
Ask HN: Parents-what extra education to you give your kids? - mapster
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.
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Durzo
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.

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psenior
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.

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andymurd
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.

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saluki
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.

