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

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

#61

Post by thomaslangston »

Vivtek wrote: post #41
ordinary wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Guy's checkers table was no more a "project for boys" than a project for your daughter (or, better yet, by your daughter) would be a "project for girls". The thing I took away from the OP was to support your children in whatever they do, regardless of whether they want to have tea parties with their friends or climb trees or hack the NSA. Well, OK, maybe not that last one.

My son keeps asking me about how to "hack computers" and I'm pretty sure that's what he's on about. I keep telling him about how to program. Eventually I hope it will click.

Even before programming, general IT knowledge seems to be very useful for hacking. Operating systems, hardware, and networking are great topics (and they are more concrete than most programming).

Great book he might want to read: http://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Exposed-Network-Security-Solut...

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

#62

Post by Tichy »

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…

Trees grow in woods. So does wood. It is an elaborate lie fabricated by the home making industry that wood grows in home builder stores.

Really curious about your situation. How can there be nothing you can do?

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

#63

Post by MaxGabriel »

ThomPete wrote: post #17

I have a son who is turning two. Our local supermarket is a great primarily organic shop. They have carts made for the little ones and we normally use that to do all our shopping. I usually let him pick things down from the shelves or give him things from them to put into his cart. Sometimes his picks are random but mostly he fetches three things that I normally get. 1. Milk 2. Pasta 3. Swarts Broot After that we go…

What is Swarts Broot? I googled it and it led me back to this post only

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

#64

Post by afterburner »

Shenglong wrote: post #58

This story has a great moral, and from a younger-person's standpoint, I think it's something every parent should consider: enable, and don't obligate. Encouragement itself is a dangerous path, since it can lead to an unhealthy zeal and interest. Unless you're parenting in an unique way, parents usually are seen as an authority figure by the kids. Because of this, over-encouragement could be seen as forcefulness, and…

I also see this as an aversion to being manipulated. People (kids, adults) definitely react in different ways to this, it's why you have to be careful about generalized advice. Some kids would flourish being "pushed" into something, others experience an almost allergic reaction to seemingly blunt manipulation and obligation. The exact way parents and coaches reward and encourage the kid also matters, and matters differently to every kid. You just have to figure out what each kid is like.

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

#65

Post by phoboslab »

MaxGabriel wrote: post #63
ThomPete wrote: post #17

I have a son who is turning two. Our local supermarket is a great primarily organic shop. They have carts made for the little ones and we normally use that to do all our shopping. I usually let him pick things down from the shelves or give him things from them to put into his cart. Sometimes his picks are random but mostly he fetches three things that I normally get. 1. Milk 2. Pasta 3. Swarts Broot After that we go…

What is Swarts Broot? I googled it and it led me back to this post only

Schwarzbrot, literally "black bread".

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

#66

Post by wazoox »

MaxGabriel wrote: post #63
ThomPete wrote: post #17

I have a son who is turning two. Our local supermarket is a great primarily organic shop. They have carts made for the little ones and we normally use that to do all our shopping. I usually let him pick things down from the shelves or give him things from them to put into his cart. Sometimes his picks are random but mostly he fetches three things that I normally get. 1. Milk 2. Pasta 3. Swarts Broot After that we go…

What is Swarts Broot? I googled it and it led me back to this post only

I suppose it to be this typical black german/dutch bread (made from rye IIRC).

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

#67

Post by Vivtek »

thomaslangston wrote: post #61
Vivtek wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My son keeps asking me about how to "hack computers" and I'm pretty sure that's what he's on about. I keep telling him about how to program. Eventually I hope it will click.

Even before programming, general IT knowledge seems to be very useful for hacking. Operating systems, hardware, and networking are great topics (and they are more concrete than most programming). Great book he might want to read: http://www.amazon.com/Hacking-Exposed-Network-Security-Solut...

Oh, man, that is just the best recommendation ever. I've ordered it. Thanks!

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

#68

Post by shou4577 »

masto wrote: post #50

This guy thinks his kid is cute, because it's his kid, but I don't like the part where he deliberately irritates everyone in the hardware store. I don't think your kid is cute, so please keep it out of my way.

Speaking from personal experience, I think the positives of this outweigh the negatives. I've had many customer-interactive part-time jobs in my life, and I think that it can be great fun when adults have their children do the interacting. So long as the store is not too busy, and the parents provide intervention when it is necessary (as in this particular story), I think that most people will not be inconvenienced significantly.

More importantly, I think that forcing your kids to do these types of interactions from a young age is very instrumental in their growth and development. While I am not well-versed in childhood development, I think that I rarely (if ever) was encouraged to do these sorts of things on my own when I was young, and that (possibly due in part to this) I had to break an irrational phobia of these types of social interactions at around the age of 18.

I was literally afraid to ask for help in a store, or to call a business for almost any reason. Mentally preparing for phone calls with strangers, even something as innocuous as finding out store hours, could leave me shaking.

Fortunately, I've managed to overcome this anxiety. I can't know for certain whether more of these types of interaction at a young age would have prevented this problem, but I think that it is reasonable to believe that it could have. The slight inconvenience is a small price to pay for this sort of developmental skill-building.

That's not to say that some people don't need to reign in their kids now and then, just that an appropriate amount of interaction is healthy and really not very annoying at all to others.

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

#69

Post by gacba »

edw519 wrote: post #55

Typical enterprise developer: 1. User knows exactly what he wants. 2. User can only express that in his own language. 3. Data flow diagrams, best practices, structured design, etc. 4. Dev still doesn't know what user wants but builds anyway. 5. 2 years later, project scrapped. Scott Nesin: 1. User knows exactly what he wants. 2. User can only express that in his own language. 3. Developer patiently encourages user to…

Moral of the story: Scott Nesin should be in charge of all Enterprise Development Projects from here on out. :)
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