How children learn to become the critical thinkers of tomorrow

Episode 4 of the Learning Early Series

When your child starts school, you can expect him or her to do a lot more playing than YOU ever did!

Many parents mistakenly believe that the ‘school years’ signals an end to the frivolity of the toddler years and heralds a new era of earnest education in the “three Rs” of reading, writing and arithmetic. The reality is that children learn through play and contemporary teaching practices are using play to develop young minds.

Episode 4 of the Learning Early Series offers insights into how children learn, how children have become active participants in their own learning and how they are being encouraged to explore, investigate and think ‘out of the box’ by asking deeper, ‘fatter’ questions in class to become critical thinkers.

The video can be viewed here:

The Learning Early Series is brought to you by St John’s Grammar school in partnership with Jodie Benveniste.

About Jodie Benveniste

Jodie Benveniste is a psychologist, parenting author, parenting expert, TEDx speaker and director of Parent Wellbeing.

Jodie is the author of four books including the highly acclaimed Full Belly: Comfort and inspiration for pregnancy and birth, Little Bundle: Comfort and inspiration for new parents, and The Parent Manifesto: How to create a parenting approach that’s perfect for your family.

She has been featured on Today Tonight, The Morning Shows on Channel 7 and Channel 10, in The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, The Herald Sun, The Courier Mail, The Advertiser, The Sunday Mail, ABC and commercial radio, and in all the top parenting magazines.

About St John’s Grammar School

St John’s Grammar School is a leading independent school in South Australia. It is situated in the Adelaide Hills in the beautiful suburb of Belair. The school is a partnership of parents, students, staff and the Anglican Church.

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130 Comments

- - mom81879 said
  - 11 Nov 2015
    2:09 pm
Such a great series! Son much great information for all parents. I really enjoyed watching it

- - mom94125 said
  - 03 Jan 2015
    4:02 pm
thanks a lot for posting this. i think that we should always encourage our children to think for themselves

- - mom93821 said
  - 18 Oct 2014
    2:07 pm
Thanks for the information, very helpful.

- - mom94125 said
  - 09 Oct 2014
    12:36 am
this is a great video. very helpful and informative

- - Dennis12 said
  - 29 Jul 2014
    8:00 am
Great series, Thankyou

- - freeone1 said
  - 16 Jul 2014
    8:46 am
thanks for the info very helpful

- - kazh said
  - 22 May 2014
    12:11 am
great story, thanks for the info

- - mom57522 said
  - 19 May 2014
    8:59 pm
Learning is so different from my school days.

- - eestigirl said
  - 19 May 2014
    11:52 am
Parents today have access to so many helpful resources about how children learn. Great stuff! Just as an aside, many of our most inventive people in days gone by had acute skills of observation and deduction which would have begun with a fascination with nature and how things work in this world of ours. Being fortunate enough to have opportunities to have their sense of wonder and inquisitiveness nurtured would do wonders with children today. Actually we adults would do well to develop our own critical thinking skills too.
- ginoula5 replied
  
  13 Aug 2014 , 12:50 pm
  haha have to agree with you there, time for adults to do some critical thinking
- - Happymum-2 said
  - 11 May 2014
    6:36 pm
kids need to think outside the square to be on the edge of employment opportunities down the track

- - Happymum said
  - 07 May 2014
    6:13 pm
this is a great series and covers so much
- cheezel replied
  
  09 May 2014 , 9:17 am
  it really is – learnt a lot from it
- - catgrrl3 said
  - 06 May 2014
    11:22 am
great article , thanks for sharing

- - mariel said
  - 27 Apr 2014
    9:13 pm
thank you for tips, should teach my daughter

- - mummy liana said
  - 23 Mar 2014
    12:09 am
thanks for sharing was a good read

- - angel_mon said
  - 08 Mar 2014
    11:02 pm
absolutely love this series, hope it continues

- - mummy liana said
  - 01 Mar 2014
    7:19 pm
thanks for sharing was a great read

- - kafer said
  - 27 Feb 2014
    5:12 pm
Schools are more friendlier than they used to be. Parents are more involved. My Mum never had the opportunity to be involved in parent helping. So much better to see where your children are at.

- - angel_mon said
  - 14 Feb 2014
    9:36 pm
wonderful article, so much more than academic needs needing to be met

- - ilees68 said
  - 28 Jan 2014
    1:37 pm
This was – a good read !

- - yyon4699 said
  - 27 Jan 2014
    5:11 pm
Raising a kid is hard enough and you have to make sure they get the right education. Allow them to explore within a restricted but yet unsupervised environment. This will allow them to grow and expand their horizon and hopefully for a better future.

Great read and will definitely put into good use in future. Thanks for sharing