Avoid Hard Work!

The term problem-solving sounds scary. Who wants problems? Why do we want to subject ourselves and youngsters to problems? The word problem comes from the word probe, meaning inquiry. Inquiry is a much friendlier idea. Rather than attack a problem that has been given to us, let us accept an invitation to inquire into and to explore an interesting opportunity. Even toddlers can excel at inquiring, exploring, and investigating the world around them! For example, here are maps of two tricky islands. The dots show buried treasure. You can see that one dot is on the land and another in the water. In the big puzzle-map below, is treasure on the land, or is it in the water? There are many ways young children solve that puzzle, such as coloring all the land. The chapter where that puzzle appears has the same name as the book: Avoid Hard Work. It shows how storytelling and pretend-play makes the powerful concept of parity accessible to young children - and allows them to solve the puzzle in seconds!