S/O What activities do you recommend?

[Anonymous]

Flag Football

Pickleball

Plus, it's 2 sports i can actually play with/practice with them.

[Anonymous]

Cricket and Tabla drumming.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Swimming as a life skill, chess to build concentration, one individual sport (like tennis or martial arts) and one team sport but not football.

Not many people I know can swim.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learning to handle the stress of being a softball pitcher has been a massive confidence builder for my DD. As parents we wouldn't trade those hours spent sitting on a bucket catching for anything.

I was excited for softball for DD then I quickly realized how insane some of the parents were, no thanks... we bowed out of that quickly.

I mean, my kids currently play rec, rec+, and low key school ball. And even in the travel world we know of teams that are pretty chill. Just like with every activity on the "things you won't do" thread this one was spun off of, there's levels and there's levels.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Robotics for my younger son. It didn't take in the elementary years through toys, camps, etc.

Then all of a sudden it took in 9th grade. Because high-school level robotics is much more serious than the next age groups down.

I also recommend robotics for girls. Great place to learn computer programming, mechanical fabrication skills, project teams that are more productive than schoolwork project groups.

For me it was high school choir as a class. My mom made me because I had dropped all my instruments I started. I didn't want to at first. But I liked it because it didn't require boring at-home practicing, lessons, and instruments transport, while still allowing music-making. I ended up meeting my husband in college choir.

Robotics and choir are also not as expensive as extracurricular sports.

Why would ANYONE encourage their dc to spend more time with devices? I don't get this at all. Same with "coding" classes for dc, coding isn't that hard they can learn it if they choose to - especially with AI - so why impose such an unhealthy habit on them?

It's very rude of you, PP, to be so judgmental.

A lot of high school robotics is more similar to large appliance repair than "being on devices". When you are building, maintaining, and remote control driving a physical object that fits in a 3 foot by 3 foot by 4 foot tall space, you are not just sitting down and using a device. There is a lot of work to operate physical machines to make the parts and standing during creation, maintenance, and driving. My child actually isn't interested in the coding part, so he uses screens less than the coders. But he has taught himself CAD, which is helping him with advanced math and logic skills (part designs are 3D).

Many people have hobbies with computer interface aspects to them. Should I stop doing online genealogy?

Regarding coding, I mentioned that because a lot of coding training that kids do does not lead to real world implementation. And currently there are a lot of kids who want to become CS majors. In FRC robotics, the coding determines how the robot moves and how accurate it is, and that is directly related to whether the robot wins versus opponents. FRC robots are not battling but instead competing at task completion at the same time in the same arena. So winning and losing is versus other teams. As with sports, the game outcomes contribute to a performance feedback loop. And contribute to team bonding.

One thing that is true about the physicality of high school robotics - it is sports-like in that you belong to a team and win and lose together. But you will not get overuse injuries. My children have friends who have overuse and accidental leg injuries, particularly from soccer and track. Also, as a person who reads scholarship essays for a PTA, I can say that "how I overcame my season-ending injury" is a common essay topic among top high school students.

Robotics basically leads to applied knowledge. Much of what our kids learn in school is just fact cramming. Opportunities to apply knowledge are precious and develop thinking skills and maturity. Our team also has a nice mix of girls and boys which I think is great prep for an egalitarian workplace (some activities seem to gender sort themselves...our high school drama club has become very skewed female).

Hopefully the information above is useful to someone interested in robotics as an option. I doubt PP really cares to know.

DP. I am both a low screen parent and a software developer. How anyone can expect a kid to keep up with peers who already know how to code in school is beyond me. 99.9999% of the reason they say girls tend to fall behind in CS is because there's not nearly as much of a culture of them coding for fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Robotics for my younger son. It didn't take in the elementary years through toys, camps, etc.

Then all of a sudden it took in 9th grade. Because high-school level robotics is much more serious than the next age groups down.

