@ debosky, Ajanlekoko, damiso, EfemenaXY, Ewuro4, bellong, chaircover, mbulela, ayox2003, chillisauce, edwife and everyone out there with good ideas on the subject matter.

Folks I need some suggestions as regards the above for my two kids are aged 8 and 5.

I already have a routine nailed on reading and mental maths but I feel like I need to be doing something on the above. I just need ideas, I plan on buying a chessboard and teaching them both to play, other ideas welcome.

Before y'all label me an OTT parent , I just want them to get into the habit of thinking out of the box.

Let's take it to FP.

Ishilove!

naijababe:
@ debosky, Ajanlekoko, damiso, EfemenaXY, Ewuro4, bellong, chaircover, mbulela, ayox2003, chillisauce, edwife and everyone out there with good ideas on the subject matter.

Folks I need some suggestions as regards the above for my two kids are aged 8 and 5.

I already have a routine nailed on reading and mental maths but I feel like I need to be doing something on the above. I just need ideas, I plan on buying a chessboard and teaching them both to play, other ideas welcome.

Before y'all label me an OTT parent , I just want them to get into the habit of thinking out of the box.

Try horse riding, skiing, skating, surfing, etc. Since you already have a routine on mental maths etc, they need to work on their agility too.

I wouldn't focus too much on reading etc because they get that from school enough.
You wouldn't want them to be too boring doing such task. It's holiday. Let them enjoy abeg

hiking too. Good mental stimulant. They listen to nature . I call it nature healing .

I would have suggested jangirofa
You live in a nanny State anyway. . The govt no go gree

So, you've got your hands full

Get them books, books and books. Not just your normal story books alone. Old magazines, war album or memoirs (children's versions) , newspapers and so on. Also let them travel to new places.

Visit grandma in the village, experience life unedited.

Creative thinking is mostly stimulated by personal experience kids come across as they grow. They learn to judge between what they have READ and what they have experienced. Also don't shield your children from social outings and don't create only " affluent friends" for them l. Let them mix with the poor, the middle and rich ones. This goes a long way in reinforcing their beliefs and allowing them make balanced judgements.

For example, I learned a lot staring at an Atlas looking at world maps and tracing history of men like Maco Polo to China and learning other things along the way.

Chillisauce:


Try horse riding, skiing, skating, surfing, etc. Since you already have a routine on mental maths etc, they need to work on their agility too.

I wouldn't focus too much on reading etc because they get that from school enough.
You wouldn't want them to be too boring doing such task. It's holiday. Let them enjoy abeg

hiking too. Good mental stimulant. They listen to nature . I call it nature healing .

The reading is not so much learning to read but just to get into the habit of reading , skiing sounds like a brilliant idea though. My girl has been going on about for a while about and there are enough places to ski locally in Scotland.

Surfing ke?! You are on your own o , listening to nature kwa ? My son will kill me I swear. The boy can't sit still if life depended on it.

@ satope, thanks.......really good ideas there. Some we already do.

Get them a Video game.

They can then play strategic games on it like chess, age of empire, etc. Please don't take it the wrong way.

Strategic games are edutainment, and they surely help kids to get creative, at the same time having fun.

let them look up words in kiddies dictionary.... like a game kinda..... first to open the word....

Aprime:
Get them a Video game.

They can then play strategic games on it like chess, age of empire, etc. Please don't take it the wrong way.

Strategic games are edutainment, and they surely help kids to get creative, at the same time having fun.

Lol.............not at all, if I tell you what my son has learnt from playing every genre of Angry birds you will laugh.

Critical thinking is overrated jare

solving sudoku grids would go a long way to help them.

coogar:
solving sudoku grids would go a long way to help them.

I am almost certain my daughter will be sending missiles your way but I'll see if I can find kiddie ones.

AjanleKoko:
Critical thinking is overrated jare

Given what I read from NL population I beg to differ

Start teaching them how to trade currencies.

naijababe i love puzzles,video games and like satope said books.

There is this game i love playing,it's about letters.I let them read books which contain country's names,names of fruits,capitals,surnames.....

Then I will put a piece of paper in the middle with all the letters from A to Z then each have turn to choose with eyes close a letter.From there,one after the other we answer questions starting with that letter,let say i choose A.

the country name :Algeria
Fruit:Apple
Animal:Antilope
Capital:Accra
Name:Adebayo
Each will answer this in a piece of paper,after 5 min you stop the clock and check who got most of the answers right ,but i let them win most of the time.It is fun and educative.

Video games are fun too,choose a game which involves searching for a treasure .

