OPEN-MINDED At Spark! Discovery Preschool, we define Open-Minded as, “I know that people are different and may do different things. I know that not everyone will think like I do. I listen, value, and try to understand others.”

Tips for Developing Open-Mindedness at Home

1.    Encourage your child to respect differences and similarities between themselves and others, for example, language differences, physical differences, and developmental differences.

2.    When discussing math scenarios, encourage your child to have an awareness of and a respect for multiple strategies to solve and explain solutions.

3.    Help them to see that science and technology are consistently changing by discussing things in their environment (weather, transportation, movement, plants, etc.)

4.    Encourage children to respect the rights of others to hold an opinion which is different from their own.

5.    Encourage your child to try new things – new foods, new music, new games, new friends, new situations, etc. 

6.    Provide children with experiences, which are different from your family’s own culture, by exposing them to different festivals, celebrations and traditions. Be sure to present these in a non-judgmental way.

7.    Introduce literature about many different cultures into your home by visiting the library, such as:.

·       Birnch, Caroline.  Gregory Cool.  Dial Books for Young Readers, 1994.  When going to visit family, Gregory misses home at first, but as he gets to know their ways and his relatives, he begins to enjoy himself.

·       Garza, C. Lomas.  Family Pictures.  Children’s Book Press, 1990.  The author describes her experiences growing up in a Hispanic community in Texas.

·       Hamanka, Sheila. All the Colors of the Earth.  Mantra Publishing, 1996.  Reveals that despite outward differences, children everywhere are essentially the same and all are lovable.

·       Lewis, Rob.  Friends.  Oscar realizes he can be friends with children who have different interests. Good for PK-2^nd graders.

·       Mitchell, Lori.  Different, Just Like Me.  A young girl notices how other people are both different and similar to her. Good for PK-2^nd graders.

·       Van Allsburg, Chris.  The Widow’s Broom.  Houghton-Mifflin, 1992.  A witch’s worn-out broom serves a widow well, until her neighbors decide the thing is wicked and dangerous. 

·       Wells, Rosemary.  Yoko.  Children learn to appreciate foods from other cultures. Good for PK-2^nd graders.

·       Woodson, Jacqueline.  The Other Side.  Putnam’s, 2001.

8.    Encourage your child to really listen to others when they speak, read, share, etc.