Why Parents Need To Encourage Learning In The Home
William Jackson, M.Ed. Certified VR & STEAM Educator CEO of My Quest To Teach World Metaverse Council ED3DAO GatherVerse 
Now that the summer is over, it is the perfect time to encourage applying learning and education to everyday situations and building learning as fun and empowering. Appling learning to real life experiences to build relevancy and connections for the future. Applying math to help building a budget, managing a bank account and credit cards. Reading and comprehension to build an appreciation for literacy, expanding the imagination and diving into technology to prepare for future careers. The amount of skill level using tech will determine employability, youth and teens today will be under-employed in the future and even being able to move on with their lives or living at home with parents / grandparents that wonder when they will have their homes all to themselves, if ever.
American youth, teens and young adults are missing the mark completely in multiple areas of career preparation. Teaching children how to budget money early will allow for them to process the value of money and build a respect for work and managing resources. Parents should have used the summer to incorporate reading, comprehension, ownership for individual learning into their children’s life and teaching children how influential even in a small way that learning and education of all types is important.
The areas of Science Technology Engineering Arts Mathematics Metaverse, Artificial Intelligence, Immersive Technologies, Robotic, Web 3, IOT, and other tech is a strong determining factor to what your youth, teens and young adults have access to and to use. 90% of careers will be influence with the use of some form of technology. 
Teaching children and teens early will help them learn to survive when there is no one around to give advice, it will already be in them in thinking creatively and being innovative with their resources. Instead of telling children that money does not grow on trees the summer should have been used to show them by allowing them to practice saving and spending. Provide a budget and some funds so it can be seen in a realistic format. Children and teens need to be allowed to shop, compare items and compare the cost helps to understand the monetary responsibilities in feeding a family; also helping children learn the sacrifices parents make for even small things as prices fluctuate.
Children and teens perspectives are different when parents, family and even summer camps teach how to manage money that is not infinite, there is a limit. The science of shopping, preparation, cooking and serving can be fun and open discussions as to why parents or guardians only purchase certain foods or why parents or guardians shop at certain stores. Understanding and comprehension come when a child or teen applies what they are learning to real world situations.
Just think what your child may be applying when they are learning to connect the pieces of living a life on a budget, not understanding that their futures will not have mom, dad, grandma, grandpa giving them monies. There is an accountability and responsibility to earning monies that are used to survive and thrive. Parents do their children a gross disservice not teaching about banking, not teaching about budgeting and giving them the false expectations that life owes them something. 
Schools are starting again, classrooms are filing up, school buses are running, the opportunities are available to grow in knowledge, advance in learning and building and expanding networks. What comes naturally with communication is changing as Smartphones are increasingly available and provide access to longer distances of communication. “Youth, teens and young adults are learning that their Smartphones can be their best friends or worst enemy depending on the type of content they are posting. Who they are associated with and the strategies the use to stay safe online.” William Jackson
The value of education is not just education itself, but it allows for the accumulation of information, facts, access to data, empowerment, encouragement and students still need to learn how to apply these to real life experiences. Parents must understand that value of “exposure,” the purpose of “application” and “implementation” are valuable and empowering.
The first teacher is the parent, but if the parent is also lacking in information that makes a dangerous situation, because ignorant parents, create ignorant children and this creates a generational problem of ignorance or lack of knowledge. Students cannot grow if they don’t see their families growing. Children will not excel if there is not the value of learning and changing the mind-sets of comprehension. 
Families need to still be visiting museums, library events, cultural activities, field trips in their cities, even in high school students need to learn their addresses, zip codes, area codes and what is in their communities. It is a damn shame that a high school student does not know their address, zip code and what is in their community. They need to see the value of their communities and to be the agents of change necessary so change can happen and growth.
Summer camps fill a void in learning gaps and exposure, in this world of Technology, Robots, Drones, Social Media, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, and IOT Internet Of Things, scientific break throughs, medical discoveries, etc, children must be prepared especially children of color. There does not have to be any learning gaps when parents look at the big picture of society, the lives of children. No matter what grade their children are growing into there is always learning, doing, advancing and achieving. Parents be involved in what your children are learning at school, be involved, be engaged, ask questions. You have the rights to be engaged and active. 