Monday, September 13, 2010

A Family Hobby


I don't think I'm alone there. I think everyone grows up with some memory of a hobby that a parent was unable to transfer to the next generation. In my case, it was stamp-collecting. I think my father used to collect stamps as a kid, and then stopped, only to get inspired again while teaching me about stamps. Unfortunately, I wasn't inspired, and my father stopped when I did.

The other side of that comes when a parent finds a hobby he's able to share with a child. It's too early for me to search for a hobby to share with my young kids, but I guess I have to prepare for some successes and some failures. (For now, we have our shared love of Wonder Pets.)

Jason, a father from my SAHD group, found out about my blog(s), and emailed me a few links. One is a photography blog of his professional work, another is a more personal blog, with photos of his daughter, and the third is a foodie blog written by his 9-year-old son, Eli.

Since starting his blog, Eli has been interviewed on local radio, featured on Examiner.com, and has been getting a few free meals, too.

Maybe Eli will work as a food critic when he's older. Maybe he won't. But so far, this blog is a success, and not just because Eli is featured on the radio and on the Internet, but because he shares his hobby with his parents. His parents help him with the blog, taking pictures of him eating in the restaurants he's reviewing, and give him the moral support every kid needs, and definitely every new blogger needs.

Visit Eli's blog, Adventures of a Koodie, and be inspired to find your own family hobby.

(By the way, I met Jason on Twitter, using a different account. I have a few of those. In fact, most of my Twitter followers are my other accounts.)

26 comments:

  1. Very cute on the food blog! It sort of makes me wonder if I should be encouraging my children's hobbies instead of just complaining about the amount of driving time they add to our day. :-) :-) :-)

    I started to press follow, but then I figured out that I would be following a nine year old's blog with my boob...and I can't really remedy all that this morning & I can hardly ever figure out how to get to my followed blogs anyway, so I just x'ed it out.

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  2. Aww, too cute! I actually after years of scrapbooking, my 10yr old daughter just surprised me at the end of the summer to help her start making scrapbooks! I was too excited, plus she loves to read just like me. ;-)

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  3. It's my dream to share a hobby with my son. Even sports! Seriously, I wanted to have kids early so I can still play basketball with them when they grow up!

    Photography sounds like a good hobby to take up. You'll also get to travel and see the sights together.

    Don't worry about the Twitter thing. I do that too!

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  4. Jill, I don't understand the Follow thing. It's like Google started doing something and didn't know what to do with it. Unless I'm missing something, which is usually the case.

    Chocolate Mom, for now I'm just happy my boy loves the books I loved to read as a child (or have others read to me). But I expect my children to love soccer over football!

    Learning Tower, you're right about photography. And it's not an expensive hobby like it used to be. And I was lying about Twitter. Only 50% of my followers are my other accounts.

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  5. For me, a kid will likely to be involved in some activities because they have seen it to their parents. When they did, they will find it interesting and then will follow. I love to collect candles and I found out that my kid was interested to it. Guess that's it. Thanks for your post.

    Carl

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  6. I love to eat Burger too. But it's not my hobby. The hobby that i get from my father is anger.

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  7. Looking for family hobby. My husband and I are professional photographers and have a nine year old daughter...

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  8. Great hoobby.

    http://youcanfacetodaybecausehelives.blogspot.com

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  9. As of tomorrow i want to start eating really healthily and avoid snacking on bad things like crisps and chocolate. Id also like to loose a few pounds.Do you have any tips on eating healthy?

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  10. With my father, it was electric train sets. He kept buying engines and cars for my sister and I for several years before we agreed they were his trains. He wanted so badly to share his love of trains with us. I still think it was cute.

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  11. It is a great way to spend time with your kids in a productive way. It is all about being unique and original that makes people interested in most blogs. Being able to share those little things that make us human, whether funny or adventurous!!

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  12. I added myself to follow your blog. You are more than welcome to visit mine and become a follower if you want to.

    God Bless You ~Ron

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  13. that is just so great! Now, I am beginning to wonder what is it that I really love doing, as a hobby.... hmmm..

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  14. Love this post. I don't have kids of my own yet but my husband and I are planning to start a family soon. I just can't wait until our kid starts becoming interested in things and I hope he/she will share the same passions as we do too. Thanks for the recommendation again bloggerfather!

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  15. Ha - loved it - I find myself helping to define my twins (going to be 3 in about 15 days) and my almost one year old in about 5 days. In the end, I could care less what my three girls do or become - just so they become respectful, happy, productive members of society!

    :)

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  16. I had a stamp-collecting when i was a kid. My mother bought a kit with 300 stamps. Lost interest after a couple of days, football was more fun. Thanks for the post.

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  17. Hey its a nice post shared by you so keep it up and my hobby is to collect the passport size photographs.

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  18. I loved to read as a child (or have others read to me). But I expect my children to love soccer over football!

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  19. i collect graffiti art...it is plentiful and there is alot of it that is very striking and artful, it could be a fun thing to look for on road trips to keep from being bored, too. find some then everyone piles out of the car with cameras in hand and have a grand fun shoot.

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  20. Great site you have here. Been cruising the blogs about family hobby ideas. I have my own blog and really enjoy promoting the family hobby concept.

    Really good work here.

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  21. Thanks, Everyone, for all the comments!

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  22. Our daughter is very artistic and being raised in a photography studio already knows a lot but my husband and I decided that we need to create a family hobby involving photography for two reasons.One: We want to spend time with our daughter having fun and developing deeper relationships. She is fun and loves to hang with us and at nine it is the perfect time to deepend that relationship before she hits the teens.Two: we obviously love photography but tend to do it more for work than we used to when we photographed for the simple joy.

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  23. My son started out with the plastic track and the battery powered engines. He is now 9 and is still playing with trains HO scale setup with houses trees a tunnel and a mountain.

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  24. Nice post :) I use to play the guitar together with my son.

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