“Grandma, when you were a woman, did you go to a beauty salon?”

“There is a man and a woman, they are dancing, but where do children come from then?”

“Mom, will you never die?”

“Why doesn’t the plane fall, but hangs in the air?”

"What does 'fall asleep forever' mean?"

"Won't our house collapse when we get back?"

"Why is there a war?"

(From the family archive)

As you know, one of the foundations of successful learning activity is the child's ability to independently think, generalize, compare and predict various phenomena and events. This ability is reflected in children's questions. If we respond to them correctly and in a timely manner, the child develops and consolidates an interest in knowledge and further learning. Our response to a child's question can both stimulate cognition and inhibit it.

Children of all ages ask questions that are a testament to children's curiosity. But at a certain age, namely after 5 years, there are more questions, and they become more complicated. Some how-tos baffle even the most educated and well-read parents.

Let's agree from the very beginning that it is normal for a child to ask questions. The more questions children ask, the more actively their intelligence develops.

Most often, children ask questions about what they do not understand or what they think about: about natural phenomena, about the behavior of animals and humans, about life and death, and many others. Some questions may be repeated several times, which should not annoy or alarm you.

What, first of all, should be borne in mind when a situation arises in which a child is waiting for an answer from you to questions that concern him?

First, the child does not demand from you a momentary exhaustive story. You can answer briefly and transfer communication to another time.

Secondly, the age of the child must be taken into account. My friend, a researcher, to the question of a 7-year-old girl “How are children born?” began to answer the child at length, with all the physiological details and scientific terms. Fortunately, the child got tired of the science story after 2 minutes and ran away to play.

Thirdly, you need to answer exactly as much as the child asks. Answering the same question "Where do babies come from?" it is enough to first tell that the child grows and develops in the mother's stomach, from a small cell. Later, you can look in books or on the Internet to see how the baby changes over the course of 9 months. You yourself can place accents when answering an inevitably arising children's question. Children, especially girls, love stories about how Cinderella met the prince and how they fell in love. You do not want to destroy the world of children's fantasies and fairy tales? Every girl dreams of a prince and dreams of becoming a princess. This fragile Magic world it is very easy to destroy the scientific story about the biological nature of man. Everything has its time. You do not seek to debunk the myth of Santa Claus. So why is it necessary to “keep up with the times” in such a subtle and delicate issue of the birth of a new life?

The mind of the child must be prepared to perceive more complex information. This is not about false modesty and hypocrisy, but about caring for the fragile psyche of the child. If the issue of having children worries your baby, you can rely on books (they have been on sale for a long time) and educational films to talk more with the child on this topic.

At the age of 7, my daughter asked very persistently about how a cell that a man has gets into a woman's tummy. I was saved by the "Encyclopedia of Sexual Life", written by famous French doctors in 1973. The book has been translated into many European languages ​​and is intended for family reading. She is beautifully illustrated. Without her, I probably wouldn't have made it. I'm sure you can find your lifesaver. Just please be careful when choosing illustrations and text: the statement that a child at 7 years old should already know everything is wrong! Do okay developing child"unhealthy" curiosity will never manifest itself. But if you, ahead of events, arm him with unnecessary knowledge, a fixation on a sexual theme may occur.

When answering "frightening" children's questions, do not be arrogant or overly condescending, hypocritical and insincere. After all, the child completely trusts you. You should never say: “You’ll grow up and find out!”, “I don’t know and I don’t want to know!”, “Leave me alone with your nonsense!” etc.

If we dismiss children's questions, then the child loses interest in the environment or finds not the best sources of obtaining information that excites him. Do not start a conversation with a child without enough time, it is better to postpone it for later and do not hesitate to admit your incompetence. Many loving parents, even without a pedagogical education, they find interesting ways of communicating with a child.

One mother shared this experience: “My 6-year-old daughter and I climb onto the sofa, take various goodies there and among soft pillows, imagining that this is our cozy house, we talk about everything. My daughter asks me about what worries her, how to behave with friends who do not take to the game, why there are angry children and much more. This is only our time and space, no one interferes or distracts. I wonder why others complain that they do not have contact with the child, because it is so simple!”

Another hard-to-explain issue is the question of death. After 3 years, some earlier, others later, the topic of death begins to interest children. Most often, these questions arise in connection with the death of someone from close relatives or beloved pets. The more anxious and impressionable the child, the more attentively one should treat his questions. Your incorrect reaction, silence or excessive details can lead to fears.

You might be surprised to know that by satisfying your child's interest in the subject, you strengthen his sense of security.

It is known that depending on age, children perceive death differently. Until the age of 5, they believe that death is temporary and reversible. Later, from 5 to 8 years old, children understand that the life of any living creature on Earth is finite, but they do not relate this thought to themselves: “Everyone is mortal, but I will not die.” And only after 8 years, children gradually begin to realize the irreversibility of death for any person.

One quiet Saturday evening, my 7-year-old daughter and I watched the movie Miza Mi. The film is about a 10-year-old girl whose mother died, and she, not accepting her stepmother, went to the village to her grandmother, where she made friends with a she-wolf and wolf cubs. The whole film is permeated with the grief of this girl, there are almost no words in it. The climax of the film is when

the girl is trying to save little wolf cubs from the poachers who killed the she-wolf and with great difficulty takes them to a safe place. This place is very symbolic, it is located at the foot of the mountain, on the lake, where, according to the old-timers, all the dead people and animals live. My daughter, following the heroine of the film, also begins to believe in it. She very much empathizes with the girl with the cubs and hopes for a miracle. And then the director finds the best solution - he returns the she-wolf, which is the only one needed by the cubs, because they are too small and can only survive on mother's milk. At this point, my daughter, who has been waiting for this moment so much, begins to assert that this is not the same she-wolf: her nose was not like that! The one who was killed is gone and cannot be resurrected, from the point of view of a 7-year-old child! For an hour we talked with my daughter on difficult topics: who are poachers; why wolf cubs can die without a mother; where the dead live: in the sky or, as in the film, on the lake, from where the mother’s voice comes from, which the girl hears, etc., etc.

