How to support your child’s curiosity
- Show an interest in the world around us – watch the news together and discuss current events.
- Answer your child’s questions as best you can. If you do not know the answer, try and look it up together.
- Ask your child open ended questions, e.g. “What would happen if?”
- Encourage children to ask quality questions (“why?”, “what if?”, and “how?”). These kinds of questions help children solve everyday problems and unlock their imaginations.
- Allow your child to do their own homework. Nothing kills curiosity more than showing your child you can do their homework better than they can!
- Notice when your child feels bewildered or confused. Invite your child to see their confusion as a mystery, waiting to be solved. Rather than give your own interpretation of answers, help them seek their own answers through quality questions.
- Work together. Create opportunities for your family to work together on projects. Whether you do community service, art projects, science experiments, or a project in your garden, curiosity is contagious in families working toward a real-world common goal. Listen carefully to questions your children ask and encourage them to discover their own answers.
- Teach your child to be a sceptic, i.e. encourage your child to inquire or to look around.
- Explore your cultural heritage. Most children are interested in what makes their culture uniquely different from someone else’s.
- Model intellectual curiosity. Discuss what are you most curious about with your child
- Engage in your child’s curiosity no matter how tiring their seemingly endless stream of questions can be. Asking questions is a helpful exercise for a child’s development because it means they realise that there are things they do not know.
