Reflecting, I think I should have slowed down and when the child said, it isn't working, I should have asked him some questions about how we could make it work better and then go from his solutions? Should I offer up solutions of my own?


Definitley ask open ended questions to expand their own critical thinking skills, but when they are really stumped, of course you should add ideas...just make it seem like their ideas.....for instance instead of just putting two wheels on a stick and showing them, you could say somehting like " I see with one wheel it is doing (this), what do you think would happen if we put the second wheel on the other end of the stick" Allow them to answer then say " Okay those are some pretty good ideas, now let's find out!" and then help them put it on. Then if it won't stay ask "what do you think we could use to make the wheel stay on " collect ideas and then try a couple out....if none work then you say "hmmmm, these aren't working I wonder if (whatever) will work" then try it. So on and so forth. In the end, you get the same result, but they were more involved in the process of putting it all together. I hope that all makes sense....I'm in a hurry!

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