I also recommend robotics for girls. Great place to learn computer programming, mechanical fabrication skills, project teams that are more productive than schoolwork project groups.

For me it was high school choir as a class. My mom made me because I had dropped all my instruments I started. I didn't want to at first. But I liked it because it didn't require boring at-home practicing, lessons, and instruments transport, while still allowing music-making. I ended up meeting my husband in college choir.

Robotics and choir are also not as expensive as extracurricular sports.

Why would ANYONE encourage their dc to spend more time with devices? I don't get this at all. Same with "coding" classes for dc, coding isn't that hard they can learn it if they choose to - especially with AI - so why impose such an unhealthy habit on them?

It's very rude of you, PP, to be so judgmental.

A lot of high school robotics is more similar to large appliance repair than "being on devices". When you are building, maintaining, and remote control driving a physical object that fits in a 3 foot by 3 foot by 4 foot tall space, you are not just sitting down and using a device. There is a lot of work to operate physical machines to make the parts and standing during creation, maintenance, and driving. My child actually isn't interested in the coding part, so he uses screens less than the coders. But he has taught himself CAD, which is helping him with advanced math and logic skills (part designs are 3D).

Many people have hobbies with computer interface aspects to them. Should I stop doing online genealogy?

Regarding coding, I mentioned that because a lot of coding training that kids do does not lead to real world implementation. And currently there are a lot of kids who want to become CS majors. In FRC robotics, the coding determines how the robot moves and how accurate it is, and that is directly related to whether the robot wins versus opponents. FRC robots are not battling but instead competing at task completion at the same time in the same arena. So winning and losing is versus other teams. As with sports, the game outcomes contribute to a performance feedback loop. And contribute to team bonding.

One thing that is true about the physicality of high school robotics - it is sports-like in that you belong to a team and win and lose together. But you will not get overuse injuries. My children have friends who have overuse and accidental leg injuries, particularly from soccer and track. Also, as a person who reads scholarship essays for a PTA, I can say that "how I overcame my season-ending injury" is a common essay topic among top high school students.

Robotics basically leads to applied knowledge. Much of what our kids learn in school is just fact cramming. Opportunities to apply knowledge are precious and develop thinking skills and maturity. Our team also has a nice mix of girls and boys which I think is great prep for an egalitarian workplace (some activities seem to gender sort themselves...our high school drama club has become very skewed female).

Hopefully the information above is useful to someone interested in robotics as an option. I doubt PP really cares to know.

DP. I am both a low screen parent and a software developer. How anyone can expect a kid to keep up with peers who already know how to code in school is beyond me. 99.9999% of the reason they say girls tend to fall behind in CS is because there's not nearly as much of a culture of them coding for fun.

NP. In the ES years (so not talking about MS and HS) we don't do "academic" EC activities like coding class, kumon, math camp, etc. Kids are in school so much of the week. They also need unstructured time alone and to play with friends. The hours left for structured activities in our house go to creating well-rounded human beings -- so physical activity (sports, team and individual) and things in the arts (instrument, theatre). I and my kids don't have unlimited time in the day, so, no, I'm not signing my 8 and 10 year old DDs up for coding classes and silly math enrichment programs over soccer, tennis lessons, piano, theatre programs, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Robotics for my younger son. It didn't take in the elementary years through toys, camps, etc.

Then all of a sudden it took in 9th grade. Because high-school level robotics is much more serious than the next age groups down.

I also recommend robotics for girls. Great place to learn computer programming, mechanical fabrication skills, project teams that are more productive than schoolwork project groups.

For me it was high school choir as a class. My mom made me because I had dropped all my instruments I started. I didn't want to at first. But I liked it because it didn't require boring at-home practicing, lessons, and instruments transport, while still allowing music-making. I ended up meeting my husband in college choir.

Robotics and choir are also not as expensive as extracurricular sports.

Why would ANYONE encourage their dc to spend more time with devices? I don't get this at all. Same with "coding" classes for dc, coding isn't that hard they can learn it if they choose to - especially with AI - so why impose such an unhealthy habit on them?