How should one respond to a child's questions about death? First of all, calmly and confidently, without anxiety and panic on your face. Children instantly "read" non-verbal information and get scared. Try to answer to the point, not indulging in a long ornate story that is incomprehensible to the child. It is interesting that many preschoolers for a long time continue to get confused in the concepts of "living" - "non-living". They can animate both inanimate objects and objects. For example, they may consider the wind and hurricane to be alive. And not to understand why, if an animal is thrown like a ball, it hurts and is scared.

A few years ago, my friend took away a turtle from an 8-year-old boy, which he enthusiastically threw against the wall of a brick house. Fortunately, she came out, cured her, and now this well-fed beauty lives in a spacious terrarium with two girlfriends. Therefore, for starters, it would be nice to figure out how the living from the non-living differs. You can play a game like "Edible - inedible." You throw a ball to a child: if it is a living object, he catches it, if it is inanimate, he misses it. You can stick pictures of living and non-living things in two columns on a large cardboard, and in the middle write signs of living things: breathes, grows, multiplies. Let the child connect the sign and the object with lines.

Sometimes children ask about the deceased: “Is your uncle sleeping?” It is not recommended to answer such a question in the affirmative if the child is already aware of death as something irreversible. Since the association "death" - "sleep" can be fixed in the mind of the baby, and he may subsequently be afraid to fall asleep. The child needs to be explained that during sleep the human body is actively working: with the help of the lungs, a person breathes, the brain processes the information received during the day (sometimes solutions to difficult problems come to a person in a dream), the stomach digests food, etc.

A dead person differs from a sleeping person precisely in that he does not feel anything, does not breathe, his heart stops and does not work. The next question that worries the child is: why does a person die? Tell us that a person most often dies from diseases in old age, from an accident. You should not scare a child with death: “Put your fingers into the socket - it will kill!”, “Look out of the window - you will fall, break and die!”, “Dive into the pool - you will drown!”. This is how anxious parents intimidate a poor child, and the child begins to understand that danger lies in wait for him everywhere, and not a single step without mom and dad!

When a person dies physically, he continues to stay with those who love him, remember him, think about him, he lives in photographs, in memories, perhaps in books or paintings.

When our daughter was 5 years old, we took her to the cemetery for the first time, as every spring the whole family visited the grave of our grandmother. The daughter helped to plant flowers, carried water and constantly asked about what her grandmother was like. There is often sunshine at the cemetery in May, birds sing, trees begin to turn green, and the atmosphere itself is not depressing, but peaceful. I think that a child should know and honor his relatives, not only the living, but also the dead. He should not be afraid of death - it is natural.

Try to be attentive to any questions of the child, take into account the peculiarities of children's perception and thinking, do not overload the child with unnecessary information, answer based on illustrations, since figurative thinking still dominates in a preschool child.

Why and how to answer the child's questions.

Children's questions surprise and sometimes baffle both parents and educators. Sometimes children tire adults and cause dissatisfaction: “We tortured your “why” and “why”, stop asking, get down to business!”

How important are questions for children's development? Do all questions need to be answered? How to answer them?

The child knows the world. Developing, he becomes more and more interested in the objects around him, the life of people, nature, to think about what he sees and hears. But the circle of his concepts is very narrow, which is why he resorts to the help of an adult. From children's questions, you can find out what children are interested in, what knowledge they have, how their horizons expand, what difficulties they encounter. At the same time, the questions show what influence adults have on the development of the child. Adults should listen carefully to children's questions, reasonably and correctly answer them, develop children's attention, memory, observation, curiosity. This will help in the future while teaching at school.

Before answering a child's question, you need to listen to him carefully, think about the essence, understand what interests him. Children sometimes find it difficult to articulate their thoughts.

How to answer children's questions? To say “Grow up, you will learn” means to keep them in the pursuit of knowledge. At the same time, one should not talk about inaccessible, complex things. Sometimes children explain what they hear in their own way. So, to the question of six-year-old Kolya, “Where did the first man come from?” father began to talk about evolution in the animal kingdom and about the origin of man from apes. The boy understood his father's explanations in his own way. The other day in kindergarten, he shared his knowledge with friends: “I know, my grandfather was a monkey, he started working and became a man. Then he gave birth to dad, and dad gave birth to me.

A small child most of all asks about what he sees around him, about new, unfamiliar objects: “Who is this?”, “What is this?”, “What is it called?” It is not difficult to answer such questions of children. Even a small child is interested not only in the names of objects, but also what they are for.

Preschoolers are especially concerned about the relationship between "big" and "small", the norms of behavior. Children ask a lot of questions about the work of adults. Older children are interested not only in what the people around them do, but also who does, creates objects. Children ask a lot of questions about nature. It is best to accompany your answer with a visual demonstration. Difficult ones include preschoolers' questions about the universe: "Why doesn't the sun fall?" , "Why is the air black at night?" Children understand the superficial, external connections between natural phenomena, so the child is sometimes satisfied with just an analogy, a reference to an example. It is not always necessary to answer a difficult question of a child. In some cases, you can make it clear that you need to study in order to know a lot. It is dangerous to make a know-it-all out of a child. Sometimes you should show the child the phenomenon itself or play with him and work with different objects, materials, tools.

