Slashdot Asks: What Will You (Or Your Kids) Learn This Summer? 81
For those in the northern hemisphere, summer is rapidly approaching, especially for those with kids. Camps, educational programs, and other activities are enrolling now, in advance of the long summer vacation. (Particularly long for Americans!) Aside from conventional sleepaway options for kids, there are science and technology courses, space camps, survival adventures, and more. Whatever your age, and whether on your own or as part of a formal group, do you have any specific learning activities planned for the summer, whether as participant or parent? Are there summer education opportunities you'd like to recommend to others, or ones you'd rate as not worth the price? (Naming details helps, in this context -- which space camp? How much does it cost?)
Slashdot articles (Score:1)
I'm going to learn writing Slashdot articles. How hard can it be.
Not code.org's programs - he's a boy :-( (Score:1)
I'd get my son on a code.org program, but I can't because they pay teachers to exclude boys :-(
http://developers.slashdot.org/story/13/11/24/187255/codeorg-more-money-for-cs-instructors-who-teach-more-girls
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country (Score:2, Interesting)
We live in the city so I'm going to dump our kids at my parents over the summer, country style. The kids will get to roam around freely in fields, forests, lakes, watch the stars in the night and all of it.
Re:country (Score:4, Interesting)
We live in the city so I'm going to dump our kids at my parents over the summer, country style.
Same here. My kids will be staying with their grandparents on my wife's side, who live in Zhejiang, and speak zero English. In addition to tending to the chickens, and learning how to plant rice, I expect that they will considerably improve their Mandarin vocabulary.
This (Score:3)
We live in the city so I'm going to dump our kids at my parents over the summer, country style. The kids will get to roam around freely in fields, forests, lakes, watch the stars in the night and all of it.
This is absolutely the right thing to do for younger kids. Do that plus take away most internet access and game consoles and make sure they're surrounded by books. They will play and read all summer long without much direction and learn more from it than we can remember not knowing.
Kids Today! (Score:2)
I will never understand the fascination with books. Since I was 15, I have read maybe 3-5 books outside of required school reading and I seem to be more intelligent and more accomplished than most.
The book readers tend to be the ones going nowhere because they're too busy reading about it, versus people like me who are actually doing things and may end up writing books about our experiences later - to profit off you book readers.
15 is a little older (but not too old) as compared to the age range I'm thinking about. Books let kids build vocabulary, think about things much more complex than they see in movies, and use their creativity to subconsciously add hundreds of details not on the page. It helps them learn to think without everything being spoon-fed to them.
Experiences "actually doing things," as you put it, is also incredibly important. I would go a step further and say that it's important that kids who grow up in one schoo
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Lot's of parent won't let their kid near a saw, supervised or not, nor allow them to ride more than 2 minutes way from the house, so they never make it out of the book.
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. Since I was 15, I have read maybe 3-5 books outside of required school reading and I seem to be more intelligent and more accomplished than most.
Hint: you're not.
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We live in the city so I'm going to dump our kids at my parents over the summer, country style. The kids will get to roam around freely in fields, forests, lakes, watch the stars in the night and all of it.
You missed out being forced to wake up at 4am and milk the cows, then getting killed by wolves as they trudge home from their work in the fields in the evening.
Kite Hyrdofoiling (Score:3)
"Especially for those with kids" (Score:2, Funny)
> For those in the northern hemisphere, summer is rapidly approaching, especially for those with kids
Summer is approaching for me, a single guy, at the same rate as it does for my next door neighbors, who do. Why the fuck even make that distinction?
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You've been here since '98 (beat me by a year) and you don't remember goatse? A kid is a goat offspring.
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Seriously? I've been here longer, and have read multiple comments about peoples children. Sorry, but the whole site isn't all about you, and maybe that gives some insight into why you don't have kids.
college... (Score:1)
$2500 for two classes this summer... operating systems and global technologies (I'm done with my major and minor all I need is any old crap filler classes to hit my 124 credits... )
My brother-in-law (13 years old) normally does camps camps camps during the summer... this year the only one I know for sure is band camp, he plays trumpet. Now they live in lansing so they might have more opportunities than some cities. On the other hand, a year or two ago he went to a university camp several states away for a
I don't know, duh (Score:4, Insightful)
What Will You (Or Your Kids) Learn This Summer?
If I knew that already, I wouldn't be learning it this summer.
open european go tournament (Score:1)
Two weeks of go-games, workshops, teaching games and more for my son and me ;-)
This summer (Score:3)
Winter was freestyle skiing - she just finished that this week. Summer will be French camp, a museum camp, and Defcon/r00tz this year.
