Getting Started

This blog will provide you with a series of learning experiences to share with your child. Please don’t try to do all of the activities at once. Take your time and enjoy these quiet thinking experiences when it suits your family.

You might find some of the ideas, questions and activities too tricky for very young children or too simple for older ones. Challenge your child with the guided discussions about stories and art at the level which you feel they are ready. You will find that with experience and practice your child will develop a greater understanding about how we are learning to think and begin doing it independently of your guidance. The artful thinking of observing, describing, reasoning and questioning will grow.

Things you will need :

  • An Internet connection
  • A connected screen – the bigger the better (the living room TV?)
  • A scrapbook or visual diary
  • An open mind

The Role of Parents and Carers:

To encourage thinking by posing open-ended questions (ones not requiring a yes or no answer). I will provide questioning guides for each activity to help.

To encourage Habits of Mind in discussion such as thinking flexibly, managing impulsivity, and listening with empathy and understanding so that the habits of mind become part of the vocabulary you use at home with your child. This supports their disposition to behave and respond thoughtfully when confronted with problems, the answers to which aren’t immediately known. Place a copy of the habits in a prominent position near your discussion area so that you and your child can see, refer to and consider them as you are viewing a story or a work of art. The Habits of Mind will support them as they learn. To encourage them to think aloud and talk about their thinking.

A Community of Enquiry

Talk about your ‘Community Rules’:

  • we sit comfortably
  • we listen to each other with understanding and empathy
  • we think about and build on each other’s ideas
  • we respect everyone’s ideas
  • there may be no single ‘right’ answer
  • we think flexibly and look for amazing ideas and alternatives
  • we make connections with what we see and hear

Now, sit back, relax, look, listen, think and talk with your children!