Often children ask questions that they could answer for themselves if they thought a little. There is no need to rush to answer in such cases. Satisfying the curiosity of the child, it is necessary to awaken his own mental activity, teach him to use his own experience and knowledge. Encouraging the child’s independent mental activity, ask him a counter question: “What do you think?” For example: “Why did the cup break?” the child asks. Standard adult response: "Because it's made of glass." The answer is correct, but it would be better to report not only an indisputable fact, but also to continue the conversation: “What do you think, and the plate will break? Why? And the vase? Why? ”, try to bring the child to the understanding that all glass has a certain property - to break. It makes sense to say after this to the child: “You see, what a fine fellow you are! I didn’t know, but I thought, and I found the answer myself!” It is important that the baby realizes his capabilities, understands that through reasoning you can really figure out a lot! It is not necessary to answer the questions of children formally or in a mocking manner, to dissuade them with some kind of nonsense. This will offend the child, and in the future he will be embarrassed to ask anything. Be curious yourself, because children imitate their parents in everything. It is good to immediately pick up the appropriate book and try to find the answer to the question of interest to the child. But if you have this moment there is no time, tell the child that you will definitely find out, and then tell him.

Ability to answer a question baby - big art. Mastering this art is a feasible task for parents.

Have you paid attention to the fact that a preschooler does not ask questions to every adult, but only to those who have won his trust. More often he turns to that family member who, after carefully listening to the question, answers seriously and interestingly. Hence the most important requirement for answering children's questions is a respectful, careful attitude towards them, the desire to understand what prompted the child to ask.

The next requirement is brevity, clarity, and definiteness of the answer. It is necessary to take into account the level mental development child, based on his life experience. Therefore, in those cases when a child’s question requires information that is inaccessible to his understanding, it is appropriate to say: “As long as you are small to understand this. If you study at school, then you will learn a lot and be able to answer your own question.”

Mom and dad tell me

What I say a lot....

Well, I don't talk

And I ask questions.

Because there is in the world

So many "why?"

To which to answer

It's very difficult on your own.

Communication is one of the social needs of the child. It has been scientifically proven that in the course of cognitive communication between a child and parents, emotional difficulties will also be overcome. Parents can be advised to take children's questions and statements seriously, not to dismiss them. If the child's curiosity is satisfied and skillfully directed by adults, he has a need for new knowledge. Unfortunately, many negative examples can be cited when parents "extinguish" children's curiosity.

Here's an example:

ü The child is playing with the tank car, the mother is busy talking with her friend. The child carefully examines the machine and makes a “discovery”: “Mom, I realized that you can pour water, milk, gasoline into this machine!” Mom interrupts the conversation with displeasure and says sternly: “What are you, a fool? She's plastic!

Children's questions surprise and sometimes baffle both parents and educators. Sometimes children tire adults and cause discontent: “Tortured your “why?” and "why", stop asking, get down to business!"

How important are questions for children's development? Do all questions need to be answered? How to answer them? - that's what parents think about. The child knows the world. Developing, he becomes more and more interested in the objects around him, the life of people, nature, to think about what he sees and hears. But the circle of his concepts is very narrow, which is why he resorts to the help of an adult - he asks him. Questions that show how his consciousness grows. From children's questions, you can find out what children are interested in, what knowledge they have, how their horizons expand, what difficulties they encounter. At the same time, the questions show what influence adults have on the development of the child. Adults should carefully listen to children's questions, reasonably and correctly answer them, develop children's attention, memory, observation, curiosity. This will help in the future while teaching at school. Some parents complain that their children do not like to read. Reading is a way of obtaining information, and children may not have an interest in this, since adults at one time discouraged them from learning new things.

Before answering a child's question, you need to listen carefully, think about the essence, understand what interests him. Children sometimes find it difficult to articulate their thoughts.

How to answer children's questions? To say: "Grow up - you will know" - means to keep them in the pursuit of knowledge. At the same time, one should not talk about inaccessible, complex things. Sometimes children explain what they hear in their own way. So, to the question of six-year-old Kolya, “Where did the first man come from?” father began to talk about evolution in the animal kingdom and about the origin of man from apes. The boy understood his father's explanation in his own way. The other day in kindergarten, he shared his knowledge with friends: “I know, my grandfather was a monkey, he started working and became a man. Then he gave birth to dad, and dad gave birth to me. Many similar examples are described in the book by K. I. Chukovsky “From two to five”.

Sometimes the correct, but difficult to understand answer from adults raises a new, more complex question: “Where did everything come from?”

A small child asks most of all about what he sees around him, about new, unfamiliar objects: “Who is this?”, “What is this?”, “What is it called?” It is not difficult to answer such questions of children. Even a small child is interested not only in how objects are called, but also what they are for.

Preschoolers are especially concerned about the relationship between "big" and "small", the norms of behavior. Children ask a lot of questions about the work of adults. Older children are interested not only in what the people around them do, but also who does, creates objects. Children ask a lot of questions about nature. It is best to accompany your answer with a visual demonstration. Difficult questions include preschoolers' questions about the universe: "Why doesn't the sun fall?", "Why is the air black at night?" Children understand the superficial, external connections between natural phenomena, so the child is sometimes satisfied with a simple analogy, a reference to an example. It is not always necessary to answer a child's difficult question. In some cases, you can make it clear that you need to study in order to know a lot. It is dangerous to make a know-it-all out of a child. Sometimes it is necessary to show the child the phenomenon itself or to play with him and work with different objects, materials, tools.

