She had no interest at all in learning how to code or gaming but she loved helping in the garden and in the kitchen prepping and cooking meals.
When she got to Jr. High she wanted to join the "Cheerleader" squad so there were a lot early morning rides to school I had to make, and lot's of Basketball games I attended until she graduated, but I had a lot fun cheering along with them.
During those years I setup a campsite on our property so her and her friends could go hang out there. I'm sure they had more fun than most parents would approve of but they never got into any real trouble, the police were never called, and no one got hurt bad enough for the parents to call me. For the most part all those parents knew exactly where their kids were and what they were doing. And that I was close enough to deal with anything that came up. But there were never any serious issues.
She's 37 years old now, still loves to hike, backpack, swim, fish, garden, and cook, and most important, she still likes to hang out with me!
Yesterday he discovered the server mc.openredstone.org. He spent all day yesterday and about one hour today, and he ended up building a 4-bit adder.
On this server players learn how to build logic gates, and mix them so they eventually build CPUs. It's fully gamified, so beginners are called "students" and more advanced players are called "builders". To become a "builder" you need to pass some trials. The "builders" probably have their own challenges (not sure, my son is still a student), in any case, they behave like teachers. So a student will find a builder who will give them instructions, and guide them through more and more complex designs.
So, yesterday my son had no idea what XOR or NAND is, and today he already built a 4-bit adder, and has dreams of building an ALU.
I'm quite excited to be honest. By the way, I'm not in any way connected with whomever put together this Minecraft server. I don't even think it's a for-profit thing, as far as I can tell, it's fully non-profit.
Kids will generally have fun with anything you show a degree of interest in. The copper pipe plumbing example in this thread is a perfect example. A simple Task became a life long activity for the kid. They will remember it forever and tell someone in the future “this time I welded with my dad”… they won’t remember that time my dad didn’t hire a plumber.
Things off the top of my head that have been a hit - Planting plants Fashion design Basic coding activities or contests Shooting Anything that requires safety procedures Lawn work (but make it fun or set a timer) Writing a story where they write some of it, you add in silly bits, they write more , repeat till laughing out loud. Both my girls super in to etiquette
Best of luck buddy and squeeze these years for as much as you can.
Target practice, berry picking, helping my father do woodworking projects, learning to shoot a bow, playing assistant in the kitchen to my sister's baking, collecting vegetables from the garden for dinner, trips to the library with my mother and sister where I would lay on the floor and read Dr. Seuss while my sister worked on stuff for her high school newspaper, putting together imaginary travel wardrobes for my dolls, trying every 'girly' craft I was aware of -- sewing, crochet, etc -- though none of that ever resulted in a finished project otlr really stuck.
As an adult, my sons have helped widen my horizons by telling me stuff like "This 4x game (Master of Magic) is just like your favorite, SimCity" and walking me through how to play it primarily as a city/civilization building game.
If you can find some sweet spot of that sort, I think it would be wonderful. I have read that one of the strongest predictors of career success in women is a good relationship to her father.
Enjoy.
When I ask him what he wants to do he says "I don't know", so I say "We're going swimming in the sea", "Lets plant some seeds", "Today we're cooking / sewing", "Lets pick a spot on the map and go visit it by bus/tram", or "Lets draw pokemon evolving".
(maps are kinda fascinating to him. I often ask him what he thinks he can see if he were stood on top of a particular local landmark - he has a good sense of direction, but no idea of scale/distance.)
Over time I've learned a bit about what he likes, but he's young and fickle enough that some ideas are good one day and terrible the next. (For example he loves swimming and playing football, but when I put him in age-appropriate classes he refused to take part - "I don't like doing what the teacher says, why can't I just have fun and play about?")
Electronics is interesting to him, as is listening to "Daddy music". (Goth/Rock/Metal.) "Mommy music" doesn't appeal as much which I find a little fascinating. Does he genuinely prefer my music, or is it something about me? I know that he behaves and plays differently depending on who he's spending time with ..
