Hearing a lot of Why? Here we break down the power of the unanswered question.
As our tiny peers become more curious about the world around them we start to hear a lot more “but why?” or “how?”. When presented with these questions (especially if it is not the first time) we are often eager to provide the entire answer.
However, this can immediately halt imagination and stop the developing idea of the child. Below we have put together a list of prompts you can use next time you are presented with an open ended question. Try some out and let us know what fascinating conversations come of it!
Instead of answering the question you can try:
”Wow what a thoughtful question, what do you think the answer could be?”
”I wonder the same thing, where do you think we could find this information?”
”I love your question, I actually don’t know the answer to that either.”
”I hear you are so curious, can you tell me more about what you find interesting?”
All of the above prompts provide a place for the child to channel their creativity and imagination. This promotes rich learning and cognitive thinking. We hope you will try them out and let us know what you think!
