3We are all born with a deep desire to understand the world around us. As babies we were all deeply curious. Watch how babies are fascinated with physical objects and use every sense at their disposal to find out more about them. So they feel it, kick it, try taking it apart, stick it in their mouth, in their ear. All the time they are gathering information about that object.
We never lose this desire to know about things. Unfortunately our education system is not designed to encourage this curiosity. Children begin to learn that the acquisition of knowledge is to help them pass tests not because it is interesting.
We need to remember that babies are great models of how we learn. It is not by simply reacting passively to our environment but by actively testing through observation, hypothesis, experiment.
How can you help your child?
Join your local library. Books are windows into all kinds of worlds to delight the curious mind.
Let them choose their own books. Studies show that it doesn’ t matter whether children are reading books about rockets or comic books, the key is that their interest is captured and that.
Stimulate your child with open-ended questions. These are questions that don’ t have a right or wrong response, and can’ t be answered with only one word like“ yes” or“ no”.“ How do you feel about …”,“ What was( such and such experience) like for you …”,“ Tell me about what happened in school today.” These kinds of questions encourage your child to develop reasoning.
Create an interesting environment. What interesting books, pictures, artefacts have you got around your home that are going to stimulate curiosity? Rotate your supply to keep it“ fresh”.
Allow time for open-ended activities. Ordinary materials like boxes, blocks, water, sand, pots and pans can be used imaginatively. Do not tell your child what to do with the material, how to do it or what it should look like in the end. Let your child’ s curiosity be his guide.
Mike Jackson is a writer and recently retired Head teacher
Together Magazine 7