{"id":224,"date":"2011-08-25T07:00:40","date_gmt":"2011-08-25T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/index.php\/?p=224"},"modified":"2013-08-26T13:45:05","modified_gmt":"2013-08-26T17:45:05","slug":"encourage-critical-thinking-when-children-ask-why","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/2011\/08\/encourage-critical-thinking-when-children-ask-why\/","title":{"rendered":"The Answer to WHY?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n
\nBrandi Parsell leads a discussion with
IMACS students in a math enrichment class.\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

Former IMACS<\/a> instructor, Brandi Parsell, offers advice on how to address the ultimate question in a way that stimulates logical reasoning and critical thinking skills.<\/i><\/p>\n

It can be endearing, or at times downright frustrating – that eternal question, “why?”. When bright children discover that single word, they seem to grab onto it and won’t let go. Sometimes the answers are simple, and sometimes we find ourselves at a complete loss for words.<\/p>\n

This innocent question, however, is a signal to parents that a child is ready to be challenged to think logically. The creativity is there – we can see it in their everyday play. It is how we encourage that creativity and shape it into critical thought that will form a solid basis for a child’s learning ability.<\/p>\n

Critical thinking<\/a> is one of the hardest subjects to teach older students; any schoolteacher will tell you so. But if you begin to give your children the necessary tools when they are as young as three or four years old, they can develop these skills more easily. When the question of “why” is put once again on the table, the best policy is to ask, don’t tell. Challenge your children; ask what they think the reason might be. Chances are you will be pleasantly surprised.<\/p>\n

Often parents believe that when their child reaches school age, he or she will at last find satisfaction for that curiosity. Talented students, though, may become bored with traditional school curriculum. When such a student is not challenged to exceed our expectations, this frustration often takes the form of careless errors and lack of effort. If children begin to develop these kinds of bad habits, too often they give up quickly when faced with a truly challenging problem. It is important that bright students are encouraged to go beyond what is merely “expected” of them.<\/p>\n

“Talented students owe it to themselves to stretch their minds as far as they can,” said Burt Kaufman, co-founder of IMACS<\/a>. Burt spoke from experience. For over 40 years he worked closely with bright pre-college students and developed challenging mathematics curriculum materials to stimulate them to become true students – disciplined logical thinkers with an insatiable thirst for knowledge and understanding.<\/p>\n

Parents are a child’s first teachers, and the best teachers don’t give away the answers. Turn your child into a detective, and yourself into their greatest source for clues.<\/p>\n

An IMACS<\/a> foundation in logical thinking sets students on a path to successful learning. Take our free aptitude test<\/a> to begin your IMACS<\/a> journey.<\/i><\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Brandi Parsell leads a discussion with IMACS students in a math enrichment class. Former IMACS instructor, Brandi Parsell, offers advice on how to address the ultimate question in a way that stimulates logical reasoning and critical thinking skills. It can be endearing, or at times downright frustrating – that eternal question, “why?”. When bright children […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64,67,72,71],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-critical-thinking","category-gifted-and-talented-2","category-logical-reasoning","category-parenting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eimacs.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}