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Children's Books for Geek Parents? 112

Posted by Cliff from the a-niche-looking-for-an-author dept.
Lithium_Golem asks: "My wonderful daughter will be nine months old next month and I figure that it's time to buy her some new bedtime story material. My problem is that I can't find any children's books that describe fathers as white collar workers, let alone computer geeks. For example, many of the stories I find portray the ideal father as a fireman, carpenter or truck driver. I'm not looking for anything specific like 'I love my dad because he's a programmer,' I'm just looking for a story that will help her understand what I do for a living when she's older. So, readers of Slashdot, does anyone know of a children's book written by or for geeks, or should I write my own?"
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Children's Books for Geek Parents? More

Children's Books for Geek Parents?

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  • um... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by nuggetman ( 242645 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @09:31PM (#10282494) Homepage
    Right now why don't you work on stimulating her imagination, rather than trying to help her understand what you do? There'll be plenty of time to talk about your boring job (no offense) to her later in life.

    • SuperProgrammer (Score:5, Funny)

      by Glonoinha ( 587375 ) on Saturday September 18, 2004 @12:17PM (#10285415) Journal
      Yea - creating a hero from a software or hardware guy is as easy as unplugging the router before you leave the house to go to work. By 9am you are getting calls from home because the kids can't surf the net and wife can't 'do email'. By the time you get home the natives are restless, or perhaps on the verge of panic.

      You get home, put a bath towel on your back like a cape and ~fly~ around the house from computer to computer using your ~x-ray~ vision to ~diagnose the problem~. Then you plug in the router, fix the Internet, and you are a hero.

      Works for me about once a month.
    • If she's got the geek gene, she should be showing it by now- by making sure you can NEVER watch TV at a normal volume or without having it turned off and on a million times.

      If she's got the geek gene, she'll pick it all up by osmosis, no need for a book. If she doesn't, she'll never understand anyway, no more than your PHB does at work.
      • Nope, not osmosis. That's just for water. She'll pick it up by diffusion.

        However, a cleverly written folk tale about a wise and wandering IT consultant might help decrease her chances of geek-toxicity...

        Can't lay it on too thick. There has to be an actual moral; it's just the interlocutors that should embody non-blue-collar traditional roles.
    • Join the fire department, and be a real hero. I recently joined the local department, and it works just fine with work and everything else in my life, and it makes me feel good about myself. Be a real hero, and don't pretend to be one. Once you join, you will be addicated, and never want to leave your department. It's the best thing I ever did. When you ride the fire truck down the road, little kids are waving at your, girls taking their shirts off in excitement. I'm a geek, but being a firefighter really h

  • Easy. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17, 2004 @09:31PM (#10282495)
    Just try any old technical manual off your shelf. They'll know just what you go through every day, and it'll put 'em right to sleep, too.

    Next?

  • You're the book. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by amide_one ( 750148 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @09:34PM (#10282511) Homepage
    Childrens' books won't be her only source of understanding. You want her to know what you do? spend time with her. Tell her yourself. Explain it to her as best you can for whatever age she's at when she wants to know.

    My dad's a physicist. I don't remember any kids' books (when I was nine months, nine years, or now) that really "feature" physicists on the same level as truck drivers and cops. I learned what he did because he told me. And I cared 'cause he was there to tell me ;)

    To paraphrase something rather different, "you may be the only book about programmers your daughter ever reads".

    • Re:You're the book. (Score:5, Informative)

      by 0x0d0a ( 568518 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @09:42PM (#10282561) Journal
      The Danny Dunn series and a number of older books from that era had scientists or engineers as major characters.
      • Yeah, and Tom Swift, too. Perry Rhodan, a bit. Maybe. But I didn't really discover any of those until a bit past my formative years, so I wound up a chemist instead. Oh well.

