I simply have such a kind of notebook placed in my shower (with a run-of-the-mill pencil) to jog down any ideas I have while under the shower. I have a variant that encourages ripping out pages.
As a parent you can turn most any activity into an opportunity to learn math, science reading or whatever. Just asking questions is the core of learning. For example, the start of learning math is gaining a deep understanding of basic numbers. Simple activities go a long way... count things, add them together, split into groups, and so forth.
Also don’t foist your own desires and dreams upon your children. It is good to expose your kids to quality stuff, but be aware when this is more about your desire than theirs.
On the other hand, be aware that you can shape the ambitions and the habits of a young child. Letting them figure out what they want without any guidance is negligence.
I have an 18 month old. The delta that's occurred over the last year is immeasurable. I can't imagine how much more is going to happen between now and 4 years old. I optimize my day to ensure that I spend as much time as possible with him. It's definitely paying off for him, but selfishly, it's the most fun I've had in a long time.
> I can't imagine how much more is going to happen between now and 4 years old.
Just wait until they're school age and can make the conscious decision to learn what they're interested in at a much deeper level. You're just helping them lay the physical and mental groundwork for a love of learning when they're toddlers and pre-schoolers. It really is amazing when all that work pays off (as long as you can deal with the fact that your kids may not be grateful for it until much later in life).
I’m actually seeing it now. He’s teaching himself the alphabet. Of course, we kickstarted it by singing the ABC song, and counting objects/food with him. But he loves it so much, he’ll cry for the song and/or Sesame Street videos of Elmo singing it.
But he taught himself using a talking book. It’s an ABC book that has buttons on the side for each letter and a voice says the letter and some associated word. He loves one button the most, the one that sings the whole alphabet. He presses it over and over again. Sometimes, he misses and hits X, Y, or Z. One day we were playing and he started pointing at X, Y, and Z and yelling it out to me. I was floored because I never taught it to him.
Now he manages to recognize letters and numbers in the real world. Signage on end caps in grocery stores, license plates, etc.
Also, I have video proof so I’m not making this up.
It’s totally crazy. He’s 18 months, been doing this since roughly 15 months.
Remember the milk. The great mobile app keeps everything in sync. I use a vim text file with outline style folding for my project list and notes, GTD style. I sync that with git on github so that I have history without clutter and read access everywhere if needed.
TermKit could really help unix overcome the problem of discovery.
On the command line it takes extra steps to discover the switches and arguments that a given command presents. It's easy to miss a specific incantation that will bring forth the full power of a given command in a given situation. Git, for example, has an amazingly rich command. It's hard to discover what you can do so most people end up using just the few commands that they absolutely need.
Just as TermKit offers a selectable list of directories when one types a path, it would be great if it could provide a structured way to build commands invocations, that presents options and perhaps help content as you go.
In addition to helping newbies dive in and get stuff done, it would help more experienced users continually advance their knowledge of how to get the most out of the tools they use.