It's very rude of you, PP, to be so judgmental.

A lot of high school robotics is more similar to large appliance repair than "being on devices". When you are building, maintaining, and remote control driving a physical object that fits in a 3 foot by 3 foot by 4 foot tall space, you are not just sitting down and using a device. There is a lot of work to operate physical machines to make the parts and standing during creation, maintenance, and driving. My child actually isn't interested in the coding part, so he uses screens less than the coders. But he has taught himself CAD, which is helping him with advanced math and logic skills (part designs are 3D).

Many people have hobbies with computer interface aspects to them. Should I stop doing online genealogy?

Regarding coding, I mentioned that because a lot of coding training that kids do does not lead to real world implementation. And currently there are a lot of kids who want to become CS majors. In FRC robotics, the coding determines how the robot moves and how accurate it is, and that is directly related to whether the robot wins versus opponents. FRC robots are not battling but instead competing at task completion at the same time in the same arena. So winning and losing is versus other teams. As with sports, the game outcomes contribute to a performance feedback loop. And contribute to team bonding.

One thing that is true about the physicality of high school robotics - it is sports-like in that you belong to a team and win and lose together. But you will not get overuse injuries. My children have friends who have overuse and accidental leg injuries, particularly from soccer and track. Also, as a person who reads scholarship essays for a PTA, I can say that "how I overcame my season-ending injury" is a common essay topic among top high school students.

Robotics basically leads to applied knowledge. Much of what our kids learn in school is just fact cramming. Opportunities to apply knowledge are precious and develop thinking skills and maturity. Our team also has a nice mix of girls and boys which I think is great prep for an egalitarian workplace (some activities seem to gender sort themselves...our high school drama club has become very skewed female).

Hopefully the information above is useful to someone interested in robotics as an option. I doubt PP really cares to know.

DP. I am both a low screen parent and a software developer. How anyone can expect a kid to keep up with peers who already know how to code in school is beyond me. 99.9999% of the reason they say girls tend to fall behind in CS is because there's not nearly as much of a culture of them coding for fun.

NP. In the ES years (so not talking about MS and HS) we don't do "academic" EC activities like coding class, kumon, math camp, etc. Kids are in school so much of the week. They also need unstructured time alone and to play with friends. The hours left for structured activities in our house go to creating well-rounded human beings -- so physical activity (sports, team and individual) and things in the arts (instrument, theatre). I and my kids don't have unlimited time in the day, so, no, I'm not signing my 8 and 10 year old DDs up for coding classes and silly math enrichment programs over soccer, tennis lessons, piano, theatre programs, etc.

Most recent PP here. My kid (and I!) took coding up in middle school. In fact I was introduced to it by an article on HTML in American Girl magazine - no class required.

[Anonymous]

Music. Far better for confidence, friendship and performance experience than sports were.

Have also been very impressed with scouts. Way better at introducing friends and responsibility than sports and also lots of options for how involved you wish to be.

I have one kid who played a few years of travel soccer and that was money and time wasted compared to the longer term gains from music performance (not just lessons) and scouts.

[Anonymous]

Loved swimming, golf, and tennis. I still use all 3 as an adult! Nice kids and less head injuries. My daughter also loves pickleball and plays with her friends all the time

I’m surprised at how swimming isn't as much of a focus here, even though it is in our social circle. I grew up in North Carolina and every kid was in swim team by the time they were in kindergarten! As are my kids here!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Learning to handle the stress of being a softball pitcher has been a massive confidence builder for my DD. As parents we wouldn't trade those hours spent sitting on a bucket catching for anything.

I was excited for softball for DD then I quickly realized how insane some of the parents were, no thanks... we bowed out of that quickly.

Eh^^ there are CRAZY parents in every sport. Hec, dcum had to divide up the Sports Forum b/c of the crazy soccer/volleyball/lax/swim/bball people posting.

