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Category Archives: Family

The Student Becomes the Master

01 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by Kris in Blogging, Family, Life Lessons Project

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Business, Leadership, Scouting

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My oldest son Aiden has been in scouting since he was in second grade.  He started in Cub Scouts and continued up through Webelos and ultimately earned his Arrow of Light (the highest award in Cub Scouting).  Today he is completing his 1st year as a Boy Scout and last month was elected as the leader for his patrol by the boys (most of which are older) of his patrol.

Aiden’s first task was to organize a bowling night for the boys in the patrol, which he is doing a good job of with my Dad’s help.  On an email Aiden just sent to his patrol about the event, I noticed an unusual note he placed at the bottom … here is what it said …

Narwhal Patrol Leader,
Aiden Kovacs

P.S If I’m doing anything wrong let me know. Thank You!

How many of us who call ourselves leaders would benefit from the same openness?  “If I’m doing anything wrong let me know.  Thank You”  Instead, we may find ourselves believing that we were selected to be leaders because we know the right way to do things … but something as simple and innocent as an email from your son can remind you … boy do I have a lot to learn.

Life Lesson #4:  You Can Learn Something From Everyone

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The 40 Year Old … Snowboarder?

22 Wednesday Jan 2014

Posted by Kris in 101 in 1001, Family, fun, Life Lessons Project, Scouting

≈ Comments Off on The 40 Year Old … Snowboarder?

So before last weekend, I had never been skiing or snowboarding before.  I even included it in my 101 things To Do in 1001 Days.  So last weekend I joined Aiden’s Boy Scout Troop on a ski trip to Winterplace, West Virginia.  And based on some good advice decided I would try to learn to snowboard.

OK get your laughs out now ….

Can we continue?  Thanks … I thought it would be an adventure and boy was it.

The package we had included a lesson so we eagerly got our gear and reported to class.  Our “new” snowboarding group included Aiden, two other Scouts and two teenage boys and myself.  We had a wonderful instructor Mark, who demonstrated great patience with the boys and me.

Aiden and I Snowboarding

I must have fallen 800 times during that lesson, but each an every time (with Aiden watching me) I got up and tried again.  And eventually, I was consistent enough to go down Green (easy) hills.

I loved the feeling of negotiating my way down the mountain (ok hill), and despite being incredibly tired and sore the next day, I suited up and went out to do it again.

It’s pretty simple to see there are two “Life Lessons” that were clearly illustrated …

Life Lesson #2:  You should never, ever give up.  No matter how many times you fall you get up dust yourself off and try it again.  Tenacity pays-off.  Sure tenacity hurts sometime, but if it was worth starting it is worth finishing.

And

Life Lesson #3:  Don’t let yourself believe that it’s too late, or you’re too old to learn something new.  It’s not and you are not.

I had a blast learning something new with my son despite the fact that later on the second day I fell and probably cracked a rib.  But even then, I forced myself up one more time and tried again.  Once it heals, I will definitely be back to try it again.  But this time I’ll focus more on following instructor Mark’s “How to Fall” instructions.

Thanksgiving Unplugged

27 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by Kris in Family, Technology

≈ 2 Comments

I love Thanksgiving!  I find it very easy to recall many wonderful memories of my childhood spent in rich and living color with my family as celebrated this holiday.  And every year is a new chance to add to those memories by SHARING the time away from work and school with each other which of course now includes my own children.

All to often today sharing is defined by my last update on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, not as being present.

Last week I read a blog by Randi Zuckerberg the former CMO of Facebook titled Stop Sharing on Thanksgiving .  Her suggestion of unplugging on Thanksgiving is very appealing and the more I thought about it the more it made sense.

I don’t want to be a father that speaks to his son through Instagram … although I have done it before when I busted him for having his iPod when he was grounded but that is a different story.  (You’re grounded why would you post updates on Instragram where I’m following you?)

This is Thanksgiving and spending time together is important … in fact spending time with those we love if probably the most important thing we do.  It shows we are thankful for the opportunity to do so.  If my time and attention is taken away by thumbing through several hundred “Happy Thanksgiving” messages from friends what am I saying to my family … It says that someone who I’m linked to on Facebook just because we happened to go the same high school 20 years ago is more deserving of my time and attention than you are.  That is something I’m not willing to say.

So I’m unplugging for Thanksgiving.  No Facebook updates, no Twitter Posts, and perhaps the most difficult … no Fantasy Football Score Updates.  I will have my phone but will be careful to only used it for pictures … pictures of the time spend being with my family.