      • Re:You're the book. (Score:4, Interesting)

        by rynthetyn ( 618982 ) on Saturday September 18, 2004 @12:42AM (#10283316) Journal
        The Danny Dunn books are horribly outdated (how many kids today even know what a slide rule is?), though that kind of adds to the fun of it. Can you even still get a hand on them though? When I was in elementary school in the '80s, I checked them all out from the local library, but I just went over to the library website and they don't have them anymore.
        • I bought the Danny Dunn books on ebay (generally ex-library editions in pretty good shape) to read to my now 7-year-old son. I thought they held up pretty well, actually. There are some dated bits (the size of the computer in "Danny Dunn and the Homework Machine"), but the science is generally accurate and most of them center on things that would be pretty cool even today (like a high-power portable laser, or a machine that can shrink you to the size of an ant).

  • Eh? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 17, 2004 @09:40PM (#10282548)
    I read books about kings, and firemen, and soldiers, and... my father was none of those, and it didn't matter. My father taught me about what he did by teaching me himself about what he did. You don't need a book for that.

  • Everybody Poops (Score:5, Funny)

    by nuxx ( 10153 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @09:43PM (#10282564) Homepage
    I *must* recommend Everybody Poops [amazon.com] or any of it's companion books such as The Gas We Pass [amazon.com].

  • Arthur's mom is an accountant... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Dr. Zarkov ( 574880 ) * on Friday September 17, 2004 @09:44PM (#10282568) Homepage
    ...although his father is a caterer. Accountants are knowledge workers, right? Closest that comes to mind, but Arthur's mom's work isn't really explained in any of the series that I read, come to think of it. Computer programming is a harder concept for a very young child to grasp than fighting fires, I think. If you're perceptive, you'll be able to tell when the child is ready to get something out of an explanation, but you are unlikely to find the best such explanation in a book, IMO. I think DIY is called for.

  • Guilt Angle (Score:4, Funny)

    by pipingguy ( 566974 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @09:52PM (#10282599)

    Just spend lots of time with her at that age. They are really neat when they are so small.

    Change her diapers, feed her, burp her, carry her around, etc. She may never remember you doing these things for her, but you will.

    It also helps later on when your inevitable foot comes down. It's much easier to do so when you can cite "all the things I did for you, and here's the video evidence".

    I'm assuming you have a video camera.

    • Re:Guilt Angle (Score:2, Insightful)

      by nelsonal ( 549144 )
      Your innate geek loyalty will come in handy here (although be sure you don't slough off all the punishment on your wife) just act normally around your kids and I'm sure they will adore you. Shower her with attention and she will respond quite well, kid's are hardwired for this stuff.
    • 1. Feed/burp/carry while videotaping.
      2. List chores and use video as leverage
      3. Profit!!

      Or if the kid's a lost cause, replace 2. with "Sell video to private hungarian men's club"

  • If you are a creative censor.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Hardwyred ( 71704 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @10:10PM (#10282681) Homepage
    Snowcrash :-) I wish my Dad was a pizza deliverator hacker who also just happens to be the worlds greatest sword fighter.

  • Recommendations (Score:5, Funny)

    by Ridgelift ( 228977 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @10:19PM (#10282716)
    I'd recommend printing off Microsoft product descriptions from their website. They have a huge collection of fairy tales.

  • Here's an idea... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by jakoz ( 696484 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @10:33PM (#10282778)
    You might be pressed for finding a good book for yourself, but here's an idea:

    Build something that none of the other fathers can make. Find a cool little project that your kid will love that only an IT guy could make.

    For example, a home entertainment box, custom LCD panel fake windows (thanks slashdot;)) etc. I can't really imagine a fireman being able to make them, and they'll illustrate what you do a hell of a lot better than a kid's bedtime story. Plus your kid will be able to talk about the thing that that their dad made that the other kid's couldnt.

  • Why? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Jerf ( 17166 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @10:34PM (#10282788) Journal
    Why do you think your daughter needs to understand what you do? By "understand", based on your message, I'm assuming that you mean "programmer vs. farmer" type of understanding, and not just an understanding that people need to work for a living.