Answers to children's questions about the birth of a person make it difficult for adults and not by chance. First, because they are often perceived as a manifestation of unhealthy curiosity; secondly, because many of them are really difficult to give a simple and understandable little child answer. Sometimes adults confine themselves to a short answer, not further supporting the child's interest in this issue, sometimes they give explanations in simple words, sometimes they create conditions so that the child can observe the development of animals for a long time: kittens, puppies, chickens. You can’t shame a child by attributing bad thoughts to him: children most often put a completely different meaning into the content of the question. So, an interesting example is described in the book by A. O. Pinta "This is for you, parents." The boy asks: "Where did I come from?" Parents send him for advice to each other, embarrassed, trying to tell about storks and cabbage. And then suddenly they ask why he is interested in this problem. And then they hear an answer that is unexpected for them: “And Petka said that he had come from another city. And where did I come from?

The child is interested in questions about the beginning and end of being. K. I. Chukovsky notes that a child needs optimism like air. In his spiritual arsenal there are enough means to protect the optimism he needs. So, at the end of the fourth year of life, he is convinced of the inevitability of death for everything that exists, he hurries to assure himself that he himself "will forever remain immortal." So, looking at the funeral procession, he says with pleasure: "Everyone will die, but I will stay."

Sometimes children remake the plot of a fairy tale in their own way. In the book of K. I. Chukovsky “From two to five”, an example of a fairy tale “short, but quite comforting” is given: “Once upon a time there was a girl-cap, she went and opened the door. All! I don't know anymore!

You don't need a wolf. I'm afraid of him."

Children often ask about the meaning of new words. As development progresses, questions become more complicated, endless “Why?”, “Why?” and etc.

Often children ask questions that they could answer for themselves if they thought a little. Do not rush to give answers in such cases. Satisfying the curiosity of the child, it is necessary to awaken his own mental activity, teach him to use his own experience and knowledge. For example, if a child asks if a stone, a tree, an icicle will float, he should be asked to check it himself and draw his attention to what floats and what sinks.

It is not necessary to answer the questions of children formally or in a mocking manner, to dissuade them with some kind of nonsense. This will offend the child, and he will be embarrassed to ask anything in the future.

Among children's questions, there are also purely cognitive ones, for example: “Why does the plane fly?”, “Who pushes it?”, “What was the name of Little Red Riding Hood before?”, “Why is the witch only in fairy tales, but is the tiger really?” and etc.

Of interest are also children's statements aimed at understanding the world around them, independent conclusions, albeit incorrect ones. For example, a daughter is looking for something in the calendar. When asked by her father what she wants to find there, the girl replies:

And I'm looking for when the eighth of March will be.

There will be no more in this calendar, says the father.

Or maybe it will, I'll still look.

Or children make riddles, albeit naive, for example: “Write and draw, pretty, colored.”

The statements of children speak of the concreteness of children's thinking. The child, having heard that the milk has run away, replies: “And you catch up with him.” Or he asks: “Is the butter from plums?” Seeing how a worm crawls out of an apple, he cries out: “Oh, the vitamin is creeping!” One boy shares with another a plan to invite the teacher to visit him. Another objected: “Who will educate us then?” You can also give examples from the immortal creation of K. I. Chukovsky “From two to five”. To the question: “What did you scratch yourself about?” - the child answers: "About the cat." Or this dialogue:

Mom, do nettles bite? -Yes.

How does she bark?

Here's another fun question:

What is it, Wilkin's husband's knife?

We propose to discuss

Describe the child's question. How would you answer it?

The child asks about the radio:

But how did uncles and aunts get in with music?

And about the phone:

Dad, when I talked to you on the phone, how did you get into the tube?

You can provide an answer. To a three-year-old boy, his aunt, a physicist by education, immediately began to explain the structure of the telephone. He listened attentively to her, but after all the explanations he asked:

How did dad get out of there?

Can a rooster completely, completely forget that he is a rooster and lay an egg? - asks the kid.

The guests came, and someone asked about the three-year-old Valya:

Whose eyes do Vali have?

Dads, - they answer the guest.

And papa, the poor one, means he was left without eyes, thought Valya. And then she came up with the following hypothesis: “When I was not yet born, dad had many eyes: both large and small; and when my mother bought me, my father gave me big eyes, and left the small ones for himself.

These examples testify to the concreteness of children's thinking, to the little life experience of children.

Download:

Preview:

PARENT MEETING ON THE TOPIC: "HOW TO ANSWER CHILDREN'S QUESTIONS?"

Target:

To give parents knowledge about the essence of children's issues, their types;

To form the need to competently answer children's questions, without suppressing the manifestations of children's initiative and curiosity.

Teacher's comment

Communication is one of the social needs of the child. It has been scientifically proven that in the course of cognitive communication between a child and parents, emotional difficulties will also be overcome. Parents can be advised to take children's questions and statements seriously, not to dismiss them. If the child's curiosity is satisfied and skillfully directed by adults, he has a need for new knowledge. Unfortunately, many negative examples can be cited when parents "extinguish" children's curiosity.

Here's an example:

1. The child is playing with the tanker, the mother is busy talking to her friend. The child carefully examines the machine and makes a “discovery”: “Mom, I realized that you can pour water, milk, gasoline into this machine!” Mom interrupts the conversation with displeasure and says sternly: “What are you, a fool? She's plastic!

Children's questions surprise and sometimes baffle both parents and educators. Sometimes children tire adults and cause discontent: “Tortured your “why?” and "why", stop asking, get down to business!"

