Online Hobbies Could Be The New Big Thing

While the Covid-19 situation has robbed us of many familiar experiences, it has also introduced us to a host of new ones. For us as parents, one of the biggest new experiences has definitely been our children’s transition to online education.

Instead of talking about school, I am using the wide term education here. Why? Because one thing has baffled me: how well can distance education serve its purpose when it comes to children’s hobbies and after-school activities.

I will share two examples from my own life that stand out as success: During this strange period we live in, my child has taken dance classes via Zoom and participated in a week long science camp, also through Zoom.

Dancing in Zoom

I must admit that at first, I was quite skeptical about zoom dance classes for seven years old kids. The class was organised by Etelä-Hämeen tanssiopisto, and it turned out to be a success, namely because of two things. First, the process was very well thought out and communicated to parents clearly. There was no last-minute-panic about passwords or instructions, but we were well informed before the first session.

Second, the dance teacher was fantastic. She knew exactly what she was doing both technologically and pedagogically. She went through the whole class with a soothing, calm voice and a smile on her face – something that I would be totally unable to do if I would have to guide a bunch of small kids through their pliés via Zoom!

Most of us understand how extraordinary and valuable these aspects are as we have had the complete opposite experiences, too. I, for example, have taken a part in a remote class via Skype, where the teacher could not get the technology to work on his side. He just completely panicked during the class and kept repeating “Oh dear, what do we do now!”. Not very reassuring, is it?

Never mind the mess

The science camp my child participated in was organized by The Finnish Science Center Heureka. Heureka has organized summer science camps for school-aged children for many years. This year they did not want to give up the tradition but did what the situation enabled them to do: to think outside the box and deliver the camp in a new way. The result was a five-day science camp via Zoom with almost exactly the same program as on-site camp would have had. To make the experience even better they collaborated with a Finnish gamified mobile platform Seppo and produced an after-camp game the kids could play and continue learning about science.

I admit again, at first I was skeptical. But once again, the staff was fantastic and definitely on top of their game. Then I realized that children are quite amazing. My seven years old needed help in gathering all the equipment needed for the camp, otherwise she managed to go through the science experiments by herself and smoothly participated in Zoom group work too.

Never mind the rather spectacular mess left behind, it made me really proud mama.

Whole new world of opportunity

What have I as a parent learned with these experiences? First, I have understood that even if the idea of having a supervised hobby online might seem alien for us adults, for covid-era kids it feels perfectly normal. Actually, they might even come to expect an online option.

Second, the online option does the same for hobbies as it has done for many other fields. Suddenly, the whole world is open and there are so many more possibilities to choose from once we are not restricted by our geographical position. I, for example, just participated in an online dance class streamed from New York, even though I live in Finland.

Third, online hobbies might sometimes be a perfect way to relieve the time-pressure of families. While it is true that to master a skill one will most likely need an on-site teaching and a peer group, the online option is perfect for those less ambitious hobbies.

We as a family are well convinced that we are on the verge of something truly revolutional!

The writer: Kati Melto