    I am a computer geek trying to start my own business. I stay home and program all day, for the most part. My intelligent, college-degreed wife, has no clue what I do, which sometimes causes friction. How do you expect to explain anything meaningful to your daughter?

    For that matter, I don't recall understanding what my father did until I was well into high school. Why would that matter?

    I'd also like to echo a couple of comments to the effect of "you are the book". What can a book, a child's book of perhaps 500 child-level words no less, hope to explain?

    Why not just show her, and answer damn near every question with "You might understand when you're older"? Most kids I know will accept that, and at this point, it is the literal truth. There are oh-so-many ways that a child at that age can't understand programming; learn about child developmental psychology. Children are not little adults. She's several cognitive frameworks short of understanding your job, and pushing the issue can only hurt your relationship and her interest.
    • I used to 'work from home, programming all day' too. My intelligent, college degreed girlfriend gave me a little friction about it once and I handed her a check for about four thousand dollars and asked her to go deposit it into our joint checking account. Thus ended the friction.

      Next time your wife gives you any flack about 'playing on the computer all day' just hand her the four thousand dollars you made last month and see if that doesn't help her attitude any. Of course if you are not being compensat

      • Re:Why? (Score:2)

        by Jerf ( 17166 )
        I used to 'work from home, programming all day' too. My intelligent, college degreed girlfriend gave me a little friction about it once and I handed her a check for about four thousand dollars and asked her to go deposit it into our joint checking account.

        Not quite yet, but hopefully soon. :-)

        We're building a product, which is just now coming into demo range, so we haven't got customers yet, but we should be getting close.
    • I would have to disagree, I think the child is more likely to understand the concept of IT and programming than an inteligent college educated wife. (not to be offensive)

      Really, who here didn't become a geek at 6~8 years old?

      And there are somewhere around 0 good programmers who started learning when in college. This is the only time that the original poster's child is likely to understand.

  • She doesn't care what you do (Score:5, Insightful)

    by thegrassyknowl ( 762218 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @10:53PM (#10282875)
    Your daughter is very young. She doesn't care what you do for crust. She doesn't care what firemen and policemen do for crust either.

    Your daughter cares about you and her immediate family. They are her entire world right now. Just spend time reading big colourful books with her. Cuddle her, change her, feed her, do all the things parents are supposed to do.

    There's not point trying to teach her what you do. In the grand scheme of things it's not really important as long as you can support her and love her.

    There is inherrent value in teaching her what people like police and firemen do though, she may need to call upon them early in her life.

    Let her learn and understand you as she grows and develops. Kids aren't stupid. They're surprisingly smart, and they absorb so much more than anybody gives them credit for. She will figure it out in her own time, provided you are willing to share with her at her pace.

  • So, readers of Slashdot, does anyone know of a children's book written by or for geeks, or should I write my own?"

    That's what I'm doing. Not books about programing per-se, but stuff to get him (my son) thinking about things the way geeks think (my wife is an engineer, so he's got it from both sides). It isn't all that hard, and it is interesting to sit down and try to think about the core concepts.

    Two routes: 1) buy sketch pad and go for it, tearing out the pages that don't work, or 2) do it on a com

  • "Lies and the lying liars who tell them" [al-franken.com] is not only funny and gives your daughter a solid political foundation, but also portrays the author as a pretty geeky dad, caring well for his children but also up for silly pranks.

    It also teaches her a solid mistrust of all things Fox, which should always be encouraged.

    ...and don't forget to vote.

  • Don't set your kid up for failure (Score:4, Funny)

    by gmhowell ( 26755 ) <gmhowell@gmail.com> on Friday September 17, 2004 @11:11PM (#10282959) Homepage Journal
    For example, many of the stories I find portray the ideal father as a fireman, carpenter or truck driver

    Those jobs can't (yet) be outsourced. Your fluffy computer job can. A healthy respect for those lowly blue/grey collar jobs is a good thing. With any luck, my son will be a plumber when he grows up. Lord knows one thing we'll never have down pat is how to pump shit out of our houses.
    • Yes, but my newest creation will soon replace the fallable human police officers. Here, let me just switch it on, so that you can see:

      "Please put down your weapon! - You have 20 seconds to comply!"
      "You now have 15 seconds to comply!"
      "You now have 5 seconds to comply! 4...3...2...1..."

