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Ask HN: When is the optimal time to introduce things to my child?
Hello everyone,
I'm a life-long learner interested in nearly anything. I've got a small toddler and plan on exposing them to a variety of things that I find interesting. However, I have a couple of concerns/questions on how to implement this.
- I don't want my child to be into something simply because I was. For instance, I don't necessarily want them to follow my footsteps in software. I'd much rather my child bring new ideas and interests into our family's life.
- I don't want learning to feel like a chore and for them to "bounce" for lack of a better term.
- I strongly believe that there are "right times" for certain ideas. For instance if I sat my son down at a computer at too young of an age to really understand, then at some later age when he's more intellectually ready for such a tool he might not be interested since it seems "old hat." and then the magic never happens.
I want to maximize his ability to capitalize on his own curiosity for any given tool/subject.
Do you have any thoughts or experience on this? Even advice specific to your area of expertise would be really interesting to read.
Thanks!
- orangesite 4y agoSlow down. Connect with your child. These are not questions you can ask of other people.
- interesting-wtf 4y ago> These are not questions you can ask of other people. I disagree. I do connect with my child but I am seeking advice from other parents or caretakers with experience in order to fine-tune my approach. Why do you think asking advice from others is off-limits somehow?
- orangesite 4y agoYour relationship is primarily with your child, not with other parents or caretakers. This may make more sense to you once they're older.
- interesting-wtf 4y agoHonestly this seems a bit ridiculous. Do you apply this same line of reasoning to all forms of advice? For instance if I ask another parent how to prevent my son from doing something dangerous would you still claim I shouldn't ask advice from other parents because my relationship is primarily with my child and not them? > This may make more sense to you once they're older. Probably not, and your appeal to authority doesn't work.
- lcnPylGDnU4H9OF 4y agoI would try to focus on asking questions in a way that invokes curiosity. "Why do you think they did it that way?" applies to almost everything. Get them thinking about stuff and they'll eventually get an understanding of the things they like to think about.
- interesting-wtf 4y agoI like seeing this, it's what my father did with me as well. Thanks for the suggestion.
- uberman 4y agoIf you live near one, check out a Montessori School
- interesting-wtf 4y agoYup, currently enrolled.
- uberman 4y agoCool, I also sent my kids to one. Since you trust them and this is their area of expertise, have you spoken to them about this? I feel they are the experts here not some random tech interested people. Put a different way, would you ask them about how to invest a large sum of money or if web3 was more than just hype?