I was in the Blood Clinic this week and noticed two boys about 8 and 10 crawling over their mother and waiting for her name to be called. An older gentleman seeing their inability to wait patiently, proceeded to show the boys how to whistle with your fingers. The boys were quickly enthralled and they left the clinic trying their best to master their new skill. I thought to myself, "what a nice thing to do and that those boys will remember that all their lives."
Our life skills may not seem important to us but I will try to remember to pass mine along to the next generation. How many little things do you know that you can teach a child. I know quilting,crochet, knitting, of course but I'm thinking ....how to make the spool knitter out of a wooden spool, cat's in the cradle string game, paper snap toy....

I'm not sure the younger generation wants to learn what we have to teach them. I know my daughters were never interested in sewing. Even now, as adults, they bring all their mending projects to me. Of course, I don't mind because I love to sew. I just wonder what they'll do when I'm no longer around to do it for them. They'll probably just throw out the garment and buy new.

As for whistling with your fingers, my father tried to teach me when I was little, but I just couldn't grasp it.

Isn't this the truth. It seems what was facinating to us has changed from one generation to the next. My mother taught me to whistle with my fingers. I can still remeber the fun I had during that lesson and how proud I was when the first big whistle occurred. Now I use the whistle on my dogs when the get to far ahead of me on our walks in the woods. And when mommy whistles they come running. LOL

OK, so how do you whistle with your fingers? Anyone got a tute?

I'd love to sit and teach my granddtrs how to make a blade of grass whistle!!
since i had braces in my 30's I can't whistle. well only when i take breath inward and that's not very loud. darn teeth! i never could whistle using my fingers. you use the first two fingers on one hand and put them in you mouth and whistle-somehow!

The little girl across the street showed some interest in gardening, and her parents are worthless in that department (mostly due to laziness - they love a beautiful garden and when they asked how ours became that way I could see how put off they were when we explained that it takes a lot of hard work). So, husband and I showed her some things in the garden. We taught her how, when and what to dead head, we showed her how to split some plants and re-plant them, and we showed her how to recognize some insect/disease problems and how to tackle them. She would spend an hour or so following either my husband or myself around the garden learning something each time.

Then she grew up and discovered boys.

And no ... I can't whistle loudly. I can only do it the Lauren Bacall way :)

A lot of this depends on the child. Neither one of my kids liked to color, which flabbergasted me. I loved crafts and couldn't wait to share with them. Nope. They were not crafty at all - no shrinky-dinks, no finger painting, no Spirograph. But my 10 year old discovered Morse code yesterday and is absolutely enamored with it.

How sweet of him! I can picture these little guys practicing til they were blue in the face :D:D:D