Mike Smith:
Barbara, you talked on our last program about the preschool years as a time of great development. How can parents take advantage of the child’s desire to learn during these years? Tell us a little about what you call the child’s learning potentials.

Barbara Curtis:
Mike, there’s so much misunderstanding between parents and children, and I just want to clear up some of that. You know, part of what we see as a child’s stubbornness is that God has planted in our children this very strong desire to learn and grow—and that’s good!

When you have a child who’s turning the light switch off and on and you find that annoying, or you think that they’re being rebellious, what they are is really a little scientist learning about cause and effect. God made us that way! Isn’t that wonderful that He built that desire to learn and grow and to learn about our environment in us?

So if we’re prepared to understand this longing in the child and the needs of the child to learn, and to channel it in a positive direction, we can raise a child who loves to learn the rest of his life! That’s the importance of these early years, that if we understand these sensitive periods and we can provide for them, then the child will always learn in a joyful, graceful way and will always approach learning with that desire to learn and that excitement and energy. We don’t want to squash that. It’s a beautiful thing that God made for us!

Mike:
Well, that’s so true, Barbara! Thank you for sharing that with us. This is going to be very helpful to parents of preschool children. We’ll continue talking about these learning potentials on our next program. And until then, I’m Mike Smith.