A lesson on the importance of encouraging your children with their projects • Hacker News Board

Re: A lesson on the importance of encouraging your children with their projects

#21

Post by nl » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 10:36 AM UTC

maeon3 wrote: post #18

Parents who give their kids a regular diet of "High Praise", "Agreeableness", "Supportiveness" and "Positive Interaction", but don't send them to college create children who have higher socioeconomic statuses than children of disconnected parents who send theirs to college. Multiple studies done confirm this. http://books.google.com/books?id=XDq9Xf_NbrMC&lpg=PT28&#... Adam Savage from Mythbusters claimed his love of…

I'm not trying to be pedantic, but that is a book, not a study. I've seen multiple studies that show parents who withhold praise raise higher achievers (personally, I don't like that, but none the less - the studies do exist)

Re: A lesson on the importance of encouraging your children with their projects

#22

Post by toyg » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 10:43 AM UTC

As the proud parent of a very chatty daughter of two, I wonder: what would be an equivalent sort of project for girls? At the moment she likes Duplo/Lego because it's one of the few areas where we connect over the gender divide, but her other roleplay and games are all about caring and she's very empathic with other children (worrying when they cry etc). I do wonder whether pointing her towards hackerdom would really be the right thing to do.

Re: A lesson on the importance of encouraging your children with their projects

#23

Post by pbhjpbhj » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 10:47 AM UTC

This sort of story makes me sad. We don't have a tree house, we don't even have a tree. We don't have money to spend at the DIY store to keep the house in shape never mind making checkers boards for fun. I thought I was getting pretty good at quenching the covetousness that society seemed to have imbued me with but when one realises that stuff is needed for many uplifting experiences.

Realising the great joy certain things brought me as a kid and realising that those things are beyond the reach of my kids ... Gah.

A happy story made me sad; I'm too easily depressed.

Aside: email games seems really retro.

Re: A lesson on the importance of encouraging your children with their projects

#24

Post by JonathanFields » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 10:51 AM UTC

Awesome story. Been taking the same approach with my daughter. She's now 10 and is pretty fearless about wielding any tool or material needed to design whatever she's working on.

Reminds me of a story I once saw about Tinkering School for kids, where they let the kids conceive and builds project together. http://www.tinkeringschool.com/

Re: A lesson on the importance of encouraging your children with their projects

#25

Post by BindGuice » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 10:59 AM UTC

nl wrote: post #21

maeon3 wrote: post #18

Parents who give their kids a regular diet of "High Praise", "Agreeableness", "Supportiveness" and "Positive Interaction", but don't send them to college create children who have higher socioeconomic statuses than children of disconnected parents who send theirs to college. Multiple studies done confirm this. http://books.google.com/books?id=XDq9Xf_NbrMC&lpg=PT28&#... Adam Savage from Mythbusters claimed his love of…

I'm not trying to be pedantic, but that is a book, not a study. I've seen multiple studies that show parents who withhold praise raise higher achievers (personally, I don't like that, but none the less - the studies do exist)

I don't think the bit was about praise, rather the act of stepping back and playing spectator.

Re: A lesson on the importance of encouraging your children with their projects

#26

Post by RtodaAV » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 11:00 AM UTC

I'm sorry but I can't believe this.

Re: A lesson on the importance of encouraging your children with their projects

#27

Post by dazzawazza » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 11:02 AM UTC

nl wrote: post #21

maeon3 wrote: post #18

Parents who give their kids a regular diet of "High Praise", "Agreeableness", "Supportiveness" and "Positive Interaction", but don't send them to college create children who have higher socioeconomic statuses than children of disconnected parents who send theirs to college. Multiple studies done confirm this. http://books.google.com/books?id=XDq9Xf_NbrMC&lpg=PT28&#... Adam Savage from Mythbusters claimed his love of…

I'm not trying to be pedantic, but that is a book, not a study. I've seen multiple studies that show parents who withhold praise raise higher achievers (personally, I don't like that, but none the less - the studies do exist)

You can encourage without fawning praise. A combination of letting my kids fail, talking about how to remedy and encouragement to get them over the 'getting started again' hump is working out great for my two kids.

Re: A lesson on the importance of encouraging your children with their projects

#28

Post by dazzawazza » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 11:06 AM UTC

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #23

This sort of story makes me sad. We don't have a tree house, we don't even have a tree. We don't have money to spend at the DIY store to keep the house in shape never mind making checkers boards for fun. I thought I was getting pretty good at quenching the covetousness that society seemed to have imbued me with but when one realises that stuff is needed for many uplifting experiences. Realising the great joy certain…

While money makes things a lot easier my kids make most of their things from the boxes, paper packaging, old clothes and wrapping paper that we stash away. We bulk buy PVA glue for them to use from DIY stores so it really costs very little for them to experiment/play.

Re: A lesson on the importance of encouraging your children with their projects

#29

Post by maeon3 » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 11:13 AM UTC

nl wrote: post #21

maeon3 wrote: post #18

Parents who give their kids a regular diet of "High Praise", "Agreeableness", "Supportiveness" and "Positive Interaction", but don't send them to college create children who have higher socioeconomic statuses than children of disconnected parents who send theirs to college. Multiple studies done confirm this. http://books.google.com/books?id=XDq9Xf_NbrMC&lpg=PT28&#... Adam Savage from Mythbusters claimed his love of…

I'm not trying to be pedantic, but that is a book, not a study. I've seen multiple studies that show parents who withhold praise raise higher achievers (personally, I don't like that, but none the less - the studies do exist)

If you expand the chapter you'll find the referenced study the author is drawing upon.

Re: A lesson on the importance of encouraging your children with their projects

#30

Post by blots » Wed, Jul 13, 2011, 11:17 AM UTC

wlievens wrote: post #20

blots wrote: post #10

My university blocks your site: Based on your corporate access policies, this web site ( http://gamesbyemail.com/WoodTape/Default.htm ) has been blocked because it has been determined by Web Reputation Filters to be a security threat to your computer or the corporate network. This web site has been associated with malware/spyware. Threat Type: Othermalware Threat Reason: IP address is either verified as a bot or has…

Odds are it's because of the word 'game' in the domain.

It already happened that Cisco IronPort has blocked legitimate sites, like www.rp-photonics.com, and from the service desk reply I got it appeared that this was not the only case. Of course one gets used to go around the blocks with proxies, but I don't see the point in blocking stuff in the first place.