I suggest that you relax a bit. She’s not going to be learning programming or anything like it for years, regardless. Newborns spend months to years just learning how to use their own limbs and process the information from their own senses.
And I’ve never heard any evidence at all that, say, programming, is particularly important to learn all that early in life. Manual/mental skills like musical performance seem to turn out best if started early (but not necessarily as a toddler!). Languages, too. I could even imagine that critical logical thinking would benefit from early exposure. But programming? That’s something you can figure out.
In the long run, meta-skills are important… things that let you decide for yourself which skills to learn and learn them on your own. And things that let you evaluate both the truth and the usefulness of all the stuff that everybody else is trying to teach you. Beyond that, the more flexible and generalizable the better.
But the biggest thing is this: she’s going to be her own person. By the time she’s old enough to be taught the kinds of hands-on skills you’re talking about, she’s going to have her own ideas about what she wants to learn. “This civilization” isn’t some kind of apocalyptic dystopia, and you don’t know “what is coming”. In all probability, it will all add up to normality. In all probability, she will muddle through. … and in all probability, neither you nor anybody here can guess what very specific skills she’s going to need. Assuming, that is, that human skills are even relevant at all when she grows up.
Please don’t drive her insane by pushing “needed practical skills”. Let her enjoy life, and let her learn by doing things that engage her. While you’re unlikely to make a monster impact by predicting what she’ll need in the future, you will definitely have an impact on her present, and maybe on how she sees learning in general..
Totally. But it’s cool to want to teach things, and kids actually like to learn when it’s fun. So offer to teach, don’t impose your teaching. Be ready to jettison your plans and go with whatever your daughter finds interesting. This is what seems to work best in practice (from remembered anecdotal evidence).
I suggest that you relax a bit. She’s not going to be learning programming or anything like it for years, regardless. Newborns spend months to years just learning how to use their own limbs and process the information from their own senses.
And I’ve never heard any evidence at all that, say, programming, is particularly important to learn all that early in life. Manual/mental skills like musical performance seem to turn out best if started early (but not necessarily as a toddler!). Languages, too. I could even imagine that critical logical thinking would benefit from early exposure. But programming? That’s something you can figure out.
In the long run, meta-skills are important… things that let you decide for yourself which skills to learn and learn them on your own. And things that let you evaluate both the truth and the usefulness of all the stuff that everybody else is trying to teach you. Beyond that, the more flexible and generalizable the better.
But the biggest thing is this: she’s going to be her own person. By the time she’s old enough to be taught the kinds of hands-on skills you’re talking about, she’s going to have her own ideas about what she wants to learn. “This civilization” isn’t some kind of apocalyptic dystopia, and you don’t know “what is coming”. In all probability, it will all add up to normality. In all probability, she will muddle through. … and in all probability, neither you nor anybody here can guess what very specific skills she’s going to need. Assuming, that is, that human skills are even relevant at all when she grows up.
Please don’t drive her insane by pushing “needed practical skills”. Let her enjoy life, and let her learn by doing things that engage her. While you’re unlikely to make a monster impact by predicting what she’ll need in the future, you will definitely have an impact on her present, and maybe on how she sees learning in general..
Totally. But it’s cool to want to teach things, and kids actually like to learn when it’s fun. So offer to teach, don’t impose your teaching. Be ready to jettison your plans and go with whatever your daughter finds interesting. This is what seems to work best in practice (from remembered anecdotal evidence).
A list of needed practical skills includes:
How to read and write.
Cooking is useful to know, even if there isn’t a quarantine on.
General skill/set:
Communication