If you want to raise a genius, there are a few things you can do to equip your child with all the skills they need to excel at school and beyond. But while you can enroll them in gifted programs and have them recite pi to the farthest known digit, you should also consider how they can utilize their brain to become more considerate and effective when faced with problems.
Problem-solving is a crucial skill for anyone, and it’s the perfect companion for your child’s already impressive intelligence. So how do you teach your child how to solve problems? Here are seven ways to give them the tools they need.
Get Them Into Reading
Every parent knows that reading to your child is essential. It doesn’t matter if it’s baby books or you’re introducing them to your favorite stories from your youth, reading is vital for improving their problem solving skills. Start by reading to them before bed. As they get older, they can explore books they want to read themselves. Depending on how much they love reading, this could be the latest fantasy or sci-fi novels, or they may want to tackle some of history’s best stories and most revered authors.
Encourage Games
Games are a great chance for your child to experience different scenarios or situations that demand them to get around. Their video games often challenge them to overcome problems, but even classics like Minesweeper encourage them to take a more cautious approach. The more they play, the more they’ll learn about problem solving and they may take their time figuring out the answer instead of rushing in to get to the end as quickly as possible.
Ask Them Questions
Questions are another excellent way to help your child figure out problems by themselves and build their problem-solving skills. As a parent, you want them to get everything right but can’t give them the homework answers or assignments. Instead, try leading questions that encourage them to think about the problem differently. This approach helps them try different methods to find the correct answer and helps them build different techniques to achieve academic success.
Let Them Make Mistakes
As much as you want your child to succeed, you also need to let them make mistakes as this is the only way they’ll learn. No parent should hover over their little genius and hand them the answers. They need to know where they went wrong and how they can make it right. Mistakes can help them realize they can’t coast by and actually have to put effort into their work, and once they understand what they’ve gotten wrong, they can use problem-solving to find the correct solution.
Try a Scavenger Hunt
Kids don’t just learn to solve problems by doing homework or assignments, though. Like games, they also need to do activities and learn while having fun. One way to do this is by checking out scavenger hunt ideas and creating one for your child. Here, you can create clues and riddles they need to solve as they search throughout the house, garden, or park. Not only is this lots of fun, but it also pushes your kids to think differently and learn different problem-solving skills because not every answer will be spelled out clearly.
Ask Them For Advice
Your kid may ask you for advice a lot, so how about you flip it and ask them for advice? Of course, you’re not going to ask them how to overcome project issues at work because they simply won’t know. However, you can ask them for advice about little things around the house. These little things could be what to have for dinner or what to do on the weekend. The decisions won’t make a massive difference overall, but they can encourage your child to think carefully and feel good about making a decision.
Don’t Discourage Them
You’ve learned at work there are no bad ideas when brainstorming. If anything, bad ideas are essential because they foster good ideas eventually. The same goes for helping your child work out what to do for their next project. Sit down with them and take turns coming up with ideas but don’t cast off their suggestions, because it will affect their self-esteem/. You need them to feel comfortable thinking about things even if it’s not something they end up doing anyway.
Problem Solved
Problem-solving is a fantastic skill for your child–or indeed anyone–to possess. These tips and activities can help your child learn how to look at problems from various perspectives, which ensures they take the right approach when faced with any problems, whether at school or in other aspects of their lives.
