Why curiosity is important for children?

Hello!

Today I'm going to talk a little about the importance of curiosity in child development. We often don't give due importance to curiosity as we should. Curiosity is something that instigates and stimulates children (and even adults) to learn, discover and explore. It develops intelligence and the various areas of development, such as cognitive, physical, language, among many others.

Source: Education Week

You must be wondering how curiosity does all this? I will explain. The child can be exposed to different types of scenarios that develop curiosity, for example, bringing materials or questions to be discussed with the class. Making comparisons such as why are some things plastic and others wooden? How does a bean become a plant? How does a caterpillar become a butterfly? An educator or caregiver can offer opportunities for the child to explore, question, create hypotheses and share ideas and this will bring knowledge and consequently will develop the intelligence of these children.

Source: Pinterest

Curiosity can be introduced to children from a very early age. A very interesting tool is the curiosity baskets. These baskets can be assembled in many ways, with simple materials that we can find at home. To exemplify, I created a curiosity basket focused on children between 6 and 18 months. To assemble my basket, I used kitchen items such as a whisker, a baby bottle brush, a silicone spatula, a colander and a metal mug. I even got these items at my house and at a dollar store, practical and affordable!

I'm going to take a picture of my curiosity basket, but just to give you an idea, it's very similar to the picture above. Summarizing, a curiosity basket aims to present new textures and possibilities to children and you can easily assemble one at home for your child, using kitchen items, fabrics, toys, magnifying glasses, small rocks, pine cones, corks, balls and even fruits!

Thanks for visiting and I hope I helped you come up with ideas to stimulate your child's creativity! If you make a creativity basket, post your idea in the comments, it will be really cool!