Happy Thanksgiving to You, I hope you’ll consider sharing your time with your loved ones too.

Milton – The Best Disney Character of All

20 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by Kris in Business, Credit Union, Family

≈ 1 Comment

My son had an interesting assignment in his religion class and like so many other things that I come across I believe there is a lesson in it to be shared.

The assignment was to write a paragraph about an unrecognized saint.  Someone who they thought embodies the spirit of a saint.

This was my son’s submission:  Milton.pdf

DON’T PROCEED UNTIL YOU’VE READ THE ABOVE LINK – I mean it!

So that’s right.  My son’s unrecognized Saint was his Waiter on a Disney Cruise – Milton.  And by the way that cruise was two years ago.  This single Disney employee created such a positive experience for my son that two years later he still remembers him.

Is there any doubt that Aiden will be a fan of Disney for the rest of his life?

Are you creating positive indelible experiences for your customers/members?

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The Kids with their Waiters Dharma and Milton

Is Google Destroying Learning?

13 Wednesday Nov 2013

Posted by Kris in Family, internet, Technology

≈ Comments Off on Is Google Destroying Learning?

“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.” –  Friedrich Nietzsche

There was a time when if you wanted to research something you had to go to a library.  I can easily recall the hours of time I would spend at the local county library researching topics for school papers.  The library was probably the very first place my Mother and Father would allow me to stay by myself.  They would drop me off and I would find a corner or chair to call home for the next several hours.  And I would get to work, rifling through the card catalogue, browsing articles in reference materials and spinning my way through news articles on the microfiche machine.

My experience wasn’t unique.  If you were born before 1990 you probably had very similar experiences in middle and high school.  And while we may not have appreciated it at the time we were learning.  Learning to gather information from a variety of resources on a common topic, learning to distill that information into something new that we created … we were actually learning HOW to learn.

Since then the computer age has ushered in a whole new way to access the world’s information, and libraries have become symbols of antiquity.  No longer do you have to spend hours looking through reference indexes to find material, then read it to determine if it contains the necessary information you are looking for.  You no longer have to separate the unrelated material and refine your search.  No Google can do all of that for you in milliseconds.

Case in point, tonight I was “helping” Aiden with his homework.  I use quotes because as I look back I may not have truly been helping at all.

He is working on a chart for his 6th grade Science class discussing the phases of matter, their properties, as well as describing how the properties change during phase changes.  A project certainly worthy of a little research elbow grease.

But that’s isn’t how he completed it.  No instead he would formulate a series questions based on what he wanted to know and as I watched him, he entered each of his questions into the search box for Google.  Google would use it’s trillions of pages of stored information to locate what it thought was the most relevant answer and Aiden could read two or three sentences and then write down the answer he was looking for.

If for some reason he could not find the answer he needed, he would come over and ask his question to me, just as he had Google.  Before I realized I was being used the same way I use Siri, I would try help him by talking him through the answer but he wasn’t patient enough to not immediately get the answer.  And would start settling for whatever he could find on Google.  In most cases, I believe he got the correct answer but I’m not sure he learned anything accept the answers to potential trivia questions like “At what temperature does water evaporate?”

Screen Shot 2013-11-13 at 10.07.36 PM

Is using Google the equivalent of using a Calculator in Math Class?

Don’t get me wrong, I think Google is an amazing tool, but is it creating a bunch of kids who can find the answer to any question but not understand the WHY behind the answer?

As a parent, my research skills were embedded in me in an analog era and I have no idea how to help my sons use these tools to build good learning habits.  They know how to find the answers but can they truly research a question.  How do you balance using the power of modern tools like Google with the need to understand how it works and where it doesn’t?  We’ve had the discussion that “not everything you read on the internet is true.”  But to me that consideration falls short of helping to describe how and why to do better research online.

After he was done for the night, I grew very concerned about this dilemma and what it could mean for Aiden and our future:  if young people become the best consumers of information but produce little on their own.

I am very interested in your ideas about how you’ve addressed this with your kids or students.  Please consider sharing your insights in the comments below.

What’s Your Lucky Number?

16 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by Kris in Family, funny

≈ 2 Comments

I was driving the boys to school this morning when we drove by a North Carolina Lottery billboard and we started to talk about “Lucky Numbers”.

Aiden said his luck number was 5. I asked if that was because he was born on the 5th, to which he responded no. But really had no real reason why 5 was his luck number. Good enough.

Ben thinks about it and says his lucky number is 7, because he was born on the 7th. OK makes sense.

Wesley quietly considers his favorite number and then says, “My lucky number is 3,439”

Why Wes?

