Safety and the sixth grader

Last time I mentioned letting your child surf the web. This time I need to mention something that seems obvious, but could be overlooked. It is important to monitor your sixth grader’s use of the internet. Remind them to use safe practices, such as not sharing personal information. Just because we have taught them about internet safety for kids in the past doesn’t mean that they don’t need reminding.

There are other places besides the internet where we need to remind our children to be safe. Sixth graders are growing more independent, and at the same time the world is becoming a more dangerous place.

Review with them the rules of the house, what they are allowed to do, what they are not allowed to do. I’ll give you an example of this. My sixth grader is perfectly capable of heating something in the microwave, or even putting something in the oven, like chicken nuggets. However, I had never told her that the rules had changed since she was little. The rule then was that she was not to touch the stove, or the microwave.

She came to me a while back and asked if I could reheat her tea. I told her to put it in the microwave for one minute. Her look said that was clearly surprising. “You mean, I have permission to use the microwave?” It seemed obvious to me that she would know that the rules had changed, but to her, it apparently was not. As they get older, the rules will change, and they need to know what the new rules are so that they can play the game!!

Exploring Individuality

When we began home schooling I knew that straight academics was never going to be enough for my child. She is very curious and inquisitive. She has many interests and loves to follow tangents. I remember when I was young, reading encyclopedias and following the trail of “see also”, where at the end of each encyclopedia entry they showed other words or topics to look up. These topics were usually related, but could lead you a long way from the original thing you looked up.

I know that is an old fashioned example, but my daughter does a modern version of that same exercise. She surfs the web. She jumps from blog to blog, and subject to subject, searching for things that interest her, and in the process she learns a great deal about things that have nothing to do with school.

A great example of this is…her horse riding instructor told her that her assignment was to go and find different videos of people posting a trot. The videos my daughter found provided her with information about posting to the diagonal. Now this is a fairly specialized idea that she might not normally have even known enough to look up. When she went back to the stable, and the instructor started talking about diagonals, my daughter already had the information in her head. All she had to do was put it into physical practice.

Your child might have different interests, but any information he finds can help him become more knowledgeable about his hobbies, or goals. Who knows where that knowledge could lead. Our children have more access to more information than ever before. Letting them access that wealth of knowledge, at the very least, will make them well-rounded. It might make them brilliant!