Ask HN: Parents-what extra education to you give your kids?
If your kid is in public school, I imagine you supplement a little at home. Very curious what activities people have their kids doing to better prepare them.
4 comments
I have 3 sons. When they kids, they were mostly homeschooled. I tried to supplement their education in ways that would be interesting to their individual tastes and myself with an eye to their future.
My oldest son is not the kind of person to sit still at a desk staring a computer screen all day, so when he was in high school I got him involved in Fire Explorers through a friend who was fire chief in a nearby city. He ended up becoming an EMT.
My middle son had a strong interest in soccer, so I signed him up for a fairly intense twice a week soccer academy. Within a few months he got really good, much better than the kids he was playing with in the rec league. He had to stop because he realized he wasn’t going to be able to go pro and his academics were starting to take up a lot more of his time. Competitive sports taught him the value of having a strong work ethic. He earned his high school diploma and his AA degree at the same time and a partial scholarship to UCF. He works as an intern software dev at Lockheed Martin and will graduate with a Computer Engineering degree later this year.
My youngest really loves video games. I tried to get him into software dev by taking him to a coding camp one summer where he learned a little bit of Ruby. I also enrolled him in the local technical high school to learn web development.
All of them are good musicians. I provided them with whatever instruments they might want to play. I taught them the concepts behind jazz music theory. They have a lot of experience performing live music in front of audiences at church.
My oldest son is not the kind of person to sit still at a desk staring a computer screen all day, so when he was in high school I got him involved in Fire Explorers through a friend who was fire chief in a nearby city. He ended up becoming an EMT.
My middle son had a strong interest in soccer, so I signed him up for a fairly intense twice a week soccer academy. Within a few months he got really good, much better than the kids he was playing with in the rec league. He had to stop because he realized he wasn’t going to be able to go pro and his academics were starting to take up a lot more of his time. Competitive sports taught him the value of having a strong work ethic. He earned his high school diploma and his AA degree at the same time and a partial scholarship to UCF. He works as an intern software dev at Lockheed Martin and will graduate with a Computer Engineering degree later this year.
My youngest really loves video games. I tried to get him into software dev by taking him to a coding camp one summer where he learned a little bit of Ruby. I also enrolled him in the local technical high school to learn web development.
All of them are good musicians. I provided them with whatever instruments they might want to play. I taught them the concepts behind jazz music theory. They have a lot of experience performing live music in front of audiences at church.
My kid is still very young and still learning the very basics of reading/writing/arithmetic. So we reinforce/practice those at home. I've found that his motivation is higher when the stuff he learns at home matches the things he learning at school.
We also do a bunch of weekend activities with an educational aspect - from external events like Maker Fair and Science Expos, to taking apart the lawn mower to learn about engines.
We also have this fun ritual at bedtime where he can ask any question about anything and get a serious answer. Of course this is used to delay lights-out but it's one of the most valuable learning exercises (for parents too). At this age, almost everything can be made educational but the trick is to keep it fun.
We also do a bunch of weekend activities with an educational aspect - from external events like Maker Fair and Science Expos, to taking apart the lawn mower to learn about engines.
We also have this fun ritual at bedtime where he can ask any question about anything and get a serious answer. Of course this is used to delay lights-out but it's one of the most valuable learning exercises (for parents too). At this age, almost everything can be made educational but the trick is to keep it fun.
Read to them/encourage them to read.
Kids classes at the Zoo
Kids classes at the Botanical Garden
FLL (Lego Robotics), FLL Jr. starts at age 6, no team? start and coach one.
Fun/Learning classes at the local library/visiting library.
Talking about history/science at home, explaining how things work, having discussions about anything they are curious about and bringing up topics they might find interesting.
Point out and explain interesting things you see when you are out together.
Watching science and history documentaries together, talk about them.
Scouts
Fun/Learning projects at home gardening, programming, drawing, Legos, snap electronics kits, fun chemistry kits.
Appreciating nature.
Caring for pets/animals.
Kids Music classes when they are young, real music lessons early on.
Creative play, some of our favorite toys, legos, mangnatiles, blocks. Play with them.
Kids classes at the Zoo
Kids classes at the Botanical Garden
FLL (Lego Robotics), FLL Jr. starts at age 6, no team? start and coach one.
Fun/Learning classes at the local library/visiting library.
Talking about history/science at home, explaining how things work, having discussions about anything they are curious about and bringing up topics they might find interesting.
Point out and explain interesting things you see when you are out together.
Watching science and history documentaries together, talk about them.
Scouts
Fun/Learning projects at home gardening, programming, drawing, Legos, snap electronics kits, fun chemistry kits.
Appreciating nature.
Caring for pets/animals.
Kids Music classes when they are young, real music lessons early on.
Creative play, some of our favorite toys, legos, mangnatiles, blocks. Play with them.
I suggest you make a list of fun projects that happen to be educational (i.e. Building a robot(programming/mechanical engineering), making a movie(creative writing/graphic design), playing an instrument(extremely helpful with math/patterns)). Then let the kid pick one at a time, and work together(bonding time is always important, and the kid will more likely remember the activity as a positive experience) on it. Go through the list until the kid's eyes light up. That's their passion. The key is to make it interesting/fun for the kid so it hopefully sparks a passion to make them a life long learner.