Is your child’s favorite word “why?” If it is, you are not alone. Since the dawn of time, caregivers have supported young learners’ exploration and understanding of the world by answering questions until they reach the verge of burnout. Curiosity is a critical tool children hone throughout the early years of development, and as adults, we are their preferred sources to access in building knowledge. On days when the queries compound and your patience is stretched to its bounds, reflecting upon the importance of these interactions – and using strategies to manage them – can help you and your toddling explorer walk away satisfied and a little wiser.
The importance of building curiosity
Being curious about how the world works lays the foundation for a reservoir of helpful knowledge and establishes important early learning habits. As children will spend most of their early lives in classrooms, fostering curiosity outside of school can help make their educational journeys more fun and fruitful.
One way to nurture organic curiosity-building is to be intentional about modeling it. Children pick up on modeled behaviors from infancy. For example, give your child a few household objects like paper, paper towel tubes, string, and tape and create a sculpture together. This will give your child a chance to see you reason creatively and will promote dynamic problem-solving skills they will carry with them throughout their lives.
Playful routines to help pass the time during everyday activities also promote curiosity. Games like I Spy and 20 Questions teach children to pay attention to their environment and share thoughts, stimulating observation, comparison, and conversation. You can invite children into the kitchen while cooking dinner and, as you boil a pot of water, say, “I wonder why there are air bubbles in this pot.” A simple phrase can turn your spaghetti dinner into a night of scientific discoveries. The act of wondering alongside your child models an interest and excitement for learning. It shows children how to ask critical questions about their surroundings—it shows that being curious is an important part of being an interesting and intelligent adult.
How to use questions to connect with children
When the whys and hows start, shift your perspective: this is a tremendous developmental milestone and a chance for connection and growth. A child’s ability to ask questions demonstrates an understanding that everything has an underlying reason explaining its form and function. “Why is the sky blue?” and “Why is the grass green?” are more than requests for new information. Asking about the color of the sky showcases a child’s comprehension that the world is a complex and scientifically knowable place and that questioning is a great strategy for gaining sophisticated knowledge. What’s more, it demonstrates a child’s desire to understand the world more deeply. As such, we should encourage, rather than be frustrated by, these serial queries.
Even silly inquiries — those not based in reality, like “Why is the sky so purple?” — can be great opportunities for playful learning. Studies show that adding elements of play to learning situations and problem-solving activities increases language and cognitive growth scores. The next time you get a “silly” question, respond with one of your own. Your child will be delighted by being able to initiate such a funny fact-finding conversation.
It’s okay if you don’t have all the answers. Even if you don’t have a ready response, be positive. Praise the question and say that you will need to look up the answer. Later, when it is convenient, look up a few answers and share your thoughts on the topics. Taking the time to research and respond to even a few of your child’s questions will do a lot to boost their learning habits.
What to do when curiosity becomes challenging
Sometimes, children ask questions you are not prepared to answer—and sometime the answers you have could be too grown-up, explicit, or scary. In these sensitive cases it is okay to give yourself time to confer with others, look up some facts, and formulate a plan before responding. Kids tend to be flexible enough to wait a little for your answers. It is also a good rule of thumb to get more information before you make an official response on a potentially sensitive topic. Starting with “what made you think of asking?” is a great way to learn more about your child’s actual knowledge and about the reason behind your child’s curiosity. Young children’s questions about adult topics are often more straightforward than you might guess. The questions that are generated when children overhear snippets of adult conversations routinely sound like they know more about the new vocabulary than they do. So, before you pull out the anatomy textbooks and launch into a detailed description of human reproduction for your kindergartener, make sure your child is really asking for, and has the base knowledge to comprehend, your answers.
Fostering curiosity is essential to a child’s development, and it can be more fun than many caregivers realize. So, ask questions, take your child on your errands, observe the world around you, and prepare to watch your child’s love for learning blossom.
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