Curiosity as a teacher
QUESTION: Masters, my son is 9 years and recently he has become very much interested in watching crime detective web series. I believe that whatever we put our focus into that thing becomes part of our consciousness. My query is should I allow him to continue watching such serials or not? When I ask him “what do you understand” he replies he is understanding how people catch criminals strategically. ~Rima, India
ANSWER: Your son has a very quick, inquiring mind. He likes to be challenged and to figure out answers to problems. Don’t worry, he is not studying how to be a master criminal. These types of programs are the closest he can come to seeing a positive benefit to applying oneself to detection and problem solving.
His need to understand the reasoning behind someone’s actions and the excitement of following clues and catching a criminal is very motivating for him. He is interested in both the scientific and the psychological aspects of these detections – the physical and mental processes.
His curiosity would also be sated if you were to direct him toward other types of strategic games. The problem is that most of those types of games involve warfare. However, there are some that concentrate on step-by-step solving of puzzles, and these would satisfy him.
He is also good with his hands in building things. Find an area he likes such as ships, planes, space stations, buildings, or dioramas and get him involved in figuring those out. This will be more satisfying than the TV because he will then have a visual, completed project.
It is important to keep your son stimulated because if things are too easy he becomes bored. Let him help direct you to interesting things for him. Don’t worry about things being “age appropriate” because he is extremely mature for his age. He is following the path of many inventors, detectives, and scientists – always looking for the answers to their queries. Look for things that seem just a little bit too difficult for him – that is the challenge he craves.