Khalid's passion journey

The purpose of our homeschool, the Djehuti Institute for Universoul Knowledge, is to create master family builders.  With that, my first and foremost goal is to help each of my children find, cultivate and master their passion.  It is through their Passion that they will serve their Purpose- assisting greater humanity. 

Each of my children seem to have their own unique passion.  For Khalid, his is creating and inspiring others to find their inner creator as well.  At age 3, I purchased Khalid's first Lego build from Wal-Mart.  It was a colorful train set.  I had emptied out the box and set out the easy to follow instructions.  I left Khalid by the pieces and went to use the bathroom.  In my mind, he would certainly need help at 3 years old so he would be anxiously waiting for my return.  To my amazement, when I returned from my bathroom break, Khalid was already putting the train set together.  I asked him how he did it and he responded by explaining to me that he looked at the pictures on the instructions and just did what it showed.  Talk about taking initiative!  LOL! This child had curiosity, determinate, initiative and drive- at 3 years old! 

From that time on, I continued to purchase Lego sets for him to build.  As he continued to build with little assistance from me, I would choose Lego builds that had more pieces and a higher level of difficulty.  He was up for the challenge!  As you can imagine, purchasing Lego sets can become expensive.  So, I introduced a mix of creative activities to include drawing and sketching, watercolor, mixed media and woodwork.  He had so much creative energy and his inquisitiveness was never-ending so as a parent, keeping him engaged kept me on my toes- a lot! As time went on and he progressed with his Lego builds and art, I searched for a more experienced instructor for him.  That search led me to Mrs. Sharon, our local Bricks 4 Kidz owner.  Khalid worked with Mrs. Sharon all the way through Lego Robotics from 4 years old to almost 8 years old.  I am so grateful for our local Bricks 4 Kidz and the education and positive, creative environment it provided for Khalid.

One day Khalid came to me and said that he was getting too big for Bricks for Kidz.  I was like, "What do you mean?! You love Legos!" He was like, "I do love Legos.  I've learned all I can from Mrs. Sharon.  I want to learn how to build electrical things with my hands.  I want to know how to build a robot and program it to do what I want it to do." Of course, my first attempt was going to YouTube and attempting to find out how I can help my son myself from home.  Of course, I found a great beginner's video.  So, we went to the hobby store to my small electric motors and battery packs.  Then, I didn't really have the success we were looking for.  And...as always, God helps those in the process of helping themselves.  We went to a free STEM & Robotics workshop provided by one of our local library branches.  It was there that I met Mr. Jeffries Epps, owner of STEMERALD CITY and retired network engineer.  Long story, short- I ran to Mr. Epps for help about a year later- after I had secured part-time work.  

Because working with Mr. Epps would come at a significant cost to our family and would take a big time commitment from Khalid, to test his seriousness and willingness to commit, I charged Khalid with writing out exactly what his goals were for working with Mr. Epps at STEMERALD CITY.  He was 7- see what he wrote below. 
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Khalid began working with Mr. Epps as his STEM coach in the spring of 2019.  Since that time, I've seen Khalid's creativity and commitment to building and making things soar to new heights.  Not only has he achieved all the goals on the list, he continues to work with Mr. Epps every other week and has plans to submit his professional resume for consideration to be Mr. Epps' apprentice- all his idea.  He just turned 9 years old.

While I am very proud of all that Khalid has accomplished at such a young age, I'm most proud of him continuing the legacy of his grandfather who was a master mason who was an architect by trade, carpenter, mechanic and mathematician.  As I always say, my role as guide and resource liaison for my children gives me even more fire and passion to continue to serve my family.

Watch a brief video overview of Khalid's Passion Journey from our Homeschooling While Black YouTube channel below. 

I hope this encourages every parent reading to keep putting in the effort with your young ones while inspiring/motivating others to start their journey.

​Peace & Prosperity.