Teaching Your Children Problem-Solving at Home

April 21, 2022

Building problem-solving skills in preschool-age children is a foundational duty of all parents and early childhood educators. But it can be easy to lose sight of how to incorporate these skills at home, especially when family life gets hectic. Below we have compiled a few ways you can help teach your child problem-solving skills in a fun and creative way.

Encourage Creative Play
Children of all ages learn most in the context of play. Offer them toys that involve a bit of a challenge and require imagination. Building blocks, puzzles, and nesting boxes are all great tools that encourage problem-solving.

Provide Multiple Potential Solutions
Whenever possible, facilitate your child’s decision-making. Suggest possible solutions and let them choose the action they see fit. You want to ensure that they don’t routinely avoid making tough decisions because they know you will solve the problem for them.

Try Some “Do-It-Yourself” Projects Together
Not handy? No problem. Learn something new together! The more your child observes you in action, problem-solving step by step, the better a problem solver your child will become.

Teach Them Basic Problem-Solving Steps

• Identify the problem.
• Break the problem into manageable parts, so each task does not seem impossible.
• I didn’t eat my breakfast.
• I haven’t brushed my teeth.
• My lunch isn’t packed.
• My backpack is not ready.

Tackle each part one at a time until the problem is solved.

Allow Your Child to Experience Failure
If we’re unwilling to see our children fail at a task, then we’re unwilling for our children to learn.

Routinely Ask Your Kids For Help
Make sure your little ones understand that you respect their capacity to solve problems. Practice brainstorming as a family. You’d be surprised at how creative they can be.

At Les Enfants, we understand the value of problem-solving skills. Not only will learning these skills help them in later education, but it is something they will use throughout their lives. Contact us today to enroll your child in our upcoming Fall program.