      Aaaaaggggglumph!
  • My dad was an engineer and my mom read the bearenstien bears. While papa bear was a furnature builder and my dad's favorite hobby was woodworking this worked very well. So unless you find the dad is a programmer book try to find something that you do besides work to read about.
    That said, try to remember what you thought of your dad as a small child (ie he was indestructable and omniscient and such) and realize that even if you are not exactly like a storybook hero your kids will still be amazed by you.
    • Yeah, just try being a lawyer and explaining to your kids what you do. Good luck. Geeks have it easy.
      • Put it in terms they understand. Next time they are argueing about splitting something. Explain that you help to grown ups when they cannot decide a fair way to split something. My uncle and grandfather were both attorneys and it didn't take too long to understand what they did (besides wear a tie every day).

  • I told my daughter... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by judd ( 3212 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @11:29PM (#10283028) Homepage
    ... that Daddy tells computers what to do.

    Come on man, sometimes it's hard to explain this stuff to grownups, let alone children.

  • My son (6) just told me (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Kalak ( 260968 ) on Friday September 17, 2004 @11:55PM (#10283126) Homepage Journal
    I read him the the question, and here is what my son said:

    I want you to write a book. Not about you, but about a story. "How about dinousars, please?"

    q:Do you want to learn about my work?
    a: sure

    q:Do you want to learn it from a book?
    a: yes

    q:Would you rather I wrote a book about work, or about a story?
    a: a story about dinosaurs

    q:so, how would you like to learn about my work?
    a: going to work! (excited about this).

    from my son: I hope you get my dad to teach me about it, and to try do do the same things at work, and I hope you have a great day, end it with a smile. If I ever come over to work, please have a great smile ready for me. I hope you have a fun day at work.

    In short, being a dad is more important than being a geek, They'll learn about your work in time.
  • You need good stories first, characters just like dad are a much lower priority. Some mathematically oriented books, like the Number Devil [amazon.com], or A Wrinkle in Time, or Flatland will be interesting enough and give some ideas for what working with programmer-style mental modelling is about. Since you'll hopefully be around, though, programming is just about the last thing your kid will need outside references to hear about. She'll actually need the books about firemen and truckdrivers, because I bet the odds are

  • Buy Dr. Suess books... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by zymurgy_cat ( 627260 ) on Saturday September 18, 2004 @12:14AM (#10283186) Homepage
    ....or Sandra Boyton (sp?) books or anything like that. Read her those fun stories about Thing 1 and Thing 2 or dog parties or singing pigs. Don't worry about how your daughter will learn about what you do (assuming you're still doing that when she's old enough to really understand). My older son is 4 and a half, and he's never really asked or wondered what I do.

    You'll have an opportunity to explain it to her hands-on when she's older. When she's playing on the computer and something goes wrong, you can "fix" it and say that you make computers work....or write a simple game or whatever it is you do. When my son eventually asks me, I'll show him some simple chemistry experiments (ie, baking soda and vinegar to make a rocket) to explain what I do.

    To this day, I still remember my dad using forks and spoons to teach me how PNP and NPN transistors work (he specialized in electronics in the Navy). That, more than any book, gave me an idea into what he did for a living.
    • Yes, I believe that these books contain many pictures of a Red Hat.
    • la-la-la

      When I want to tease my son slightly, (like when he starts to get bored on a car trip) I'll say "Moooo" (don't ask - my Dad used to Moo at cows on OUR car trips when I was a kid....) My son will say "Dad, stop saying Mooooo" (sometime he adds "Only cows say Moooo") - I'll then go "baaaa", and when he complains I move on to the "La-la-la"

  • Write your own ... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Breakerofthings ( 321914 ) on Saturday September 18, 2004 @12:21AM (#10283229)
    Be sure to write it in perl, basic, or maybe logo ... at least pseudocode :)

    #!/usr/bin/perl

    my $jane = Girl->new(age => 7);
    my $spot = Doggie::JackRusselTerrier->new();

    $jane->see($s pot);
    $jane->see($spot->run);

    Wow. I can't believe I just wrote that ... must get out more...

