Save PFD, invest in time with your children

I love to make gifts. I don’t remember the first gifts I gave as a child, but I imagine that someone must have made a fuss over my first drawing, and I liked the feeling I got from giving someone something I had made. I love it when students make presents, also. They proudly come into class with a special project they worked on the night before, excited to share their gift. It’s very endearing to think of them sitting at home, using their time and talents to make something to share with someone else.

The benefits for learning new talents for children are numerous. In addition to feeling a great sense of accomplishment, new skills broaden our children’s world. It takes great perseverance to develop new talents, and perseverance seems to be in rather short supply with many children who have grown up in a society that values “faster,” “quicker,” and “instant.”

Developing musical, athletic, artistic, handwork, drama and other talents require great perseverance. They help develop new friendships, travel and/or scholarship opportunities, and many of life’s most valuable lessons. Many new talents also help students learn to converse intelligently about another topic, using new vocabulary, following multi-step directions, and developing a skill in which they can earn an income or make beautiful gifts.

This is the time of year that families begin to think about what to do with their Permanent Fund Dividend checks. For some families, the money that is each citizen’s share of oil royalties will be used to pay bills. For other families, the PFD’s go into a college fund and are added together with funds from previous years. The gift of saving for a college education is a long-lasting gift that may take children time to recognize. It’s actually a double-gift, as it’s both the gift of a college education, in addition to the gift of practicing delayed gratification.

Other families give themselves a gift of quality family time, as they plan to spend time together on a special vacation. Others go for instant gratification, purchasing “things,” such as toys, TVs, electronics, or other items that they hope their children will see as “gifts,” but that have little to do with healthy child development or helping children develop talents, imagination or perseverance.

Kim John Payne, author of the book “Simplistic Parenting,” quotes a study that found the average child receives about 70 toys a year. Many of these toys were pushed by marketers who target kids, so they can use their “pester power” to talk mom and dad into purchasing the item. The toys are played with for a short time, and then either break, start missing parts, or the child loses interest in them, adding another toy to a growing heap. What was intended as a gift created more of a disappointment. The same goes for electronics.

Imagine if we tucked our children’s PFD money away and invested in spending more time with children, giving them the gifts of talents and skills, human interaction, rich language, good stories, creative play time, the ability to develop a great imagination, and the interest in creating gifts for others.

Whatever the experience, children benefit more if we are shoulder to shoulder with them, having the learning experience together. A small gift of time and attention on our end is huge on their end.

These things will far outlast any toy, TV, or electronics, and our Valley and world will be blessed with children who grow into talented, creative, and caring adults, willing to share their gifts with others.

Diana Sloan-Basner is an elementary teacher at Birchtree Charter School, on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway. She began teaching in the Mat-Su in 1985.