1. Sightseeing and nature seeing.
2. Video games for their ages also helps.
3.Involving them in decision making also as well helps.
You can involve them when taking decisions. Also ask them to take their decisions and just make modifications where necessary having told them the need for the modifications.
You can as well sometimes ask them to suggest what you can do when faced with life situations. Something like "I'm faced with so, so and so, what do you think I should do, you can give me your suggestions after dinner, it will amaze you how they will give you very very useful suggestions. It may not be what really happened to you, it may be from a movie you just watched, a book you just read, etc. You would be amazed to see that they can actually think outside the box and give very useful suggestion.
We parents never know how intelligent these kids are until we involve them in critical thinking.
I am not saying you should involve them in your office management system o, but at least we all know what their levels are suppose to be.
4. Puzzle and word searching.
5. Ludo and paper games.

@ edwife, that game na start stop we dey call am for area back in the day

naijababe:


The reading is not so much learning to read but just to get into the habit of reading , skiing sounds like a brilliant idea though. My girl has been going on about for a while about and there are enough places to ski locally in Scotland.

Surfing ke?! You are on your own o , listening to nature kwa ? My son will kill me I swear. The boy can't sit still if life depended on it.

That's why you need to do it @ bolded.

It's just something unusual and these kind of memories stays with them. He might not like it now but later in future.

At this age, you try so many things, so when they are adults they pretty sure know what they want.

I will avoid video games hunting of treasure when they can enter the woods to hunt for real treasure.

Picture of Nature healing. I miss my village

naijababe:
@ edwife, that game na start stop we dey call am for area back in the day

You see,I have so many games I used to do as a child-I do with the kids.Also think about what you as a parent enjoyed doing when you were young and always make it fun for them.

Teach them the art of debate..... occasionally pitch the two against each other to discuss about a simple daily topic. The older may have an advantage but it will help the younger....


Teach them to always give reasons for their conclusion and also to evaluate reasons given by others to issues..

Don't stereotype their lives, let them have the ability to question norms. Explain to them always why things are done in a certain way not just for them to accept whatever they are told as the norm. This will encourage them to question things and subject to logical thinking.

Encourage them to ask questions and you as the mother can ask them questions also to stimulate their thinking. Make sure you answer all their questions in a simple and honest manner. Don't call Pen.is uncle john or vagi.na prismatic hole......

For every answer or solution, ask them to think about an alternative solution not just the conventional solution.

Don't confine critical thinking to purely factual or academic matters, let them reason about ethical, moral and public policy issues. they can analyse a movie, game, event etc....

Encourage them to write.

Give them room to play and explore their environment.........

naijababe:
@ debosky, Ajanlekoko, damiso, EfemenaXY, Ewuro4, bellong, chaircover, mbulela, ayox2003, chillisauce, edwife and everyone out there with good ideas on the subject matter.

Folks I need some suggestions as regards the above for my two kids are aged 8 and 5.

I already have a routine nailed on reading and mental maths but I feel like I need to be doing something on the above. I just need ideas, I plan on buying a chessboard and teaching them both to play, other ideas welcome.

Before y'all label me an OTT parent , I just want them to get into the habit of thinking out of the box.

Creativity, Critical thinking and thinking out of the box are different but related concepts that do cross paths sometimes. I'll assume that you're using the terms loosely to mean "smart".

Now, to be smart with emphasis of thinking out of the box, the person requires 2 approaches for information processing
1) the ability to first think within the box
2) then the ability to think outside the box at will

I'll explain with an example
A 10 year old is lost in the cold wild and finds some pieces of dry wood
thinking within the box he thinks "ok, I need fire to light this"
he searches his pockets and sees no matches
he then stretches his thinking within the box "if there is gathered dry wood here, then someone must have used matches here before"

he searches around for matches and finds none
his thinking starts hovering at the edges of the box as he remembers the movies he watched were folks lit fire with stones
he attempts this and fails

it is getting colder and his brain his working faster
he has to now think out of the box
"what I really need is to survive till I meet rescue or get rescued"
however, it is late and I need some warmth.
what materials are available to me for warmth?" Ahhhhh
those little harmless animals moving around have warm blood and some skin, even the leaves can provide some warmth"
he chases catches kills and douses himself in warm animal blood
somehow he survives till morning

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
we can see from the example that what a child needs to be smart are:
1) a lot of diverse useful information that he can store and then call at will
2) teaching a child how to dissect information to its smallest bits -why, why, why,.. and how1, how2, and how3

bellong:

Teach them the art of debate..... occasionally pitch the two against each other to discuss about a simple daily topic. The older may have an advantage but it will help the younger....


Teach them to always give reasons for their conclusion and also to evaluate reasons given by others to issues..

Don't stereotype their lives, let them have the ability to question norms. Explain to them always why things are done in a certain way not just for them to accept whatever they are told as the norm. This will encourage them to question things and subject to logical thinking.

Encourage them to ask questions and you as the mother can ask them questions also to stimulate their thinking. Make sure you answer all their questions in a simple and honest manner. Don't call Pen.is uncle john or vagi.na prismatic hole......

For every answer or solution, ask them to think about an alternative solution not just the conventional solution.

