Problem Solving: Empower Your Kids to Think Critically and Creatively
Listen to the podcast version:
Ignite Young Minds: How to NurturE Problem-Solvers
Problem solving is a crucial life skill to teach our children.
We want them to be able to think critically, to develop problem solving capabilities, and to become adept at navigating any challenge they may face.
Here are 7 steps to teaching your child to be a fabulous problem solver.
1. Encourage curiosity and exploration
It is important to encourage your child’s natural curiosity.
They want to explore the world around them.
They love asking questions.
Provide opportunities for new discovery, so your child will develop a love of learning and a willingness to take risks and try new things.
This will help them become more comfortable with exploring and experimenting, so that they will be better equipped to tackle problems and find solutions.
Activities to encourage curiosity and exploration:
• Science Experiments: They will be transforming abstract concepts into tangible, hands-on experiences, fostering a deeper understanding of the natural world.
• Nature Walks: It is more than just walking outside!
By providing a dynamic and unstructured environment, you are encouraging your children to observe, question, and problem-solve in response to the ever-changing natural elements.
• Outdoor Scavenger Hunts: Your child is actively engaging with the outdoors!
The hunt also fosters problem-solving skills as children strategize, observe details, and often work collaboratively, which gives them a sense of adventure and curiosity in nature.
• Wonder Wall: Establish a wonder wall or question board where children can write down their questions and ideas.
• “Why” Game: Play the “why” game by taking turns asking and answering “why” questions about a particular topic.
This game helps children explore ideas and encourages them to dive deeper into their thinking.
2. Teach critical thinking skills
In order for children to be great problems solvers, they bust be effective critical thinkers.
This involves analyzing information, evaluating arguments, and making informed decisions.
These three steps are all key components to step 5 in Social Emotional Learning: Responsible Decision Making.
Before we get to activities for critical thinking skills, I have some quick tips for you to teach critical thinking skills:
1. Ask open-ended questions: This helps your child to develop their analytical skills and to consider different perspectives.
2. Encourage friendly debate: Engage children in discussions on various topics.
3. Allow them to formulate their own opinions by evaluating arguments, looking at evidence and using (explaining) their own reasoning.
4. Introduce logical reasoning: Teach basic logical reasoning concepts such as cause and effect, if-then statements, and deductive reasoning.
This also helps teach children about consequences both in actions and thought.
A poorly thought out argument has the consequence of not being explained the way it was intended, for example.
5. Expose children to diverse perspectives: Encourage children to read books, watch movies, and engage with people from different cultures, beliefs, and backgrounds.
The climate we now live in has made this very “tip” a political issue.
It is not intended that way.
Simply allow your child to see that there is more to the world than their back yard.
There are more people, traditions, and experiences than in your child’s inner circle.
By seeing the “other” your child is better able to understand different viewpoints.
Which allows them to collaborate later on.
Activities that help teach critical thinking skills:
• Debate: I love debate-friendly debate!
It goes further than saying how you feel about a topic.
Children must evaluate evidence and form reasoned opinions but also develop the crucial skill of understanding and respecting other viewpoints.
• Media Analysis: it encourages them to question information sources, discern biases, and evaluate the credibility of content.
Children develop a heightened awareness of persuasive techniques and learn to critically analyze sources so that they can make informed decisions.
• Problem Solving Workshops: These may not be as widely known!
Children get hands-on experiences that require analysis, creative thinking, and the application of logical strategies to solve real-world challenges.
• Alternative Pathways: Present children with simple tasks and encourage them to identify alternative ways of achieving the desired outcome, fostering creative and flexible thinking.
A fabulous book for this is: Which One Doesn’t Belong?: Playing with Shape by Christopher Danielson.
• Coding Challenges: Introduce coding games or platforms where children have to solve programming problems by breaking them down into smaller code snippets.
These help your child with logical reasoning, analytical skills, and critical evaluation.
3. Foster creativity and imagination
It seems most children initially have this.
Yet we, society, the educational system, manners, who knows what, grows this creativity and imagination right out of them.
By fostering these qualities in children, we can equip them with the ability to think outside of the box and come up with innovative solutions to difficult problems.
Activities that encourage creativity and imagination:
• Encourage Storytelling: Listen to your child’s stories and ask them to elaborate on their characters, settings, and plot twists.
These stories your child creates helps to expand their cognitive abilities and encouraging innovative thinking.
• Provide Open-Ended Materials: A variety of art supplies, with no instructions, allows your child to freely express themselves and explore different ideas.
• Read Books Together: Even when they are older, sometimes your child is interested in and wants to discuss, a story that they either cannot read or they just don’t want to read. Reading these a variety of stories helps your child to better visualize and empathize. Are you looking for more ways to help your child fall in love with reading?
• Allow Time for Daydreaming: Seriously! Who has the time for random thoughts anymore?!
Daydreaming is an important part of the creative process. Your child may come up with some of their best ideas when their minds are “wandering” and they are not actively trying to solve a problem.
• Creative Writing: You can use writing prompts to encourage your child to write stories or poems allowing them to come up with unique characters, settings, or plot twists.
52 Spring Writing Prompts
Unique Ideas for free writes- Where ideas flow!
- A writing prompt helps your child focus and gives them an idea to write about
- Your child becomes comfortable with the writing process
- As they gain confidence, they will become better writers
- Unique prompts you have not seen before!
- Excellent for 4th-8th grade interest level
- Example: You are given the power and choice to join the Light Side or the Dark Side of the Force.
- Example: Create a comic strip depicting the quirky and imaginative escapades of a spider hitching a ride on a paper airplane.
NO RULES!!!
Isn’t this what every child dreams of?
