Children are born with a natural wonder about the world around them. Babies first take in the world through their eyesight and hearing, but as soon as they can grasp with their hands and kick with their feet, they want to eagerly explore their physical surroundings. This eagerness to explore is what drives them to crawl and walk. Moreover, a parent’s loving and enthusiastic presence is what will help them expand their learning and exploration into the future.
Nurturing Natural Curiosity
Once babies enter this world, their curiosity knows no bounds. As soon as they master some movement in their hands and feet, they begin to grab, touch, hit, and chew on anything and everything they see in their surroundings. Touch is the primary sense with which they understand the world around them.
For example, the mouth has many nerve endings that are sensitive to touch, therefore children naturally experience the texture of items through their mouth. Moreover, the more babies engage with their five senses, the better their brain integrates by creating new connections between neurons, thereby giving them a better understanding of the world. The second most important component of their brain development is a loving and enthusiastic caregiver who encourages their curiosity and exploratory behaviour). Just as babies need to be physically close to their caregiver for healthy brain and bodily growth, they need nurturing speech and behaviours to foster healthy brain development, spatial awareness, and healthy social characteristics and traits.
How To Nurture Curiosity in Your Children
A child who is not able to continuously expand their curiosity will not be very creative or innovative as an adult. Exploration and wonder are a journey that must be taken together as parent and child. How can we tangibly determine what curiosity looks like in children?
It can look like the following actions:
- A child who daydreams about being an astronaut. It can be pretending to be different animals, as well.
- A child puts together his/her own outfits.
- A child doodles or draws.
- Children ask many questions about the world around them, such as “how do houses get power?” (My 3.5 year old asked me this the other day.)
Their curious behaviour manifests in various ways. All parents, teachers, or other caregivers have to do is stoke the flame of their wonder. They need to expound on what interests them at the moment. Here are five examples of how we can do that:
Make their immediate surroundings interesting by keeping items of different colours, shapes, and textures for your baby or toddler. And then as they grow, add books, household items, and toys that might pique their interest and teach them something about their function. Leave items around with which they can figure out how to use such as a shovel and container with sand, pieces of a puzzle, magnetic tiles, beads and string, and even craft items like scissors, glue, pipe cleaners, construction paper, crafty tidbits that can be found at a dollar store. Get creative!
Try to be less restrictive when they are exploring as a little challenge in the activities they do is good for their brain development. Learning physical or mental activities through trial and error is what strengthens their neural pathways for that particular activity. This can look like trying to climb the whole length of the monkey bars all the while falling and getting back up. Or even counting items over and over again until they get the correct number.
Expound on their immediate interest and make them teachable moments. For example, if they stop to look at ants carrying food across the sidewalk, ask the child what they observe. You may also point out how they are cooperating with each other to get a task done and inquire about what kinds of foods they like to eat. If they talk about what they saw later, you can get books on ants or an ant farm to further develop their interest. Tune in often to what attracts them and ask them questions about it so that they can think deeply about what they are observing. Generally, you can point out different things in their surroundings when going on a walk or visiting different places and talk about them as well.
Talk to them often as this develops their communication and literacy skills. Talk about what and how you are doing, explain events that have happened in your household or outside that are age-appropriate, or talk about your own or their interests as well. Your talking gets them thinking. It develops the voice in their thinking brain. And the more critical or embellished observations you share with your child, the more their thinking will mirror that. In time, they will begin to observe and speak this way as well. This is especially important when it comes to talking about Islam and how it plays a large role in our life. Our goal is to make their worldview based on Islamic teachings.
Give them items they can manipulate with their hands as the more they engage with movement, the more their brains are activated and learning. That can be playdough, blocks, figurines, gears with moving parts, or even natural items such as sticks, stones, mud, leaves and so on. You can also have them do experiments and activities where they can observe the growth of a plant or make a simple car and watch how the motor works. These activities can be provided at schools, libraries, classes given by the community, cooperatives, and so on. Check out what learning opportunities your community offers.
One does not need to have many resources to create an enriched environment for learning. It only takes the creativity and enthusiasm of a caregiver. It is my hope that all parents and caregivers can be as such for their children, inshaAllah, God-willing.
End Notes
Stimulating your baby's senses series: Touch
Curiosity and Wonder: Cue Into Children’s Inborn Motivation to Learn
Curiosity: One of the Most Important Skills for a Child to Learn
Sumayya Khan is a homeschooling mother of two and a teacher. She has worked with several Islamic schools and organizations in the last 10 years. She is currently teaching Literature online with Dawanet and studying the Qur’an through Al-Huda Institute. In her free time, she loves to spend time with her family and friends, play sports, enjoy nature, and read books. She currently resides with her family in Toronto, Canada.
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