I agree, it's hard to keep them with us. But even some adults are doing the same thing. I suspect they need some motivations. Not all the people are auto-motivating. Some just give up after a short.
Yes, every project is good (also the xmas tree of course) since it can start the fire for radio fascination. For me the fire started in 1993 (17 years) where the father of a friend wanted to discard