“But why, Dad?”
We’ve all heard it from our child. So the natural question is why do kids ask why?
Children ask why for a few reasons. Sometimes they really want to know how something works or why something is the way it is. Sometimes they simply want our attention and want to engage us in conversation.
This is especially true for young
children who may not have the words to say “That’s neat, Dad. Tell me more.”
Language, vocabulary, and knowledge are developing from the time a child is born. He
or she is hard-wired for language. He often engages you in why questions to say “Talk to
me” and “I need to learn how to have a conversation.”
Just as young children are born to talk, young children are born with a desire to
understand their world and make some sense of it. They are born linguistics but also
born scientists, if you will, inquiring about how the world works.
How to Answer the Why Questions
Don’t feel like you have to answer every “why” question. Evaluate the reason. Does
your child want some attention or reassurance? If he wants to prolong bedtime or get
out of something, you can state in a matter-of-fact way, “because it is bedtime,” then
don’t answer after that.
If he really wants to find out the answer to his “why” question, you have several
options. You can answer him with the knowledge you have on the subject. You can
suggest that you look it up in a book. You can ask your child to give you his guess to his
question. Tossing the question back to your child is an effective way to have him stop
and think. You can also have him ask others, and discuss the results of his impromptu
survey.
Ways To Encourage Your Child’s Curiosity & Love of Learning
- Read, read, and read together. Read about what ever interests your child. Read books with characters his age. Read fables and “why” stories. These are a lot of fun as they give an answer to the why questions, often with a silly answer.
- Talk with your child. Research indicates that children whose parents talk to them as if they were peers had larger vocabularies than those whose parents did not. Talking to your child not only gives them a leg up for school but also tells them that they are important as well as teaches him or her how to converse socially.
- Investigate during daily routines. Count the dishes as you put them away together, measure how much water goes in his hot chocolate, have him sort the toys by color or size as he puts them away.
- Observe the world together. Plant a garden or a plant in a cup and watch it grow. Talk about what it needs to thrive. Collect worms to watch. Take nature trails together and talk about the plants and birds you see. Look at the stars together and talk about the shapes they form.
- Encourage your child to guess and test the answer when possible.
- Take field trips. Go see how the newspaper is made, to the fire station to see how the
equipment works, or to a factory to see how pretzels are made. - Do projects together like cooking, crafting, or building. These activities give kids a
sense of how things are made and help them to answer some of those why questions.
Most importantly, enjoy this time with your child when he is so curious and eager to learn, because this time when he sees you as the authority on every imaginable topic doesn’t last forever.
Emma Martin is an avid garage sale fan, regularly scouring her city for unique finds and great deals. Weirdest thing she ever bought at a yard sale: a dinner plate with George W. Bush’s picture covering it. She is a content contributor for YardSaleSearch.com.
#1 Nice to meet you!