Min
If i had kids (Score:2)
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Doesn't mean you shouldn't avail yourself to non-traditional learning opportunities. Yes, outside is extremely important, but just as you exercise their muscles, so should you exercise their minds.
Basically they can go outside to play, and learn at the same time - creativity (have them try to create a game while they play), sports (if they desire), engineering (try building a treehouse), a
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It's so easy to learn, and there are plenty of activities (even simple "playing outside") where learning can happen. As a parent, all you need to do is encourage it. And also balance - it's completely normal to veg out and play video games as well - but only to end a day of exercising the body and the mind.
My point is not that learning is bad, it's that excessive and forceful directed learning is bad. Summer should not be the time you use to try and force more learning on your child, it should be the time when you let them learn the most important type of learning in life... self learning. Play is just that, the beginning of self learning.
Not to mention it's important for kids to actually have fun... Sure every kid is different and learn in different ways, however it's implicitly true that every kid will be h
Swimming (Score:3)
My son is 18 months and will be in a Swim-Float-Swim class where they teach them basic survival swimming.
Of course he'll also be learning talking, walking/running, playground, etc and all those other things kids learn between 18 and 24 months.
School is Year Round and Life Long (Score:4, Interesting)
School is never out. We homeschool. We're always learning. It's not classroom sit down book learning much of the time but real world things to a large degree. Projects are multi-discipline.
The latest project our family is almost finished with:
Building a USDA / State inspected modern meat processing facility (a.k.a. butcher shop)
History, government, regulations, economics, business, math, engineering, material sciences, architecture, construction, plumbing, electrical, water supply systems, heating, ventilation, refrigeration, meat cutting and so much more...
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Building a USDA / State inspected modern meat processing facility (a.k.a. butcher shop)
History, government, regulations, economics, business, math, engineering, material sciences, architecture, construction, plumbing, electrical, water supply systems, heating, ventilation, refrigeration, meat cutting and so much more...
Leatherface, chainsaw . . . ?
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You miss the point. Our family owns, builds, operates and creates it. Same as we did for our house which we also built ourselves, our greenhouse that we also built for ourselves. While you wasted your time in school doing fake things we do real applications and get real benefits. It's a real world out there, kiddo.
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Nice. I have a deal with my kids that if they can learn the next grade's materials over the summer (with as much support as they need but relying on their own dedication) then they can homeschool next year. They're specifically interested in the homesteading kinds of opportunities they can't get at a government school or at home when government school dominates 9-10 hours of their day (for 2-3 hours of learning).
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they can't get at a government school or at home when government school dominates 9-10 hours of their day (for 2-3 hours of learning).
If they're getting 2 to 3 hours of actual learning at that school per day, keep sending them there because it's the best school in the conutry by about 3 orders of magnitude.
OpenSCAD (Score:1)
Google? (Score:2)
Mandarin (Score:2)
My daughter will be spending the Summer in Taipei studying Mandarin.
Learn To Fly (Score:2)
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We'll be living Phineas and Ferb (Score:2)
Actually we'll go camping a lot, the kids are only five.
Geography.... (Score:2)
I will learn what the roads look like and feel like as well as what the coastline of every Great Lake will look like from my motorcycle. I'm going to ride around every single one of them.
Next year I get to learn what it feels like to ride from Chicago to Anchorage, Alaska and back. And I assume how to dodge bears and elk.
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I was told that moose were soft and cuddly....
I knew I should not have trusted that guy in the red jacket and big hat.
Man stuff (Score:2)
home repairs
truck oil change/chassis lube/tire rotation rope climbing courses
hot lunch meat w/melted, cheese sandwiches & scrambled eggs(how to make)
how to do a fresh OS software install
BF3
a day at Busch Garden doing a little height de-sensitivity training on all the roller coasters
shark fishing from a kayak.
This summer will be:
BF4
SCUBA diving
how to drive a stick shift truck(private roads for
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This sounds quiet dangerous:
truck oil change/chassis lube/tire rotation rope climbing courses
But also quite exciting.
Bicycle repair and maintenance (Score:2)
This, I think, is one of the best ways to form a bond between me and my son: I teach him how to take care of bicycles, how to use tools and how some minor issues are fixed. This also increases his hand dexterity and other skills. We're both having fun doing this, and then riding our bikes.
Life skills (Score:2)
First, we'll start out by going camping in the coastal redwoods. He'll be the camp fire starter as he usually is. Making smores is important :-)
Next, he'll work on improving his cooking. Let's face it. If one wants to eat, it's important to be able to prepare meals. Nothing like Costco crap in a box or mac and cheese. Our meals are from scratch and they have been since he was born (I made his baby food... not a "helpless male" here). Cooking (like playing music, etc.) tends to bring people together a
summer camp and homeschool (Score:1)
something in the natural world (Score:2)