“Because that’s the score I usually get on video games.”

Project 365 – 6/365

05 Saturday Jun 2010

Posted by Kris in Family, fun, Project 365

≈ 1 Comment

Woke up this morning on a Scout Camping trip.  Wesley and I made out way over to the lake where he went fishing for the first time.  He learned to use the spin caster reel in about 10 minutes and earned himself the fishing pole.  we didn;t catch anything but you wouldn’t know that by the smile on his face.

June 5, 2010

New Online Project Begins – Day One

31 Monday May 2010

Posted by Kris in Family, Journal, Project 365

≈ Comments Off on New Online Project Begins – Day One

So my 101 in 1001 Project is nearing its end and I really thought I would have gotten a few more things done from my list, but I guess it’s the day to day life that defines who we are and not our glamourized todo list.  But it still makes me wonder what was I doing in all those 1001 days that prevented me from getting to all of the items on my list.  Well that’s just what my new project intends to document. 

So starting today and concluding on June 1 2011, I’m going to post one photograph from my day to day life that captures the “what” for that day.  In addition to posting the photo, I’ll add some notes about the busy lives the Kovacs’ are living.  This new project will be a kind of photo journal that tracks a year in the life.

So let’s start with today:

May 31, 2010

Memorial Day - May 31, 2010

Memorial Day - May 31, 2010

 

It’s Memorial Day … good thing that we celebrated with everyone yesterday as a little rain had developed this afternoon.  Aiden is still battling some strange bug giving him pretty good fevers but no other signficant symptoms.  Back to work and school tomorrow.

We Are In Trouble …

18 Sunday Apr 2010

Posted by Kris in Family, funny, video

≈ 1 Comment

So Saturday afternoon we were heading up to our first Durham Bulls game with my Cousin Steve visiting from Toronto.  As we  were driving on the highway Wesley calls from the back seat of van and says.

“Daddy, I know what you call a HOT girl.”

There was a moment of disbelief which hung in the van.  No one could believe his was coming from our 6 year old.

I responded, “Wesley what do you mean by HOT?”

“I mean when a girl is very beautiful Daddy, not like when she is warm.”

Still silence hung in the air.  I know I shouldn’t have but I had to ask. “Wesley. what do you call a very beautiful girl?”

“A Hottie!”

The three adults in the car were trying to maintain our composure.  But I had to respond, after all his Mother is now snickering in the passenger seat, looking at me with the “You Wanted to Have All Boys” look again.”

“Wes, it’s not appropriate for you to call any girl HOT or a HOTTIE, they don’t like that. It’s disrespectful.  They want you to see them as ……”

Wesley interrupts, “Does that mean I shouldn’t whistle at them either?”  and then he let out a wolf whistle.

“No Wesley, that is also disrespectful.”

I turned to Lauren and said, “We’ve got a little Hugh Hefner in the back seat”. 

We are in sooo much trouble.

You Want What for Christmas?

12 Saturday Dec 2009

Posted by Kris in Family, funny

≈ Comments Off on You Want What for Christmas?

Last night we took the boys to Picture People for their semi-annual portraits.  Afterwards they told us it would be 20 minutes so we decided to walk around the mall and maybe check out the wait to see Santa.

Indeed, even on a Friday night, the line for Santa was non-existent.  So the boys took their spot in the queue waiting for one little boy to take a picture with the Big Man.

For the first time all three boys had no problem going up and talking to Santa.  They climbed on his chair and his lap and took a great picture.  Afterall they had just come from their latest photo shoot.

The Boys With Santa

 

While I’m proofing the photo with the help of Santa’s Elves, who by the way looked like they just rolled in fom a tractor-pull, Santa begins to ask the boys what they’d like for Christmas.  As I finished up I walked over to listen and I hear Wesley say “I want a Bakugan, a Four-Wheeler, and a… a… a… Towel.”

Santa looks at me and says “A Towel?” with a puzzeled look on his face. 

I shrugged my shoulders and said “I dunknow”.

Santa finished up with the boys who thanked him and wished him a safe flight on Christmas Eve. 

On the way back through the mall I couldn’t help but ask Wes, “Why did you tell Santa you wanted a Towel”.

Clearly Wesley was very disappointted in himself, “Daddy I got nervous …. I couldn’t think of my third thing … I’ve got to go home and look at my list.  Can we come back tomorrow after I check my list …. I don’t want Santa to bring me a Towel Daddy.”

For the record, the third thing on his list was a GI Joe Snake Eyes Action Figure …. he’s going to get Snake Eyes but he’s going to be wrapped in a towel.  😉

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