Encourage curiosity in your kids. Being curious is more than about asking questions. It’s about having the drive to find out how and why everything works in the universe. It’s that sense of wanting to know what happens next, or why things happen, or how. Stimulating your children’s curiosity will drive them to learn new things and to continue to learn and grow.
Here’s what you can do to make sure that curiosity never dies out:
1. Pick the Right School
Schools provide a basis for education. But if you put your child in one, check which schools in Pune encourage the kind of learning experience that you want for your kids. Check the school’s teaching philosophy. Does it believe in encouraging the curiosity of students?
Some schools use the traditional approach in the classroom, which has the teacher giving lectures to students and only entertaining questions by the end of the lecture. Schools like the GIIS, on the other hand, use a holistic teaching approach that stimulates children’s curiosity. With an experienced teaching staff and the right learning environment, your kids will never lose their curiosity and wonder at the world.
2. Answer Their Questions
We get it. It can be tiring and it’s certainly annoying to have to answer a million questions every day. And given the global pandemic, while kids are going to online classes, that leaves them with plenty of time at home. That means they get to hound you with questions all the time, maybe much more than they usually do. Part of it could be the excitement of having you around all the time.
If your kids are used to you going off to work, then seeing you around every day will thrill them like nothing else. You’d better be prepared to be asked questions for days. No matter how much you want to stop answering them, encouraging their questions will help grow their sense of curiosity. If you entertain those questions and you don’t shut them down, your kids will be even more curious and driven to find out more.
3. Be Curious Yourself
Kids take their cue from you. If you show them that you have a curious nature, then they’ll adapt that mindset too. They’ll model their behavior after you. Use that to your advantage. If you want to raise kids with a healthy dose of curiosity, find several teaching moments during the day, which are moments where you integrate a healthy sense of curiosity into your daily routine.
You can do that by asking them why they think the eggs are so yummy. Where do eggs come from? Or why is the sun yellow? What is the sun? You can brainstorm with your kids for possible answers and look up the answers together. That will make it exciting for them to find out the details behind what, why or how.
4. Take a Break from Routine
Routine helps keep your day unfold smoothly and without any trouble. But little tweaks in your children’s routine can also help drive their curiosity, stimulate their thinking, and encourage their creativity. A change in their breakfast, for instance, could be the perfect way for you to introduce new concepts through questions.
Is it their first time to eat pumpkin soup? What’s a pumpkin? It is a vegetable? Or maybe you swapped their morning eggs for blueberry pancakes. Ask them which one they like better? What other dishes would they want to try out? Why?
5. Encourage Their Interests
Another way to let your kids develop their curiosity is to let them pursue their interests. Do they love stories and shows about the supernatural? Then offer them books and videos. Read bedtime stories that have a little touch of the scary. Share your favorite authors who might have penned a horror story or two. And most of all, give your children the freedom to read what they want to.
That will pave the way for their curiosity. Don’t try to control their reading choices, or that will backfire on you big time. Instead, let them pick through the titles and the books. That’s one way to deepen their interest—by reading and learning more about the topics that they want to think about.
6. Share Open-Ended Stories
Give open-ended stories a try and ask them what they think happened. Given everything that’s happened in the story, what do they think is the next scene? How does the story end? What kind of ending do they want? That will encourage your kids to come up with a scenario, one that uses their creativity. And it also stimulates their curiosity. What could happen after all that? What ideas are possible? This is a good training exercise for them too. It not only stimulates their curiosity but creativity as well as they come up with scenarios, plot twists, and even alternate storylines.
7. Take Them on Trips
It doesn’t have to be anywhere far or expensive. You could take a trip to the nearest park or basically walk them around the neighborhood. Make sure you follow COVID-19 protocols so that you and your little ones will be safe. Let them explore and take in new sights.
Let them see a different environment instead of being cooped up all day at home in their rooms. Let them play in the fields or run around in the woods. Give them time to enjoy nature. There’s nothing like seeing a butterfly or chasing after a firefly to make them more curious about how the world works, what their place in the universe is, and more.
8. Leave Them Surprises
A little note wishing them a good day or having a surprise guest for dinner can do a lot to boost their curiosity and wonder. This can stimulate them to ask questions: When did you slip them that note and how? How did you manage that surprise? How did you ever hide it from them? These are just some of the ways you could improve your child’s sense of curiosity.
Stimulate your children’s curiosity by picking the right schools in Pune for them, leave them surprised, let them ask questions, and help them become inquisitive.
