Seize the Moment to Teach
Not long ago my little three year old granddaughter RoWan questioned, “What is broccoli Obama?”  Her parents realized she had overheard a newscast that mentioned something relating to Senator Barack Obama’s campaign for the Democratic nomination.  Wise were her parents to take advantage of this teaching moment and explain who the Senator is and what he is doing.  Perhaps this was RoWan’s first experience in learning about the democratic process of electing a president of the United States.

In our busy lives it often seems difficult to seize precious teaching moments with our children. Young children incessantly ask questions.  They often ask what, why, and how questions.  When we grow tired of their many questions and either ignore them or ask them not to raise so many questions, we turn down their questioning lamps and squelch their natural curiosity for learning. But as we take advantage of these daily opportunities for teaching and learning, we help create in children an unquenchable curiosity and an enthusiasm for learning. Some guidelines that have helped my husband and me learn to seize teaching moments with our children and grandchildren are:

Listen purposefully to children. As you listen, use their questions and comments as springboards for discovery and problem solving. For example, researching questions such as “Do the people in the South Pole walk upside down?”  “What do ants eat?” “Why do crickets chirp slower in the fall than in the summer?” can lead to interesting facts and new understandings.

Also, when we listen to children’s questions and comments, it can be a check for their understanding and when necessary we can clarify misunderstandings. Some years ago I was on a field trip to dairy farm with a group of preschool children.  We had observed the cows being milked with the use of machinery. As the group was leaving, a child tugged at my arm and asked, “How can they tell when the cow is full?” The wise farmer turned around and took the machinery off one of the cows; then he milked the cow by hand so the children could see that milk was coming from the cow, not into the cow.

No matter the age of children, we should actively listen to them and then discuss their insights and their questions with them.  When we do this, children will grow in their understanding and recognize that questions are accepted and expected.  Questions and answers combine to form new knowledge.

Use strategies to encourage thinking and problem solving. One approach is to use open-ended questions such as “How do you feel about …?” “What do you suppose will happen if …?” “Have you thought about …?” and “What would you do if …?”

Another approach is to provide books on subjects that interest the child. For example, after hearing about an earthquake, one of our children wanted to learn more about them. He wondered what the Richter scale was. Finding and exploring books on the subject not only answered the question but led to further questions and comprehension relating to earthquakes.

Take advantage of teaching moments as they happen. Questions can be forgotten, perceptions can change, interest can wane, and curiosity can be lost if teaching opportunities are put off until later.

A teaching moment came this past week when our granddaughter, RoWan was at our home visiting.  She was too busy with her toys, playing with her aunts, and just exploring the surroundings to eat her dinner.  In her exploring she found a three-minute hourglass sand timer and wanted to know what it was.  I explained to her that it was a timer and she could watch as the sand fell from the top glass to the bottom one, that it was like a clock and would take three minutes.  I had an idea that by combining the curiosity of the timer with the need to have her eat her dinner might capture a teaching moment and at the same time get her to eat her dinner.  I said, “RoWan, would you like to see if you could eat your dinner and beat the timer.  It will give you three minutes and you can see how much of your dinner you can eat in those three minutes.”  It worked like magic!  Her focus was upon the timer and eating as much of her dinner as she could in the three minutes.

Wonderful opportunities to teach and to reinforce meaningful concepts will come every day, but it takes time to seize those teaching moments. It takes time to ponder and discuss a story, time to stop on a hike to explore what is under a rock, and time to share photographs and stories of a child’s great-grandpa. But taking advantage of teaching opportunities sends messages to children that learning is beneficial and he or she is important enough to you that you are willing to take the time to pause and teach. Seize the teaching moment!

Claudia Eliason