Problem Solving

Posted by Barb Hacker Jul 31, 2008

We were outside playing a few weeks ago when I let my four-year-old spray the hose to water my plants and rinse my car off. Some neighbor kids came over, including a ten-year-old. Before I knew it, the ten-year-old tattled that my four-year-old had sprayed him with the hose and wouldn't stop spraying him.

I quickly assessed the situation and saw that it was true, my son was spraying this much older boy with the hose. But, I also realized that the hose has a limited range, my son had been having harmless fun with it for several minutes before the other kids arrived and he still was enjoying himself.

I do not think that my son should have been spraying this kid with the hose, but I also did not tell him to stop. What I did do was remind this ten-year-old that he was, in fact, ten years old and that he could probably think of a few different ways to solve the problem himself. I hesitated to tell him that he could simply walk two feet in any direction and he would be out of the range of the spray. I wanted him to think of that solution on his own.

That situation was what prompted me to write Teach Children How to Problem Solve. I think it is easy for parents to always tell their child what to do and how to do it, but not as easy to teach them how to think and how to solve their own problems. But, I really believe this is a crucial skill all kids need to learn. A ten-year-old should be able to figure out how to avoid getting wet when a four-year-old sprays a hose.