Introduction- The importance of inquiry:

Every skill learned at school can and should be practiced at home.
Inquiry skill is a highly valued skill in life.

So, exactly what are inquiry skills? Inquiry skills are the  ability to develop questions, design investigations, collect and analyze data (information), and report their findings.

On a daily basis I am bombarded with questions from my kids ages 2 and 7. Do you know in average how many questions a child asks a day? I did some research and found an article from the UK that described a study done by a clothes retailer that found out that in average a child asks 390 questions a day. I was unable to find said article but thought it was very interesting.

Regardless of the article’s accuracy as a mom and an educator I know the importance of questions toward development.

Much of what children learn is based on information they get from others.
Sometimes, children ask questions to learn new information to solve problems.

How to engage children at home to want to develop those inquiry skills?

Teach children to observe, describe, and categorize things around them:

In my day to day interactions with my children I’ve learned that I do not have all the answers for their questions.

For the questions that I do know the answer I have noticed that their understanding deepen and their questions become more challenging if I engage with them.

So I have learned to help my kids to develop the skills necessary by first modeling. The first set of skills is to observe, describe and categorize.

Ask your child a question:

Kids are so used to be the ones asking questions that when we ask them the questions and we are willing to listen to the answers that totally makes their day.
If we do it often enough we create relationships of trust.

 

You can start with simple questions such as:

Why when I first open the window in the morning I can see the sun on this window (east) and at the end of the day I have to go to a different room to be able to see the sun (west)?

This is a simple example but I help them to make those observations.
The first thing is WOW that’s true, then they go back in the afternoon and they are amazed how I was right. What first started as a question from mom. Now becomes a question from my kids. “Mom, you were right! Now, why did the sun move?”

 

Try questioning them at the playground:
Hey, look at these different rocks! Can we group them?
Children my group them by color, or by size, or by shape. Ask them why they are categorizing them in such a manner.

As children develop those observational skills, now they are ready to move forward to predicting and posing questions.

 

Developing questions:

Now this is the fun part. Asking questions that are meaningful, relevant, that solves a problem.

Children are curious by nature it is their natural way of developing.
This is when we parents get to help guide our children’s curiosity into something productive.

Questions:

• Why is the sky blue?
• Why do we need to sleep?
• Why do we have to eat?
• Why are lettuce green?
• Why do leaves fall?

I am sure you have endured to some of these questions, and many more so it is time to focus those questions into productivity.

Hypothesis:

In order to develop inquiry skills we must have questions but we should also be able to think what the solution to the question is. This is called a prediction. When children formulate a hypothesis they create an educated guess of the answer to question will be.

Allow your child to be creative, out of the box and even if they are totally wrong they will still learn from the experience.

Investigation- Research:

It is usually to just give our children an answer but if we want them to be successful in life we need to teach them to think and then we have to teach them to seek the answer. Seek for the truth. Gather information to help them solve problems.

We can have our children watch a show on tv, yes I am not a big tv fan but there are many shows on netflix and PBS kids that answer so many questions and that helps children learn. My latest favorite show is called StoryBots. This past week my son was watching an episode that taught him how planes fly. Another day he was explaining to me why the sky is blue and because he learned from Storybots.

Reading a book together will help with the research.
Searching for information on the internet in reliable sources. Many schools offer tons of subscriptions for students. Check with your child’s teacher or your local library.

Now that children have a basic understanding of the subject of their inquiry it is time to test their hypothesis.

Investigation:

Plan: Help your children describe what they will do to find out (test) their ideas.
Help them create a list of materials that they will need.

Allow your child to experiment to collect information.

For example, my son asked why the sky was blue? and “I said: Is it?”

For one week we observed the sky and we jot down its colors.
He noticed that the sky was blue on sunny days not on raining days. He noticed that the sky was different colors in the afternoon when the sun was setting. The sky was dark at night.

This part of the inquiry process if fun because it is time to be a scientist and test different hypothesis and to collect information.

 

Results:

It is time to look at the information based on the investigation.
For my son the sky was not blue anymore.
It is time to analyze the information.
To check if the hypothesis (prediction) was correct.

What happened in the experiment?

What would you change?

What worked? Why?

What didn’t work? Why?

Were you able to connect the new information to another area?

Did you change anything during the process? If so, then what happened?

As you work with your child your experiments can become more complex.

You can try to test different variables. Example.

Why do plants need water?
Then try to see if water or juice helps the plant grow faster.

Conclusion:

Help your child conclude and answer the question. If their hypothesis were correct teach them that they went through the scientific method process successfully.
If their hypothesis were incorrect teach them that they also went through the scientific method successfully but now they can use what they learned to change their hypothesis to try it again.

Help your child understand that the inquiry process in ongoing. There is always an idea to be tested and great little minds that can make that possible.

As a parent you hold the power and responsibility to teach your child. These skills can be taught successfully before your child ever enters a classroom.
If you help your child master these inquiry skills you are setting them up for a life of success.

Final Thoughts:

Knowing that you can empower your child even before they set foot in a school what are your thoughts and how will you help your child develop inquiry skills?

 

Who we are:

Sophia James Education exists to empower families to be active advocators in education.
To share the love of learning. To learn to love to read and to love to write.
We hope to partner up with you and to help you achieve success.
We would love to hear from you. If you have a question and want us to write about a specific topic please contact us below. We would love to help you in this parenting journey.

Much love,

Raquel