ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area OT: Parents Give your kids the gift of learning

Like the therad!

I was reading adult level in the first grade (remember Dick, Jane, and Spot? Yikes!) I made crystal radios from library books at 5 or 6 yrs. old. No diode; the detector was made from a pencil lead on a blue razor blade.

(Okay, I made them from wire and parts; I learned how from books.)

My son, who will be 18 in two weeks (Yikes again!), read Green Eggs and Ham to his pre-school class when he was 4! How? "Hooked on Dad", that's how. Every day was a chance to teach him something.

He could do multiple-column addition at 5, too. He thought carrying to the next column was such an interesting concept back then, and adjusted to borrowing for subtraction quite well.

He is still an avid reader. His last book was The DaVinci Code, and he loved it. I don't have the patience to read novels, but I read a dozen or so technical magazines monthly, and keep a copy of the NEC with me at all times.

I also agree with all of you and did something about it years ago.

I actually bought my two sons computers instead of Nintendo or X Box. We played some games together at night via our network but most of their computer time was spent either learning to program and create their own games, or doing homework.

Today my oldest is finializing his PHD from Standford in Mechcanical Engineering while my youngest is in his junior year at Berkeley studing Bio-Engineering. Both kids with above "A" GPA.

I just love to read!!

i dont now take a book to the jobsite as i never seemed to get any work done!!!

i read alot of Sci Fi and fantasy, and of course any technical manual going, also the local Newspaper in the evening and a couple of magazines.

i suppose its just how i was raised really.
out as soon as my homework/chores were done into the wooded area around our old house.

kids these days do not know they are born.

and i am only just nearing the good old 40 years, am i getting old? who cares!

Britspark

I spent hours doing that when I was kid, maybe thats why I'm not afraid of heights. We had 2 huge Maples in the front yard. They hung out over Main street. We could sit up there in the summer and no one could see you if you didn't want them to. Much fun.
Not sure my step son has ever climbed a tree

I have couple things to add- my school district and my highschool especially put a HUGE emphasis on reading, you must read and you must be able to comprehend novels to graduate, unfortunately the internet has made cheating exceedingly easy, many kids never do a single book report in highschool , it's all downloaded from the internet.
and on a scary note: some highschool aged kids don't know what the Holocaust was and MOST have no idea what the Cold War was....