A research doctor asked me to prepare equipment for him requiring needlework because "I always had servants to do that for me, so I don't know how to thread a needle."

Obesity is increasing at epidemic rates.

If you prefer building outdoor projects, read books, get advice from friends, search the web, then teach the rest of the family what you have just learned. You may be surprised to realize just how much you enjoy having the kids look on you as the fount of all knowledge.

Oh, and while you're outdoors, make sure that you let the family know that the sun rises in the East and sets in the West. It could save their lives one day.

Plan long-term projects including preparing for a vacation, so that the family can experience budgeting, arts and crafts, gardening, cooking, keeping and butchering animals or just fishing and cleaning the fish. Don't let your family pursuits be so few and uneducational that your children could end up dieing within sight of food and water because they don't know how to unzip a banana, or clarify a mud puddle.

All teachers know that you learn from the known to the unknown. But do you realize that it follows that each time that you learn more, there is a jump in what you can learn?

Our research was brought to a standstill by a frozen water-pipe. The rules said that the gardener had to dig up the pipe then the plumber had to fix the pipe. But the gardener was on holiday. So the boss and I dug a trench to uncover the pipe, replaced the broken section, and covered everything up again, even shovelling snow back on top for extra insulation. Neither of the trade unions ever knew that we had avoided a two-week delay by doing their work ourselves.

Even your maths will improve. If the recipe serves eight, and there are three of you, how do you work out how much to use where the recipe says two tablespoons? If you are papering a wall and need half-sheets in several places how do you work out the total number of rolls that you will need? How do you work out the number of seeds to plant in the garden, bearing in mind how many people will eat the produce and how much they will eat, and the germination rate of the seeds?

Products of the kids construction will have to be proudly displayed. Visitors won't despise the display, or if they do, they are not the kind of people you want to know.

And yes(!) boys need to learn to cook and sew. If they go to college and they can't cook their health will probably deteriorate. If they allowed a friend to bleed to death out in the bush because they couldn't thread a needle to sew them up imagine how they would feel.

A young lady might just have to stand and look helpless to get the boys clustering round to fix her car, do the gardening, clean the gutters, kill the hens, fix the door lock etc. but if she doesn't know how to do it herself, will she have as many helpers when she is 50 years old?

Vegetating before a TV is OK until civilization changes, perhaps tomorrow. If global warming floods coastal cities what would your family do?