    The possible titles amuse me ...
    Junie B. Jones Determines that Cleaning Her Room is NP-Complete
    The Little Finite State Automaton That Could
    Goldilocks and the Three SysAdmins
    The Monsters in My Code

    OK, it's late. My apologies for subjecting you all to my incoherent rambling ... mods, please mod me '-1 lame'

    BTW, I tell my daughter that I write video games (I am a developer, but not a game developer) because, at 8, that is the only software that she can relate to.

    • Re:Write your own ... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by jonadab ( 583620 )
      > my $jane = Girl->new(age => 7);
      > my $spot = Doggie::JackRusselTerrier->new();
      > $jane->see($s pot); $jane->see($spot->run);

      The Inform language would be ideally suited for this:

      object jane "Jane"
      class Girl,
      with age 7
      react_before [;
      Run: if (actor == spot) { <<See spot>>; }
      ];
      object spot "Spot"
      class JackRusselTerrier;

      initialize [; ChangePlayer(jane); ];
    • I tell my daughter that I write video games (I am a developer, but not a game developer)

      I can just imagine the kid at school in the standard one-upmanship argument: "Well my dad wrote Quake 3, so he will be able to take you out with a rail gun!"

      When I first typed the above sentence, the language probably wasn't suited to an 8 year old, but maybe I am just out of touch:)

    • BTW, I tell my daughter that I write video games (I am a developer, but not a game developer) because, at 8, that is the only software that she can relate to.

      My daughter (6 years old) thought for a while that I built the Internet. Like, all of it...

      When she started to ask me to build sites about specific subject, I guessed it was time to tell her the truth and start teaching her HTML...

    • Just plain hilarious...

  • Ping! (Score:5, Funny)

    by ibbey ( 27873 ) * on Saturday September 18, 2004 @12:21AM (#10283234) Homepage
    Well, not so much about Geek parents, but there's always this classic childrens book [slashdot.org].

  • Madeleine L'Engle (Score:4, Insightful)

    by St. Arbirix ( 218306 ) <matthew.townsend ... m minus language> on Saturday September 18, 2004 @12:29AM (#10283262) Homepage Journal
    A Wrinkle in Time
    A Wind in the Door
    A Swiftly Tilting Planet
    Many Waters

    If I recall correctly, the children's father was a bit of an intellect. The boy hero certainly was. This probably isn't suitable just yet since it has no pictures but I thought you needed to keep this in mind. Amazing stories requiring a great deal of imagination and a respect for intelligence. They're probably what have kept my feet so firmly planted in the air all these years.

    Also, to put her to bed I suggect the ISO/IEC C standard. The 1999 committee draft is a doozie.

    • Re:Madeleine L'Engle (Score:3, Informative)

      by SamHill ( 9044 )

      If I recall correctly, the children's father was a bit of an intellect. The boy hero certainly was.

      Mom was a ``brilliant scientist'', too. And Meg (the main character) was no slouch herself. Even the twins were pretty bright.

    • I had to read those books for 8th grade english.

      no offense, but they all suck balls, big hairy balls.
  • I'd adhere to the advice and just ignore the job part.

    However, if you want to teach the child about computers and programming, try a stealthier approach: Winnie the Pooh, Little Prince by Saint Exupery.. the more abstract stuff to get her thinking right (or left really, I suppose).

    If you decide to write one, don't write about a programmer, write of a generic scientist/intellectual. Oh, and you must read Stephenson's "Diamond Age".

