My in-laws decided to get their ham radio certification or license or whatever it is you need to have. They now are good to go and have tons of equipment. I have never been the least bit interested in such things. My older brother is the type that loves this sort of thing and recently he decided to do the course. He asked my boys (ages 11 and 10) if they would like to do it and take the test. He even paid for their books. So, they are excited (why, I have no idea, I just don’t get it) but that means that I have to somehow fit this into things so that they study the stuff regularly and the only way I know to do it is to put it into our daily curriculum.
The other alternative is to do it on Friday’s which my husband now has off of work because his company shortened the work week. The strange thing is that since I found out he is going to have Friday’s off I have a long list of all the wonderful things that we can do with this day and the list has gotten so long that there is no way to fit it all in.
Anyway, amateur radio here we come. I am hoping that I can be consistent about it. I’m also hoping that my older son can somehow gain a Scout merit badge for doing all this work. My main worry is that I will lose interest and not prod them along. I need to just buck up and be supportive. Somehow I need to find out why it would be good for anyone to have this license and to get excited about it. My in-laws got it to help with our church as a way to get information in times of crisis in case there are no other means to communicate. I can see that but I doubt that any church is going to put a 10 year old in charge of such communication. On top of which, we have no money to buy the pricey equipment that it takes to be part of this at home.
Then it brings up the fear that you don’t know who your children could be communicating with. There is always that crazy guy or gal that lives in the mountains with animals and preys on young children (yes, my imagination is vivid and scary). My children are only allowed online with an adult in the room monitoring what goes on and they are never, never, never allowed in a chat room. They are also not permitted to use a webcam. I just think, better safe than sorry. So, yes, this communicating with strangers around the country/world worries me. I could talk myself out of this but I don’t want them to be kept from something that could be a hobby or useful down the road.
Any thoughts?
Julie said,
November 10, 2008 @ 7:58 pm
You sound like you are handling it very well. You are supervising and I daresay watching that they are not giving away too much personal information. That should keep them as safe as anyone can (in this day and age!).
If the children are enjoying and learning then I would go with the flow. You can never tell what wonderful opportunities may arise out of things like this!