It's healthy to uplift your child's curiosity

Curiosity is a strong desire to learn something. Children are usually inquisitive to know what is happening around them, no wonder they keep asking questions to know why things are the way they seem to be.

Wednesday, February 28, 2018
A child plays with toys. Curious children learn faster. / Net photo.

Curiosity is a strong desire to learn something. Children are usually inquisitive to know what is happening around them, no wonder they keep asking questions to know why things are the way they seem to be.

If children are not given chance to ask questions freely, they feel rejected. Parents should respond to kids’ questions however naughty they might seem.

The more children ask, the more their creativity improves. They tend to pose questions like, why does this look like that? Why do we eat food? Why do we sleep at night when it’s dark? They will ask about anything that crosses their eyes and mind, whether about nature like the environment, animals or humans, among others.

Some questions are challenging and others might nag, but as a parent, you should stay calm and always ready to respond to the endless questions.

Make sure that if you aren’t familiar with what the child has asked, you try and find someone experienced in that area to answer it. If they ask why do patients go to hospital and which medicine are they given? How do doctors treat them? Why are injections so painful? It is advisable to find a medic to explain to them.

Provide children with equipment and a place or room to explore new activities, that is to say, if they need to learn how to play football, buy them a ball and let them have enough space to learn the sport very well, if they want to tryout painting, give them colors so that they paint anything they wish, when they practice more often, they will learn and would be interested in what they do.

Encourage kids to think of an idea or activity they have never done but wish to learn, this will grow their thoughts and opinion.

Point out mistakes made by kids and through them, let them learn the right thing.

Learn to share with your kids your favorite color, song, meal, because it will come with a lot of fun since the kids will be eager to know why you prefer that compared to others. They will learn what to base on while choosing the favorite game, musician or anything else.

Give kids some space and freedom to do what they want, because when you over limit them, they will fear to express themselves.

Let kids draw, shade, sing, watch TV, read books, so that you interact with them after in order to know what they learnt, how it went, challenges they faced and many more questions.

Kids need direction and guidance but not discouragement and sometimes it is not a must to respond to their questions but rather ask the kid to tell what she thinks is the answer to what she asked, this improves their thinking.