Photo: Philippe Put via Flickr
When your tiny kings or queens of curiosity ask questions, how you answer will affect their ability to succeed in the long run, says new book Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children. No pressure, right?
Co-authors Kathy Hirsh-Pasek and Roberta Golinkoff say the best method in response to questioning kiddos is to begin a conversation using the six C’s.
1. Collaboration: “Collaboration is everything from getting along with others to controlling your impulses so you can get along and not kick someone else off the swing. It’s building a community and experiencing diversity and culture. Everything we do, in the classroom or at home, has to be built on that foundation” says Kathy in an interview with NPR.
2. Communication: “Because you can’t communicate if you have no one to communicate with. This includes speaking, writing, reading and that all-but-lost art of listening.”
3. Content: “Content is built on communication.”
4. Critical Thinking: “Critical thinking relies on content, because you can’t navigate masses of information if you have nothing to navigate to.”
5. Creative Innovation: “Creative innovation requires knowing something. You can’t just be a monkey throwing paint on a canvas. It’s the 10,000-hour rule: You need to know something well enough to make something new.”
6. Confidence: “You have to have the confidence to take safe risks,” Kathy says. Co-author Roberta Golinkoff added “And if we don’t rear children who are comfortable taking risks, we won’t have successes.”
According to the book, these steps encourage an in-depth conversation with your child, while cultivating the skills people really need to succeed.
To read more about the six C’s and it’s levels of development, visit NPR.org to read the entire interview.
Do you agree with the authors, or do you have your own methodology? Tell us in the comments below!
H/T: NPR.org
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