Kids passions and how to feed them

[My3girls]

Ok, I am looking for ideas on how to feed my kids' passions so I thought I would ask what your kids' passions are and what you are doing.  Maybe, there are some resources you are using that I haven't found yet.  Also, it's nice to hear what other kids are doing beside the 3 R's.

 

DD13...  animal conservation, especially, reptiles.  She is raising a Bearded Dragon, and we have attended Repticon.  She is involved with a few on-line reptile groups.  We have looked at official organizations, but they are too far away.  This summer she plans to volunteer at the local animal shelter and is researching to see if there are any somewhat local reptile rescues.

 

DD10...  Minecraft.  I have introduced her to code.org, and she loves it.  I am hoping once she gets a few courses under her belt to re-introduce scratch.  It was too much for her first go, and code seems to be filling in that gap pretty well.

 

DD8...  Digital Media/dramatic arts.  She has a camcorder/camera that she experiments with regularly.  She will be starting guitar lessons as soon as we can get it in the budget.  I am researching a digital movie making class with Microsoft and video editing software.  She is, also, in the planning stages of a video blog which we hope to start once she has the basics of the digital movie making/editing down.  I hope to get her in a drama class next fall.

[Arcadia]

For your DD8, Microsoft has free summer camps at their stores which includes digital movie making. Apple also have free summer camps at their stores and they teach iMovie.

[Angie in VA]

For your DD8, Microsoft has free summer camps at their stores which includes digital movie making. Apple also have free summer camps at their stores and they teach iMovie.

 

 

I never knew this. Thanks! 

[Arcadia]

I never knew this. Thanks! 

 

I don't know how old your kids are. Think the camps are for age 8 and above.  Below quoted is an example of a free class at the Microsoft store.  You have to go to the page for your local store and RSVP for any free events you think your child might want to attend.  Its year round, not just in summer. 

 

"Event details:

Create. Code. Play. Go behind the scenes and learn how to code, program, and play in your own gaming world. You’ll use kid-friendly programming to learn how creativity and problem solving come together to make something all your own. Campers will explore technologies like TouchDevelop and Windows App Studio, and become familiar with the coding environment, as they explore what’s possible when building an app. Camp curriculum designed for ages 11 to 13. Register today as camps fill up quickly. While your child is in camp, take a 30-minute course on topics such as online security, smart computing, and building a game with your child. The parent, legal guardian or authorized adult caregiver of every camp participant must remain in the Microsoft store for the duration of the event."

 

For Apple summer camps, the camps get filled up once the registration is open since it is popular locally.

https://www.apple.com/retail/camp/notify.html

[Angie in VA]

Again, I thank you. 

 

It appears ds is too old, but it's great info.

 

 

 

I don't know how old your kids are. Think the camps are for age 8 and above.  Below quoted is an example of a free class at the Microsoft store.  You have to go to the page for your local store and RSVP for any free events you think your child might want to attend.  Its year round, not just in summer. 

 

"Event details:

Create. Code. Play. Go behind the scenes and learn how to code, program, and play in your own gaming world. You’ll use kid-friendly programming to learn how creativity and problem solving come together to make something all your own. Campers will explore technologies like TouchDevelop and Windows App Studio, and become familiar with the coding environment, as they explore what’s possible when building an app. Camp curriculum designed for ages 11 to 13. Register today as camps fill up quickly. While your child is in camp, take a 30-minute course on topics such as online security, smart computing, and building a game with your child. The parent, legal guardian or authorized adult caregiver of every camp participant must remain in the Microsoft store for the duration of the event."

 

For Apple summer camps, the camps get filled up once the registration is open since it is popular locally.

https://www.apple.com/retail/camp/notify.html

 

 

[Arcadia]

 

It appears ds is too old, but it's great info.

 

If he is too old for those programs, ask him to look at YouthSparks which goes up to age 24.  It is group into 6-12 years old, 13-17 years old, 18-24 years old.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/youthspark/youthsparkhub/programs/

[Stellalarella]

I have a 16yo who self-taught how to build computers and fix electronics.  Here's how it happened:

 

About 6th grade, we gave him the famous Radio Shack book "How to Get Started in Electronics," some Snap Circuits, and we let him take apart "stuff."  