  • Story of Ping (Score:3, Interesting)

    by wan-fu ( 746576 ) on Saturday September 18, 2004 @01:03AM (#10283393)
    What better children's book to help explain your geekiness than The Story of Ping [slashdot.org]
  • Let her think that when she grows up she will do a wonderfull job. Rescueing people. Creating things. Travelling far and wide. In a decade or two she will realize that the truth is cubicle space or the production line. Until then let her dream.

    On the other hand showing her the work of a sysadmin is easy. Just change her diaper. That is your work. Cleaning up other peoples shit.

    Me bitter? Nah.

  • Should be fun to read together for you two.
  • ...has a nice collection of reading material. Look under BOFH...
  • Gave it to my little sister fixed her up for about 2 months then some neglect relegated her back to skateboarder status, it's not completely for kids but if she get's magic maybe she'll understand nano tech?
  • just the childrens books classics (the stuff thats bought by other parents - ask your bookseller or other parents). not necessarily geeky stuff.

    if you want to help your kids education encourage them to read.

    I remember having lots of science oriented books for kids during my childhood and my mom read to me several children books classics.

    if they become geeks one day they will show the typical interest in geeky stuff sooner or later. don't force that.
  • You want "If I ran the zoo" by Dr. Seuss - it has a nerd, and an it-kutch and a preep and a proo and a nerkle and a seersucker, too! It also has an iota. Personally, I like "One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish" better, because it explains telephone technology: If you can't hear anything, check your cable to see if a mouse hasn't cut the wires with scissors.

    Works for ethernet, too...

  • I wasn't sure if I would be able to find the info, because I had read about this in the Sydney Morning Herald quite a while ago. Never the less...

    The Museum of Victoria has released a book with the title "The First Computer Mouse". The title speak for itself. The reviews I read at that time were sparkling. Maybe this is what you were looking for. Here's a review (6'th review from the top): http://home.vicnet.net.au/~hornet/reviews.htm
    This is a link to the publications of the Museum: http://www.museum.v

  • He was actually one of the earlier people to get 'puter time in Sweden. He finished his PhD in astronomy around 1967 IIRC. By the time I was born, he was a "gymnasium" (ages 16-19) teacher of computer science, maths and physics - but still very much a geek. I learned about geekiness in two ways:

    1) When he was sitting at the dinner table in the evening, going through students' tests and lab reports - I used to slip up in his knee, and he'd show me neat geek stuff. Geometry, the four colour problem, and rid

  • Why bother? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by theonetruekeebler ( 60888 ) on Saturday September 18, 2004 @07:51AM (#10284327) Homepage Journal
    Congratulations on the birth of your daughter. May she bring you many years of joy.

    In the meantime, don't bother trying to be the protagonist of a story in a book somewhere. From her point of view, you're Daddy. Do the daddy things well, and love her well, because what you do for a living is incredibly peripheral to her life---it's just something that you go to in the morning and come home from ("Yaaay! Daddy's home!") at night.

    Read her stuff you enjoy reading and that she enjoys having you read to her. Read her Where the Wild Things Are and James and the Giant Peach. Read her lots and lots of Seuss. Read her stuff you enjoyed as a kid. Read her Pooh. Read her The Monster at the End of This Book, starring Grover. Do the voices when you read---she'll be giggling at your Grover impersonation even when she's in college.

    When she asks her what you do for a living, don't point to some character in a book: Tell her. Show her. Invite her to the office along for an hour or two and show her off to everybody you work with.

    I swear to you it doesn't matter what you read to her, as long as it amuses and stimulates her, and as long as you do it out of love.

