Learning to think can be fun for kids

	Children delight in “reading” to themselves as well as having grown-ups read to them.

By Marge Kennedy

e all want our young children to do well when they go to school—and this involves more than simply being able to absorb information. It requires curiosity, problem-solving skills, openness to new ideas and an attitude that says, “I can do it!”

We also want our kids to be active learners in every aspect of their lives. As parents, we can encourage this by making the learning process interesting, fun and a natural part of our everyday family routines. Here are some of the skills and attitudes of active learners and ways we can help develop them at home.

Let kids handle anything they can safely handle. Children need to touch the things that fill their environment. For example, climbing a tree or walking through a mud puddle should not be something a child wonders about but never gets to experience. Given the opportunity, few children can resist taking something apart to see how it works or mixing various ingredients just to see what might happen. The same goes for working on computer programs—kids learn by doing.

Show your own sense of wonder. Observe the world around you and you’ll encourage your children to do the same. Invite a creative response by asking your child questions such as: “What do you think is inside?” or “Let’s see how it works” or “What if you turned that on its side…?”

Provide tools to satisfy curiosity. A tape measure can get a young child wondering how long things are. A magnifying glass, microscope or a telescope can offer a closer look. And, of course, books are a primary tool.

	A hands-on activity like making cookies is a great way to capture a young child’s full attention.

Note connections. Make comparisons. Talk to your child about how things relate and interrelate. For example: “How is a guitar like a violin? How is it different?”

Encourage your child to ask questions. When you feel stymied and are tempted to say “I don’t know,” first clarify the information your child is seeking. Start by asking him or her, “What do you think?” This can uncover a lot about the working of a child’s mind. And if you don’t know the answer yourself, say “Let’s look it up together.” Reference books and the Internet are there to help you.

Play guessing games. Give kids practice in testing their ideas. Have a child estimate the number of beans in a jar and then count them to find out for sure. Guessing “how many stuffed animals you have in your room” will help focus children on observation and recall.

Ask probing questions. We depend on electronic equipment and machines to answer many of our questions. What if there were no clocks or computers? Ask your child to think about other alternatives for telling time such as observing the sky, studying shadows and being sensitive to their own body clocks.

Think of new uses for everyday objects. A shoe box can become a table, a box for storing crayons, a toy cash register, a bed for dolls and something to color. A cooking pot can be a drum, a watering can or a guide for drawing circles.

Encourage making reasonable choices. Two-year-old children can decide if they want to put on their mittens or their hat first—but not whether to wear a jacket outside on a cold day. A 10-year-old can choose which bicycle she or he wants within a predetermined budget—but not whether to wear a helmet.

Help kids learn from their mistakes. Part of learning is experimenting, and a child should never fear trying out an idea. Resist the urge to be too rigid in forcing children to live with the consequences of a bad decision. Re-evaluation and a change of mind should always be a possibility.

Foster teamwork. Brainstorming with others gives everyone new ways to look at—and to solve—problems. This strategy can be practiced at home and though it may not be used as much as we might like in classrooms, it is highly valued in work situations.

Use memory tricks. Teach children to use rhymes, acronyms and sayings to help them remember names, dates or other facts. For example: “i” before “e” except after “c.” Or think of “HOMES” to remember the Great Lakes (Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie, Superior). Or the time-honored “in fourteen-hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.”

Play memory games such as the card game Concentration. Use waiting times—at the doctor’s office or on a long car trip—to play variations of the game that asks you to recall, repeat and add to a list of words or thought.

Practice memorizing. Although it’s gotten a bad rap, memorizing is still a terrific shortcut to problem-solving (multiplication tables, formulas, theorems, etc.). And most of us have never forgotten the poems, lyrics and scenes from a play or a movie that we memorized as kids.

Preserve memories. Help children keep travel journals. Make photo albums of special times and places.

—Adapted from 50 Ways to “Bring Out the Smarts in Your Kid.” The author Marge Kennedy is also founder and director of BlingoLingo.