Tuesday, March 20, 2018

Importance of Encouraging Curiosity in Children

Children often challenge their parents and teachers with ideas or thoughts that are beyond their understanding. We as parents are exhausted with the countless question attack such as," But, why mom?" or "But how does it grow?" or "What does it mean?" directed towards us by our children. There are times when we don't even know the answer or don't know how to answer some of their questions. Few children can be too curious and answering some of their questions may be too embarrassing for parents. But should that be a reason for a parent to stop attending to a child's curiosity?




Nowadays with the exposure of media and internet, kids know too much for their age and at times could come up with doubts and questions which may have nothing to do with their age. But they just want to know - why, what and how. These why, what and how could be little too much for their age and may be beyond their understanding. But still it is our job as a parent to answer them and nurture their curiosity.

Why is Curiosity Important


Curiosity in kids is often a good thing. Some can be naturally curious about a variety of things. It is said that throughout his life, Einstein wondered about relationships between gravity, space and electromagnetic radiation. The present curriculum most of the schools have today, leaves little scope of arousing curiosity in children. The syllabus and teaching methods implemented, calls for rote-learning. Hence very few kids try to go beyond textbooks and look out for more information on a topic. And hence that should be the reason why parents and teachers should nurture and encourage children's curiosity. The thing is when we encourage our child's curiosity we allow them to grow and become creative. The natural tendency to be curious allows a child be more creative and self-learner. Curiosity stimulates their brain and reasoning abilities.




10 Ways To Encourage Curiosity in Children

1. Parents and teachers can nurture a child's curiosity by supporting and encouraging it. Live experiments, nature walks, science exhibitions, open discussions and group studies help out children to diligently work towards dealing with false hypotheses and coming to their own conclusions.

2. The curriculum should be made such to arouse an intense curiosity among children. This can be done by fragmenting the topic and allowing a child retrace their steps around the topic collecting more data and coming to their own solutions which satiate their hunger.

3. Allow the child to live in their own thoughts to think it through. Do not answer in the first glance and satisfy their curiosity. Instead try and allow them to explain and explore their point of view and thoughts on the same.

4. Be supportive of their curiosity. If you consider your child's thoughts to go in a wrong directions, provide hints here and there, but do not reject his idea all at once.

5. At times, curiosity could lead your child to gain new knowledge or a whole new meaning. It would shape up his thoughts and allow him to learn something new.

6. Supporting your child's interest is the best way to deal with his or her curiosity. For example, if your child wishes to experiment on something, and even though you know that it is going to be messy; yet provide him with the opportunity to conduct the experiment, with a promise that help could be expected from him while cleaning.

7. Open discussions on certain subjects your child is curious about could turn out helpful.

8. At times you may not support an idea that your child finds curious about. But instead of making this point clear to him, if you allow him a chance to realize this on its own it would be a better learning experience for the kid and he would never forget it. This way a child does not feel rejected and at the same time is happy to find the reality of certain situations or things.

9. Engage your kids in activities that can stimulate their curiosity.

10. Curiosity plays an important role in your child's learning and hence never let it dull out. Keep asking questions to your child which allow them to think about a particular topic and come up with answers that encourage their curiosity. 

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