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102 sats \ 6 replies \ @SimpleStacker 6 Aug \ on: What Kids Told Us About How to Get Them Off Their Phones alter_native
Rings true from my experience.
But it feels like a rat race / prisoner's dilemma. The thought that goes through the helicopter parent's head is: "If I don't put my kid in all these structured activities, they are going to lose out academically to the other kids."
And I experienced it myself. I told my wife I didn't want to put my kids in Kumon / Math Circle at an early age. They are now not as good at math as some of their peers who did those things.
And in an economy where the prospects of a good job seem increasingly dim and reserved for only a lucky few at the top, it's no wonder parents feel the way they do.
I told my wife I didn't want to put my kids in Kumon
Ha, we had a Kumon teacher coming once a week last year, and my son was supposed to do the homework daily for math, English, and Hangeul. We quickly stopped. They use really archaic methods. Even though he had already mastered counting, they still wanted him to write hundreds of sheets of the same numbers every week. He started seeing Kumon as a chore. He's only 5 now.
We then found Wink School. Also based on self-learning, but much more entertaining, and using a more modern mindset. Still he learns a lot and asks himself when we forget to give him his daily 15 minutes of classes...
Yet, I'd rather he didn't have to do either and could just focus on school stuff at school, maybe some homework, and get to play with friends or by himself, when outside of school.
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since we're homeschooling, there's not as clear a division between school and the rest of life. Perhaps this is a little risky, in that we are not always as focused as we should be, but all in all, I believe I'm seeing benefits to blurring school and life. It feels like most of what I'm doing in teaching them these days is viewpoint shaping.
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Do you feel that there are two separate things here?
- parents who want their kids to be extra super high achievers
- parents who are unreasonably freaked out that their kids are going to be kidnapped
These can coexist in the same parent, but perhaps also can appear separately.
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Yes, I think these two things are separate. In my experience, the first type is way more common than the second type.
I'm actually surprised by the high percentages of parents who think their kid would get injured or abducted at a park. That doesn't cohere with my personal experience and my understanding of my friends either.
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i don't see many kids walking around my neighborhood by themselves...
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I sometimes see kids out walking the dog on their own, or to the local Trader Joes. Maybe not the super young ones, but middle schoolers and up.
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