How to encourage an enquiring mind
Children are naturally curious about the world around them, and in our daily haste we often deprive them of that vital childhood privilege – the time to dawdle and explore interesting things that they see. Here are some ways in which you can help to nurture your child’s enquiring mind.
- Take the time to investigate interesting things that you see on your daily travels. Many busy parents will call out excitedly “Look! A tractor!” as they whiz past in their car, while their unimpressed toddler looks the other way. Toddlers like to stop and look at things, poke them and where possible try and take them away with them, so learn to take the time to indulge them. Name everything in your toddler's world so they are familar with the names of what is around them. They will get as much pleasure from you pointing out the moon to them as they will finding pictures of the moon in their story books.
- Toddlers love to ask “why”, and often ask this question about everyday things that we take for granted but when push comes to shove, can’t actually explain with any degree of certainty. Why does the water go round and round before it runs out of the plughole? Why does my finger make squeaky sounds when I move it across the mirror? What makes metal stick to magnets? Don’t be afraid of admitting that you don’t know the answer to something, and look it up together on the internet or in the library.
- Be guided by what she finds interesting, not by what you find interesting. While you’re busy pointing out a vintage car driving past, she’ll be fascinated by the puddles on the pavement.
- Tolerate mess – toddlers love experimenting with mixing and mashing, be it paints, play-doh or soil and water. Try and show them constructive things that they can do – mixing red and yellow paint to make orange, for example, or mixing ingredients together to make fairy cakes. However, for a toddler nothing matches a good old mess and sometimes you just need to let them get it out of their system.
- Pick up on things that pique their curiosity and try and find activities to explore that interest. Buy a book of simple experiments that you can do at home – you’ll be amazed how much you’ve forgotten from those school science lessons.
- Keep it simple – if you only have limited time with your toddler, or don’t feel happy answering questions about rudimentary physics, don’t worry. Children often find simple things just as fascinating as complex experiments, and an enquiring mind can be fired just as easily by a good story as by a visit to the Science Museum.
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Book and stories are one of the best ways to introduce imagination and creativity into your toddler's life. Most children's books are about make-believe worlds where animals can talk or fly and children can sail away on pirate ships! Letting your child talk about what he feels after you have read him a story can help to encourage his imagination. Try to use funny voices for characters in stories and make up some stories of your own for your child to listen too. Toddler's learn from repetition and that is why they want you to read the same books over and over again. Be assured that they are learning about words, story telling, improving their memories and how to talk, each time you read the story. If you are getting bored, why not tell your own story based on the pictures of the book.
As soon as your toddler learns to speak enough words, he will come up with his own stories. Make sure you take time to listen to what he is saying so that he feels his imagination is important. Ask him questions about the stories he has made up and ask him to draw the characters in it. By encouraging pretend play your toddler can learn a lot about real life events that happen in the same way. If you are visiting the doctors, why not encourage him to play doctors, or get him to pretend he is a fireman. If you provide a fancy dress box for him, filled with old clothes of yours it can further help to encourage his imagination and for him to make up charaters. You don't need to spend heaps of money on fairy outfits or policemen suits as children will create their own outfits from whatever they can find. It's also a good way to make some wardrobe space for you!
No inhibitions!Toddlers have no inhibitions when it comes to play or their behaviour (as you may have noticed from very public tantrums in the supermarket!), but if they're inhibitions that encourage your childs creativity then let them happen. If your child wants to wear his spaceman outfit all day - let him - there's no harm in letting him play out whatever fantasy he is living in for a while until they have played it out and gotten bored of it. You can learn from your toddler here - imagine if adults did whatever they fancied - ate what they wanted, wore their wedding dresses to work or sung on the bus home - the world would be a madder but much happier place! Remember to let your own guard and inhibitions down sometimes too.
Play is possibly the best way to encourage your child'a imagination, as play comes in many different forms and is the most effective way that children learn. Everything you do with your toddler, from running in the park, baking cakes, shaping play-dough or lego or singing him songs helps to spark and engage his brain. If he is exposed to lots of new experiences, including tastes, smells, sights and sounds he will benefit from every experience. See our
video and
article on toddlers and play for ideas on how to play with your child. When your child plays he is practising what he has seen in the real world. Parents may be amazed to see maternal or paternal instincts come out at a very early age as your toddler cradles a doll, changes it's nappy and puts it to bed!
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Last Modified: 18/06/2007
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