 

We didn't get him a new computer even though he desperately wanted one, so a family friend gave him an old dying computer, which he proceeded to take apart and put back together to get up and running.

 

We refused to get him an ipod or iphone, so he traded for stuff, acquiring dead/broken items, took them apart and figured out how to repair them, and got himself an iphone. 

 

He wanted to set up a Minecraft server, and we said, "Uh, NO!" He then started acquiring many other old junky computers until he aggregated enough parts to build a computer, then he learned how to set up a server...and the next thing I know there is a Minecraft server sitting on my washer hardwired up to the internet.  Man, I was so irritated that he had disobeyed and yet still so proud he had figured out how to do it all.

 

Later on he was able to join an FRC Robotics team. 

 

In sum, we provided some initial guidance, toys and the freedom to experiment.  (Please be advised that the experimentation phase is not tidy.) We also limited him by not providing everything; because his desire was great and we didn't blunt his desire by buying stuff for him, he pushed himself to get the parts and learn the skills.  

 

I will say that he also acquired some mentors for himself.  Needless to say, there is nothing my husband or I could teach him about computers.  What he learned he learned from asking questions of people in the know, asking questions online, experimenting, and (gasp) reading. 

 

Homeschooling gave him the TIME to do these things--which he would not have had if he had been going to a B&M school.  

 

I think the important things we can do as parents to nurture these passions in our kids is to give them TIME and FREEDOM TO EXPERIMENT.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Angie in VA]

If he is too old for those programs, ask him to look at YouthSparks which goes up to age 24.  It is group into 6-12 years old, 13-17 years old, 18-24 years old.

 

http://www.microsoft.com/about/corporatecitizenship/en-us/youthspark/youthsparkhub/programs/

 

 

As I tell my dc, "You're my favorite."

 

And I mean it!

[Dmmetler]

I can speak to your DD13's passion because I'm there as well. My DD is very, very focused on reptiles and amphibians, especially snakes and frogs.

 

Herpetological Conservation and Biology is an open-access quarterly journal in herpetology, focused on conservation. DD's herpetology mentor is one of the editors. It's a good journal. You can also find a lot of journal articles that are referenced online by looking up the author's page at whatever university, zoo, or other center that employs them. Often even if the journal itself is behind a paywall, the author has permission to distribute it. It's the current equivalent of getting a box of copies to distribute. You can also sometimes e-mail the author and they'll send you a copy as well. If you get to the point that she wants to read professional journals, a student membership to SSAR is about $50/yr and provides online access to not only their current journals, but all the past ones that have been put online as well. If you do that, you will need to provide proof of student status-we register with a cover school, so I sent them a copy of DD's 5th grade report card.

 

 

This is the time of year that conference calls will be out. Regional/State conferences will usually be a better bet for your first time out. These conferences are nothing like Repticon-no live animals, and usually very little actually being sold. They're intense-every 15 minutes, someone else is explaining their research, and the terminology used is designed for graduate students and professionals in the field, not for amateurs. They can be depressing, especially on the conservation side, so be prepared, because it can be hard.

 

Great organizations that I've found very supportive of DD are Save the Frogs! and Advocates for Snake Preservation. Both are small, conservation focused groups that LOVE kids being involved and will support them, both have good websites/facebook pages to follow, and both will treat a $20 donation scraped out of a kids' allowance with a lot of fanfare. A lot of the bigger groups do amazing work, and they're good to follow as well, but they often tend to be less encouraging of kids. I'd also look for local ones-for us, we found a herp advocacy group set up by a few older retired guys who have big snakes and who are concerned about the Lacey act-and have time to take their snakes to schools and the like. DD has been able to participate in this as well, and it has been a wonderful experience for her. She has started her own campaign to make kids more comfortable with snakes, where she sells toy snakes at repticon to benefit education programs, then gives them out at schools and community events with a link to her blog and social media feeds, where she writes original comics and articles on snakes, as well as reposting interesting and cool stuff about them. So far, it's slow growing, but it definitely gives her a project to work on, and a lot of writing practice as well.  Through that group, she's also been able to volunteer and get husbandry experience with people who keep larger numbers of animals, which is something that can then be used to apply for a volunteer position with a non-profit-for the most part, the people who are hobbyists don't have the age concerns zoos and nature centers have.

