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Don't have kids myself, but as a source, I was once a child. Isn't the big problem then even if you do limit the time, it then becomes an even bigger want because we always want what we can't have? What's your experience with this?

I've seen a twitter thread where a woman described conditioning her son to find screens boring at an early age by only showing slow train riding footage on screens around the house at all times when the kid was around, which is interesting. I wonder if that'd work well in general or just for that one specific child. It'd probably fall apart as soon as the child gets introduced to the fact that cool dopamine hacking content does exist on screens?

1 comments

You're doubtlessly correct.

You could of course just use the tablet to show slow riding trains. At some point though you end up on an 8 hour car ride or flight, and without an army of novel toys it's just far more practical to hand the tablet than have the child screaming bloody murder the whole time because they are bored. This is one of those things that makes the parent sound bad but parenting is 24/7 365 days a year and sometimes people need a low-effort break for an hour, even the child.

My mother taught me to read at the same age and by the same method Erik Hoel ("The Intrinsic Perspective," q.v. at Substack) recently documented teaching his son, and by his account to about as good effect. Mama doesn't have the letters after her name that Dr. Hoel does, of course, but I don't blame a jilted academic for feeling the need to complicate an independent and obviously enthusiastic rediscovery, and the flight attendants on the airliners I boarded unaccompanied as a child would be among many who could attest that nothing did better to keep me quiet than to lend me a technical manual I'd never seen before.

I'm very sure it is harder to achieve this now than then, I having been born at a time when color LCDs were just beginning to make tentative steps from laboratory prototype to consumer product. Unless Hoel is taken for the liar I've seen no cause to think him, though, it surely still can be done.

Easy for me to say, though, never having had or raised a child. I like to hope I still could recommend the method if I had, but who knows? I do think it asks uncommon interest from the tutor.

Excellent recommendation. Watching the videos of his 2yo’s progress is wonderful. I will be trying this, thank you.

I'm glad to hear that! I hope your kids find it as simpatico.

Oh, I can 100% imagine / understand that. If it were that easy, it wouldn't be a problem.