Telling Isn’t Teaching

Kids learn repeatable patterns through practice and experiences. Their characteristics, habits, skill development, and values are shaped by these experiences.

It’s done through reading and imagining, through play, through creating, through testing.

One of the neat things as you observe this is there are minimal to no instructions. Kids correct course most of the time and in some cases learn the hard way when they don’t. Those life lessons stick with us forever and sometimes we even have the scars to remind us. But rarely, if ever, do they learn by being told something. When it comes to deep learning, we need to let them experience it themselves, think openly, and be challenged.

The best teachers in the world do this not by giving the answers but by asking the right questions.

The next time your child asks a question you know the answer to don’t be in such a hurry to answer it. Instead, return serve with a simple question like “What do you think?” or “Why do you think it’s like that?” or anything around this questioning.

Although it may be simple to you, watch their brain rev up as they try to come up with an answer.

You’ll be amazed by the imagination they have through the answers they come up with and they might shock you with their perspective.

Who knows, It might open up additional questions and dialogue that might fuel their passion and spark their curiosity to explore more.

In the end, that’s the fun part of learning anyways.