Parent Magazine Flagler November 2018 | Page 14

by Jan Pierce, M.Ed. E very day life involves a lot of problem-solving. How do you encourage your children to get along with others? What’s the best way to help your child learn to manage money? Should you let your kids play video games and which ones should be off-limits? Without realizing it, you’re making logical decisions every day, and your kids need to learn how to make sound, logical decisions as well. Not only in their social and emotional lives, but also in their reading, their writing, and their math and science explorations. In short, the child who knows how to think logically will be a better student who comprehends his or her reading at a higher level, thinks creatively to solve math and science problems, communicates clearly, and may even score higher on IQ tests. Critical thinking is a complex skill learned over time. It involves being able to evaluate information for accuracy, interpret information, make predictions and inferences (conclusions based on evidence and reasoning), recognize fact vs. opinion, and explain one’s thinking clearly. So….it’s kind of hard. But, there are simple ways to build these logical thinking skills and you can begin to teach them in easy and fun ways. Here are some skills to work on at home to ensure your child is a strong, clear and logical thinker. ANALYZE ANALOGIES Analogies are comparisons between two different things. They show a relationship between two items. The skill involved requires your child to first identify the relationship and then select the words demonstrating that relationship. The use of analogies increases understanding in virtually all areas of learning. For example: day is to light as night is to ____. To solve this analogy, you first see that it is light in the daytime, then supply the opposite concept, dark, to night. Or, book is to read as song is to _____. One reads a book. What do we do with a song? We sing it. Analogies can demonstrate a number of relationships such as part to whole, opposites, cause and effect, or degree of intensity (cool is to freezing as warm is to ____.) 12 | F L A G L E R parent MAGAZINE