Abstracting rules and principles from experience . Human brains are equipped to examine an experience and then branch laterally to a different application and apply similar tools and concepts. Once a child has learned to hammer a nail, the child can figure out how to use the hammer to pound on other objects. These lateral transfers are relatively easy to learn. They will occur faster if an adult shows the child how to do it or to recognize slightly different applications of the tool or concept.
Good parents teach their children to develop rules of behavior from experience.
They teach about fair play, about sharing of possessions, about respect for others. Parents, in general, are less able to show their children how to extract principles from experience. The reason that mathematics and science are accorded such a fundamental place in education is that mathematics and science are devoted to the discovery of broad generalizations and principles. Think of the principle of conservation of energy or of matter as examples. Think of the Theorem of Pythagoras as another example.