Everyday Learning: The Where? Why? What? Who? When? How? Edition

ByChristie Burnett

Where does the water go?

What type of bird is that?

Why do we have hair?

When will it be Christmas?

How do bees carry pollen?

It seems we have entered the never ending questions phase with Immy, a product of her ever growing curiosity about the world around her and her joy in learning new things. Sometimes I know the answer but oftentimes I don’t! In the second instance, my responses are usually one of the following;

  • What do you think?
  • I don’t know but I am sure we could find out. Who could we ask? Or, where could we find the answer?

Do you have a child who likes to ask questions? How do you respond?

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Christie Burnett is a teacher, presenter, writer and the mother of two. She created Childhood 101 as a place for teachers and parents to access engaging, high quality learning ideas.

16 Comments

  1. Yes, I have one of those! A recent fave, what colour undies does Santa wear? I know I need to spend more time trying to answer his never ending questions, often if I don’t know the answer I tend to brush it off. But “what do you think” is always a great one!

  2. I try to answer as simply and accurately as possible. But I have a child who just does not stop! So eventually (50 questions later!) the answer is often “It’s just the way it is!”
    I tried “What do you think?” She said “I don’t know that’s why I’m asking you!”

    1. I can certainly understand the ‘it’s just the way it is response,’ especially after a series of ‘But why?’s!

  3. My kids got lots of questions too.. Mummy nowadays need to be ‘walking encyclopedia’ to answer to all the kids’ questions.. 🙂

  4. Yes! I love the curiosity and wonder at the world. Though sometimes I think it’s good to explain “it’s not time to ask questions now” for eg in the middle of teeth cleaning.

  5. Oh, when I worked before children, I used to be so judgemental about parents who didn’t take their kids questions seriously, or answered with “I don’t know”. And then I had kids and the reality hit me!!!
    The endless questioning just reaches a tipping point every day, where we have to suggest a ‘save your questions’ hour, just to save Mummy’s sanity. And then after the hour (or more, they’re not so good with telling the time!) I try to answer some of Miss 3 and Miss 4’s questions seriously.
    I like the reflecting back technique too (what do you think?) – it tends to slow down the rate of questions a bit! It seems a bit of a balancing act between satisfing their curiosity and encouraging them to be independent learners and preventing Mummy from entering a brain freeze…

    1. The ‘save your questions’ hour sounds like a useful invention 🙂

  6. I followed the recommendation of naffnung, then found your site, very nice, especially for a new father who I am.

  7. I had a great convo today with miss 3. Where was she before she was born. Tough!!!!! So I said up in the sky and kind of tried to introduce the concept of heaven. Then she wanted to know who looked after her up there. It was a very emotional convo for me! Geez their little brains work overtime.

  8. I’m a big fan of “what do you think?” It sure stops the questioning when the Munchkin already knows the answer, particularly when he is trying to process a story or movie in his head. Fortunately, he has also moved into a phase where he is asking a lot of fact-based questions, which between his Dad and I, we can cover a LOT of territory. Ask me a tricky question about science… “Oh, that’s a a good question – but Daddy would know a lot more about that”. I wonder what questions Daddy sends to me!

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