    • I am not a father - but what you say is true and wise, I wish I had mod points!!!
    • Well said. I would never have expected to see something this insightful and caring on a site like Slashdot. You've done us all proud.
      • Thanks. My wife and I have our first on the way. I dearly want to emulate one of my good friends; he and his wife are doing a great job with their two daughters. Still, it'll be interesting to see what happens when all this ideology hits the fan: "...But Barney makes him shut up...Barney makes him shut up...Barney makes him shut up...Beer makes me calm..."
  • My mother used to read me the Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy as a bedtime story. Not sure it's what you want, but it certainly didn't do me any harm :)
  • By the time she can read all the IT jobs will have been outsourced
  • ... of my oldest was always A Fish Out of Water [amazon.com]. She didn't know it, but it was her first science fiction story, right down to the "Black Box".
  • Here are some books I enjoyed, where the father figure is white-collar:

    * Ordinary Jack. Not only is this one of the best books ever written, but
    the father is a writer, who works at home in his study. Also, Uncle
    Parker's job is something to do with the stock market, so I'd call that
    white collar too. This one is my number-one top recommendation.
    * I think the father in A Wrinkle in Time is a scientist.
    * I don't know if Calvin & Hobbes is the sort of literature you had in mind,
    but Calvin's d

  • Stories (Score:2, Interesting)

    by daniil ( 775990 ) *
    Perhaps one of the reasons why there aren't any "white collar" childern's stories is that it's simply difficult to explain what a white collar dad does for a living. Just like in the joke where a lawyer tells his son that he plays the piano in a brothel, because he's unable to explain what he actually does. Plus, it's probably bloody hard to tell an interesting story about the day of a white collar worker. There's no visible result to their work. Hell, sitting behind a desk hardly classifies as work at all

  • Just amaze her (Score:2, Insightful)

    by Wespionage ( 751377 ) *
    Like everybody else seems to be saying, just be with her, read to her. At nine months old, she's still learning to assemble basic causality, so I don't think it really matters who does what (a fireman saves lives, a dog buries bones, etc.). It just fascinates her to learn what is out there. You should pick up a basic developmental psychology book if you're really interested in figuring out what she would enjoy, and benefit from, being exposed to.

    Personally, I feel that my technology bent makes me possibly
    • Otherwise, if you're really interested in having her see a geek as a role model, one piece of advice -- why not at least wait until you can get her to successfully add 1 + 1?
      Just don't teach her binary at a young age, because I would imagine that teachers do not like their pupils argueing that 1 + 1 = 10.
  • Quite simple. Write a story that puts a computer programmer in the context of a hero, fixing evil buffer overflow errors, patching the gaping security hole that lead to the hacker's domain, saving millions of packets by setting up a more efficient routing solution, etc.

    Perhaps when she gets of age, get her a computer and c++ compiler, so she can do what you do!
  • the first five years of any childs life (and i assume, becuase its YOUR child, its more important than anyone elses), is the most important time for you to be a good parent. Your little girl is growing faster than anyother point in her life, and right now, your scrulpting her.

    My parents read to me everynight, since i was born, dosen't matter that i don't rember it, but at this point, I actualy read still UNLIKE EVERY OTHER PERSON I KNOW MY AGE (im 17).

    If i ever become a parent, thouse years are goi

    • Maybe it would be a good idea to play a game about proper spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.

      Read her a section from a grammar book every night before bed.

      When she starts to talk... "Apostrophe... can you say that?" "Good girl!"
    • ...growing faster than anyother point in her life, and right now, your scrulpting her...
      ...dosen't matter that i don't rember it, but at this point, I actualy read still...
      ...thouse years are going to be the most stressfull part of my life...
      ...You'll be proud too when shes the only two year old who can read basic sentances...
      ...tons of postive influences at her, (i know, clieche'), i wish my parents HAD sent me to lern piano...
      ...probebly biggest thing, if you want to make sure shes not going to
      • hey your right, i did waste alot of my childhood infront of a tv , you think i did it by choice? if i could change my young years, i would, becuase god damit: its been hard to loose the 40 pouds i gained from my late childhood. i here outside would have been nice that time of year too.

        being good at reading and reading alot, don't go hand in hand, especialy when your trying to get ouver some learning disabiltiys. Yeah, your right, my spelling sucks, but i can be happy my parents did what they did, an

        • A very simple way of cleaning out most spelling mistakes is to write your posts in something that has a spellchecker (say MSWord or your preferred e-mail client) and then paste it into whatever you are using (assuming what you are doing is not in Word or an e-mail). It may add a minute, but it does help others to focus on your idea, rather than faults in your message.

