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Curiosity Grows

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As your child is beginning preschool, kindy, or primary school, curiosity takes on an even more important role than it did as they were a baby.

Before they start school, you can help them satisfy their curiosity about anything they like. You can give them lots of hands-on experiences, read books to them about whatever they are curious about, or find videos and even games that will teach them more about things they find interesting.

Once they start school and have homework, you may feel like the first thing they should do is homework and then you run out of time for the things they are curious about.

There have been some studies done that tend to take a different view of curiosity and learning. 

The more we know, the more we want to know.

Research shows curiosity grows with knowledge. So, sometimes the key to helping our kids improve their attitudes about homework is to see that they get a basic grasp of the subject so that they can become curious to learn more about it. Math facts are an example. It can be tedious to learn the basic facts, but once those are learned, they can begin to see how numbers work together to give us more understanding about our other interests.

Two things happen with curiosity. The first is that the hippocampus, the memory trigger in the brain, is stimulated. That’s why we remember well things that we learned through satisfying our curiosity. The second is that the chemical dopamine is released in the brain with curiosity. That is the reward and pleasure chemical in our brains. We feel good when we have been curious and learned something.

Try this ‘trick’ to help you child in subjects they don’t like.

In one study they found that when children were bored by a subject, curiosity could help them learn it in spite of their dislike. This is how you can make this work for your child. Spark their curiosity about anything they are interested in. Help them satisfy at least some of that curiosity at the beginning of homework time. When curiosity has been stirred, we remember other facts more easily and for a longer time. For a while after satisfying curiosity, whatever they are exposed to next, just seems to flow in more easily and creates memory of those other subjects.

I was not always thrilled with the things my little ones found fascinating. Our eldest, cut holes in the back of our recliner chair so he could see what was inside. He also took our record player apart into all its tiniest pieces! (We never could make it work again!) But both our sons were curious about everything. It has stood them in good stead in their jobs today. They are both always curious, always learning and that has made them very valuable to their companies. So, think long-term, when your child asks in infinite number of questions about something they find interesting! You help them develop a habit of curiosity and learning for their future.

Baby is Born Curious

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Babies are born curious.  “Where do I end and the world begins?”

During the first three years of life, children are curious about everything. Whatever they see, they want to touch, turn over, stroke, taste, and throw. They want to figure out all they can about everything within reach. 

Curiosity is the anticipation of learning. Curiosity urges your child to learn about what is in their world. When they are curious, the hippocampus, a part of the brain stores the information in long-term memory. Without curiosity and the testing your child does, they would be short on memories.  

These memories will be tapped later to learn more about these subjects. All these memories are like hooks that they can hang need information on. Without a rich store of memories, your child would have a hard time learning in school.

Curiosity releases the pleasure chemical, dopamine, in their brain. This is the chemical that is related to reward and pleasure. Just being able to explore and satisfy their curiosity gives them pleasure. That’s why they find it so hard to leave one thing they are playing with to do something they think is less interesting.

Parents and child-minders can do much to help your little one prepare for later learning.

  • As much as possible, allow your little child to investigate whatever they are concentrating on. That means providing many things that are safe and interesting for them to explore. They may go back to the same things many times before their curiosity is satisfied. 
  • Show you are interested, too, when they bring something to show you. Ask questions. Point to different parts or different ways it can be used. Your interest will stir their curiosity.
  • Talk about whatever they are doing or playing with. Before they are talking, they are still relating certain sounds with corresponding objects or experiences. You are helping to build their auditory vocabulary.
  • Don’t push learning about something they are not interested in at that time. Frustration and anger do not help learning.

During these early years, curiosity is natural and leads to learning that provides the basis for all learning throughout life.

Have fun watching your baby’s curiosity!

A Handful of Fun

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Why Sensory Play is Important for Preschoolers

This article is by Amanda Morgan. She has her masters degree in early childhood development and trains parents and teachers. But she also is a mom with four sons who teach her something new every day. Please stop by her site:  www.notjustcute.com.  You can also sign up for her monthly newsletter.

Think of your average preschooler. How long has this child been proficient with language? Depending on the age, the child may not really be too proficient yet!  Others seem to have been talking non-stop since 2 1/2, but that means they’ve been talking now for all of…..about a year! Now think of how long these children have been seeing, smelling, hearing, feeling, and tasting.  Their whole lives! Children are wired to receive and utilize sensory input from day one. This is why children will dive in hands first, exploring a new substance. The senses are their most familiar, most basic way to explore, process, and come to understand new information.

This is why we must allow young children to learn through experience, not just lecture. These children need to use their senses and be engaged in meaningful experiences. As we talk with them about what they are observing and sensing, we give them new language tools to connect with these more familiar sensory tools, building language as well as supporting cognitive concepts specific to the experience.

Now, the flip side to this equation is important to remember as well. Just as children learn through their senses, they also are developing the ability to use those senses and are building the neurological pathways associated with each one. With added sensory experiences, combined with the scaffolding of adults and peers, children become more perceptive. Their sensory intake and processing becomes more acute. As they are better able to use their senses, they are then better able to learn through their senses.

Sensory play is really part of the scientific process. Whether out loud or within the internal dialogue of the mind, children have developed a question, leading them to investigate-by grabbing, smelling, listening, rubbing, staring, licking , what have you! They are using their senses to collect data and from that, attempt to answer their own questions. Whether or not young children are always able to verbally communicate this process, it is still a valid exercise in scientific inquiry.

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Music and Your Child’s Mind

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First Steps is always trying to provide you with good, reliable information to help you make choices for your children. When considering whether music lessons are important, you should take a look at this summary of research that has been done on the effects of learning to play an instrument. This article was published in GreatSchools.org
Here are seven areas where studies have shown the benefits of music to kids’ education and development:

Language processing: Several recent studies suggest that the brain processes music and language in similar ways, and that training in music may have benefits for language-related skills. The Neurosciences Institute reports that its research has “revealed a significant degree of overlap between music and language processing,” and in a 2005 study , researchers at Stanford University found that mastering a musical instrument improves the way the human brain processes parts of spoken language. The findings suggested that students who are struggling with language and reading skills could especially benefit from musical training.

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