The important thing is not to stop questioning. Never lose a holy curiosity.
Albert Einstein
Since our oldest son started to speak, it feels like we are just constantly bombarded with questions – “Why the sky is blue?”, “What happened to the dinosaurs?”, “Why don’t I have hairy legs like daddy?”
It’s probably a quite familiar situation for you as well ☺ So. Kids ask questions because they are CURIOS. It is a great personality trait which drives a CREATOR. And it is our responsibility as parents to encourage curiosity in our kids throughout their childhood (and lifespan in general). Here is why.
Why curiosity is important for children development?
Remember, we’ve talked about Csikszentmihalyi’s concept of an autotelic self (check it out)? Curiosity is one of the key traits of autotelic personality.
A curious child would never get bored as curiosity would help him to organise the consciousness actively. He would not just sit and wait for an activity to come along; he would come up with his own activity ideas. And in most cases, these activities would be challenging and aiming to develop his skills and knowledge.
Active learning starts with curiosity. Interests and passions begin with curiosity. And that helps our kids to experience more flow in their lives and as a result, more happiness. ☺
At the same time, Dr Dweck in her great book Mindset argues that people with the growth mindset believe that they can develop their basic abilities through curiosity, interest and effort. So again, curiosity lays in the foundation of the growth mindset.
Curiosity itself is a quest for new ideas and information. A curious child would not be satisfied with what he already knows. He would go after what he doesn’t know or can’t understand—and that missing information can become a driving force to find out. If he fails, he would be curious why and what are the other strategies he can use to achieve the goal.
So developing curiosity is a great starting point on your journey of raising a creator. ☺
Become a curiosity coach for your child!
The challenge here is that we all start our lives with an incredible amount of curiosity, but as soon as we get to school, most of us learn that answers are more important than questions. Schools and universities mostly teach us to find the right answer at the end of a book or in particular article/book (often written by your teacher). We mainly study for the tests, rather than for the knowledge itself and its practical application. And this is a big trap for natural curiosity, critical thinking and creativity. Sounds scary, isn’t it?
So want to know how to spark curiosity in your children on a day to day basis? Become a curiosity coach for them! It is not easy at the beginning, and your patience may be stretched like crazy, but the results are so so so worth it ☺
When your child asks a question, take time to respond and engage in a conversation. There will be questions which you can easily answer. But don’t rush to answer straight away. Ask a question back: “What do you think?” And you would be surprised! For the questions you don’t have an answer, encourage kids to find it out together (e.g. Google it together, ask someone knowledgeable on this topic). Or encourage your child to figure the answer out by himself and teach you. In this case, you would learn something new as well (+1 to your curiosity ☺).
Also, keep encouraging your children to ask questions and to continue asking. When they come home from nursery/school, ask them “What did you ask today?” and “What did you learn today?”
When shall you start? Today! ☺
In the meantime, we would love to hear your curiosity stories and ideas below in comments!
Loads of love,
Irina & Dawid
