How to share my interests with kids?
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Anonymous
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Kids (boy & girl) are fine doing the same thing like playground, pool, soccer, ballet etc. I am the mom that is bored and want to get out of house if I take PTO to take care of kids or do something fun on weekend. I have my own interests, but I don't think they are not fit for my kids at these ages yet or they find it boring. I don't want to leave them at home with me out of house, and I don't mind doing kid things as long as it is not always the same things over and over again.
In the past, I have taken them to do things I like, like ice skating, gardening, nature hike etc. May I ask if there are any kid family activity or places that are related to GIS, radio station, studying cloud/weather pattern, stargazing, color, geology studying rocks, painting protrait etc? I used to intensively studying art, rock, geography and GIS in my young days. Kids do not appreciate boring art museum or me spending hours looking into rocks, soil, maps or drawing. I want to spend time with them together. I am the kind of mom that put kids priority ahead of me. We are in dmv area. |
Anonymous
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Get them started on Geocaching.
For stargazing, look into local astronomy clubs. With younger children, the best months to stargaze can be in the winter, when the sun sets earlier. Here's a list: https://gewa.gsfc.nasa.gov/clubs/astronomy/links2.htm#areaclubs |
Anonymous
| Just keep bringing them along to things that you like and pay attention to what they like and see if there's any intersection. For example d d is really into clothes and I like going to museums. So we'll do things like go to the costume institute at the met |
Anonymous
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The Smithsonian museums offer a lot. You don't say how old your kids are but check out https://www.si.edu/visit/kids
NASA Goddard Visitor Center is fun and free. Hands-on exhibits and a schedule of model rocket launches and other activities. Rock Creek Park Nature Center has a small planetarium and some exhibits. You can start working on National Park Service Junior Ranger badge activities there and then research all the other NPS sites where kids can earn Junior Ranger badges. And +1 geocaching |
Anonymous
| Kids are 5 (girl) and 8 (boy). Op here. I try to promote my interests asking them to sign up through summer camp or weekend classes. They say no, and they only want swimming pool, playground and multi- sports for 10 weeks of summer. |
Anonymous
Interesting list, thanks |
Anonymous
When my friend who is an artist takes kids to art museums (I've been with her for this), she asks them a bajillion questions about what they see and how they are looking. It's not couched in art-world terms, but it leads kids to think like artists. She learned it from her own mom (also an artist). I marveled at it when I saw it. If you want your kids to catch your interests, you have to take them where they are and teach them to see. Take them to the different art Smithsonians and really look at the art. Take the to Natural History and go through gems and minerals and follow their fancy, but also pause to try to let them catch the wonder in yours. Unfortuantely you'll have to start by focusing on sharing wonder rather than reading the plaques. You'll have to take it down to kid level. But you can share it, and when they're old enough they'll the ones sharing wonder with you. |
Anonymous
| Very cool interests, OP! I echo PP’s recommendation for geocaching. Another idea but perhaps slightly further afield from your core hobbies is Ancestral Knowledge, an organization that teaches kids primitive wilderness skills and about things like edible plants and making bows and arrows. We did a family workshop with them and learned to make fires without flints or matches- was pretty cool. https://www.ancestralknowledge.org/family-programs/ |
Anonymous
Kids that age don't need that much decision-making power. They need to experience things before they can really decide anyway. So, instead of "What do you want to do for camp?" ask "For the first two weeks, do you want art camp or STEM camp? Then you can go back to the camp you liked last summer for the next two weeks." Or "you pick camp for the beginning of summer. At the end of the summer, I signed you up for nature camp. If you like it, then you can go for more weeks next summer or try something else." If you hope they'll become interested in things that interest you, do those things together and try to make it fun. Low-pressure, move at their place, build in motivation like ending the afternoon at a new playground or by getting a treat like ice cream or a small souvenir. |
Anonymous
These are your interests, not theirs. So if you want them to share them, you need to be the one to teach them. That means time with mom doing the activities, not going to camps or classes |
Anonymous
| It doesn’t sound like you spend much time with your kids. They seem like they’re used to being dropped off for an activity and not much of an interaction between you all. You can change this dynamic by I suppose starting to get to know them. Maybe taking time off to hang out with them. |
Anonymous
+1. You don’t need to sign them up for cloud-watching camp or gardening camp. Just do it together |
Anonymous
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I am too poor to send my kids to STEM camp so I share my interests with them myself. I have a telescope and invite them to take a look. Visiting museums of all kinds. Collecting minerals. Growing plants.
My kids aren't particularly interested but I have a niece who is. My parents were not scientific either -- I got it from my uncle. So just be prepared that your kids might not like what you do. |
Anonymous
I truly cannot believe I am about to say this, because it's not my usual parenting strategy at all, but... They are 5 and 8. You do not have to ask their permission to put them in activities that align with your interests. There are any number of art classes or nature classes that they could enroll in through the museums, through the Zoo, through the counties' various programs. Just because they want to do pool and 10 weeks of soccer doesn't mean that's what has to happen. |
Anonymous
| I don't know, when I was a little kid, I just went where mom went, I never was like oh this is not interesting--we took the bus to pay the light bill, we went to the nail salon and I had to hold her purse while her nails dried, etc. I was just "there", it wasn't a thing. |