When children are growing, they learn something new each day. You will not disagree with the fact that children these days are born with a lot of brains already. The kids party entertainers confirm that even during their themed parties they choose the toughest games which aren’t difficult for the kids these days.
Critical thinking is an essential skill that children need to develop. It comes in handy in the future. Adults need to keep in mind that we live in a continually changing world. Therefore, kids cannot only rely on a list of facts to go about their daily lives. No. they need to develop critical thinking skills that allow them to analyze, compare, and contrast different information so that they can make sense of it. You can help to build your kids’ thinking skills by doing the following things.
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Ask open-ended questions
If you would like to grow your kid’s mind, then you need to learn how to ask open-ended questions. Instead of providing direct answers to the question your kid asks, try to get more engaging. Ask your kid questions related to the question he or she has asked. Ensure to respect the answers your kid provides regardless of being correct or wrong. You can go about it by asking questions such as “How do you think we can solve this problem?”
Introduce research skills in their daily activities
You can also grow your child’s critical thinking by incorporating useful research skills in their daily activities. Doing so helps to challenge the kid’s mind to learn different things that go on in his daily life. When your kid asks you for some money to go skating, tell him to check out the skating arenas around your locality, the prices, and the time to go skating. If bowling is a passion you kid has developed, it would be great to set one up a brunswick bowling alley within your home premises. This will not only save money, but develop a bond between you and your kid when you join them for a game.
Ensure to make them research a wide array of situations in their daily life, and help them see several factors that they had not considered.
Ask them “why.”
Kids are curious individuals because the majority of the things around them are new to them. As a result, they end up asking a lot of “why.” Parents also need to ask their kids “why” five times to help stimulate their kids’ critical thinking skills.
When your kid comes to you with an issue, like wanting to go to a movie, ask him why. After giving you the reason behind wanting to watch a specific movie, ask the why for the second time to help him dig deeper into why he loves that kind of movie. A third why should stimulate him to think harder why he prefers that movie over other movies. Keep asking why until the fifth time. At this point, your kid will have had a deeper understanding of why a specific movie and why he likes a particular genre.
Be supportive of arguments at home
If your kid has a particular viewpoint on a matter at home, don’t be rush to argue it out and dismiss it because you don’t prefer it. You should let your kid argue out their view and come up with a viable reason as to why they think they should do a particular thing in a specific manner.
For instance, if your kid wants you to extend their bedtime, let him explain why he thinks that should be the case. Ensure to place him in your position that lets him see your point of view regarding the decision, then come up with a solution that works for him without compromising on any of his day-to-day activities.
Consider other things besides academic issues
Parents and teachers alike need to understand that critical thinking goes beyond solving academic problems. It is essential for you to teach your kid how to think critically about different situations besides those related to school work.
You should employ critical thinking to help transform your kid into a productive individual. Critical thinking will help your kid to handle different social situations effectively. By teaching your kid about how to handle various problems through several alternatives, he can deal with issues morally and ethically.
Conclusion
Critical thinking is a vital part of childhood development because it helps them to think for themselves and solve complex problems. Kids need to learn how to think outside the box so that they can view problems from different perspectives to come up with the most logical solutions.
