Learning for Little Ones: Problem Solving

Welcome to Learning for Little Ones! Do you have an idea or activity you do with your little ones??? Please share it with us. I'd love it if you would write a post on it sometime in the next couple days and link up to our Mr. Linky. I would ask, though, that you include somewhere in your post a link back to this post so others can participate! Thanks!

Ok, so I'm late with my Learning for Little Ones post... but at least it's still Thursday.

I found myself watching Tornado play yesterday and I realized how often I get in the way of helping him learn. Sure we do activities and we sing and we talk and we point out every animal under the sun (at least the ones we see in a day), but I also block him from learning sometimes.

Though all the skills and information I try to teach him are important, it's just as important to let him learn problem solving skills on his own. While I sat on the couch with Sweet Pea yesterday afternoon, Tornado was playing with a Nerf football in the kitchen (ok... so really it's just one big room.) He would flip or throw the ball and it would roll. He would laugh and chase it, only to do it again and again. A number of times the ball rolled under the table. When he was smaller he would crawl in and out and around and through the chair legs to get under the table and move around, but now that he is bigger, it just doesn't quite work the same way. I've got to tell you, that kid is smart. He would see the ball roll threw the chair legs or over to the other side and he would just stare at it. I expected him to plunge through everything in a direct line to the ball, only to complain and ask my help when he couldn't reach it (or when he got himself stuck under the table), but instead he studied the situation and figured out the best way to get it. Sometimes it was to crawl out from under the table to walk around it. Other times it was to reach through this hole, or to get down on his hands and knees to crawl under. I was amazed... and I realized how my sitting back and watching was teaching him valuable problem solving techniques.

Go ahead... I dare you. Sit lazily while your kids struggle through something... it's so much more fun when you can watch them succeed without you!

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What are you doing with your little ones? Write a post on your blog and link up here. Be sure to link directly to your Learning for Little Ones post and don't forget to link back here so others can participate too. Feel free to use my little Learning for Little Ones banner at the top. Don't have a blog??? Leave your ideas in the comments section. :) I'm so looking forward to visiting your blogs and learning from all of you!

Labels: Learning for Little Ones

posted by ~Babychaser~ @ 5:04 PM