Today is the Kid Inventors’ Day (fun fact, its’ acronym is K.I.D.!). It’s celebrated annually on January 17th, because it’s the birthday of Benjamin Franklin, who invented the first swim flippers at age 12. Kid Inventors’ Day is a perfect opportunity to encourage your kids to be curious and innovative. Here are 5 ideas on how to do just that…!
#1 Idea: Answer All Those Why And How
Everyone who has children knows that they can ask a lot of questions. To be exact, it can be up to 76 questions per hour, according to the analysis made at the University of California. The important part is to keep answering them.
Questions might keep repeating but always be patient with children. If you ignore the questions, kids might get an idea that questions are irrelevant. Never never kill the curiosity, keep answering, and encourage further questioning!
#2 Idea: Experiments At Home
You might see science as some complicated activity that happens only in labs? Well, you’re not alone! But now is the time to change that mindset… There are a lot of simple and fun experiments that can be done at home. For example, you can try to make a homemade lava lamp out of vegetable oil, food coloring, and some Alka-Seltzer. Or you can make some slime out of glue, baking soda, shaving cream, and contact lens solution. You can find all the measurements and instructions online.
The Guardian writes: “Jokes make us laugh because the punchline takes us by surprise. The best experiments do the same.” Experiments at home make science look not that complicated and discouraging. If you make it look like fun, kids will be more likely to get into it.
#3 Idea: Innovations Online
Not all innovations happen physically. Your children can be experimenting and learning online as well. One of the ways to enthuse kids is to let them build a personal website. They can choose whatever topic they like, but they have to create a web page by themselves, by learning and writing the code.
Arnas Stuopelis, Chairman of the Board of Hostinger, says: “Creating a website can be both fun and enriching activity for a kid. They take-up new skills really easily. Creating a website seems like a game for them, but one day it might even turn into a career path.” It’s all fun and games until someone gets a career!
#4 Idea: Extracurricular Activities
If you want to lead your kids into innovations, but don’t feel confident enough to do it, find extracurricular activities that would do the job. It can be programming lessons, engineering classes, or other science-related acts. Forbes encourages the idea: “Extracurricular activities help kids build self-esteem, boost grades, reduce stress, and just be healthy in general. They’re learning life skills—things they’ll carry into adulthood to help propel their future careers.”
#5 Idea: Competitions
If your kids are already into pursuing an innovative career path later on in life, encourage them to participate in competitions. It lifts their activities into the next level. If they win something, they get more encouragement to continue. And if their results are not so good at first, they get some motivation to continue improving their ideas. The New York Times writes, that: “Studies have shown that under certain conditions, competition can improve performance and happiness.”
Don’t miss out on this glorious opportunity to boost the curiosity of your children! Keep answering their questions. Suggest some home experiments or online learning opportunities. If you want to push even further, consider some extracurricular activities and competitions as well. It’s not true that children are our future. They are the present! Let them innovate today.
