As the push for school resumption intensifies, an educationist Ayo Odunlami, executive director, Rainbow College has called on school owners and parents to explore the curiosity aspect in students as it empowers them to forge new ideas through inquiry and questioning.
Odunlami observes that with the current shift in the world, it is important to keep an open-door policy with virtual one on one sessions with students to keep their minds sharp and aid their communication through the unprecedented shift.
According to him, It is important that parents who are spending more time with their kids to make curiosity personal, feed it, reward it and let your kids take the lead in conversations”.
Odunlami opines that when treated as a lifelong endeavour, learning a little bit about something opens up space to learn more, adding that as young children encounter something new, learn a little bit about it, get curious and then continue to add on a little more information with each new discovery, they expand learning outcomes.
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“Parents and Guardians don’t make their children curious, research shows that it’s a child’s internal desire to know more, to learn more, and to ask more. This inquisitiveness leads them to seek out new experiences and this leads to greater success in life”, he said.
Providing insights on how best parents and school proprietress can help nurture and leverage students curiosity, Odunlami called on them to model interest in the world around these children
He further urged them to take a walk outside and wonder aloud about the trees, the sky, the stars, adding that children should be allowed to pursue interests of their own.
“Follow your child’s lead, encourage natural interests, If she desires to dance, dance with her. If she wants a frog, get her one. If she wants to create her own garden, gather the soil for her”
“Answer questions simply and clearly and if you don’t know the answer, say so. This also provides an opportunity to model how to find answers. Stimulate your child with open-ended questions. Questions that don’t have a right or wrong response, and can’t be answered with only one word like “yes” or ‘no’ Odunlami said.
He further opines that babies are born into this world with a drive to understand how the world works. A newborn follows sounds, faces and interesting objects with her eyes. A toddler takes a stool to reach the countertop where the phone is—a “toy” she loves to play with.
A 10-year-old is curious about being a teenager and what it entails. A 13-year-old is curious about art or science and it goes on and on A child becomes aware of the environment early on in life and relies on their parents to nurture this desire.
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