I have a great team working with me to manage the Be A Fun Mum community. When putting my team together, there is one quality I look for in members: initiative. Interestingly, I followed a thread on a business Facebook group about interviews to ask a potential employee, and initiative came up time and time again as a desirable quality. According to the Oxford Dictionary, initiative describes the ability of an individual to tap into one’s imagination and common sense in order to problem solve independently with a fresh approach. Key words here are “problem solve”. An article in The Conversation (2014) agreed that problem-solving skills are vital for our children to develop because the world they are moving into is increasingly complex and jobs and roles change rapidly. The question is: How to teach problem solving?
As a parent, raising my children to be out-of-the-box thinkers has always been important, and I think it comes naturally to some children over others. However, I do believe we can create a home environment that fosters problem-solving skills, and there are five key components:
- Take (appropriate) risks and be open to failure. The environment our children are growing up in is increasingly about mitigating risk. Instead, create a culture that encourages experimentation and embraces mistakes. Kids can’t learn about risk unless they are able to take risks.
- Foster creativity through play and open-ended projects. Lots of play opportunities in wild, open environments.
- When faced with a problem, it’s okay to be nervous but always stay calm. Panic is the enemy of problem solving.
- Don’t underestimate the value of a good brainstorm, no matter how weird the ideas are. Google ‘problem solving worksheet’ and there are free printables that break down this process.
- Learn to analyse by tapping into information, experience, imagination and intuition. This is tied up with confidence backed by a good set of skills and trusting your ‘gut’.
Problems solving isn’t about reading, writing and arithmetic. It’s a personal skill that can be applied to all areas of life. Our children need it.
