Raising Your Kids With Good Thinking Skills

Raising a child may be the most demanding job that exists. There are so many important skills and concepts they need to learn that it can seem overwhelming at times. However, by teaching critical thinking and modeling the behaviors you hope to develop, you’ll be off to a good start, and your children will be equipped to learn whether you are present or not. Stem Voodoo shares some tips that you should definitely keep in mind.

Teach priority setting

Learning about priority setting covers many important areas, such as decision making, and the skills learned in this area will support an individual for life.

• Talk about values and why you make the choices that you do.
• Help your child learn time management skills from an early age.
• Teach problem-solving and decision-making skills.
• Model priority setting by scheduling time to spend with your children. This also shows them that they are important to you.

Foster excitement about learning

Experts say that children are naturally inquisitive and eager to learn, although, at about age eight, this sometimes changes. Read on for tips to keep your child engaged and interested.

• Tell them about new things you’re learning.
• When they ask questions, be willing to say “I don’t know” and search for the answers with them.
• Do a learning project as a family–take field trips to find out more about mushrooms, architecture, the history of your community, or whatever is most intriguing.
• Provide fun and interesting learning opportunities, such as online STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) courses.

Let them make some choices

Allowing your child to make as many choices as possible will help them develop critical thinking skills.

• Begin small–even a very young child can be offered the choice between which of two shirts they would like to wear.
• Allow your children to live with the consequences of their choices rather than always stepping in to fix things.
• Teach them about correcting mistakes since none of us make perfect decisions every time.
• Celebrate differences between individuals, families, communities, and cultures to convey that one answer isn’t always best for everyone all the time.

None of us can teach our children every single thing they will ever need to know. Instead, it’s a good idea to focus on thinking and learning skills so that they can continue to grow and learn, whether you are present or not. Whether you’re modeling priority setting, providing access to enriching courses of study, or encouraging them to pursue their curiosity, you’ll be helping to develop their minds and their ability to think.

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