Passing on a heritage, some ideas for fathers

So how do we get started?

Let me set out several goals:
1. Skills based on caretaking, husbandry, and value
2. Community consisting of other fathers and sons
3. Integration of skills with knowledge, history, and experience
4. Age appropriate

For anything that we do we must keep these goals in mind.

The first has to do with the heritage we are talking about. Men are not made to be thrill seekers but caretakers. The thrills should come from life itself and they are readily available (a topic of its own). Such a list might include animal husbandry, agriculture and small gardening, mechanics, home repair, and money management. It would also include such things as character, work ethic, manners, and so on. The idea of value incorporates meaningful activities such as boomerang throwing, sling throwing, whittling, hiking, knot tying, and so on.

The second has to do with creating a network of fathers and sons who provide accountability, mentorship (younger fathers or boys who do not have fathers, etc.), and a sense of belonging. These boys will grow up with peers who also have fathers involved in their lives with each father knowing and loving each boy and vice versa. Thus the boys are not primarily peer influenced but father influenced although they are not a part from peers. It is a controlled environment.

This will also prove to be an incentive and also an outreach. Think of how many boys would want to go with "Johnny" to fly falcons with his father/son group next Sat.?

The third makes experience an opportunity for knowledge. It is a rule of thumb that ignorance breeds lack of concern and that knowledge breeds desire. Boys do not simply learn how to train a falcon but what is the history of falconry (when did it start? why did it start? what country? what kind of birds?) and what are the details of the bird and how does one handle and respect the bird?

The fourth simply takes age into account. All of the above may begin with the youngest boy to the oldest (college age?). The youngest may simply show up and "watch dad do it". Seven to ten year olds might have the experience of squeezing the warm teats of a Jerzee cow with some interesting facts about the practice. A Jr. High student might be required to do a bit of reading on the subject (along with the father) while a college student commits to some unique research to share with the others (each boy/father studying a different topic about the subject in order to share it with the others).

This makes the experiences a part of passing on a heritage, increasing father/son time in both value and space, creating a good peer group, and using it for homeschooling (knowledge).

If begun early in a group of say six father/son commitments carried out through highschool then each boy (as well as father) has a multitude of experiences shared, a large experience bank for enjoying and approaching life, and something to guide the raising of his boys. Imagine being prepared to raise a Jerzee, shoe a horse, run a fence, tie 100 knots, start a fire with one match, clean a fish, arrange a budget, invest a dollar, go high country packing, catch and train a falcon, clean the head of a motor, fix leaks, and so on before going into marriage and fatherhood? Not to mention the value of those things in themselves.

A possible arrangement might be a commitment of father/sons to meet the first Saturday of each month. If the boys are young then give them a large range of experiences (something differing every month) with interesting facts attached to each experience. There might be a field trip to the dairy farm, horse ranch, hay farm (ride tractors?), fishing, whittling seminar, auction (animals and money investment in one), and so on.

As the boys get older make the experiences longerlasting. Concentrate one year on agriculture, then animal husbandry, then auto mechanics, then falconry, then slinging and the different ancient methods of hunting, and so on. Many of the arenas can be intermixed. As they get older and more disciplined so does the information part of the process increase.

One important focus, find a way serve Jesus in doing these things. Short devotionals at each meeting might prove helpful or doing mechanical projects for the elderly or allowing an elderly man to show off his lathing skills, etc. But the idea must be prominent that being a man means a call to the duty of manhood and that in so doing we honor Jesus.

This is simply an illustration and a website like the one I'm proposing might display more thorough research into age particular experiences in the setting of a 12 year pattern; how to integrate creativity and evangelism; and much more beside.