Just stick to rec league for any sport or don't engage with the overly zealous parents if your kid shows interest in HS level or travel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Robotics for my younger son. It didn't take in the elementary years through toys, camps, etc.

Then all of a sudden it took in 9th grade. Because high-school level robotics is much more serious than the next age groups down.

I also recommend robotics for girls. Great place to learn computer programming, mechanical fabrication skills, project teams that are more productive than schoolwork project groups.

For me it was high school choir as a class. My mom made me because I had dropped all my instruments I started. I didn't want to at first. But I liked it because it didn't require boring at-home practicing, lessons, and instruments transport, while still allowing music-making. I ended up meeting my husband in college choir.

Robotics and choir are also not as expensive as extracurricular sports.

Why would ANYONE encourage their dc to spend more time with devices? I don't get this at all. Same with "coding" classes for dc, coding isn't that hard they can learn it if they choose to - especially with AI - so why impose such an unhealthy habit on them?

It's very rude of you, PP, to be so judgmental.

A lot of high school robotics is more similar to large appliance repair than "being on devices". When you are building, maintaining, and remote control driving a physical object that fits in a 3 foot by 3 foot by 4 foot tall space, you are not just sitting down and using a device. There is a lot of work to operate physical machines to make the parts and standing during creation, maintenance, and driving. My child actually isn't interested in the coding part, so he uses screens less than the coders. But he has taught himself CAD, which is helping him with advanced math and logic skills (part designs are 3D).

Many people have hobbies with computer interface aspects to them. Should I stop doing online genealogy?

Regarding coding, I mentioned that because a lot of coding training that kids do does not lead to real world implementation. And currently there are a lot of kids who want to become CS majors. In FRC robotics, the coding determines how the robot moves and how accurate it is, and that is directly related to whether the robot wins versus opponents. FRC robots are not battling but instead competing at task completion at the same time in the same arena. So winning and losing is versus other teams. As with sports, the game outcomes contribute to a performance feedback loop. And contribute to team bonding.

One thing that is true about the physicality of high school robotics - it is sports-like in that you belong to a team and win and lose together. But you will not get overuse injuries. My children have friends who have overuse and accidental leg injuries, particularly from soccer and track. Also, as a person who reads scholarship essays for a PTA, I can say that "how I overcame my season-ending injury" is a common essay topic among top high school students.

Robotics basically leads to applied knowledge. Much of what our kids learn in school is just fact cramming. Opportunities to apply knowledge are precious and develop thinking skills and maturity. Our team also has a nice mix of girls and boys which I think is great prep for an egalitarian workplace (some activities seem to gender sort themselves...our high school drama club has become very skewed female).

Hopefully the information above is useful to someone interested in robotics as an option. I doubt PP really cares to know.

DP. I am both a low screen parent and a software developer. How anyone can expect a kid to keep up with peers who already know how to code in school is beyond me. 99.9999% of the reason they say girls tend to fall behind in CS is because there's not nearly as much of a culture of them coding for fun.

NP. In the ES years (so not talking about MS and HS) we don't do "academic" EC activities like coding class, kumon, math camp, etc. Kids are in school so much of the week. They also need unstructured time alone and to play with friends. The hours left for structured activities in our house go to creating well-rounded human beings -- so physical activity (sports, team and individual) and things in the arts (instrument, theatre). I and my kids don't have unlimited time in the day, so, no, I'm not signing my 8 and 10 year old DDs up for coding classes and silly math enrichment programs over soccer, tennis lessons, piano, theatre programs, etc.

NP. My 8 y/o DD loves robotics. She doesn’t see it as “academic”. But she has two scientists as parents so it may be in her genes. I asked her what activities she wants to keep doing next year and she chose robotics and violin.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Music. Far better for confidence, friendship and performance experience than sports were.

Have also been very impressed with scouts. Way better at introducing friends and responsibility than sports and also lots of options for how involved you wish to be.