How important are questions for children's development? Do all questions need to be answered? How to answer them? - that's what parents think about. The child knows the world. Developing, he becomes more and more interested in the objects around him, the life of people, nature, to think about what he sees and hears. But the range of his concepts is very narrow, which is why he resorts to the help of an adult - he asks him. Questions that show how his consciousness grows. From children's questions, you can find out what children are interested in, what knowledge they have, how their horizons expand, what difficulties they encounter. At the same time, the questions show what influence adults have on the development of the child. Adults should carefully listen to children's questions, answer them reasonably and correctly, develop children's attention, memory, observation, curiosity. This will help in the future when teaching at school. Some parents complain that their children do not like to read. Reading is a way of obtaining information, and children may not have an interest in this, since adults at one time discouraged them from learning new things.

Before answering a child's question, you need to listen to him carefully, think about the essence, understand what interests him. Children sometimes find it difficult to articulate their thoughts.

How to answer children's questions? To say: "Grow up - you will know" - means to keep them in the pursuit of knowledge. At the same time, one should not talk about inaccessible, complex things. Sometimes children explain what they hear in their own way. So, to the question of six-year-old Kolya, “Where did the first man come from?” father began to talk about evolution in the animal kingdom and about the origin of man from apes. The boy understood his father's explanation in his own way. The other day in kindergarten, he shared his knowledge with friends: “I know, my grandfather was a monkey, he began to work and became a man. Then he gave birth to dad, and dad gave birth to me. Many similar examples are described in the book by K. I. Chukovsky “From two to five”.

Sometimes the correct, but hard-to-understand answer of adults raises a new, more complex question: “Where did everything come from?”

A small child asks most of all about what he sees around him, about new, unfamiliar objects: “Who is this?”, “What is this?”, “What is it called?” It is not difficult to answer such questions of children. Even a small child is interested not only in how objects are called, but also what they are for.

Preschoolers are especially concerned about the relationship between "big" and "small", the norms of behavior. Children ask a lot of questions about the work of adults. Older children are interested not only in what the people around them do, but also who does, creates objects. Children ask a lot of questions about nature. It is best to accompany your answer with a visual demonstration. Difficult questions include preschoolers’ questions about the universe: “Why doesn’t the sun fall?”, “Why is the air black at night?” Children understand the superficial, external connections between natural phenomena, so the child is sometimes satisfied with a simple analogy, a reference to examples. It is not always necessary to answer a child's difficult question. In some cases, you can make it clear that you need to study in order to know a lot. It is dangerous to make a know-it-all out of a child. Sometimes it is necessary to show the child the phenomenon itself or to play with him and work with different objects, materials, tools.

Answering children's questions about the birth of a person makes it difficult for adults and not by chance. First, because they are often perceived as a manifestation of unhealthy curiosity; secondly, because many of them are really difficult to give a simple and understandable answer to a small child. Sometimes adults confine themselves to a brief answer, not supporting the child’s interest in this issue in the future, sometimes they give explanations in simple words, sometimes they create conditions so that the child can observe the development of animals for a long time: kittens, puppies, chickens. You can’t shame a child by attributing bad thoughts to him: children most often put a completely different meaning into the content of the question. Thus, an interesting example is described in the book by A. O. Pinta “This is for you, parents.” The boy asks: "Where did I come from?" His parents send him for advice to each other, they are embarrassed, they try to tell him about storks and cabbage. And then suddenly they ask why he is interested in this problem. And then they hear an unexpected answer for them: “And Petka said that he had come from another city. And where did I come from?

The child is interested in questions about the beginning and end of being. K. I. Chukovsky notes that a child needs optimism like air. In his spiritual arsenal there are enough means to protect the optimism he needs. So, at the end of the fourth year of life, he is convinced of the inevitability of death for everything that exists, he hurries to assure himself that he himself "will remain immortal forever." Thus, looking at the funeral procession, he says with pleasure: "Everyone will die, but I will stay."

Sometimes children remake the plot of a fairy tale in their own way. In the book of K. I. Chukovsky “From two to five”, an example of a fairy tale “short, but quite comforting” is given: “Once upon a time there was a girl with a hat, she went and opened the door. All! I don't know anymore!

And the wolf?

You don't need a wolf. I'm afraid of him."

Children often ask about the meaning of new words. As development progresses, questions become more complicated, endless “Why?”, “Why?” and etc.

Often children ask questions that they could answer for themselves if they thought a little. There is no need to rush to give answers in such cases. Satisfying the curiosity of the child, it is necessary to awaken his own mental activity, teach him to use his own experience and knowledge. For example, if a child asks whether a stone, a tree, an icicle floats, he should be asked to check it himself and draw his attention to what floats and what sinks.

It is not necessary to answer the questions of children formally or in a sarcastic manner, to make excuses with some kind of nonsense. This will offend the child, and he will be embarrassed to ask anything in the future.

Among children's questions, there are also purely cognitive ones, for example: “Why does the plane fly?”, “Who pushes it?”, “What was the name of Little Red Riding Hood before?”, “Why is the witch only in fairy tales, but is the tiger really?” and etc.

Of interest are also children's statements aimed at understanding the world around them, independent conclusions, albeit incorrect ones. For example, a daughter is looking for something in the calendar. When asked by her father what she wants to find there, the girl replies:

And I'm looking for when the eighth of March will be.

There will be no more in this calendar, says the father.

Or maybe it will, I'll still look.

Or children make riddles, albeit naive, for example: “Write and draw, pretty, colored.”