It need not be educational in the traditional sense at all either. You could go on hikes, teach about camping/wilderness survival, knot tying/scouts activity stuff. It could even be handyman things if those are of interest to her (I know they would have been of interest to 11yo me) - basics of tools and tool safety (assuming you know it yourself, or perhaps a local course for kids if available). There are more "practical"/lifesaving options too like knowing how to change a tire, or how do perform CPR/Heimlich maneuver.
Additional on a tangential note there are lots of excellent books, but in particular I highly recommend the x Book series by DK (not just for kids but also for adults) (https://www.dk.com/ca/promotion/big-ideas-series/). Encyclopedias are also great, the more pictures the funner they are for some.
Try to do some theater of mind games (d&d or whatever she or both likes). Maybe you can't afford going somewhere but nothings tie you there.
Talking about that if you lives in a city big enough, there must to be hidden places with a story to tell, grab a map a visit that with her. Think about a story you can tell with that. I learnt more about buenos aires (the city where I live) and Chicago (the city where I'm moving soon) because Dresden Files books and roleplaying, than from school. And I learned how to love every city secret because of that.
Why I'm talking about roleplaying and walking time together? Because both will be spending time together and will be knowing (a looot) each other, and over that, you will be feeding her imagination and curiosity.
And it is free.
I remember playing with my father who passed away a few years ago simple word games. We called that Word-building, a game where one player says a word and the next one has to say to word starting with the last letter of the previous word eg: Apple, Egg, Goose, Elephant and so on. Occasionally my father would say an uncommon word and when I asked him what it was, he casually pointed me to the dictionary, asked me to bring it and taught me how to use it.
Another game we played then is what we called Name-Place-Animal-Thing where we pick a letter and then have to say a proper name, a place name, an animal and a thing that starts with that letter. For eg: V -> Victor, Virginia, Viper and Vase.
Kids that age love to learn new words and concepts.
Paper-folding and origami are also great to spend time together.
An easy, not much equipment needed, activity is drawing. What I like about it is that it incentivizes visualizing things (not everyone can, and that is okay, drawing what you are looking at can be fun too!) and since I generally was not great at drawing nobody felt they were too "bad" at it to participate.
A program the girls took advantage of was Reikes Nature studies. One of the things they do is catalog as many things they can see at a nearby wooded park. When I read Feynman's discussion of how the ants became a source of fascination for him I realized that there are zillions of questions right in front in our eyes if we think about it. Or perhaps more accurately wonder why things are the way they are.
David Macaulay has a great book called "The Way Things Work." (and it has funny illustrations of mammoths figuring things out) Reading it together and talking about how things work led to interesting questions which led to interesting projects to see if we could answer those questions.
And generally "active reading" where you read together and talk about the characters in the story, what they might be feeling, why they might be acting the way they are, and how things might be different if something happened in a different way than it does in the book.
Perhaps the best idea to be genuinely interested in what they are interested in, rather than trying to get them interested in something you are interested in. That may seem obvious but it wasn't to me at first.
My eldest and I started doing piano lessons at that age, in part because the music was interesting and in part because I always wanted something "safe" we could talk about (and music was always a good topic of conversation).
Do your own thing and she will see how it looks to be engaged in something you like.
All the other props and gimmicks will only implant your interests on her, which might be the the same and that is ok, but most likely they will not be.
However, she should be with friends around her age as well. Parents are important, but negotiating friendships is invaluable.
Snap-in educational and fully functional circuits: https://www.elenco.com/snap-circuits-2/
Science & crafts toys: https://www.johncoproductions.com/collections/4m
Green & renewable energy toys: https://www.johncoproductions.com/collections/green-science
(Edit: For the second two links, apparently that is a non-US vendor. Sorry about that. But those toys are also commonly available in the US, at toy stores and often, museum gift stores)
Not sure if you have any instruments around the house, but make a song with her
Like another poster said, make magazine. They have tooons of good projects.
My company's curriculum is all public. I frankly don't love all of the projects, but some are pretty darn good. A few of my favorites:
Ghostbusters (Level 1): https://coding.space/launchpad/GqrsER3FnGgSZwyTYgkkDdyyty92-...
Apple Catcher (Level 2): https://coding.space/launchpad/703c1a8d-0c55-4bcb-b3ef-832ee...
Flappy Bird (Level 3): https://coding.space/launchpad/703c1a8d-0c55-4bcb-b3ef-832ee...