I have one kid who played a few years of travel soccer and that was money and time wasted compared to the longer term gains from music performance (not just lessons) and scouts.

What do you mean by music performance “not just lessons?” Just wondering what specifically they did and at what age, and why you thought it was so valuable?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Robotics for my younger son. It didn't take in the elementary years through toys, camps, etc.

Then all of a sudden it took in 9th grade. Because high-school level robotics is much more serious than the next age groups down.

I also recommend robotics for girls. Great place to learn computer programming, mechanical fabrication skills, project teams that are more productive than schoolwork project groups.

For me it was high school choir as a class. My mom made me because I had dropped all my instruments I started. I didn't want to at first. But I liked it because it didn't require boring at-home practicing, lessons, and instruments transport, while still allowing music-making. I ended up meeting my husband in college choir.

Robotics and choir are also not as expensive as extracurricular sports.

Why would ANYONE encourage their dc to spend more time with devices? I don't get this at all. Same with "coding" classes for dc, coding isn't that hard they can learn it if they choose to - especially with AI - so why impose such an unhealthy habit on them?

It's very rude of you, PP, to be so judgmental.

A lot of high school robotics is more similar to large appliance repair than "being on devices". When you are building, maintaining, and remote control driving a physical object that fits in a 3 foot by 3 foot by 4 foot tall space, you are not just sitting down and using a device. There is a lot of work to operate physical machines to make the parts and standing during creation, maintenance, and driving. My child actually isn't interested in the coding part, so he uses screens less than the coders. But he has taught himself CAD, which is helping him with advanced math and logic skills (part designs are 3D).

Many people have hobbies with computer interface aspects to them. Should I stop doing online genealogy?

Regarding coding, I mentioned that because a lot of coding training that kids do does not lead to real world implementation. And currently there are a lot of kids who want to become CS majors. In FRC robotics, the coding determines how the robot moves and how accurate it is, and that is directly related to whether the robot wins versus opponents. FRC robots are not battling but instead competing at task completion at the same time in the same arena. So winning and losing is versus other teams. As with sports, the game outcomes contribute to a performance feedback loop. And contribute to team bonding.

One thing that is true about the physicality of high school robotics - it is sports-like in that you belong to a team and win and lose together. But you will not get overuse injuries. My children have friends who have overuse and accidental leg injuries, particularly from soccer and track. Also, as a person who reads scholarship essays for a PTA, I can say that "how I overcame my season-ending injury" is a common essay topic among top high school students.

Robotics basically leads to applied knowledge. Much of what our kids learn in school is just fact cramming. Opportunities to apply knowledge are precious and develop thinking skills and maturity. Our team also has a nice mix of girls and boys which I think is great prep for an egalitarian workplace (some activities seem to gender sort themselves...our high school drama club has become very skewed female).

Hopefully the information above is useful to someone interested in robotics as an option. I doubt PP really cares to know.

DP. I am both a low screen parent and a software developer. How anyone can expect a kid to keep up with peers who already know how to code in school is beyond me. 99.9999% of the reason they say girls tend to fall behind in CS is because there's not nearly as much of a culture of them coding for fun.

NP. In the ES years (so not talking about MS and HS) we don't do "academic" EC activities like coding class, kumon, math camp, etc. Kids are in school so much of the week. They also need unstructured time alone and to play with friends. The hours left for structured activities in our house go to creating well-rounded human beings -- so physical activity (sports, team and individual) and things in the arts (instrument, theatre). I and my kids don't have unlimited time in the day, so, no, I'm not signing my 8 and 10 year old DDs up for coding classes and silly math enrichment programs over soccer, tennis lessons, piano, theatre programs, etc.

NP. My 8 y/o DD loves robotics. She doesn’t see it as “academic”. But she has two scientists as parents so it may be in her genes. I asked her what activities she wants to keep doing next year and she chose robotics and violin.

