13 Ways to Increase Curiosity

(Curiosity is Step One on the Key Pattern of Learning)

1. Create a Wonder Board in your home or list on your phone of all your questions, your children’s questions, questions others have, words you want to understand, what you want to investigate, etc. Write them on colored pieces of paper and put them up on the board. Be creative.
2. Inquiry Bag of tools - place a magnifying glass, paper and pencil, compass, straightedge, camera, colored pencils, measuring tape, binoculars, etc. in to a bag and take it with you on all your journeys “just in case.”
3. Label them - let your children know they are curious, thinkers, wonderers, etc. Always tell them why you think that about them.  The more they hear it from those in authority the more they are going to believe it. Say things like, “Nice question! That is more evidence that you’re a curious person!”
4. Play games - review what you learned by saying, “I can only take with me what I learned so I’m taking ____.” Then the next person has to repeat what the first person said and add what he learned. Repeat until everyone has had a turn or go around twice. Make up other memory and review games to help them remember and to get curious about what others have said.
5. Be secretive - tell some of the children something about the lesson or the theme secretly and then out loud say, “Don’t tell anyone.” This creates great curiosity. Have them guess throughout the learning discussion. 
6. Take the tangents - when your children ask a question that isn’t on topic take the tangent then bring it back.  Show them that it is ok to be curious.
7. Have them come up with more ideas - ask them questions to keep them thinking, “What else . . . what if that doesn’t work . . . and after that?” This teaches them to evaluate their ideas. Help them find interest in their ideas.
8. Have them write about an interesting idea in an interesting way so they become interested in the idea and find ways to study it leading to full-fledged curiosity.
9. Increase their responsibility - have them involved in their own learning, reviews, assessments, etc. This also creates more independence. Curiosity is confident independence.  🙂 
10. Don’t answer their questions directly, answer with a question to get them thinking. Let them know their questions are important and that searching for the answers themselves will bring greater  satisfaction and better recall.
11. Listen to them - hear what they are saying, look them in the eyes and let them know what they matters. Give them a safe environment to ask questions.
12. If you don’t know the answer, tell them you don’t know. Ask them to help, “Where can we go to search for the answer together?”
13. Share your questions, thoughts and ideas with them!