Tips for parents on how to develop and foster curiosity in your child.
 Robert Witt is the executive director of the Hawaii Association of Independent Schools. |
Tips for parents on how to develop and foster curiosity in your child.
From the tender age of 8 months, a child’s brain starts posing questions. On average, all children ask as many as 400,000 probing questions by the time they are 4. No doubt, children are born curious. How can parents develop and foster that wonderful quality of curiosity in all stages of a child’s development?
For younger children:
- Play games, be physical. Encourage natural interests, as children learn much more through activities that capture their attentions and imaginations. If your child likes music, play it, make instruments or dance together. If insects excite your child, take him or her for a walk outside and give him or her a net.
- Take it outside. Explore the natural surroundings with your child as it paves the way for introspection, which, in turn, inspires curiosity. Notice everything around you—clouds, birds, trees—and point these out to your children to peak their curiosity.
- Bring on the questions. Who? What? Where? When? Why? Encourage your children to ask questions. As we know, having answers to questions is the first step toward satisfying the basic thirst for knowledge.
- Help them to see. Teach your children to be good observers, as it is the perfect complement for a curious mind. By becoming keen observers, your children’s attention span will improve.
- Read, read, read. Visit the library and read out loud to your children to build skills and imagination and spark their curiosity about the world we live in.
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Create a learning environment. Try new things, play, read and explore. Most important is to provide a healthy family life along with rhythms and routines, so children have a sense of security and are able to explore the world around them.
For older children:
- Encourage independent thinking. Encourage your children to search for answers to their questions, as this will give them more confidence and enhance their understanding of the living world around them.
- Ask open-ended questions. Ask questions that cannot be answered with a “yes” or “no.” Instead, open-ended questions encourage your child to develop his or her thoughts and ideas, and will give you a window into his or her inner life.
- Create a challenge. Provide your kids with regular opportunities to question, explore and discover their surroundings and challenge themselves. Let them try a new sport or activity, and encourage them to go about solving the mysteries of how things work.
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Let them express ideas and make choices. Take the time to have in-depth conversations with your children about their ideas and what they believe to be true, allowing them to offer their own solutions and observations.
A word to parents:
- Be a role model. If you want your child to be a lifelong learner, you need to be one yourself. Be curious, ask questions and they are likely to follow.
- Keep an open mind. An open mind is essential to a curious mind. Be open to learn, unlearn and relearn.
- It’s OK to not know it all. We don’t have to have the answers to all of our children’s questions. In fact, encouraging a child to think about where they could find the answer and helping them find it is more helpful than giving them a quick answer.
As noted in “The Curious Child,” in the current issue of HONOLULU Family, curiosity is the key to lifelong learning and parents play a significant role in helping children expand their wonder.