This isn't necessarily the be-all end-all way to teach Scratch (there are also official tutorials you can check out), but especially if you as the parent have some coding knowledge, they might be a fun way to learn together. Our philosophy is to provide a goal and some direction (for students who need it) without ever saying exactly what to do. This forces students to learn how to figure things out on their own.
Tiny note, notwithstanding my earlier praise of Scratch, it has one very frustrating design quirk that you might want to be aware of: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31932147
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emile%2C_or_On_Education
Rousseau recommends: Night games, obstacle courses, Natural Method (Parkour), but in short the idea is to let the child be self-directing in their activities. In Rousseau's words, "to gain time by losing it." ie. don't try to direct their activities. Do what is necessary and dutiful in your own regard and teach through example and necessity; never through imposition unless absolutely necessary.
It is pricey new, but you could get an older version used for cheaper.
There's also Nintendo Labo, for a similar, less expensive version.
Carve a spoon: https://www.leevalley.com/en-us/shop/tools/sets/111261-spoon...
- Some crafting
- Some electronics
- If you wish some programming
- A lot of fun afterwards...
It is science / technology focused and aimed at kids around your daughters age.
They explain a lot of fun sciencey things, puzzles and magic tricks that can be made at home from very easy to find parts.
The YT channel has over 1000 short videos : https://youtube.com/c/CuriosityShow
It was made in the 70s and 80s yet much is still totally relevant today. Even the occasional thing that is out of date might be a fun history discussion.
You can find it here: Coloring computers: non-electronic computers that work when you color them https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmYz7DPRWypGQcbAHr7Mi8EKB6ntSPsEnUsCXbA...
And the recent HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31393501
I have a one-and-a-halfer and I keep him busy when I want to kick back at the end of the day by putting some really challenging music on the TV (initially jazz and prog rock, but by now we're watching flamenco and some lieder by Webern and Schoenberg). Kid is really into music; Camel's "Rhayader/Rhayader goes into town" (rock music but instrumental and an almost-suite kind of structure) is his jam, no Backyardigans or Peppa Pig in this home.
He's also very curious about books, physically. I can't tell if he's going to be a reader (of course he likes baby books with the tactile colorful elements) but he likes to touch them on the shelves and had to be taught not to remove them. He might just like rectangular (parallelepipedal?) things.
Anyway, when I imagine keeping my son busy at age 3 I imagine sending him to piano lessons, going to concerts, maybe trying to do two-part harmonies. Also maybe reading him books or just making piles of rectangular bricks -- give him initial ideas and leaving him to it. What will he be like at age 11, I don't know. But I will by then.
Mirrorless camera $500
Drone $400
Two kayaks ~$1000
Whatever it is follow it, no matter how frivolous or irrelevant to future success these may seem. Participate. Really jump into it in an unreasonable way.
Things your children get really interested in have a way of becoming interesting to an open-minded parent. Note that these interest can come and go at the drop of a hat. That's part of the fun!
Assuming you can afford it, how about hiring a camper van and taking off for a month, and see where you end up? There's bound to be places you both would love to see which otherwise would be difficult, and by being away from the trappings of home and email etc, you'll get some amazing quality time together which may not happen again.
11 is a great age, but you are at the start of some difficult years where there's lots of pressure on kids, both from society and from family (go well at school, know what you want to do etc etc). So take advantage of some care free time together!
Once you have a long enough list, pull up a calendar and pick dates for doing these things. Keep options open (e.g. don’t buy tickets to that concert too early) because you will have to adjust the plan.
Then hang the list and the calendar and review/revisit maybe once per week. Add/remove activities from the list, plan them on the calendar. Encourage her to decorate or personalise the plan.
This serves multiple purposes. It involves her in the decision making. Teaches how to organise time and how to plan. Anticipation should build up naturally. She will like a plan that she has done personally (IKEA effect)
Have fun together! This opportunity to spend time with her will be increasingly rare, treasure it
At first, it’s just a big circle floating in the middle of the screen.
Then you make it move diagonally (x+1,y+1 on each iteration of an infinite cycle).
