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I'm not sure it's a good thing to let kids get into the digital world this early, since it's full of bad influences these days; what happens if young girls see those onlyfan making money online that way?
How about making something with their hands, then rewarding them 🤔
Agreed. Instead of teaching them to become a little capitalist that time may be better had teaching them how to build something, how to solve puzzles, how to use a tool to solve that puzzle, etc. Or more generally, just give them that time to pursue their interests while outside the classroom. Nature, art, whatever it may be.
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but how are they supposed to make me money if they are "pursuing their interests"? (sorry, couldn't resist)
we don't have a classroom (homeschooling), so there is quite a lot of freedom in their day. This challenge is about affirming that children can produce useful things, too. And I'm hoping that they'll be able to learn this by making a product of some sort and convincing strangers to buy it.
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102 sats \ 1 reply \ @SevenOfNine 2h
Their interests will develop into careers. Some more profitable than others. Forcing profit seeking behaviors and interests onto a child can rob them a bit of that valuable exploration phase potentially hindering the development of their own interests.
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10 sats \ 0 replies \ @Natalia 2h
agree, I think the better approach would be to develop hands-on skills from a young age, then learn digital skills when they are ready. Since hands-on skills require way more time and effort to learn compared to digital ones, it also teach kids to be patient and focus, building a good foundation for them to learn anything with the internet later on.
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We do make some crafty things (potholders, beading, rubberband bracelets, greeting cards, etc...) and they have tried selling potted plants and stickers and coloring books that they made at various markets we've gone to. However, I'm hoping to push them into something that has to compete on its merits, rather than selling to a captive audience of parents who buy things because the kids are cute. Sometimes making crafts and then rewarding them feels like it's another version of homework. I want to do child labor.1
The digital world is pretty awful, isn't it? I'm fairly careful to walk with them through the journey of spending time online, but I'm also aware that they are going to have to learn to live in the digital world. I have not found sheltering my kids to be a very helpful practice. But I plan on being very involved, so I don't expect them to be exposed to too much awfulness without context.

Footnotes

  1. Here's how I'm thinking about this: in the US (maybe also most of the west) there's an idea that kids don't really do useful stuff as a part of their education. Learning is always denoted by the uselessness of the work (I wonder what Veblen would have to say about this...). But there's no reason kids can't embark on building a life of useful productivity right now. They have good ideas. They just need a bit of support to give it a shot. At the very least, I want them to get used to the idea of taking a risk and failing. There's very little risk in homework. ↩
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