Inside: The top 12 activities for your kids to spark their curiosity, stimulate inquisitive minds, and foster a lifelong love of learning. They will encourage your learners to ask questions, explore new ideas, and dive deeper into various topics.
If you grew up in the 70s and 80s, like me, you probably remember the halcyon days of your childhood brimming with curiosity-driven adventures and free-range play.
We roamed the world unencumbered by adult supervision, exploring whatever half-baked idea popped into our minds, dodging trouble, and solving our own messes, all before getting home in time for dinner.
Our caregivers never needed to spend any time worrying about fostering our curiosity.
I remember one time when I was about 8, my friend and I got curious about who drove down our street. We spent an inordinate amount of time hanging on a street corner, writing down every license plate that passed by, the direction it was going, and the time it happened.
Our curiosity had some unexpected perks. We would be walking in some other part of town, see a familiar license plate, and look at each other knowingly. “7 in the morning,” one of us would say, recalling the last time we recorded that car in our notebook. “Yep. Going south,” the other one would confirm.
Not all our adventures were innocent, but e-hem, let’s leave the discussion about the risky play for another day.
The point is that my generation had a lot to be curious about and an overflowing treasure chest of possibilities to do something about it.
Forget about all that today!
I’m the first to admit that my parenting style is less of a “free-range” than I originally intended. In fact, I wouldn’t let my kids walk to the nearby park without my supervision.
Don’t get me wrong; I trust my kids.
I just don’t trust the world.
But even if I was a braver mom, it’s against the Illinois State Law to let children under the age of 14 roam the stress unattended or leave them home alone.
But here is the problem
Did we allow our kids to become screen devotees (or screen zombies, depending on an angle) rather than explorers of the real world they live in?
The million-dollar question is, how do we reignite that spark of curiosity that comes naturally to every baby but seems to dry up as they get older?
“Every mind is born with the instinct of curiosity. We all come into the world curious, an innate gift which newborns demonstrate as soon as they are born when they begin to look around.” So, how come half the children lose “a sense of wonder” by the time they are 6, and their general intellectual curiosity declines by the age of 8? What’s more, only 2% of modern young adults are still capable of thinking outside the box by the time they are 25.
The one simple trick
I believe in today’s fast-paced and technology-driven world, it’s more important than ever to cultivate curiosity in children. Not only does it lead to a deeper understanding of the world, but life is just more fun and fulfilling when you are curious.
And guess what?
Curiosity is also a secret ingredient that sparks innovation and creativity and makes the world go round.
We just need to get creative as parents and educators and, instead of leaving it to chance, actively promote curiosity and love of learning in our children. The trick is to set up a new routine – the one that involves doing curiosity activities with our children and stick to it.
In this article, I share with you 12 games and activities that will not only entertain children but also encourage their natural curiosity and love for learning. From thrilling scavenger hunts to mind-boggling experiments, get ready to fuel your child’s curiosity and watch them thrive!
12 Games and Activities to Encourage Curiosity
1. Invention Challenge
Children are given a set of random objects and tasked with creating something entirely new from them. If you are looking for fun suggestions, I have printable challenge cards for you! The invention challenge fosters their curiosity about how different items can work together to form new inventions. To download STEM challenge cards, enter your email here, or click the image above.
2. Nature Scavenger Hunt
A trip to a nearby park or forest can turn into an exploration mission, where kids can learn about different plants, insects, and animals. Our Library of Resources has a few scavenger hunts you will love. To download Scavenger Hunts, enter your email here.
3. Stargazing Sessions
Planning regular stargazing sessions can generate curiosity about astronomy and the universes beyond our planet.
If you’re a fan of the early bedtime club like me, don’t worry – the daytime sky has its own wonders. Say hello to Sirius, the dazzling daytime superstar that is actually 25 times more luminous than our sun. Who says stargazing is just a nighttime activity?
If you want to explore the world of constellations with your kids, you will love our Star Constellations Cards. To download the cards, enter your email here or click the image above.
4. Question Game
Encourage kids to come up with a list of questions about anything that arouses their curiosity and find the answers together. You can find detailed information about how The Question Game promotes curiosity and the instructions on how to play it here.
5. Science Experiments
Simple at-home experiments can showcase the wonders of science in a fun and hands-on way. At Kid Minds blog, we have a colossal collection of science experiments that are begging to be explored.
Do you want to turn fire green, make birthday cake candles dance up and down with the power of physics, or dive into the world of science experiments inspired by your favorite Disney movies?
Go ahead, make a discovery!
6. Library Adventure
A weekly trip to the library can spark an interest in a variety of topics. Let the children choose their own books.
Guess what?
We’ve got a book suggestion for each day of the year! Plus a bunch of fantastic book lists on our blog that your kiddos might find super exciting! Plus, there’s a fun Library scavenger hunt ready for download in our FREE Library.
7. Cooking With Kids
I’ve been cooking with my kids since they were little, and you know what? They are all accomplished cooks, even my youngest one! Recently, they had some eclairs at someone’s birthday party, and their first impulse was to take them apart and try to figure out the ingredients. (It was a heated debate 🙂 After that, they looked up a couple of homemade eclairs recipes, picked the one that used the most common ingredients that we tend to always have in the house, and then made plans to bake it. (And they did).
Cooking doesn’t just show how different ingredients mix together to create a meal. It’s actually a pretty fun way to explore chemistry, nutrition, and culinary creativity. On Kid Minds, I share a few recipes that are fun to try with kids. Check them out! One-Minute Chocolate Cake, Ice Cream in a Bag, Science Cookies, Magic Bread, Angel Cake, and Green Pancakes.
8. Geography Exploration
You can use a world map or globe to explore different countries and cultures, stimulating curiosity about the world. But what I love the best is to share some fascinating geography facts with my kids. It never fails to lead to an interesting discussion. For example, did you know that rivers can flow backward? It’s actually Antarctica (and not the Sahara) that is the biggest desert in the world? And 90% of the world’s population lives in the Northern Hemisphere? Download our Fun Geography Cards in the Library of Resources. You can get the password by entering your email here.
9. Art and Craft Projects
Promoting art is a great way to encourage creativity and curiosity. Craft projects can allow children to bring their imagination to life. The secret is not to be rigid about how the project should go.
From experience, I know that the best way to discourage participation is to jump in with “helpful” suggestions and offers of help. Everybody is much happier when I craft right along with them, too busy with my own tasks to interfere with what they are doing. Ha-ha!
10. Music and Instruments
Think of music lessons as a brain workout sprinkled with a dash of fun! The mental gymnastics involved in musical training are so intense that they actually cause structural modifications in the brain. How awesome is that! Musical training involves decoding visual information into motor activity, mastering music rules and structures, and juggling the challenge of memorizing musical passages or songs by heart.
Musical training doesn’t have to be expensive or difficult. Want to pique your child’s interest in music? Try our simple and super fun Music and Movement Activities that can be done anytime anywhere.
11. Building Blocks Challenge
Oh my gosh, so fun! You can use any building blocks in general or Lego blocks in particular to create engineering challenges for kids to complete. You might want to check out our sensational list of 100 LEGO Activities. We also have 12 LEGO Challenges for you to download.
12. Coding Games
Introducing children to the world of coding through games and simple beginner’s tasks can arouse curiosity about how technology, apps, and websites work. It’s all very relevant to the modern world. If you are looking for a recommendation to get started, we love CodeWizardHQ!
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