How To Teach Them How To Think

Barnabas Piper with a good post about teaching our children to think:

Answer questions. Along with asking questions yourself, the best way to build a thinking mind in your child is to answer his questions. This might mean you have to do some learning to find the answer. Ok. Do so. Find out why the sky is blue and why the leaves on trees change color. Give real answers to little questions and your child will end up asking big questions, challenging questions. And isn’t that what you’re going for?

Give principles above your rules. Every kid needs rules. Without them life is a disaster of disobedience and self-inflicted harm. But kids need to be taught how to engage principles, those standards against which any action can be measured. Teach them to think in questions such as “Does this action honor Jesus?” or “Is this loving to my sister?” not just “Am I allowed to do this?”

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