5 books and 5 strategies to teach your child to think outside the box

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

It is possible to develop the ability to think outside the box from the very first years of a child's life. Clever shares helpful strategies and books to help you with this.

Creativity is in demand today in all professions, so it is worth starting to prepare children for solving non-standard intellectual problems as early as possible. Those children who learn to offer original solutions and generate innovative ideas will have more opportunities to become in-demand specialists in the future. A clear algorithm for acquiring creative skills has not yet been deduced, but you can start developing them with the help of different strategies and books.

Strategies for developing creativity

1. Ask open-ended questions

Usually, children give such answers to questions that can be predicted in advance. If you ask them questions that require ingenuity and imagination, you will be able to stimulate their creativity. For example: "What would you do if you got lost in the forest?"

2. Have general discussions

These conversations can be conducted in school, kindergarten, or in the family, involving everyone and asking engaging questions. This will allow children to learn how to analyze and evaluate their own and others' thoughts. By becoming accustomed to this kind of conversation, they will be able to ask themselves similar questions and will become more creative. Example: “Who can continue Mark's thought? Why do you think so? Who agrees with that? What is the connection between the ideas of Lisa and Nina? How is your proposal different from mine?"

3. Visualize the thinking process

This method will help children better understand other people's thoughts and formulate their own ideas more accurately and clearly. In addition, visualization allows you to express what is not always easy to convey in words.

4. Praise originality

This is one of the main conditions for the development of creativity and non-standard approaches. Instead of simply rewarding the child for answering a question correctly, ask him to tell how he came to this decision, praise his own train of thought or good calculation techniques.

5. Set an ultimate goal and give children the freedom to choose the path to it

Often adults know in advance how to complete a task and impose their vision on children. But how then can they show independence, how to be original? By inventing their own methods of achieving a goal, children feel more confident, rely more on their own strengths and abilities, instead of trying to guess the wishes of adults or the correct answer.

Books for the development of creativity

1. Baby's main book. Developing thinking

For whom: for children from 1 to 4 years old.

The book will teach you to distinguish between big and small, high and low, wet and dry, dirty and clean, hot and cold. It will surely contain both what the child has already encountered, and new concepts that he has yet to master.

For what: for the development of attention, memory, speech, spatial thinking, tactile sensations, comparison skills, curiosity, understanding of the surrounding world.

2. The book-find of the young detective

For whom: for children 4-6 years old who love to draw and view drawings.

The task is to find the objects disguised on the pages of the book and "hide" them yourself. At the same time, you can play games, mark what you find with stickers and solve problems that only the most attentive and enthusiastic detectives can do.

For what: for the development of attention, intelligence, logical thinking, speed of reaction, the ability to look at the situation from different angles. The book will help out a lot if you need to take your child for a long time on the road or in line.

3. Puzzles and rebuses for a young genius

For whom: for children from 5 years old who like games with letters and numbers, puzzles and brain teasers.

The 40 fun activities collected in this book do not require parental control: your child will cope with them quite well if you praise and encourage him. In order for the baby to stop being afraid of difficult questions, it is enough to practice for 15–20 minutes a day.

For what: for the early development of cognitive abilities, logic, creative thinking, resourcefulness, attention. Otherwise, how to notice in one of the problems that there are no 8-ruble coins?

4. I am an inventor! 60 creative activities to learn to think outside the box

For whom: for children 6-10 years old who love to invent, dream of working in a scientific laboratory and are happy to come up with new applications for well-known objects. The authors of the book are sure that invention can be taught, and ingenuity can be developed like an ear for music.

For what: to learn how to structure information and highlight the main thing, express and substantiate your assumptions, find original solutions and train to think outside the box. The book allows you to overcome the inertia of thinking, learn to identify and resolve contradictions, train your imagination, explore complex problems and find ways to overcome them.

5. Innovators. Puzzles, games, puzzles

For whom: for children 6-11 years old who like to look for differences between two pictures, continue logical series, guess crosswords, play with letters, solve puzzles and find unnecessary things.

For what: for the development of logic, imagination, creative thinking, attention. And also in order to understand what is closer to your child: letters or numbers, labyrinths or puzzles, drawings by points or drawings "from the head".