Ask her what she wants to do.
"I don't know"
Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
11–20 of 227 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
#12I did the Mark Rober Creative Engineering class with my daughters and we all had a blast. We made a apple slicing guillotine, a s’more assembly machine, and a robotic arduino-controlled bird. We finished the class 18 months ago and they still talk about it. They were 7 and 9 yrs old at the time. The key is to not do it all at once but to pace out the videos and exercises and truly do when he teaches, from brainstorming, to prototyping, etc.
Re: Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
#13Make a stop motion video - there are cheap/free apps that make it really easy to do
Not sure if you have any instruments around the house, but make a song with her
Like another poster said, make magazine. They have tooons of good projects.
Re: Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
#14Ask her what she wants to do.
This, but I think it could be more nuanced. Notice her interest and explore further what she wants to do.
All she might want to do is watch some cartoons, notice the content and after some time propose to record your own little video with a similar content, or to model and 3D print one of the characters, or to use scratch to program one of the characters to do something.
Alternatively, give her options, not only verbal but take her places (the mall, local market, county fair) and observe what calls her attention and dig deeper into that!
Browsing books at a local library about whatever topic she might like could also be interesting!
Good luck and hope you have tons of fun!
Re: Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
#15Recently, me and my daughter got some scrap wood from a shop that specializes in laser cutting. We used paper and wood glue to make beds for her dolls. She really liked it. It requires creativity because the scrap wood has all sorts of weird shapes. And patience, because the glue requires drying.
Re: Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
#16Try lots of things and see what she gets into. Do some gardening. Make stuff with your hands. Cook. Play lots of different musical instruments. If you don’t have any, play rhythms with your hands. Listen to some music. Ask her what she likes or doesn’t like about it. Sing along to it. Read lots of books to her. Take her to visit woods, hills (with good views), rock formations, streams, lakes, old buildings open the public. Go to museums. Borrow a dog. Bring a friend and their parent along so she can play with the other child while you chat to the parent about grown up stuff, but you can still get involved in what the kids are doing.
Re: Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
#17Ask her what she finds interesting and based on her answer(s), find the most appealing to you and start designing a logic based on it, a prototype if you will. Tell her that for this project she will be your project manager that would lead to the fruition of the end product; that would be enough to keep her engaged with the whole process. Good luck!
> Tell her that for this project she will be your project manager
> end product
That does not sound fun. I don't think I was envisioning things as management and products when I was a child.
The first line of your comment does sound fun, however.
Re: Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
#18You can spend time with her and help her discover her interests by asking her what she enjoys doing. Additionally, you can engage in outdoor activities with her, and most significantly, you can accompany her to museums, parks, or zoos.
If she enjoys playing games or watching cartoons, she can play educational interactive games where she will learn also.
Re: Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
#19I've heard this from a couple of people - get her to dictate a story to you while you type it up (assuming you can type faster than she can). If it is long enough then you can send it off to a book printing service and get 5 copies or something. It costs a bit but the kids really get a kick out of it. You can design the cover art with her as well if she is into that.
Re: Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
#20Build a phoniebox with her (see https://pilabor.com/projects/labelmaker/ ) - Some crafting - Some electronics - If you wish some programming - A lot of fun afterwards...
Oh that looks amazing! I just ordered a yoto [1] but that looks a lot more fun!