dyslexia, autism, and other concerns
• Curriculum Evaluation
exploring various approaches and helping you find
the appropriate grade level curricula for your child
• Diagnostic Training
giving you tools to teach your children in a way
to ensure that the student masters the concepts
• Record Keeping
to assure that your student is heading in the right
direction with their education
• Academic Tutoring &
Remediation
helping you and your student navigate academic
challenges
Educational Resources Associates
Nationwide Tutoring Services
to change lanes and go another direction within that same career!
Now permit me to meddle a little bit. As parents, we want our
kids to know that God loves them and has a wonderful plan for
their lives; right? But does it seem to them that everybody else
has a plan for them?Wemust be careful not to project our desires
for their vocation (perhaps because it’s our vocation) and help
them learn to followGod’s desires for their future. Very few things
in life causemore stress than trying to be somebody you are NOT!
So it’s important that we encourage our kids to be themselves so
they can come to a place in their lives where they can say with
certainty, “That’s ME! This is how God made me! This is what I was
created to do!”
Something my wife and I have tried to do is feed whatever in-
terest our kids express by giving them the tools and opportuni-
ties required to explore that passion!
A little more meddling. Do you have the mindset that a higher
education degree is critical for your sons or daughters to have a
successful career? Please rethink this. Obviously, there are some
career paths which require this, such as engineering, medical, law,
etc., but there are many career options which can be achieved via
apprenticeship training (earning while you learn) or other trades
training programs. Too often the skilled trades are overlooked
as an option – perhaps because this is not our background or
because we have believed the lie that a college education is re-
quired for success in life. This lie has been pushed in the public
school system for more than a half century. And buying into this
for decades – along with the removal of shop classes – has cre-
ated a massive gap in the skilled trade workforce in our country.
For example, it is estimated in the next 10 years there will be a
shortage of over 400,000 welders to fill the need in that craft. And
it’s a similar situation for other skilled trades.
Let me close with a personal story. In 1967, I was a freshman
in high school and an FFA (Future Farmers of America) member.
Part of that membership involved a vocational agriculture shop
class, which included welding. We didn’t have a welder at home
and my dad didn’t have those skills, so this was my first expo-
sure to welding. This one semester in high school shop class was
where I was introduced to welding, and this is what sparked (pun
intended) my interest in the craft. I am so thankful my small rural
town high school had a shop class and that I took advantage of
the opportunity to be in FFA, because here I am, 52 years later
with 48 years in the welding trade! And for the past 25 years I’ve
owned and operated my own company, traveling all over this
great country providing on-site welding training teaching oth-
ers the skills and knowledge I’ve learned through a lifetime in
my career. Most importantly, I am passionate about promoting
my craft to others — especially to young people who, like me
so many years ago, are looking for their niche in life! What’s my
point? You never know what experience will be a defining event
that God will use to direct your sons or daughters in their journey
toward a career!
One final word. The path to your sons’ or daughters’ discovery
of the career path God has shaped them for is a process, a con-
tinuing journey, not a specific destination. Let’s be diligent to en-
courage them in the process!
Rick and Dawn have four children, ages 16 through 27, who were homeschooled all the
way through high school. They have six grandchildren. Rick is the owner/operator of Weld-
ing Training Solutions, Inc.