  • A Space Child's Mother Goose (Score:3, Interesting)

    by jamiefaye ( 44093 ) <jamie AT fentonia DOT com> on Sunday September 19, 2004 @04:07PM (#10292493) Homepage
    ... was what my father read to me in the 1950s. A true classic. I still have it, including my scribbles from when I was 3 years old.

    It is available on Amazon, still in print for $19.

    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1930 900074/qid=1095627727/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i1_xgl 14/002-6629950-4455238?v=glance&s=books&n=507846#p roduct-details [amazon.com]

    The original book is a collectors item that goes for about $100.00

  • It is good to start our little ones on the path by turning them into code monkeys for us, and what better way can they learn if not for those epic tales of mighty hackers slaying the evil dragons/putrid filth that is M$?
    But also important, we should be instilling in them holier skills: the art of coffee making, fear and reverence of thy mighty power button, and the gateway to the sacred realms of deep hack mode.
    They are never too young to learn...
  • The book I learned to read with, and many people I know, was The Berenstain Bears and the Spooky Old Tree [amazon.com]. Its a really great book about the thrills of exploration, and it's really REALLY fun to read to the lillins (i worked with kids for a few years).

    Also kids love the whole Ender's Game series, but you might want to wait until she has a better grasp of english (wait a year or two) before you start into those ones :-)
  • you might want to try WIzard's Bane. It's a fantasy story about a programmer who is transported into a fantasy world and learns how to program magic. If you're a geek you'll enjoy many of the small puns the author works in, and it's a fun read and kids would enjoy it. Best of all you can get access to it (and the sequel) for free at www.baen.com.

    Another excellent book is Summerland by Michael Chabon. The novel is concerned mostly with baseball, but the father in the story is an inventor of derigibles
  • All you have to do is pick any fariy tale and change the names to fit. For instance the part or the evil villan can be named Bill Gates and the fairy god mother named OpenSource. :-)
  • Alvin's Secret Code [amazon.com] is part of a larger series of books about a child inventor that also introduces kids to some interesting scientific concepts.
    The Wonderful Flight to the Mushroom Planet [amazon.com] is also part of a small series of books about a scientist.
    A Wrinkle in Time [amazon.com] is also a classic.

    What I like about all of those books is that they are geared towards encouraging kids to explore the world around them and use their imaginations.

    I'm guessing that your daughter won't really care what you do for many years to
  • write a book. write a story. it's fun and not that hard. but either way kudos to you for thinking of reading to your baby. it promotes literacy later in life when we do that to our kids. well done man!
  • How many of us actually aspired to be what we read about? While certainly some of the concepts of chivalry and conduct in novels I used to read may have rubbed off on me, I never wanted to become a jumpship operator, transdimensional starship captain, or anything of the like.

    Becoming the geek I am today had a lot more to do with what I interacted with (Lego, mechano, and other things that stimulated an interest in putting things together or taking them apart, electronics, etc), my first PC, etc

    Of course
  • This story may be too late to get any notice in this thread, but I'll tell it anyway, just in case!

    When I was a young boy during the late 70's, my dad worked for CSC as a software engineer. Every so often, he would bring home a portable computer terminal so that he could check on his jobs from home. The thing connected to the mainframe over the phone lines using an acoustic coupler modem. It had a full size keyboard for input and a thermal printer for output. As a seven year old, I had seen typewriters
  • Get her Peter Pan.
  • Some of the suggestions posted here brings back a bunch of very fond memories for me. But that is actually off-topic because I only started reading in English as a 7-8 year old. The questioner is a relatively new dad. Is his daughter ready for the likes of Danny Dunn and Madeleine L'Engle? I agree with many posters who say simply just be a good dad and don't worry about how your child views your profession. But I also think in order to have your child appreciate you on a personal level, it is important
  • Make up a story for her, tell it over the nights, write it down and illustrate it (if you can). She'll love it!

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