Life is often similar to a children’s video game. You begin your journey, run into a few obstacles along your path, find a way to overcome them, and then end up victorious. When an obstacle might seem next-to-impossible to clear, you always find a solution to that problem using your problem solving skills.
The problems that life throws are not restricted to only adults. Even children face issues from a very young age. Be it solving a question for their homework, deciding on what to wear, or what toy to play with, all kids face problems of interesting interpretations every day.
Even though their hurdles might seem very small when compared to the problems that grown-ups face, you, as parents, must realize the importance of problem-solving and the mandatory duty in instilling a problem solving skills in your kids as early as possible.
Starting Early
Why is starting early so important? For the simple reason that most of the learning that a child does is during their early years. The skill of problem solving skills can be learned as an adult as well, but the process will be much slower when compared to learning young. This is the same reason why learning a language is much easier for a kid than for an adult.
Preschool is the best time to teach kids problem-solving, as minimal effort is required, less time is needed, and the process can be done in a fun way.
7 problem solving skills for kids
Performing problem-solving activities for preschool children like treasure hunts, building blocks to form a tower or any other design, can be beneficial for your child.
What Can You Do As Parents?
If you want to help in developing problem-solving skills in your child, then there are a few problem-solving strategies that you can use.
1. Be A Mentor
Do not be the problem solver for your kids. Rather, be a mentor or a guide and help them in problem-solving. Encourage them during a task, and ensure that they don’t get too disheartened when they fail.
Make sure they realize that making mistakes is part of the process, and it’s absolutely fine. This will enable them to learn from what they are doing wrong so that they don’t make the same mistakes again.
2. Be A Model
Children look up to their parents the most, especially during their early years. They are always watching what you do, how you perform a particular task and even try imitating you while you do it.
Therefore, you must be the perfect role model for your child. When it comes to problem-solving, don’t get frustrated when the problem seems tough or when the solutions are hard to come by. Be open to making mistakes as well.
3. Make Them Feel Involved
Go to your child and ask them for their opinions or advice on decisions that you have to make. These may even be simple decisions like what type of appliance is best for the house. This will boost the confidence of your child in problem solving skills, and it will also make them feel more involved.
4. Inspire Them Using Examples
Sit down with your child and read out some problem-solving stories. Also, give them real problem-solving examples of people from different walks of life who faced many obstacles on their path to success but did not lose hope and walk away from them. And improve problem solving skills in kids.
5. Enable Critical Thinking
One of the best problem solving skills strategies for kids is critical thinking. The knack of breaking down a problem into many parts and analyzing them separately to get the solution for the entire problem is called critical thinking.
As a parent, you can come up with some critical thinking activities for kids that facilitate them in the process of problem solving skills. Give them a complex task, and ask them to solve it. If they get stuck, then help them in breaking that task into multiple smaller tasks.
It is easier to break a single stick alone rather than trying to break a bundle of sticks at the same time.
6. Develop Creative Thinking
Creative thinking is the process of looking at the same problem from different perspectives and ending up with multiple solutions. This helps your child to use more of the creative side of their brain.
Developing creative thinking as a problem solving skills in early childhood is crucial for your child, as people with a creative mindset are more valued in the market than people with run-of-the-mill abilities.
Conclusion
Even the best of people face problems in their day-to-day life. There is a famous Michael Jordan quote that says, “Obstacles don’t have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don’t turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.”
Continue to inspire your children and help them on their journey in solving problems, as it is a vital skill that everyone must have under their belt, and childhood is the best time to acquire and master it. A platform such as Learningbix can be an excellent way for you to get started.
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