The statements of children speak of the concreteness of children's thinking. The child, having heard that the milk has run away, replies: “And you catch up with him.” Or he asks: “Is the butter from plums?” Seeing how a worm crawls out of an apple, he cries out: “Oh, the vitamin is creeping!” One boy shares with another a plan to invite the teacher to visit him. Another objected: “Who will educate us then?” You can also give examples from the immortal creation of K. I. Chukovsky “From two to five”. To the question: “What did you scratch yourself about?” - the child answers: "About the cat." Or this dialogue:

Mom, do nettles bite? -Yes.

How does she bark?

Here's another fun question:

What is it, Wilkin's husband's knife?

We propose to discuss

Describe the child's question. How would you answer it?

Examples are given from the book by K. I. Chukovsky “From two to five”.

The child asks about the radio:

But how did uncles and aunts get in with music?

And about the phone:

Dad, when I talked to you on the phone, how did you get into the tube?

You can provide an answer. To a three-year-old boy, his aunt, a physicist by education, immediately began to explain the structure of the telephone. He listened attentively to her, but after all the explanations he asked:

How did dad get out of there?

Can a rooster completely, completely forget that he is a rooster and lay an egg? - asks the kid.

The guests came, and someone asked about the three-year-old Valya:

Whose eyes do Vali have?

Dads, - they answer the guest.

And papa, the poor one, means he was left without eyes, thought Valya. And then she came up with the following hypothesis: “When I was not yet born, dad had many eyes: both large and small; and when my mother bought me, my father gave me the big eyes and kept the small ones for himself.”

These examples testify to the concreteness of children's thinking, to the little life experience of children.

“Mom, why is an elephant bigger than a camel?”, “Why is a dandelion yellow?”, “Why does a hare have long ears and a short tail?” - such curiosity of a son or daughter at first delights parents, giving rise to a legitimate sense of pride in their child. And adults try to comply - they look at encyclopedias, ask experts, explaining in detail to the smartest child in the world why a plane takes off and a ship does not sink into the sea. But the questions do not stop, and parental enthusiasm gradually fades under the pressure of new “whys”, which become impossible to answer. “Mom, why does garlic smell like sausage? Why is it night when you turn off the light? Why don't pigs get washed in the machine? Gradually, the excessive curiosity of the child becomes a real torture for mom and dad, who are no longer able to answer numerous questions. What to do in this case? How to react and act? First of all, don't be afraid. Your baby has grown to the most interesting, funny and unforgettable age - the “age of whys”. Try to understand your own child.

Interesting childhood

When and why does the baby turn from a concentratedly silent man into a talkative fidget interested in everything in the world? Usually such a period falls on the most exploratory children's age - from 3 to 5 years. It was at this time that the child develops a "brutal appetite" for knowledge of the world. He is interested in absolutely everything. Questions pour in like from a cornucopia, taking parents by surprise and often baffling them with incomprehensible children's logic.

How does an adult act in this situation? He either honestly tries to answer questions or, with the help of various tricks, evades the answer, keeps silent, referring to "later", trying in every way to avoid the answer "I don't know", dropping parental authority in children's eyes. But such tricks are unlikely to work. If you try to keep silent, the baby will not calm down until he hears the answer to the question of interest. Try to dissuade and immediately the “why”, sensing the falsity, will ask a lot of additional questions, require clear explanations. Do not think that this is only familiar to your family. Remember The Little Prince, where Antoine de Saint-Exupery showed the essence of the “why-why” state with ease and love:

“After asking a question, the Little Prince would not back down until he received an answer. The unyielding bolt made me impatient, and I answered at random:

- Thorns are not needed for anything, flowers release them simply out of anger.

There was silence. Then he said almost angrily:

- I do not believe you!

Features of children's logic

Very interesting in terms of verbal expression, the beginning of this period. The child does not immediately begin to ask questions: “why?” And How?" At the initial stage, he cautiously, and, as it were, states interesting facts to himself. Most often, the baby does this in a quiet voice and with an intonation of slight surprise: “Some kind of strange dog is white itself, and its head is black. Maybe she fell into the paint, or maybe someone painted it, or maybe she herself is like that ... ” As if the kid does not expect any explanation from the adult. And if such explanations come, he, it seems, does not listen to them. He just looks and notes some incomprehensible oddity. These thoughts about the world around us are the first, not yet voiced “Why?” He just hopes that you yourself will understand the hint and casually answer an unasked question. But this hesitant softness will not last long.

But every day the baby becomes more and more insistent, demanding the necessary explanations. He asks questions and waits for answers because he wants, no, he demands that you recognize him as an adult and speak to him seriously, truthfully and without lisping - this is very important for a child. Therefore, the answers should be as simple as possible and accessible to children's understanding.

In addition, parents should show patience, kindness and a constant willingness to answer questions. After all, "why" are demanding and stubborn. They want to know everything, here and now. They are offended if you are silent and angry if you are lying. They shamelessly, forgetting about the embedded good manners, distract adults from business. Take this calmly and respectfully: such perseverance is nothing more than the desire to convey that now a small person is busy with the most important thing in the world - the study of the world around him, trying to penetrate into its structure and essence, to know the mystery of objects, words, phenomena and events . At this age, children pass the nature of life through themselves, through their own perception.

The cognitive activity of a child, like a tornado gaining strength, involves everything and everyone in its study of the world. Thinking is rapidly developing, striking with unexpectedness and originality of conclusions. With a geometric progression, the vocabulary is replenished, children playfully try how words will sound in one or another grammatical form. With the ease of an illusionist, they combine the incongruous, gushing with interesting, creative solutions. Fantasy at this age works so violently that parents often reproach their children for inventing something that is not really there.

What should be the reaction of parents?

