Before starting off with how to build curiosity, let’s understand the phenomena of human curiosity and why it is important in today’s world. Humans encounter more than 10,000 new thoughts every day, and a usual adult light headedly ignores most of them that require heavy stalking and researching. As per the article published by NPR, the limbic reward system of the brain illuminates when a person becomes curious helping them to understand subjects better and retain information for a longer time. A curious person in quest of right answers can make better choices in life especially in societies dealing with stereotypes and enhance their overall personality as an intelligent individual with creativity.

Nurturing curiosity in young minds:

A curious mind learns the most, so it’s very important for nurturing this human behavior of interest in children in order to make them a lifelong learner.

Follow their Interest: Children garner interest for specific objects or things at a very early age. If you find your child being fascinated or paying more attention to one activity than others, join in the quest and enable them to learn more with your involvement. If he/she likes to dance or sing, engage them in activities that comprise either of one. If your child is interested in bugs, show them a bug encyclopedia and help them explore more.

Provide good explanation: There is an age to understand answers to challenging questions like where do babies come from or why politics is important. Your child will start asking such questions from the time they learn how to talk. Always encourage them to ask questions by giving those answers in a way that they’ll understand, keep it simple and clear. If you are able to eliminate their doubts they’ll rely on you for answers and you can monitor there learning curve from it.

Ask open-ended questions: Train your child to be an avid speaker by asking questions that require them to think and construct sentences. Open-ended questions are a good choice to stimulate young minds. Ask children questions like what you think about the weather or how was your day at school. These questions require answers that are original and creative. It will help give you a better knowledge of what exactly is going in their minds.

Create an environment to learn: You must have noticed toddlers playing around dirt, glue or water which makes most parents mad. What we should understand is that this is how they learn about the world and matter around us. Do not discourage them to try new things but create a safe and learning environment for them. If your son or daughter likes to play with water, take them to a bathtub or kitchen sink where they can play around with water without you worrying about the floor or your expensive gadgets around. If a child is curious to know what they can do with a mobile phone, give them your old phones to play around with and let them build their interest around technology.

Involve them in open-ended activities: Let your child play more with Lego boxes, clay models and similar products that involve imagination, creativity and can be used in numerous ways rather than buying them toys with one purpose alone. Guide them but do not put limitations so that they play with them how they want to and use their imagination and curiosity to create end products.

You can easily bring this behavior in your child furthermore many playschools, crèche and Daycare follow the above-mentioned techniques to build curiosity from a young age.

I hope this article helps you to make your child more curious.