Answer those questions

Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.

Socrates

Does you little like to play 20 questions? For our family it’s more like 20,000 questions!

I think this is a great way for them to learn, and although it can be trying for us as parents (mostly because who has answers to some of those questions), we need to let them ask. My daughter recently has really started to ask hard questions. Things that I did not think she would want to know for a long time. So how do you answer these hard questions? 

There are times that I just take a breath and think, well here we go, and give her the answer that is the truth. This takes a while sometimes because you have to answer so many more questions, but it really is the best to tell them the truth. Sometimes its just not something that at age 5 she should know the answer to at this time, and I just say “that’s a good question, I know you are wanting an answer but its something we will talk about when you are older” and I leave it at that. When she asks why she can’t have the answer now, I simply say because it’s something we will discuss when you are older, and change the subject. 

Kids really are curious about the world around them, and we should nurture that curiosity. So when your child gets to asking all those questions, please take a second and answer them truthfully. Let them know if you don’t know something, and teach them how to find the answer. We are all learning continually, and we should show our littles this. 

We really love to keep our kids learning. In the car we like to play “I’m thinking of”. It’s a great game to teach all sorts of things. For example- I’m thinking of an animal that starts with the sound MMMM. The kids will start to do the sound and think of animal that start with that sound, if they do not get it I will give them the next sound and so on til they get it. 

This teaches them letter sounds, courage to try to guess the answer, how to spell the animals name, and if they do not guess right, they get the lesson of its ok to lose. When they were younger we would play animal sounds, I spy, sing the abcs, and counting. When kids are in the car it really is a great time to play some of these games, and to keep their little minds busy. 

Have courage to teach your children, take the time to answer questions, and nurture their curiosity. This is one of our big responsibilities to our children. You got this!!!!

-Kristy