Unschooling Blog, Vol. 37 - Make Custom Crypto Wallets with Your Kids!
Yo! It’s 2017 (almost ‘18). Put away those old coloring books (I actually love coloring books) and get out those crayons, stickers, dinosaur stamps and....QR scanners and private keys?
Making a paper wallet as an investment for your child’s future can be fun, and a fantastic learning and bonding experience for the both of you.
Getting Interested Together
As a parent, I know how difficult it can be to play with my son at times. His imagination is so vibrant, his storylines and visions so prolific and expansive, and his energy so endless, that I usually can’t keep up.
As adults we often feel overwhelmed, especially when confronted with the mental-bandwidth-eating, soul destroying worries and cares of the “real world.” Bills. Relationship problems with friends and loved ones. Worrying about the health and welfare of our children.
**I have found that whenever possible, I should find activities my son and I can both get truly into. One might think cryptocurrency and investment are not topics a five year old can understand, or be into on a fundamental level, but one would be sorely mistaken, in my opinion!
Why paper wallets for teaching kids about crypto?
Well, basically for two reasons: security and fun.
1. SECURITY
Paper wallets are one of the most (if not the most) secure ways to store cryptocurrency there is. For more information in regard to the security aspect, please check out the most recent post I did over at @steemcityniigata.
2. FUN
The second reason that paper wallets are best is because you can decorate them!!!!
Decorating your paper wallet!
First, you have to make a paper wallet, and print it out using your printer’s gray scale setting (so you and your child can color them). For those interested in learning how to make paper wallets, there are a number of excellent resources that can be found by doing a quick web search. I prefer to use sites such as bitaddress.org, as the source code for this site’s wallet generator is readily available, downloadable, open source, and transparent.
One place you may wish to get started is HERE.
Alright, let’s get to it!
Get all your supplies out: stickers, old magazines, stamps, scissors, crayons, glue, etc. Now: GO NUTS!!! I found this activity worked best when both my son and I made our own respective paper wallets, so we could both exercise full creative autonomy and have fun comparing and contrasting our unique designs.
Make sure that your child knows not to color the QR codes, or to obscure the text of the keys. Other than that, anything goes! Have fun! When you’re all done, you can laminate the wallets (it’s a good practice to make two copies of each wallet) to make them shiny, fun to hold, and durable. I use a small home laminator I purchased for about 30 dollars at the local office supply store.
What has my son learned from this experience?
I’ve been amazed.
He knows all about both the public key and the private key, and even uses the correct language when talking about them. We’ve been messing around with paper wallets for about half a year now, so he is somewhat familiar with the basics of crypto. I asked him tonight if he knew which was the private key, and he correctly answered non-chalantly, “spend.”
My wife and I often talk about the different crypto prices going up or down in both English and Japanese, and he understands that the wallets we have made together can fluctuate in value. Just tonight we checked one of his older wallets made before the big spike in Bitcoin price and we were both pleasantly surprised. He exclaimed “I’m rich!”
As a father, the most important thing I can do for my son is let him know I love him. Part of that is preparing for his future.
Beyond learning math, wise saving habits, and a new technology called “cryptocurrency” we are both learning that time spent together is the most valuable time there is, and an investment beyond price.
~*~
(Thanks for stopping by. If you missed the last installment of Unschooling Blog, Vol. 36: “ FLEA MARKET TIME! Learning about money is easy. You don’t need to “do a unit” on it, or go to school,” you can find that HERE.
NOTE: The paper wallet featured in this post is just an example of the type of wallets we made today. You should NEVER take photos of a wallet’s private keys, unless you want to lose all of your money!
~KafkA
Graham Smith is a Voluntaryist activist, creator, and peaceful parent residing in Niigata City, Japan. Graham runs the "Voluntary Japan" online initiative with a presence here on Steem, as well as Facebook and Twitter. (Hit me up so I can stop talking about myself in the third person!)
Dude, that is a fantastic way to educate your son about cryptos whilst having fun. Not only that it appears a few 'grown ups' here are learning g too!
Get out your crayons folks, go have fun and get out of the BS fiat system while you still can.
Great post Graham 😉
Thanks man. Amen to that.
Yeah, I really hope some of the crypos stay subversive. I know some will end up being highly surveilled, but the blockchain wave is here, and there is potential for good and not so good. I’m riding the wave. Direct control over my money and an actual opportunity to get out of the hell-hole of debt-based existence the dinosaurs in the state have set up.
One would be foolish not to bust out the surfboard and head for the sun.
I'm sure they will, many of the devs are ancap's and therefore will endeavour to keep ahead of the authorities. There will always be debt however borrowing the prosperity of future generations is insipid and needs to end. Educating those who don't understand how the system works is imperative if real change is to be enacted. The system will try to fight back however they're already playing catch up and their options are limited.
What are they going to do?
Shut the Internet down? Not possible anymore unless they want 90% of us dead.
Regulate Crytocurrencies? How?
Ban them? Again, how?
Who knows what they'll try but I'm sure they'll fail and jump on the bandwagon.
I like the way you think.
Your son knows more about this stuff than I do. Maybe I can pay him some Steem Dollars in exchange for him teaching me :)
Hahah. I’m sure he would be glad to have some Steem Dollars.
Honestly though, @retirejapan, feel free to message me in Steemit Chat anytime, and if I can be of any assistance to you in understanding this stuff, I’d be glad to help.
I enjoy your blog.
I'm not in chats but I am definitely stupid on crytpo. I do not even have a wallet yet and got to steemit in June. This is my first crypto experience and it is interesting to say the least.
Good shot!!!
He looks very happy.
Thanks!
I think you should consider putting some of your posts like this one into the steemiteducation tag. They have rules - but not hard ones. They also have a lot of home and un-schoolers and parents involved over there and you will find your audience.
There are other topics posting to that tag - but money, projects, and kids are high on the list.
I miss my skateboarding boys from Cali since I am now in Bangkok with not too much street action. Thanks for the adorable shots of that cutie.
I have used that tag in the past but it doesn’t seem they resteem my stuff. Maybe because I am so anti-compulsory schooling. Anyway, kind of gave up on that tag a while back.
Hmm. Interesting. I am going to try to break in with my own "how to's." Were you resteeming them and engaging? It seems like that's necessary.
I was resteeming their stuff, yeah. And they had personally commented to me asking me to use the tag...
Hmm... maybe try again and see what they think now. Your stuff is just what they seem to support. but you get good payouts anyway, so maybe not. It's hard to know where to put effort here.
@kafkanarchy84 you genius!!!
That’s my Christmas cards and presents sorted in one go... I love you 😘
Haha. After making this post I decided that’s what I’m gonna do for presents, too! Turning it into a card as well is an excellent idea!
bueno
y excelente muy inspiradora inciaitva digna de imitar
Muchas gracias!
ATI TAMBEIN UN LIKE POR LIKE?
This is Great!
making your child understand about investment and savings.
Such a nice way to teach him about savings , maths , crytos... You are spending quality time with him through playing.. It seems he knows so many things!! And why not?? After all, he is your son!! God bless him with good health..
I think my firstborn would just attack that with scissors and destroy it. haha. He's really into doing that right now with pretty much everything. But still, it's a great idea to try. Thanks for sharing!
Haha. Well that's all part of the learning process! Gotta tear shit up before you can get all delicate!
A very good way to spend time with your kids and let them know that you care. Time is always the most valuable asset! Great ideas @kafkanarchy84 thank you!
Thanks, @jbcoin. Indeed!