CRITICAL THINKING ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS – ENCOURAGING THROUGH EVERYDAY HABITS

This article promotes critical thinking activities for kids that will help them break down complex ideas into simpler portions so that they can understand logical connection between ideas.

Critical thinking can be understood as the ability to think rationally, to analyse the piece of information given to you and determine whether it is right or wrong, to think deeply in a way that helps you solve the problem. It is about being curious, innovative, open-minded to look and think differently and to come up with good, sound decisions.

Benefits of Critical Thinking Skills

Ability to think rationally is a superpower in this day and age as you are constantly bombarded with unsolicited advice, ideologies and promotions on daily basis.

In all these situations, there’s a filter that can come in handy. That is called critical thinking. You can use your rationale, logical thinking , use what you have already learned and experienced to determine what makes sense and what does not.

Benefits of critical thinking are not just for the younger age, it’s for the whole life span. Let’s see what they are.

1. Improved cognitive skills– Going beyond just memorising facts and following instructions, when we ask more questions like “why” and “how” going to improve children’s logical reasoning skills. They will be the ones who question us without blindly following what we say. How does this happen? and Why? or thy will think about alternative ways and bring out new ideas.

2. Refined creativity– A child who knows how to solve a problem may come up creative ideas that have never been brought up by any other.

3. Independent decision making– Taking decision is not so hard when you are good at cracking the code for almost any matter.

4. Self-confidence– When you can trust your judgement and decision making, it boosts your self confidence.

5. Good leadership skills– A good leader always should have good critical thinking skills. When so many people look up to you, it’s your responsibility to take decisions that benefit everyone. Critical thinking skills come in handy here.

6. Not influenced by outside world easily– With a good set of critical thinking skills, you are unshaken by peer pressure, advertising or mass media because don’t believe everything you see or hear.

7. Innovative skills– You can always come up with a new idea to tackle an existing problem if you’ve got good critical thinking skills.

8. Higher academic success rate– You are not just someone who can memorise lessons, you break down facts, analyse, challenge them, argue, bring out new ideas. you have a great chance to perform better academically than an average student.

Critical Thinking Activities for Kids

With the world rapidly changing and technology advancing, it’s more important than ever for kids to think critically. Critical thinking activities for kids can help them become more informed decision makers as well as problem solvers.

By learning how to identify potential problems and come up with creative solutions, children will be equipped with valuable skills to use throughout their lives.

Not only are these activities fun and educational, they also enhance natural talents, boost intellectual growth, and give kids a better chance of success in the future.

Through critical thinking activities, children also develop concentration and communication skills – both of which are necessary for many jobs and academic pursuits now and in adulthood.

It’s clear to see why cultivating critical thinking is so essential for today’s youth – it might just make all the difference!

Get creative with puzzles and riddles

These activities require strategic thinking Puzzles and riddles are some of the best critical thinking activities for kids.

Kids can be introduced to these from a very young age. Their problem solving skills will be improved and through these activities. Start with simple jigsaw puzzles for your toddler and go on from helping them to apply analytical skills in creative and novel situations.

Riddle-solving activities are also great for teaching deductive reasoning in an entertaining way; by considering a series of clues and relating facts together, children develop higher-order cognitive abilities that will benefit them further down the line.

Choose books with familiar experiences

For example, if your child is starting a new school, choose a book about making new friends.
Depending on new challenges they face like being a big brother or sister, loss of a loved one read books that help them better navigate their thinking process.

Reading about them will help them understand so many different social situations and encourage them to think deeper into them with their own experience. This will let your child draw on their personal experiences and feelings to make sense of the book and vice versa.

Related article : Benefits of Reading for Kids

Add a little conversation to every book

Look at the front page and read the title aloud. Ask your kids what they think the story is about. Let them make their own storyline with the images and words on the front page. Then move on to the actual story.

Think aloud to solve problems in the book

Think aloud as you read the story to let your child understand my though process. "I wonder why this little girl did not like her princess costume?"

May be she's into superheroes. Or may be she thinks princess costumes aren't all that comfy with all that heavy lining and frills. Let's see.

Predict what will happen later

Let your child predict what happens next. What do you think the boy's going to do, now that he has lost his favourite toy?

How do you think he can help the little girl find her key?

Be a Good Role Model

Sometimes the best way to teach your kids an important life skill is to model it in your own life. After all, kids tend to copy the behaviours they see in their parents.

Be sure you are modelling critical thinking in your own life by researching things that sound untrue and challenging statements that seem unethical or unfair. Discuss simple ideas with kids like does playing with mud and dirt make you sick?

