What did Albert Einsteen’s mother do? Pauline Einstein was a very well educated and quiet woman who had an inclination towards the arts. When her duties in the household allowed it she was an assiduous and good piano player. She made her son Albert begin with violin lessons at the age of five. Her patience was characteristically for Pauline. Pauline and Maja moved first to Milan in the same year and one year later also to Pavia. Albert stayed with relatives in Munich to complete his education there. The separation from her son was certainly difficult for Pauline.
Due to the bad business situation the brothers had to abandon their factory in 1896. Though the Hermann family had lost most of their money, he founded, without his brother, again an electrical engineering company in Milan. This time business was better. But Hermann’s health had suffered a lot in the last years and he died on October 10, 1902 in Milan on heart failure. From 1903 on Pauline lived with her sister Fanny and her husband Rudolf Einstein in Hechingen, Wuerttemberg.
In 1910 Pauline moved with her sister Fanny and her family to Berlin. She took on a job as housekeeper in Heilbronn, Wuerttemberg in 1911. She had lived with her brother Jacob Koch and his family in Zurich since 1914. During World War I Pauline fell ill with cancer and died on February 20, 1920.
What’s Thomas Edison’s story? Thomas Edison (February 11, 1847 – October 18, 1931) was an American inventor and businessman who has been described as America’s greatest inventor.
He attended public school for a total of 12 weeks. A hyperactive child, prone to distraction, he was deemed “difficult” by his teacher. His mother, a school teacher, quickly pulled him from school and taught him reading, writing, and arithmetic at home. At age 11, he showed a voracious appetite for knowledge, reading books on a wide range of subjects. In this wide-open curriculum Edison developed a process for self-education and learning independently that would serve him throughout his life. He became fascinated with technology and spent hours working on experiments at home.
Edison developed hearing problems at the age of 12. The cause of his deafness has been attributed to a bout of scarlet fever during childhood and recurring untreated middle-ear infections. He subsequently concocted elaborate fictitious stories about the cause of his deafness. Being completely deaf in one ear and barely hearing in the other, it is alleged that Edison would listen to a music player or piano by clamping his teeth into the wood to absorb the sound waves into his skull. As he got older, Edison believed his hearing loss allowed him to avoid distraction and concentrate more easily on his work. Modern-day historians and medical professionals have suggested he may have had ADHD.
What can you do for your daughter?
Identify God’s seed in your daughter
This has to happen early in life to give your child an edge and advantage that comes with young age. A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering. It contains an embryo and the food it will need to grow into a new plant. Seeds provide a great reproductive advantage in being able to survive for extended periods until conditions are favorable for germination and growth.
How does this relate to your baby girl? God created her with divine potential that needs to be nurtured. Your responsibility is to identify this potential, and just as a plant seed, it contains everything she needs to grow. I call this divine enablement.
The outer covering is you and the environment you create at your home. You have to protect her until conditions are favourable for germination and growth.
Practical tip: Pay attention to what she flows easily in. Set aside some time off the busy schedule of this life and spend some time with your daughter. It need not be structured, just be there and do whatever inspiring thing you find to do.
The power of words and affirmations
Your daughter’s thoughts impact what she manifests in her lives. The real power lies in your words that shape these thoughts. Your words provide a bold affirmation of her innermost thoughts. They are a confirmation of how she see others, her life, and herself in general. It is this powerful affirmation that your words provide which enables her thoughts to manifest into a reality. So be careful not to misuse your most powerful asset in your daughter’s life.
But our children are not well behaved all the time. Sometimes they can drive us to certain limits that we lack any words of affirmation. Other times, our children are out rightly lazy and not willing to come up to our pre-conceived standards. In all circumstances, always praise effort not ability.
Praising effort is important for not only nurturing your child’s talent but also building their self esteem. By praising the effort you are building your child’s self- confidence. Your child will learn it takes hard work to develop their talents. Even children that are “gifted” in areas still need to work hard to develop that natural talent.
Provide resources to cultivate your child’s interests
There’s a reason that God deemed it fit to have your daughter born in your family. By appreciating this fact, you will come to the powerful realization that you are your child’s first asset in this life. For instance, not for them to become a teacher because you are a teacher – but your teaching skill and experience will be an asset for them to become what God desires.
Provide a rich learning environment based on your child’s interests. Though it may be hard to identify your daughter’s strengths it doesn’t make you less of a parent. Try to offer different types of activities to determine what are your child’s favourite – then begin to identify what their strengths may be.
It’s better to work on one thing even if you are not sure than to wait till much later when she is certain of her purpose. Why is this so? In working on a specific goals, there are key life skills you help her attain that will be useful in her adult life.
Understand your own strengths and limitations
Since you are your child’s best role model, mentor and advocate to help them succeed in life, know what you are good at and what you might derail them in due to human limitations. Will you be able to follow them up to meet their timelines? If not, find someone to help you. Will you be able to show them tough love and say no when they start giving up too soon? If not, reach out to a family member or friend or a structured program to help you out.
By understanding your own strengths and weaknesses and those of your daughter, you can help grow and develop her talents or challenge her to stretch to greater heights. Your daughter is unique, you are unique, your circumstances are unique, but so are the resources God has provided for you.
Reach out for help in whatever area you feel inadequate.
Tip: If your daughter sees you try hard to overcome your inadequacies, she will be well motivated to overcome hers as well.
