How Questions Empower Our Teaching

Posted by Beth | 0 comments

 How Questions Can Empower Our Teaching

All of us know how to ask our kids questions like, “Did you clean your room?” Or “Did you finish your homework?” But do we know how to ask the kind of questions that encourage our kids to think and take us straight to their heart?

Questions Empower us to Open Doors to Our Children’s Hearts

Questions can be powerful. One of the lessons I have learned along the way is that a good question can be a powerful tool to open up the door to your child’s heart. Some of our most meaningful lessons have come from conversations that began with a simple question.

Recently, one of my sons returned from a playdate angered over the fact that one of the boys told him he couldn’t play in his room. I found out later that my son had opened up a board game in the middle of where the other boy’s were playing battlefield. Instead of rebuking my son’s attitude and telling him what he did wrong I began asking him a few questions. Son, how would you feel if you were playing baseball and some kids came and set up a pool on your field? Then I asked, “How do you think those boys felt when you put your game in the middle of their playing area?” He began thinking about that and realized how wrong his attitude was and that his anger was a result of his own actions. In the midst of questioning his heart more he told me, “Mom, I need to call him back and apologize.”

It would have been easy for me to have gotten upset with him over this and just corrected him skipping over the heart of the matter. But by asking a few simple questions it gave me the opportunity to disciple my child’s heart. Allow questions to empower you to open doors to your child’s heart.

We all want our kids to develop good thinking skills apart from their peers. A good question does that. It creates an opportunity for them to process information and think on their own. In order to build thinking skills this needs to be something we learn to incorporate with everything we do. A question can also point their attention to something they would have never noticed. One of the ways we can do this is by being aware of teachable moments throughout our day.

During our read aloud time with our children we have an excellent opportunity to pull significant thought provoking questions from our reading and create teachable moments. Have you ever been reading a story when something captured your attention? These are great moments to stop and ask a question. The great preacher George Whitfield was once a stone throwing, mischievous little boy. During one of his altercations in the story we stopped and I asked the boys several questions like, “Why do you think he was acting like this?” Even as a young ruffian he was an influential leader. Seeing this we talked about the power of influence both for good and bad. By using a question I was able to point out something I wanted them to ponder and create a teachable moment.

Stories provide excellent material for probing questions like, “What would you have done?” or “Was that a good decision that he made and why?” Be prepared to have some wonderful conversations with your kids when you do this. The lessons from these rabbit trails are so precious.

Questions Empower Our Children to Develop Self Expression and Elocution

Elocution simply means the art of speaking and communicating well. I don’t know about you but I still struggle with adequately expressing myself at times. Asking our kids challenging questions not only makes them think but requires them to put those thoughts into words and communicate back to us. This takes practice. When I don’t understand what my child is trying to communicate, I will kindly tell them to say it another way. With my boys I make the point to have them slow down and speak clearly without mumbling.

When a child is more introverted they especially need their parents to give them opportunities for self expression. They need to know that their thoughts and voice are just as important as their sibling who may seem to never stop talking.

One of the ways we provide time to do this is by having a “tea time” boy’s style with hot chocolate instead of tea. The boys bring the books that they are currently reading and we discuss them. I make it a point to teach them to listen to one another, respect each other and to also ask each other questions. They have loved this new family tradition and so have I.

So, do you purposefully use questions with your kids? Do you ask questions as part of the learning process and if so what does it look like at your house?

Beth discovered how fun learning can be when she began homeschooling in 2003. She considers homeschooling to be a treasured blessing.On the path with her are her 2 boys and husband John, who is her biggest supporter and fan. Somehow she has enabled her frog loving outdoor boys to love tough subjects like Latin, Writing and Grammar. (She is not kidding!) Now if she could only get them to eat all their vegetables. Beth loves capturing life’s precious moments with her camera and decorating them with Photoshop. You can visit her blog at Pages of Our Life.