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How to Nurture A Heart for Learning in Your Child – Thinking

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how to nurture a heart for learning in your childI decided to focus on preschoolers for the month of June. Learning never can start too early and although you may be anxious to start “teaching” your preschooler something, you may be asking yourself what in the world to teach? This is what this series is all about.

It’s not going to be rocket science, and some of these ideas may not even be new to you, but there will be many things for moms with preschoolers to find here to nurture a heart for learning. Today we will focus on thinking.

Children have the most amazing brains, don’t they? They can come up with the most fascinating things to say at times, and just when you think you know what they are going to say, they go ahead and say the opposite!

One of the best ways we can help our children to become thinkers is by encouraging them to…think. I know! Crazy that it is that simple, but it is. While I think this is something most moms would desire, it can be hard to come up with new and creative ways of encouraging this. For this reason I will share some of our favorites.

The best part of using some of these thinking builders is that they can be age appropriate for varying children, which means that this can be something you all do as a family. Doing these things over meals is always a great time to implelement these skills because you have a captive audience.

Remember that in my homeschooling series I talked about how my older kids take part in working with the younger kids? Because I am busy teaching varying grades of school to one or two kids, some of the other kids have to be in charge of learning activities with some of their siblings. happy-286154_1280

I have several of these types of activities written down so that my older kids can just pick one that sounds good to them and do it. When the older kids are left to figure out what to do with the younger kids for school, nothing ever seems to get done. Imagine that!

We basically just call this one story building. It is also fun to do right before bed instead of reading the typical bedtime story.

How it works:

  • Let your child or children know that together you are going to come up with the best story you can.
  • You start by describing the setting in which your story will take place. Be as descriptive as you can, and of course, make it exciting. Maybe you’ll be in the jungle, maybe it will be a deep sea adventure, or maybe your story will take place in a whimsical fairy tale land, but tailoring it to the interests of your children will make them so excited to participate. 
  • Next, you can describe the characters. Often we have characters that are the same ages as the children who are taking part in the story telling.
  • The next step is to start building the plot, beginning with a problem to solve is always fun. It is at this point that you will then turn the story over.

For instance:

Once there was a young princess who was raised in a castle that was surrounded by the most beautiful garden you could ever imagine. The grass was green, the flowers were deep shades or pinks, purples, yellows, and white with green ivy that was growing up the sides of the castle. It always smelled so amazing, and there was a beautiful fountain at the center of the garden.

The  five year old princess and her family were the royal family of the kingdom of Lilacville where everyone was always kind to one another.

One day while out exploring in the beautiful gardens around the castle the young princess, Katherine, heard a rustling noise coming from a group of trees just around the corner. Since she knew she was the only one in the garden, she very slowly walked toward where she heard the noise. She crept closer and closer and the noise grew louder and louder. Although she was a bit worried, she knew she must be brave. Slowly, Princess Katherine peered into a small area of brush and was amazed to find….(this is where your child takes over). You could prompt them by asking things like:

  • what did she see?
  • how did she feel?
  • what did she do?

Your child can fill in some of these details and perhaps send it back over to you for the back and forth to continue.

Sometimes, we do this while coloring, then your child can color a picture of something from the story as you go. They could color a picture from your story later, too. paint-328676_1280

Story building comes more easily to some than it does to others, but it does get easier as you do it more. Your goal is for your child or children to create much more of the story than you do. No matter how you do it, you are exercising your child’s brain (and yours, too) and being intentional and making memories together at the same time.

Instilling a love for learning in your child will set them up for success in school as well as develop the ability to come up with creative solutions to problems, a willingness to learn new things, and a desire to grow and change. Encouraging your child to become a thinker is just one way to do that.

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