A user asks…

Hey everyone, I feel like I’m doing something wrong in how I’m implementing BFSU with my kidnergartner. I feel like I’m “lecturing” a lot, and I don’t feel like so far she has been that engaged in the experiments– the lessons don’t excite her as much as say, vinegar and baking soda Pinterest activities, though she is bright and STEM-minded.

My Response

Thank you for your question. Try to change your focus from “teaching a lesson” to “going on an exploration–exploring the given aspect of the world”. Pretend (make it as real as possible and hopefully it will become so) that you yourself have the curiosity and are  doing the exploring, asking questions out loud, sharing the observations, and doing the reasoning that leads to the conclusion. Bring your kindergartner along as a co-explorer and use Q and A inviting her to share her own questions, observations, and reasoning. This is bound to be difficult at first and it will not go perfectly on the first try. Nevertheless, I encourage you to give it try for a few sessions. Please let us know how it goes, and please ask further.