There’s no doubt that a focus on STEM education is vital for the future of the United States. Apart from the conventional benefits offered by STEM education, being curious, innovative and utilizing critical thinking is important too.

Here’s 3 ways you can raise a child to love STEM:

1: Start them young

You have to find fun ways to inculcate STEM concepts into their lifestyle or daily routine. For example, you can prepare an activity that takes a STEM-based activity and use it as a theme for your child’s birthday party. One excellent example of this was getting children to find dinosaur bones at a party complete with their own paleontology kit and all. Simple chemistry experiments are wonderful too.

2: Make it a Family Affair

There are times when children have to work on scientific projects for school – let’s say, for a science fair. Spend time with your children brainstorming ideas for these projects without it being too expensive. Of course, ensure that he or she does all the work but be there to support them when they truly need it. In the end, winning a competition isn’t everything – they should have fun working on such projects as a result.

3: Work on Simple STEM Project For Fun

It doesn’t matter how silly the project might seem. Work on it with your children even if it won’t bring recognition, acclaim or prizes for the idea. Not will they learn something new such as soldering and mechanical skills, they will also be able to have a few laughs (given how silly the project might be!). Best part: they will also get a chance to give thought to how they can apply simple electronics in different ways.

Article by Wood Creek Academy

If your child is showing signs that they may be headed down a bad path, it can be easy to think that this sort of thing is nothing roe than what you should expect from all teenagers.

Unfortunately, some parents learn the hard way that this isn’t actually the case. Instead, their child goes too far and ends up in very serious trouble. At the very least, they may not graduate on time. However, they could end up in jail or even worse.

This is why programs for troubled youth have become so popular in recent years. They are absolutely vital for helping young people get the help they need before their lives veer off too far in the wrong direction.

There are all kinds of behavior modification schools for you to choose from as well, so you can get the specific kind of aid you’re looking for. The one thing they all have in common, though, is that they remove your teenager from the environment where these problems are happening. Often times, this is enough. Getting rid of peer pressure and other triggers can help your child reform, get their education and fix themselves once and for all.

So if your teenager is making mistake after mistake, look into getting them help from a different type of school.

If you’re in the market for boot camp for teenagers, look no further than Wood Creek Academy. There, you’ll find an environment that nurtures their abilities while helping them through any rough patches.

By Samuel Phineas Upham

Groomed to become an educator or a clergyman, Joshua Chamberlain nervously bounced between many professions throughout his adolescence and early adulthood. He was the oldest of five children, and thought to have been his mother’s favorite while his father ruled with an iron fist. The boy was encouraged to join the military from a young age, but never felt himself quite up to the task.

When America went to war with itself, Chamberlain felt passionately that he owed the Union forces and that they needed men like him. He is noted for proclaiming: “I fear, this war, so costly of blood and treasure, will not cease until men of the North are willing to leave good positions, and sacrifice the dearest personal interests, to rescue our country from desolation, and defend the national existence against treachery.”

A teacher at the time, Chamberlain would frequently hold tangential discussions in class where he openly expressed his pro-Union beliefs and encouraged his students to follow their hearts for guidance in the Civil War.

The University, though, did not share his passionate beliefs and he was given a leave of absence where he was supposed to go to Europe and study various languages. Instead, he joined the war effort unbeknownst to his family and colleagues.

Chamberlain rose quickly through the ranks, and was recognized mostly for his strategic defense of Little Round Top at the Battle of Gettysburg. Chamberlain was awarded the Medal of Honor for recognizing the strategic importance of the hill to Union forces that day.

Chamberlain’s feats are dramatized in the film Gettysburg, although the account is somewhat inaccurate.

About the Author: Samuel Phineas Upham is an investor at a family office/ hedgefund, where he focuses on special situation illiquid investing. Before this position, Phin Upham was working at Morgan Stanley in the Media and Telecom group. You may contact Phin on his Samuel Phineas Upham website or Facebook.