Don't confine critical thinking to purely factual or academic matters, let them reason about ethical, moral and public policy issues. they can analyse a movie, game, event etc....

Encourage them to write.

Give them room to play and explore their environment.........

Brilliant, Mr Bellong! Simply brilliant!!

#pardonmemrsbellong

bellong:

Teach them the art of debate..... occasionally pitch the two against each other to discuss about a simple daily topic. The older may have an advantage but it will help the younger....


Teach them to always give reasons for their conclusion and also to evaluate reasons given by others to issues..

Don't stereotype their lives, let them have the ability to question norms. Explain to them always why things are done in a certain way not just for them to accept whatever they are told as the norm. This will encourage them to question things and subject to logical thinking.

Encourage them to ask questions and you as the mother can ask them questions also to stimulate their thinking. Make sure you answer all their questions in a simple and honest manner. Don't call Pen.is uncle john or vagi.na prismatic hole......

For every answer or solution, ask them to think about an alternative solution not just the conventional solution.

Don't confine critical thinking to purely factual or academic matters, let them reason about ethical, moral and public policy issues. they can analyse a movie, game, event etc....

Encourage them to write.

Give them room to play and explore their environment.........

Thank you very much, the bolded is exactly what I am getting at! I am taking notes folks, keep 'em coming people. Lots of useful tips.

ileobatojo:


Brilliant, Mr Bellong! Simply brilliant!!

#pardonmemrsbellong

Mrs Bellong is not the jealous type.....

naijababe:

Thank you very much, the bolded is exactly what I am getting at! I am taking notes folks, keep 'em coming people. Lots of useful tips.

Welcome Mademoiselle...... The bolded is what will instill street intelligence in them....

Mr Bellong, I have 4 heroes in my life namely my parents and grandparents. Aside from them my two oldest siblings have had a huge impact on me and my life in general. I want to give my kids everything these 6 people gave me and that is what your bolded statement captures.

naijababe:
Mr Bellong, I have 4 heroes in my life namely my parents and grandparents. Aside from them my two oldest siblings have had a huge impact on me and my life in general. I want to give my kids everything these 6 people gave me and that is what your bolded statement captures.

It is a good thing to do. Parents should not only work on the "book brilliancy" of their children but also the "street intelligence".

I am trying to instill "these" street intelligence in my boy.... Though he is still very young but he is catching up... He sometimes act smarter than me.. But the experience of an elder person will most times thrash that of a young blood.

bellong:


Mrs Bellong is not the jealous type

I have to observe all protocol o. Lol!

But really, you have done complete justice to this topic. Thank you!

ileobatojo:



I have to observe all protocol o. Lol!

Thank you!

Thanks.......

naijababe:
@ debosky, Ajanlekoko, damiso, EfemenaXY, Ewuro4, bellong, chaircover, mbulela, ayox2003, chillisauce, edwife and everyone out there with good ideas on the subject matter.

Folks I need some suggestions as regards the above for my two kids are aged 8 and 5.

I already have a routine nailed on reading and mental maths but I feel like I need to be doing something on the above. I just need ideas, I plan on buying a chessboard and teaching them both to play, other ideas welcome.

Before y'all label me an OTT parent , I just want them to get into the habit of thinking out of the box.

teach them maths

https://www.nairaland.com/2163623/10-year-old-nigerian-girl

bellong:

Teach them the art of debate..... occasionally pitch the two against each other to discuss about a simple daily topic. The older may have an advantage but it will help the younger....
Teach them to always give reasons for their conclusion and also to evaluate reasons given by others to issues..
Don't stereotype their lives, let them have the ability to question norms. Explain to them always why things are done in a certain way not just for them to accept whatever they are told as the norm. This will encourage them to question things and subject to logical thinking.
Encourage them to ask questions and you as the mother can ask them questions also to stimulate their thinking. Make sure you answer all their questions in a simple and honest manner. Don't call Pen.is uncle john or vagi.na prismatic hole......
For every answer or solution, ask them to think about an alternative solution not just the conventional solution.
Don't confine critical thinking to purely factual or academic matters, let them reason about ethical, moral and public policy issues. they can analyse a movie, game, event etc....
Encourage them to write.
Give them room to play and explore their environment.........

You've said everything I wanted to say.



Anyway, for academics, avoid cramming. A child making good grades might not necessarily mean she understands the principles behind the subject, she might just be cramming. At that age she would be relying on how good her memory is, but as she grows older memory reduces, so it's best to develop her brain at that age so that she can be able to apply the principles she has learned.

AjanleKoko:
Critical thinking is overrated jare

A pastor somewhere told his congregation to eat grass and they did, and you say critical thinking is overrated?
I'm a Christian, but I'm would be stupid not to know that Christianity has been bastardized.

Stillfire:


A pastor somewhere told his congregation to eat grass and they did, and you say critical thinking is overrated?
I'm a Christian, but I'm would be stupid not to know that Christianity has been bastardized.