Do not offend the "why" with your distrust. Better dream up together, and you will get endless pleasure, returning to the world of childhood, where thought is free and can take any form and create any magical worlds.

Be sure to appreciate the efforts of the “why” to find and explain your understanding of the world. After all, now from a small boring practitioner manipulating objects, he has turned into a great thinking theoretical scientist! He expects science from you! Discussions! Sensations! Parental participation in this exciting process is very important for him. But if you can’t keep him company, the baby will not be particularly at a loss: he will go to explore the world on his own. In search of the truth, the researcher will dismantle the alarm clock, radio equipment or vacuum cleaner to the last screw, close the power grid, visit everywhere - from the attic and basement to the distant forest.

To understand and help the “why”, mom and dad need to become a child again. In this case, in no case should his interests be infringed. The kid should consider that he himself has become so big and smart. And you need to see the world through his eyes. Get into this game. Indeed, without support, the baby will not be able to be sure of the correctness of his conclusions. Stimulate the child, encourage cognitive activity, and do not forget to praise, show your respect. Now more than ever it is important that what he says is taken seriously. So the baby will feel its importance.

What is fraught with parental laziness or fatigue from the endless questions of “why”? By not helping a child at this age, we can become the culprits of many missed opportunities for him. Interest not supported in time may fade, the “why” will burn out, and his curiosity will be reduced to zero. Later, in the lessons at school, he will suffer from boredom and yawn. Teachers will shrug their shoulders - "He is not interested in anything." But the kid was interested, it was, but no one supported him, and the wick of curiosity went out.

There are wonderful words about curiosity in the book by S.L. Soloveichik “Pedagogy for all”: “Curiosity is a hook exposed to the world. The more hooks, the more the catch, the richer the person. It is more interesting with an inquisitive child, everyone loves him. Therefore, overpowering ourselves, let us praise the child for every interest, for every question, for every attempt to explore the world, even if this research costs us dearly.

Therefore, be sure to praise the child for each discovery, for conclusions, for the very manifestation of interest, admire him, awaken a sense of pride. Be amazed at his intelligence and observation. If your researcher goes to the garden, the first question that you should ask him in the evening when you meet is not “What did you eat today?”, But “What interesting thing did you learn today? What did you see?" New discoveries are the most important treat for your child.

Joint knowledge of the world

How can an adult get involved in the process of children's cognition? It's not exactly easy. Here are a few practical advice to help in this situation.

• In order for the baby's knowledge to develop more efficiently, help him, get involved in the activity, organize an uncontrollable flow of questions.
• Be sure to purchase children's illustrated encyclopedias. Reading together will not only expand your baby's horizons, but will also emotionally unite you.
• Use all kinds of games and exercises, involve all family members and friends of the "why-why".

You can recommend exercises that you learned or invented to educators kindergarten. On the contrary, you can ask kindergarten teachers and psychologists what games they would recommend that help maintain curiosity and develop cognitive activity child.

For example, such exercises that help an adult systematize the process of knowing the world. They will allow the child to see the relationship of processes and phenomena.

Exercises

1. "Chain of questions"

Start asking your child an endless chain of questions, starting, for example, with the question: “Where does the water in the lake come from?” Sample answer: when it rains, water accumulates in the lake. Then you ask, "Why is it raining?" This chain can be continued and continued until the child is able to answer them.

From time to time, you can show off your own knowledge, especially if the baby finds it difficult to answer. This will greatly increase his thirst for knowledge and your parental authority. Well, if some questions confuse you, do not be afraid to admit it, because the main thing is not knowledge, but the desire and ability to receive it!

2. "What happens"

An adult asks what is high, and the child answers, for example, a tree, a pole, a person. Here you can also make a comparison: which is higher - a tree or a person? Children learn to compare, generalize and begin to understand the meaning of the abstract, abstract word "height".

When asked about what is wide, the child answers: river, road, street, tape. Then you can offer to compare: “And which is wider - a stream or a river?”

Such a game should be played with a variety of words: while playing, kids will learn to classify objects by color, by shape (“What happens to be red, green, round?”).

When a child examines a toy and the mother asks to describe it, then it is necessary to name more features inherent in this subject. When only one feature is taken, the children recall a wide variety of objects that have this feature. In such exercises, when the child is looking for a word (and an adult helps with difficulties), the meaning of the words is clarified, they appear for the child in a wide variety of combinations.

3. "Questioner"

As a material, you can use any plot picture. The kid is invited to ask questions to mom and dad about everything that interests him. If the adults cannot answer, then the child has won. After that, ask the child to make a short story based on this picture.

4. "What's new?"

The child is invited to come up with new ways to use ordinary items - plastic covers, used rods from ballpoint pens, nails, foam, ice cream, etc.

5. "Reincarnations"

The child is invited to turn into some thing and on behalf of this object to tell how she lives, what surrounds her, about worries, about the past and the future.

Games

1. "Who flies"

The leader is selected. He asks: “Does the crow fly?”, “Does the plane fly?”, “Does the house fly?” Questions should be asked very quickly, and the reaction should be instant - yes / no or waving / not waving. If the game is on a playground with a ladder, if you answer “yes”, you can go up one step or just step forward. The game stops when the players reach a certain place (this is agreed in advance).

2. "Continue the phrase"

For this game, it is good to use some small object (for example, a small ball, mitten, keys, etc.) to pass to each other, depending on whose turn it is.

You start a sentence and the child finishes it. For example, “It snows in winter, and in summer ... ..”, and throw the ball to him (pass the mitten, etc.). The child answers and returns the ball.

“Apples grow on a tree, and carrots……”

“In France they speak French, but in England…..”