Let your child make their own decisions

It's best to let your child take age-appropriate decisions. What game to do, what cloths to wear, what food to eat, what extra-curricular activities to choose etc are some of the decisions they can take. You can always hint what to expect but the final decision should always be taken by the child.

ex: You can let them know that it's a warm day and putting on sweaters might make them uncomfortable. They will decide what to wear but if they don't listen to you that's ok too because they are going to learn the lesson hard way pretty soon!

As they get older, talk to them about how to deal with issues like bullying and peer pressure. And coach them on how to make healthy choices regarding social media use. All of these situations require critical thinking on your child's part.

Encourage thinking outside the box

When you have finished a book, ask your child to think of alternative endings or solutions to problems. For example "If you were one of Amy's classmates, what are the different ways you could've helped her?"

Read aloud as a family

Reading together with more than two people invites several different opinions and perspectives. When reading aloud with your child, pause at important parts of the story and let each person share their own thoughts.

Respect everyone's point of view and let your kids understand that the same thing can be analysed and explained in so many different ways.

Role‑play stories through imaginative play

After you've read a story, act out the story with your child. This gives them a fun way to think about how one event leads to another, and why characters act and react the way they do.

The visual effects created will complement the story read in the book and children's thinking process will be improved as a result.

Answer Your child’s Questions with Questions

Toddlers and pre-schoolers have tons of questions to ask us everyday don't they? We don't have to give the answer so easily. Sometimes we can manipulate their thinking process in a way that they can find the answers with little to no help.

For an example if the child wants to play outside on a rainy day , you can ask many questions like this
Do you think we can play outside today?

Is it warm and sunny outside?

How does the sky look like?

Do you think the wind blows gentle or stronger outside?

What kind of play is best for rainy days?

Encourage Creativity in Your child

The best way to help your toddler “think outside the box” is to regularly engage in activities that push their creative thinking. Have your toddler read books to you based on the pictures only, read forwards and/or backwards.

Picture books are ideal for encouraging creativity as you can make up your own story looking at pictures. And you can make a new story everytime you read the book.

How about encouraging them to change their favourite protagonist to themselves. Imagine it's your child in the story and encourage them to retell the story in their own way!

Ask open ended questions- Ask carefully crafted, friendly and fun questions in order to build their problem-solving and analytical capacities while also developing their self-expression.

Questions like “Where is your favourite country to spend vacation?” “Why?” or “Who would you be if you can be any character in a book you have read? ” Why?”.

Such questions provide an opportunity to get children engaged with stimulating conversation and insightful answers in the form of a casual chitchat that will help them learn more than simply facts from a textbook.

Critical thinking actvities for kids Contd.

Ask your child to explain why something works or doesn't work

This encourages them to take a step back and analyse the situation.

If a toy is not working, instead of you stepping up to help out, give them some time to see what may have gone wrong. They can check batteries, check if a piece is missing or for a loose fitting.

Same way, let them try out and explore the possibilities with safe tools and equipment like remote controls, screwdriver , plier etc

Have your child break down complex tasks into smaller, more manageable steps

This will help them develop problem-solving abilities.

For example when cooking or baking with them, help them breakdown all the instructions into simpler steps. Encourage them to do it themselves.

Ex: When baking mixing wet ingredients and dry ingredients together. Mix and bake

Discuss current events with your child

This will help them understand different perspectives and learn how to analyse facts

Talking about important current events like interest rates, cost of living, inflation with older kids so that they understand how to compare and contrast data to come to conclusions.

Help children learn about data analysis by teaching them to evaluate new information. Have them think about where or who the information is coming from, how it relates to what they already know and why it is or is not important.

Promote children’s interests

When children are deeply vested in a topic or pursuit, they are more engaged and willing to experiment.

The process of expanding their knowledge brings about a lot of opportunities for critical thinking, so to encourage this action helps your child spending more time learning about what interests them. Whether it is learning about stars and moon or a keen interest in vehicles, help your child follow their passion

Conclusion

Critical thinking activities for kids are vital because they allow kids to use knowledge and logical skills to solve problems.

It is also important for a child’s brain and cognitive development. These skills are necessary in getting a child ready to understand how things work in the real world and come up with creative ideas.

We use critical thinking skills every day. They help us to make good decisions, understand the consequences of our actions and solve problems.

These incredibly important skills are used in everything from putting together puzzles to mapping out the best route to work.

It’s the process of using focus and self-control to solve problems and set and follow through on goals. It utilizes other important life skills like making connections, perspective taking and communicating. Basically, critical thinking helps us make good, sound decisions.

Let us know what your child’s favourite critical thinking activities are.