Do outdoorsy stuff. Hiking is costs just food and water and it doesn't need to be extreme to be fun. There's a whole interesting world of stuff just outside that's free.
Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
71–80 of 227 posts
Re: Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
#72Being unemployed probably means you don't have a huge budget, but some for our child I've tried to do a little bit of "everything" to see what he enjoys. When I ask him what he wants to do he says "I don't know", so I say "We're going swimming in the sea", "Lets plant some seeds", "Today we're cooking / sewing", "Lets pick a spot on the map and go visit it by bus/tram", or "Lets draw pokemon evolving". (maps are kind…
> Does he genuinely prefer my music, or is it something about me? This is a very insightful question. Although I can’t answer for your child, I know mine takes an interest in almost anything that i show love or curiosity for. If I express love for a song (not with words but by singing it, dancing to it, etc), he will ask to hear it again and again. Does his mother show a love for music and specific songs?
I see the same thing in other areas, definitely.
He got his first watch, way before he could tell the time, because he was so interested in my watch collection and kept pleading to wear one "just like daddy does".
But yes I think we both enjoy music, and I think we both sing (badly) to our favourite tracks now and again - usually he tells us to stop!
Re: Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
#73I would probably get them into cooking and helping me cook.
Re: Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
#74Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sounds plausible, but IME doesn't actually work with real kids
Works well with mine. He’s got 3 choices most mornings.
It doesn't with mine, I'm afraid. I frequently give them 1-3 options and they shoot them all down (even pancakes?!). Eventually I give up and ask them what they want, and they still don't know, or just want to eat nothing.
Re: Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
#75TikTok and Netflix are great places to start.
Re: Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
#76My son is 12 y/o, and he's into Minecraft.
Yesterday he discovered the server mc.openredstone.org. He spent all day yesterday and about one hour today, and he ended up building a 4-bit adder.
On this server players learn how to build logic gates, and mix them so they eventually build CPUs. It's fully gamified, so beginners are called "students" and more advanced players are called "builders". To become a "builder" you need to pass some trials. The "builders" probably have their own challenges (not sure, my son is still a student), in any case, they behave like teachers. So a student will find a builder who will give them instructions, and guide them through more and more complex designs.
So, yesterday my son had no idea what XOR or NAND is, and today he already built a 4-bit adder, and has dreams of building an ALU.
I'm quite excited to be honest. By the way, I'm not in any way connected with whomever put together this Minecraft server. I don't even think it's a for-profit thing, as far as I can tell, it's fully non-profit.
Re: Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
#77You didn't mention anything she's interested in currently.
Whatever it is follow it, no matter how frivolous or irrelevant to future success these may seem. Participate. Really jump into it in an unreasonable way.
Things your children get really interested in have a way of becoming interesting to an open-minded parent. Note that these interest can come and go at the drop of a hat. That's part of the fun!
Re: Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
#78I've just found this https://twitter.com/TansuYegen/status/1543534003520770052 in my Twitter feed. I hope it can be useful.
Re: Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
#79I don't know where you lives, but do hicking with her if you have time. Try to do some theater of mind games (d&d or whatever she or both likes). Maybe you can't afford going somewhere but nothings tie you there. Talking about that if you lives in a city big enough, there must to be hidden places with a story to tell, grab a map a visit that with her. Think about a story you can tell with that. I learnt more about bu…
Great suggestions and you inspired me. What is Dresden Files?
A book series about a wizard/private investigator working in Chicago. It is funny, short (each book, they are like 20..) and they feed on arthurian lore plus urban legends (that is pushed even more by the roleplay books).
Jim Butcher is the author and the audiobooks are narrated by James Masters (spike in buffy tv show)
Re: Ask HN: How to keep my daughter busy while tickling her curiosity
#80Make a board game or pen and paper RPG. There's lot of stuff to do, art, rules, making up lore.