Curious Questions

Albert Einstein said “It’s not that I’m so smart. But I stay with the questions much longer.” Questions are truly the key and we know you’ve felt the beautiful and sometimes overwhelming laundry list of your learner’s curiosity. Questions asked by learners this week were “what makes moon craters, how do we create strawberry milk, why is it so muddy outside, what does responsibility mean, how do you spell scientist?” and the list goes on! 

Questions are inspired by curiosity, and curiosity is a learner’s super power! Curiosity leads to questions, which lead to interest, which lead to deep discovery, exploration, grit, and eventually accomplished learning. Curiosity is the start of it all but how do we as parents cultivate curiosity? 

At Acton we know that asking questions is far more powerful than the sharing of answers, this is why 95% of the time our Guides respond to a learner’s question with another QUESTION! We model Socratic questioning to inspire learners to discover, tinker, and explore the world of curiosities for themselves and it is the big eyes lightbulb spark and evident AHA moment that Guides live for! More questions build the fire to learn in our beautiful learners. 

We know it’s tough to come up with great questions especially amidst the stresses of being a parent so we’d like to help, especially for the days that are extra tough. Here are a few questions to start the spark and go a little deeper with your learner. What could come from an unanswered question?

When did you feel most challenged today?

What is one step you could take toward your goal?

Has something like this ever happened to you before? 

What advice would you give to someone in your situation?

What can you learn from this?

What one thing would you do differently today?