On Tue, 3 Mar 2020 15:26:15 -0800 (PST), Mathew Newton
wrote:

On Monday, 2 March 2020 17:51:59 UTC, T i m wrote:

When daughter was young I would encourage her to 'help' in whatever I
was doing and if she wanted to, learn how to do it herself. The first
example of that was her soldering up a Vellerman LED xmas tree project
when she was about 6. ;-)

I'm hoping for similar experiences with our daughter.

And why not. It pained me one day when a mates Mrs asked me 'if I send
our kids away if they show some interest when I am doing d-i-y and
such'? Apparently my mate did (mostly) and whilst there are times when
that is appropriate (when dealing with things that are very hot or
otherwise dangerous), in many cases if you do let them 'help' their
interest won't last long and you won't have pushed them away.

She's only two-and-a-half so some way to go but she's already got her own tape measure and regularly walks round with my tool belt and goggles on, measuring things up.

Aww bless. Ours had similar at that age (and hard hat and goggles,
probably a Fisher Price or Bob the Builder set) and it was funny to
watch her doing stuff and talking to herself about it. ;-)

Will also pretend to cut things with a stanley knife too (to be honest though it is only pretending because she doesn't actually know how to push the blade out.... yet).

Gulp

Daughter often reminds me of when I gave her the safety talk with her
first scalpel for craft use. It slipped somehow (just loose in my
hand, whilst I was parking it back in the cork) and I cut myself quite
badly. "Nice demo Dad". Ok, it wasn't quite the demo I had in mind but
she's never forgotten it. ;-)

There's a downside to her observing me fixing things myself though - she really does seem to think everything can be fixed and so doesn't hesitate in absolutely destroying something knowing that 'dada fix it'...

And of course he can (mostly, as long as Aunty doesn't look too
closely as that vase she gave you). ;-)

We tried to get our daughter(s) to have a go at most things, from
dancing to go-karting, from marital arts to art galleries and then
they might get a better idea of what might interest them in the
future, be it a hobby or career.

There is nothing more saddening that talking to a youth of today,
asking them if they are into any sports or hobbies and them just
shrugging. I guess even they get FIFA isn't a real sport (even if they
can earn money out of playing it).

I think the key to much of it is our time. I don't think they really
care what they are doing, as long as it's with us and it's involving.

If we were out walking I would 1) play tricks on her, like 'Look at
that lovely blue cow', just to hear her say 'No Daddy, that cows brown
....' or when they get a bit older, play opposites. First ask them the
opposite of left, up or hot and then slowly move on to 'misty' or
'furry' etc. ;-)

The other thing if you haven't already (and can take it), is music. A
basic electronic keyboard and play / learn a simple tune with them and
keep that going as often / long as you can. Not only will it be nice
for them to be able to play an instrument when they get older (guitar
round the campfire (or bong these days?)) but I believe it helps their
neural networks as well.

We aren't particularly 'clever' or academic but I'm not sure it was
just a coincidence or the music (recorder, piano, oboe) lessons that
in secondary school, our daughter won the 'Highest girl achiever in
her year and had the highest music qualifications in the school. She
was also invited to join NAGTY, partly off the back of her music but
she declined. "So, I can look forward to going away to play chess with
a bunch of geeks ...".

Her life, her choice and some of us prefer to do stuff with our hands,
or with people or animals. ;-)

Cheers, T i m