Curious: “I am eager to learn and ask questions.”  I work with others and am willing to lead or follow as needed.

 

Tips for Developing Curiosity in Children at Home

1.  Recognize individual differences in children’s styles of curiosity. Some want to explore with only their minds, others in more physical ways — touching, smelling, tasting, and climbing. To some degree these differences are related to temperamental differences in the exploratory drive. Some children are more timid; others are more comfortable with novelty and physical exploration. Yet even the timid child will be very curious; he may require more encouragement and reinforcement to leave safe and familiar situations.

2.  Try to redefine “failure.” In truth, curiosity often leads to more mess than mastery, but it is how we handle the mess that helps encourage further exploration, and thereby, development. Redefine failure. When the 5-year-old is learning to jump rope and he trips a thousand times, this is not a thousand failures — it is determination.

3.  Use your attention and approval to positively reinforce the exploring child. When exploration in the classroom or home is disruptive or inappropriate, contain it by teaching the child when and where to do that kind of exploration: “Tommy, let’s play with water outside.”

4.  Visit the library. Books are a great way to introduce all kinds of new topics, vocabulary, and ideas that can be discussed. 

5.  Ask open-ended questions with multiple correct answers. Try to ask questions that need an answer that is more than a simple response such as, “Yes,” or “No.”  For example, there’s a distinct difference between, “Did you have fun at school today?” and, “What was the funniest thing that happened at school today?”

6.  Avoid over-structuring play.  Put out things you are likely to have such as: boxes, blocks, pots, and pans and then step back to let them build and create.

7.  Think aloud. Model the thinking you have about things that are curious to you.  If you wonder about how something happened, how to make something, how to fix something, how something works in the natural world (such as the weather, space, and so on), say it out loud.

8. If possible, rotate the supply of toys that are out to play with at home, in order to keep play fresh and interesting.