3. "Continue the word"

The game is similar to the previous one. You say the first syllable, and the child comes up with the ending. You can give the same beginning several times, but agree in advance that the end will always be different. Change with the child, now let him come up with the beginning, and you - the end. This is a good opportunity for the kid to replenish his vocabulary.

4. "Professions"

You ask the question: “What does…..?” and call a representative of any profession, and the child answers. At first, it is better to take the names of professions, from which the answer follows - the teacher educates, the baker bakes, the cleaner cleans. Intersperse well-known professions with unfamiliar ones, and at the same time tell about professions unknown to the child. It turns out interesting if you ask in a row “What does the doctor do?”, “What does the veterinarian do?” and explain to the child the difference between these professions.

5. "Who knows more..."

Compete with your child: who knows more, for example, objects round shape? Say, "I know the round wheel, do you?" If the child does not remember anything, add a ball to the wheel. When the baby understands what is required of him, say “round” words in turn: ball, head, apple, etc. Let it go the last word will follow him. This game helps to increase self-esteem, gives a sense of significance. So, who knows more ... cold, warm, green, singing and so on.

Your efforts will certainly be beneficial, they will teach the child to see the relationship, and you will be introduced to understanding your own smart guy.

It's great if you feel joy when answering tricky questions and enjoy watching this amazing phenomenon. Or maybe you are confused, angry and annoyed? Yes, of course, "why" questions are sometimes tedious. It seems that quiet life the end has come, and silence in the house is possible only in nostalgic memories? No, don't be in a hurry to get discouraged. This age, alas, passes quickly, the hectic time must simply be experienced, but experienced with pleasure.

Think about the fact that by addressing you specifically, the child thereby shows how authoritative, significant and knowledgeable person you are for him. Thus, in addition to knowledge, endless "why?" it demonstrates trust and love. So appreciate it.

Dad and a five-year-old son are walking, the son is chewing an apple:
- Dad, why does the apple darken?
- You see, son, our atmosphere contains free active oxygen. At the same time, an apple contains calcium, magnesium and, most importantly, iron. Iron reacts with free oxygen. The result is ferric oxide, which has a characteristic brown color.
There is a long pause.
- Dad, who are you talking to now? :)

How to answer children's questions? To say that you are still small, grow up - you know? Or answer like this dad? The answer is simple - you must always answer all the questions of the baby, but in such a way that the baby understands. This is not always easy, especially if the child asks where the very first egg came from or why the rocket takes off.

Children are amazing creatures, in order to understand them, you need to become a little bit of a child yourself, try to put yourself in the place of a baby, look at the world through his eyes. The child is somewhat similar to an alien. Every day he discovers new laws that we, adults, have known and understood for a long time. We have forgotten that we ourselves did not know all this at one time.

If you find it difficult to translate something from an "adult" language into a "children's", pick up a few good encyclopedias for the little ones with clear pictures and easy-to-understand texts , for example, use one of the kits in the series "Peace in the palm of your hand". True, if good pictures you can still find, then the situation with the texts is more complicated. Encyclopedias are written by adults! And it is often difficult for authors, as well as for us parents, to find simple words for difficult things. So sometimes you have to “translate” even encyclopedias for kids. In fact, even complex things can be explained in simple terms. Just do not confuse simplicity with primitivism! A child is a very thoughtful person.

Yes, it is necessary to answer children's questions. At the same time, there are many questions that the child himself may well answer if he thinks a little. Learn to isolate such questions from a flurry of all sorts of whys and whys. By doing this, you will serve the baby well by teaching him to think, help to draw an important conclusion: it is impossible to know everything, but there are many things and phenomena that you can understand and realize on your own. Ask: “What do you think?” The child will begin to put forward his versions, perhaps quite fantastic. And maybe they are true. The task of parents is to follow his reasoning and direct him in the right direction with leading questions.

Together, the answer will be found easily and quickly. It makes sense to say after that: “You see, what a fine fellow you are! I didn’t know, but I thought, and I found the answer myself!» It is important that the baby realizes his capabilities, understands that through reasoning you can really figure out a lot!

Sometimes it may seem that the question asked by the baby does not make sense. In fact, such questions carry a certain meaning. Perhaps the child is simply bored, you talk little to him, and he wants to communicate. So he is looking for ways to somehow "hook" you. He knows little psychologist, knows perfectly well what exactly brings mom out of balance! Often this results in a chain, where each subsequent question clings to the answer. "What are you doing?" - "Wash the dishes". - "Why?" "To be clean." - "Why, to be clean?" - "So that it was pleasant to eat from it." - "Why, so that it is pleasant to eat?" Familiar? Here, at the very beginning of the dialogue, instead of answering, you can ask the baby: “What do you think?” Sometimes it makes sense to answer a question that a child knows the answer to with irony. "What are you doing?" - "I'm dancing!" - “No, mom, you wash the dishes!” We laughed together - and no irritation ...

It is very important to learn understand children's questions right, get to the bottom of it. This is sometimes difficult: childish thinking arranged quite differently than an adult. Often children ask inaccurate questions, saying one thing and meaning something else. Here is a simple example. Masha is 3 years 10 months old, she asks on a walk: “Mom, why does this poplar have such long branches and grow in different directions?” What is the answer here? “This poplar has such a shape of branches, nature created it this way ...” But the girl is not satisfied with the answer, she says her own: “No, the tree pulls water and food from the ground with its roots, that’s why its branches grow!” The child answered his own question. Good girl!

In order to better understand what exactly your why child wants to hear in response to his question, you need to be more attentive to the child, communicate more with them, always pay attention to his questions and answers.