Give them writing prompts-
no strings attached!
4. Develop communication skills:
When children can express their thoughts and ideas clearly, they are better able to collaborate with others and find solutions to complex challenges.
Tips for teaching good communication skills:
1. Teach them how to be good listeners.
They need to learn how to ask questions, paraphrase others, and show that they are actively listening.
I think this is so important that one of my Social Emotional Learning (SEL) lessons in 2nd Grade is “How to be a good listener.”
2. Nonverbal communication: Help them develop strong non verbal communication skills (link) such as tone of voice, eye contact and body language.
3. Constructive feedback: When children receive constructive feedback, they learn to understand the impact of their words and actions on others, as well as how to express themselves more effectively.
Activities to help your child develop better communication skills:
• Role-Playing Games: This activity promotes active listening and effective communication as they interact with others in character.
• Team Building Exercises: Organize team-based activities that require children to work together to achieve a common goal.
• Debates and Discussions: Age-appropriate topics where children can express and defend their opinions, listen to different perspectives, and articulate their thoughts coherently are fabulous for teaching communication skills.
• Story Prediction: Read a story or present a situation to children and ask them to predict potential problems or conflicts that may occur later in the storyline.
The key is in how they are able to communicate what they are thinking and why?
5. Promote collaboration and teamwork
By promoting collaboration and teamwork in children, we can help them develop the ability to work together towards a common goal, share ideas and perspectives, and build strong relationships with others.
These skills are one of the many components of problem solving.
Activities to encourage collaboration and teamwork:
• Group Art Work: Create a mural or other type of large scale art project.
• Build a Fort: Having children get together to create a fort, works on these skills.
Think about the questions they tackle: inside or outside? What will be used for walls?
Who gets to come inside of their fort?
*This is one of my favorite collaboration ideas for children through age 10.
• Camping Trip: Yes, the family camping trip is a team effort!
Have your child be part of your family’s team in deciding where to go, where to stop, what to take, what to eat, etc.
• Team Sports: Children learn a lot when they play a team sport!
There are so many skills learned: cooperation, communication, responsibility, sportsmanship, and quick thinking to name a few!
• Group Games: Remember “Freeze Tag” or “Tug of War?”
When children play group games together they learn to work and strategize as a unit, instead of an individual.
6. Emphasize problem-solving strategies
By emphasizing problem-solving strategies, parents can empower children to tackle obstacles with confidence and resilience.
Here are some tips to encourage kids to develop their problem-solving abilities:
1. Break down complex problems into smaller, manageable parts.
This helps children focus on one step at a time and avoid feeling overwhelmed.
2. Encourage them to brainstorm possible solutions.
3. Teach them to think about each solution based on its potential effectiveness and practicality.
4. Practice active listening and empathy when working through problems together.
Activities to encourage problem-solving strategies:
• Provide Autonomy: Offer independence and autonomy in problem-solving tasks. Let children make decisions, explore solutions, and learn from the outcomes.
• Strength Awareness: Help children identify their strengths and interests. Encourage them to leverage these strengths to tackle problems, fostering a sense of ownership and confidence in their abilities.
• Problem Ownership Contract: Create a problem ownership contract or agreement with the child, emphasizing their role in taking responsibility for identifying and working towards solutions.
• Goal Setting: Help children set goals and guide them in creating action plans to achieve those goals.
Encourage them to evaluate their progress regularly.
• Critical Thinking Games: Play strategy-based board games or online games that require children to anticipate problems and develop solutions before they arise, fostering their ability to think ahead.
• Building Block Challenge: Provide children with building blocks and challenge them to build a specific structure or solve a problem using those blocks.
This activity fosters creativity and the ability to find unique solutions to challenges.
• Puzzle Play: Provide children with puzzles of varying complexity and encourage them to break down the problem by focusing on one piece or section at a time.
Learn about the benefits of putting together puzzles here.
• Artistic Improvisation: I love this one! Read it carefully!
Engage children in improvisational art activities, such as drawing without lifting the pencil, to stimulate creative thinking and find innovative solutions.
7. Provide opportunities for real-world application
One of the most effective ways to teach children how to solve problems is by providing them with opportunities to apply their skills in real-world situations.
Activities to encourage learning problem solving skills through real-world application:
• Money Management Simulations: Create simulated scenarios where children have to manage a budget, make purchasing decisions, or save for specific goals.
• Escape Room Challenges: Design age-appropriate “escape room” puzzles or challenges that require children to work together to solve a series of clues and tasks within a time limit.
Yes, these are “fun” and not “real world” like a job or a true application, but they are fun.
• Inventor’s Workshop: Encourage children to identify specific problems society has or gadgets we need. They can then create the solution, whether on paper, verbally, or tinker with everyday materials to solve them or create gadgets.
• Environmental Conservation Activities: Engage children in initiatives like cleaning up local parks or planting trees, allowing them to practice environmental stewardship and apply their knowledge to real-world scenarios.
• Recipe Challenge: Ask children to follow a recipe and break it down into smaller steps, such as gathering ingredients, measuring, and following instructions in order to prepare a dish.
• Entrepreneurship Simulation: Have children create their own small businesses or enterprises and let them experience real-world scenarios, such as budgeting, marketing, and customer service.
In our information-saturated world, we aspire for our children to excel as problem solvers, equipped with analytical and critical thinking skills.
By fostering their ability to think critically, we empower them to conquer life’s inevitable challenges.
This crucial skillset enables them to navigate any hurdle they may encounter, equipping them to thrive in an ever-changing world.
“You have to be able to listen to other voices, even if they don’t agree with you.
They make us stronger, more creative, more inspired.” – Poppy “Trolls World Tour”