The children at Burke Mountain Preschool are building ramps and playing with cars every day. This propelled the teachers to design a small experiment to test their understanding of what they were really doing. I placed blocks, cardboard, and a small car on the table and asked them to try to move the car without pushing or pulling it. They worked to try and solve this mystery for a few weeks until finally one child held the board up and said, “We can put the cardboard up on the blocks!”
Lots of times, as parents of children we think that when they are doing something, they know and understand it. However, most of the time that is not the case. That’s why it’s more important to ask the right questions than to give them answers when raising independent thinkers.