3 Powerful Methods For Developing The Young Mind Of Your Child

Not every child is going to be a savant or a genius at everything they attempt, but there are certainly better and worse ways to care for your little growing one. Perhaps the most obvious is to never penalize their natural curiosity around the world, but to shape it with care and appropriateness.

Of course, you shouldn’t expose them to everything, but it’s nice to help their imagination become inflamed and interested. It’s easy to joke about how children ask so many questions, but really, they’re just trying to map their world with clarity.

There are many different options for helping develop the mind of your child, and don’t worry, you don’t have to force them to join a chess club at three years old, nor listen to Mozart in the womb for them to develop “correctly.” Moreover, all children (and people) are naturally good at some things, and less so with others. 

In this post, we’ll discuss three powerful methods to ensure your little one has every chance to develop their mindset and capability over time.

Read To Them Daily & Make It Interactive

Reading to your child every day sounds like obvious advice, but how you do it makes all the difference in the world. Sure, you could just read the words on the page and call it done, though turning storytime into a conversation helps their brain develop and become more active, thinking about the stories being told more than anything else.

Ask them what they think will happen next, or why a character made certain choices. Maybe point out interesting words or pictures and see what connections they make. This back-and-forth discussion teaches them to think critically about what they’re hearing, plus it shows them that their thoughts and opinions matter in the conversation. That’s as important as anything else here.

Let Them Explore Through Hands-On Activities

Children learn best when they can touch, build, and experiment with the world around them. Of course, this means your house might get a bit messier, though the learning that happens when they’re allowed to investigate and create is worth the extra cleanup time.

Simple activities like cooking together, building with blocks, or just letting them help with garden work gives them chances to problem-solve and see how things work. Quality preschools understand this principle and build their entire curriculum around hands-on discovery in that sense, as opposed to expecting little ones to sit still and absorb information passively.

Inspire Your Own Questions & Model Curiosity Yourself

When your child asks why the sky is blue or how cars work, try not to brush off these questions even when you’re busy or tired. You’re not a bad parent for feeling a bit irritated by it, but it’s important to suppress that until you can gently tell them to relax. Maybe you don’t know the answer off the top of your head, but looking things up together shows them that learning is something adults do too.

You can also better model curiosity by wondering out loud about things you notice during your day. Perhaps you mention how interesting it is that some leaves change colors while others don’t, or wonder why certain birds show up in your garden at different times. It may help them feel inspired to learn with you. Is there anything better than that?

With this advice, we hope you can easily develop the young mind of your little one.