ABOUT THE BOOK

Baby Talk

While growing up, Honeybear and Junior successfully mastered three important life-fulfilling concepts— namely, education, exposure, and empowerment.

• Education: As noted in Google, education is defined as the process of receiving or giving systematic instructions, especially at a school or university. To be more specific, it is a body of knowledge acquired through learning at an institution and life.

I began encouraging Honeybear and Junior when they were just five years old to aim for good grades in elementary, middle, and high school in order to prepare them for college. Educational tools were used to boost their confidence and increase their knowledge in reading, writing, math, vocabulary, public speaking, computers, and music programs. Tutors were hired to increase their knowledge in challenging classes.

To increase their knowledge, we visited and toured different universities. We toured the University of Maryland in College Park, Maryland; North Carolina Central University and Duke University in Durham, North Carolina; University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in Chapel Hill, North Carolina; Agricultural and Technical State University in Greensboro, North Carolina; and Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona, Florida.

While visiting in Europe, we visited the prestigious Oxford University in Oxford, England. This is just an overview of their educational experiences

• Exposure: As noted in Google, exposure is defined as introducing someone to a new subject or area of knowledge. Honeybear and Junior attended church regularly and travelled extensively to different states on the eastern seaboard, from New York to Florida. They were also active in the local community’s Boys and Girls Club, the church-affiliated Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, and the Explorer Scouts for teenagers—where they received leadership training.

The church sponsored trips to seven foreign countries for scouts to visit Canada, Jamaica, Holland, Germany, France, Italy, and England. They toured national and foreign government facilities, went on sightseeing tours, interacted with people of different ethnic backgrounds and cultures, ate various cultural foods, visited museums, and attended entertainment functions such as space museums, art galleries, college sports, and music concerts. Scouts became accustomed to traveling on vans, buses, trains, and airplanes.

As a scout, Junior participated in an Adopt-A-Road Program, visited elderly people in nursing homes, and delivered groceries to people in low-income areas.

• Empowerment: As noted in Google, empowerment is defined as the process of becoming stronger and more confident, especially in controlling one’s life and claiming one’s rights. To prepare Honeybear and Junior for future careers, they were taught how to dress for success as I introduced them to appropriate business attire. They practiced résumé writing, interviewing skills, and etiquette training.

Their etiquette training included learning respect for themselves and others; saying grace before meals; correct posture while sitting in a chair at the dinner table; how to select, hold, and use proper utensils while eating meals; proper manners such as saying “please,” “thank you,” and “you are welcome”; and the history of their African American culture and other cultures. They were also taught about leadership and diversity.

Although saying please and thank you may not currently be useful tools, it was when my children were growing up.