Then you figure out where the extents of the screen are, together, and make it bounce off, and this is where fun starts!
You add new objects for the circle/ball to bounce from, player-controlled pad at the bottom of the screen, devise new levels where ball moves in amusing patterns, breakable blocks and things like power-ups etc. You can add sound at some point.
All in all, this can be an extremely fun journey for weeks!
All I've found so far are Lumino City, Old Man's Journey, and Machinarium. So far all 3 have been huge hits and exactly the pace I've been going for. We've played each one probably 10 times.
What I would do, is establish a more or less organized schedule, but letting her know that you will set apart a certain amount of time daily to play with her. What to do with then, is up to her.
Also, try to get her involved with the house chores. As long as it doesn't feel like work - obviously don't make her work - she'll also enjoy those tasks, while at the same time learning, getting used to it, and enjoying her time with you.
I would do the programming, and the girls would help assemble the parts. But they would be with me and see the programming process. Soldering lead free is difficult, in the end some things I soldered myself with lead. And one of the girls is interested in the programming in the end.
At this age, I rather try to get in tune with the initiative that comes from the kid. She may already have some projects that may benefit from your [measured] participation.
Alternatively, I'd try to find something fun for myself, and then would try to see if there's a room in it for the kid's effort.
All in all, the pre-teen/teens want to know that their choices are respected (no matter how self-contradicting these may be).
First option get a makeymakey and work through the free project videos on their site.
Second option get a microbit and work through the free tutorials on makecode. If you have two microbits, they can talk via onboard radio. They also have Bluetooth so you can connect to a phone.
Third get a copy of the Getting Started in Electronics RadioShak book and build some of the science and circuit projects.
Or to take something I did actually do with my father and enjoyed, going for long walks together.
Tell her that for this project she will be your project manager that would lead to the fruition of the end product; that would be enough to keep her engaged with the whole process.
Good luck!
I am not for video games in general, but I am surprise at the amount of planning, learning involved in this.
We also bought a used cricut and she made some cute stuff with it, but there is a computer drawing side to those projects.
You can build stuff together, learn to draw, etc.
Can do all that an egg can.
Does nothing?, what surpraise!
Here comes the mayonaise...
https://aleteia.org/blogs/simchafisher/whats-for-supper-vol-...
Also, play cards. My kid and cousins are running a rummy “tournament” as I type.
I recommend starting with an RTLSDR ($30 on Amazon) and a homemade dipole. You can use an open source program called GQRX to listen to it. This will be fun to just listen to local FM radio, air traffic controllers, EMS/Police in your area if it’s not encrypted.
If she seems interested and you want to go a bit further, buy a block frequency upconverter (there’s one on Amazon called “ham it up” for ~$30) and make a large antenna for the 20M ham band. You’ll be able to pick up people from all over the country, and if you do a good job on the antenna, all over the world.
Most importantly, it’s fun and you get to work with your hands. You get to have fun trying to get ropes over trees in your yard to hang the antenna high enough. You get to deal with the problem of measuring out 60 feet of wire and cutting it. You have to figure out what trees to hang the antenna on so that it’s pointing where you want to listen (not directly East, but northeast due to the curvature of the earth, Google maps “measure distance” can help give a vector). This is all done with a cheap run of coax and speaker wire, no more than $40 in materials.
If she’s into it, you can get your ham radio technician license for a $15 fee, and you can get two way radios on Amazon for the VHF/UHF bands for $20 (baofeng UV5R). Fun to study for.
- Build a free little library
- Learn to skateboard
- Collaborate on a short-story
- Build a treehouse
- Learn to bake bread
- Plant a garden
- Go on hikes together
- Learn to safely fire a .22 or BB gun
(Edited for layout)
Enrichmentactivities.org
My favorite activity is quality time outdoors . If there is any hike you could do, a beach or a park, that’s always a winner. Spending time in nature being physically active is a great way to keep both of you engaged and spending time together. You could also plan a picnic and make recipes together.
Is there something she’d like to make ? Go on YouTube and figure out how to make a boomerang, tie dye shirts, learn to knit, do origami or sew.
Maybe your daughter could even help you with your job search. Kids, especially 11 year olds are whip smart and love to engage in grownup stuff