+1 10 year old son loves robotics and can’t wait to join the team when he starts middle school in the fall. He loves to build and does robotics outside of school right now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Robotics for my younger son. It didn't take in the elementary years through toys, camps, etc.

Then all of a sudden it took in 9th grade. Because high-school level robotics is much more serious than the next age groups down.

I also recommend robotics for girls. Great place to learn computer programming, mechanical fabrication skills, project teams that are more productive than schoolwork project groups.

For me it was high school choir as a class. My mom made me because I had dropped all my instruments I started. I didn't want to at first. But I liked it because it didn't require boring at-home practicing, lessons, and instruments transport, while still allowing music-making. I ended up meeting my husband in college choir.

Robotics and choir are also not as expensive as extracurricular sports.

Why would ANYONE encourage their dc to spend more time with devices? I don't get this at all. Same with "coding" classes for dc, coding isn't that hard they can learn it if they choose to - especially with AI - so why impose such an unhealthy habit on them?

It's very rude of you, PP, to be so judgmental.

A lot of high school robotics is more similar to large appliance repair than "being on devices". When you are building, maintaining, and remote control driving a physical object that fits in a 3 foot by 3 foot by 4 foot tall space, you are not just sitting down and using a device. There is a lot of work to operate physical machines to make the parts and standing during creation, maintenance, and driving. My child actually isn't interested in the coding part, so he uses screens less than the coders. But he has taught himself CAD, which is helping him with advanced math and logic skills (part designs are 3D).

Many people have hobbies with computer interface aspects to them. Should I stop doing online genealogy?

Regarding coding, I mentioned that because a lot of coding training that kids do does not lead to real world implementation. And currently there are a lot of kids who want to become CS majors. In FRC robotics, the coding determines how the robot moves and how accurate it is, and that is directly related to whether the robot wins versus opponents. FRC robots are not battling but instead competing at task completion at the same time in the same arena. So winning and losing is versus other teams. As with sports, the game outcomes contribute to a performance feedback loop. And contribute to team bonding.

One thing that is true about the physicality of high school robotics - it is sports-like in that you belong to a team and win and lose together. But you will not get overuse injuries. My children have friends who have overuse and accidental leg injuries, particularly from soccer and track. Also, as a person who reads scholarship essays for a PTA, I can say that "how I overcame my season-ending injury" is a common essay topic among top high school students.

Robotics basically leads to applied knowledge. Much of what our kids learn in school is just fact cramming. Opportunities to apply knowledge are precious and develop thinking skills and maturity. Our team also has a nice mix of girls and boys which I think is great prep for an egalitarian workplace (some activities seem to gender sort themselves...our high school drama club has become very skewed female).

Hopefully the information above is useful to someone interested in robotics as an option. I doubt PP really cares to know.

DP. I am both a low screen parent and a software developer. How anyone can expect a kid to keep up with peers who already know how to code in school is beyond me. 99.9999% of the reason they say girls tend to fall behind in CS is because there's not nearly as much of a culture of them coding for fun.

NP. In the ES years (so not talking about MS and HS) we don't do "academic" EC activities like coding class, kumon, math camp, etc. Kids are in school so much of the week. They also need unstructured time alone and to play with friends. The hours left for structured activities in our house go to creating well-rounded human beings -- so physical activity (sports, team and individual) and things in the arts (instrument, theatre). I and my kids don't have unlimited time in the day, so, no, I'm not signing my 8 and 10 year old DDs up for coding classes and silly math enrichment programs over soccer, tennis lessons, piano, theatre programs, etc.

NP. My 8 y/o DD loves robotics. She doesn’t see it as “academic”. But she has two scientists as parents so it may be in her genes. I asked her what activities she wants to keep doing next year and she chose robotics and violin.

PP - agree. The kids do not see First Robotics as academic. It is a messing around with stuff type activity, just like 3D art. In addition, the little kids sometimes do skits as part of their season.

[Anonymous]

Yoga