"Why can there be a flood, Ma?"
Surely you often feel dizzy, overwhelmed and annoyed at the little child's questions while you have to hurry to finish work? do not be angry. Instead you must be proud of having a baby that has the potential to become a ‘problem solver‘ aka someone who is keen to see the other side of a problem and how to solve it.
Here are some tips for those of you who want to know how to educate the right child to hone skills on how to solve problems,
1. Let them play
Children learn many things when they play. I think it's okay if occasionally letting them take a long bath just to observe water bubbles falling from the faucet, or pouring soap and shampoo into buckets of water to see which one produces the biggest bubbles will help children to try something different.
2. Open questions
When they ask something, try not to give an answer right away. Instead, answer them with questions that provoke them to answer the question themselves. For example, when they ask, "Where does baby sister come from?" Answer with "Where does the chicken egg come from?"
3. Don't stop the question
You may suddenly lose your mind answering questions that flow from your baby. You think that giving an answer will end all questions, and your curiosity is satisfied. However, this does not educate children because they will tend to quickly feel satisfied with one answer, and do not open themselves to other possible answers to the question. When you say, "Flood comes because of heavy rain" then he will feel scared every time it rains because he is afraid his house will be flooded.
4. Different perspective
Support your child to look at things from a different perspective, so he can be a creative problem solver when he grows up. Offer another alternative when encountering a problem and encourage him to be confident even though he has a different opinion from his friends. When he tells about a classmate who is naughty and shunned by his friends, you can say "Oh maybe he wants to play together, but don't know how to make friends want to play with him."
5. Look for references
Encourage the child to not be satisfied with one source of information when searching for answers to his questions. Invite him to get information from other places or parties so that he has many choices that offer answers. When he asks about the meaning of a word in the local language or English that he often encounters, say, "Let's ask Brother. Maybe you know the answer. "Or if you have an internet connection at home, you can say," Hmmm .. What is that? Try to search on Google Translate. "
6. Cause and effect relationships
Educating children so that they are able to build a foundation of thinking is also important. You can practice this by showing a simple cause and effect relationship, so that he knows there is a process that starts an event. When he asks about why we shouldn't litter, you can answer with, "What would it be like if you threw away the candy wrapper on Adek's bed, then Adek slept there. Does it taste good? "
Now, for some ways you sharpen your child to improve his ability to solve problems. Good luck..!!