We know how it feels to have our kids asking us how everything works. We understand the amazing feeling parents get when teaching and showing something to their children, having the opportunity to watch them succeed in it, to then discover something new and useful.
Who would have thought that one day we were teaching our beloved little ones how to use a spoon, and today we ask them how to use our very own smartphones.
Understanding today’s and tomorrow’s world is much easier for our kids than for us. Their curiosity can now drive them onto paths of deep discovery of new ways to actively, and positively impact our world.
Therefore, encouraging their curiosity through activities, questions, and learning processes is becoming a must in the world and in the era we currently live in. In some sort of way, it is in our hands to create this willingness to learn in order to introduce our children to fields in which they’ll be able to constantly discover, ask, and answer; avoiding the extremely dangerous boredom zone.
The first step is the willingness to learn: Encouraging curiosity in young learners
Sometimes, it can be challenging to answer all of our children’s questions about everything, but if they keep on asking, it can be a great sign. This attitude shows a great willingness to learn and the capacity to understand that when they receive the answer to every question, there will always be more questions to ask.
The process offers our kids the opportunity to think critically, to develop the capacity to analyze, and to gain problem-solving skills. All of these are fundamental aptitudes that the 21st century requires from them.
Even beyond that. In the digital era where information can be found right in our pocket, children can actively participate in building innovations and applications. What started as a question or as a simple spark of curiosity, can be now turned into a hobby or a profession that can actually change the world.
Coding as the ultimate way to encourage curious kids
Coding is in everything. In every field. In every new technology. In every device our children use and play with every day. Learning how to code enables curious kids to discover new, different languages constantly, and to go a few steps beyond the simple spark of curiosity to creation!
When curiosity and simple questions are turned into something real and concrete, the hunger for knowledge increases, making our kids want to learn and create even more breathtaking, remarkable projects and things.
Encouraging kids to ask. Enable them to make this world better
Always allowing our kids to ask is a great practice to have at home. This, can nurture our kids with the willingness to impact the world in fields where they can always keep learning. New tools are just around the corner, and as we mentioned before, coding goes hand-in-hand with critical thinking, problem-solving, teamwork and computational thinking (the 21st century skills we previously talked about).
There will always be something new to learn in the coding world; a new programming language, a new device to develop an app for, etc. Allow your kids to learn coding today, so they can lead tomorrow’s world through their questions, their very own answers, and through whatever they develop to answer someone else’s question.
Learning how to code: After-class program
We do know that very soon every school in the world will have to include coding, programming, or at least some of the STEM subjects in their base curriculum. In most cases, kids have shown more interest in whatever happens outside the traditional classroom.
Offering them an engaging program where they’ll acquire knowledge and new tools can greatly help them in school. Meeting other students from all over the world that share their interests and curiosity can only make our children better prepared to face an unknown future that we only know one thing about: Knowing how to code will be a must!
Critical, analytical, problem solving as well as computational thinking are critically essential in the 21st century. They cannot easily be taught by parents at home. That is the best way to get the kids future ready. I am dying to have that for my two girls.