Our job as parents, in addition to providing care and meeting the needs of our children, is to prepare them for life. Fostering their autonomy and educating them emotionally will make them reach the outside world better prepared.
But in addition to these important skills, we must also teach them to develop critical thinking . We share with you why it is important and how to do it.
The importance of thinking
When we talk about teaching our children to think, one of the first things that may come to our mind is the process that we usually teach children for everyday actions or when it comes to memorizing academic things.
And although that is undoubtedly a very important part of their development, this time the word “think” is focused on another point: critical thinking. This is what allows us to question, evaluate and analyze the information that is provided to us.
That is, it is the process during which our mind not only reads, listens or sees something, but takes that something to later reflect on it and, after completing this process, make the best possible decision .
Why teach it to our children
Critical thinking is one of the most important teachings we must give our children, as it will teach them not to believe everything they see, read or hear , thus allowing them to form their own conclusions.
An everyday and current example of critical thinking can be the news we read every day. Developing critical thinking teaches us to be able to identify the real from the false, by making us question the information we receive .
This process invites our children to go beyond just receiving information or following directions. We are not interested in our child always saying yes or believing absolutely everything.
It will teach them to avoid making impulsive decisions or blindly believing in something . With it, they will reason and think logically, judging different situations or circumstances appropriately.
How to teach critical thinking to our children
Teaching critical thinking may sound complex or very advanced, but it is actually something that we can begin to practice with our children from a very young age. These are some ways in which we can apply it on a day-to-day basis :
Encourage curiosity
Children are naturally curious: they are hungry to know everything about the world around them. But we can always give them a hand and further encourage their curiosity.
Ask him questions that invite him to think more about certain situations, even the most ordinary ones, such as when tasting or eating a fruit: do you know where apples come from? They can talk about the whole process so that the fruit reaches their hand.
Answer their questions to help you understand
Critical thinking helps us to form questions and go further. We as parents are the first ones in charge of explaining many things to children, so it is best to do it in a way that they can really understand what we are saying .
Open the dialog
When they watch a movie or finish reading a book, open the dialogue and invite reflection . They can ask questions such as: what would you have done in the protagonist’s place? Do you think things could have been different?
Teach him to use argumentation
Taking the same example from the previous point, we can teach them to justify their opinions with arguments . This can range from explaining why they would have done the same or different things, or also, why they liked or did not like what they saw or read.
Talk about the pros and cons
Critical thinking helps us make better decisions and analyze. A simple exercise that we can do to get our children to participate in this process is to teach them about the pros and cons : why is it convenient (or not) to do something in particular?
Let him be wrong
Many parents fear the mere thought that their children are wrong, but we must allow this to happen so that they can learn the valuable lessons that making mistakes can leave us.
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