Encourage Questions
Kids have the most awesome questions and we should always encourage questions. How? By answering them of course and telling them how awesome their question is and how smart they are to have thought of it because they are smart.
I remember when I was a kid, I always felt I
could ask my mother and father anything and I became that kid you find annoying in class that always has an extra question – you know, the kid who has the teacher keep everyone an extra minute to answer the question. Well, I know you don’t totally hate that kid and I think there’s some good in that (of course I would, right? lol)
My daughters are amazing
Anyway, today, I encourage questions from my daughters and I did the same for my older ones and today they are amazing young woman of which I am very proud of. I can only imagine what they will do with their life and I see great things in their future. My younger daughters will surely follow in the same path as their older sisters.
I always make sure that if I don’t know the answer, I tell them how much of a great question it is and that I don’t know but I can find out. Then I look it up for them or even with them so we can both learn. I am not able to pretend I know the answer since that’s how I was raised too, but I find that if you pretend you know the answer because you’re afraid to look stupid is crazy. Think about it, that’s your child, it’s impossible for them to think that of you.
No question is stupid
I’ve heard some parents tell their kids that their question was stupid instead of answering and I can only guess that it’s because they don’t know the answer. Can you imagine what that does to the child? Telling them they are stupid? You can probably find lots of adults around that have an emotional wound because someone told them that as a child when they asked a question.
I really encourage you to encourage questions with your children and even others in your life such as students that just started working with you – entourage questions from them too and make sure you let them know how great their question is too!
What is your experience with encouraging questions? Post a comment below, I’d love to hear your story and what you thought of this article.