 

I hope this helps a little! Passionate kids are awesome, but it can be a bit overwhelming, too!

 

 

 

 

 

[Donna]

Two of my kids are passionate about music especially Irish traditional music.

 

This involves lessons, learning new tunes on their own, researching tunes and composers, writing their own tunes, gigs, hanging out at Irish music sessions on weekends, performing and arranging music with others, lots of travel, summer music camps, competition, and recently a lot of time in the recording studio working on a debut album, participating in another musician's album, and for dd working on the music for an author's audio-book with live performances of the audio-version. Dd has also been involved in classical music, orchestra, and enjoys learning music theory and music history.

 

My ds is also very interested in sound production and photography so has been watching online and DVD lectures, trading and bargaining for equipment, hanging out with mentors, and practicing.

[Mommy22alyns]

Ok, I am looking for ideas on how to feed my kids' passions so I thought I would ask what your kids' passions are and what you are doing.  Maybe, there are some resources you are using that I haven't found yet.  Also, it's nice to hear what other kids are doing beside the 3 R's.

 

DD13...  animal conservation, especially, reptiles.  She is raising a Bearded Dragon, and we have attended Repticon.  She is involved with a few on-line reptile groups.  We have looked at official organizations, but they are too far away.  This summer she plans to volunteer at the local animal shelter and is researching to see if there are any somewhat local reptile rescues.

 

DD10...  Minecraft.  I have introduced her to code.org, and she loves it.  I am hoping once she gets a few courses under her belt to re-introduce scratch.  It was too much for her first go, and code seems to be filling in that gap pretty well.

 

DD8...  Digital Media/dramatic arts.  She has a camcorder/camera that she experiments with regularly.  She will be starting guitar lessons as soon as we can get it in the budget.  I am researching a digital movie making class with Microsoft and video editing software.  She is, also, in the planning stages of a video blog which we hope to start once she has the basics of the digital movie making/editing down.  I hope to get her in a drama class next fall.

 

 

Thank you for this!!  I have an almost 10 yo who adores Minecraft and this will be perfect for her!  I haven't found anything yet.

 

Rebecca is gymnastics obsessed.  I get gymnast bios for her, we watch YouTube and USAG videos, I share gymnastics pins, we work on sports nutrition, and I educate myself all the time... if anyone has more suggestions, I'm listening!

[PeacefulChaos]

This is so interesting to me. 

 

Only in the last... oh... I'd say, 6 months or so... has Link (just turned 11) had anything noticeable that he really liked.  Well, I take that back, he's always liked snakes - had every single page of this big snake identification book memorized a few years ago (we saw a snake in the yard one day - harmless - and he was like, 'Well, it sort of resembles a _____, but it's clearly not that because it doesn't have ____ - not to mention, that snake only lives in the ___ region of ____.'   :lol: ).  But more recently, it's been standing out more and more that he likes animals.  When we went to The VLM in December, he left saying he wanted to work there when he grows up.  Meh, we'll see.  

Even with this interest, I'm not sure it's something that will stick around for the long run.  I mean, I think most kids love animals.  It's just their nature.   :lol:  I know Pink and Astro do, too.  

As far as doing things to align with it (and I'm not ready to call it a passion), nothing out of the ordinary.  There's a rescue zoo a couple hours away that we may go to sometime.  This summer I'll probably sign Link, at least, up for a summer day camp thing at the local zoo.  Hands on, behind the scenes type stuff.  It's for ages 6-13, and I *might* send Astro, too... Pink will technically be old enough by then but I'm not sure she'll want to do it yet.

 

Astro (9) doesn't really seem to have anything.  He loves being outdoors, hiking, playing in the woods, at the creek, etc.  But again, typical kid behavior - just because he enjoys it (and may enjoy it for his entire life), doesn't mean it's a passion or that he'll turn it into anything more.  We live in a good place for a lot of that sort of thing, so it comes naturally a lot, and the hiking portion we make a point to do on a regular basis.

 

Pink is 5.5 so yeah, nothing there lol.  

 

[Dmmetler]

On passions, my DD 10's herp projects are featured on the facebook page Herp think tank today! https://www.facebook.com/HerpThinkTank

 

Also, if anyone else has kids who are willing to go to a little work, the International Herpetological Symposium has some funding support for this summer's meeting. The application deadline is March 15.