While you’re decorating the front yard, putting the finishing touches on costumes, and planning your route for trick or treating, give one of these Halloween-themed activities a try.

School is a big deal, and rather than making it a source of nerves, why not make it something to explore and discuss? As is the case for many things, kids get a kick out of peeking behind the curtain and digging a little deeper into education. It might even motivate and empower them as learners, help them find their place in their school and get the most out of the coming year.

Instead of simply telling a child “Life’s not fair”, why not start a dialogue, and encourage some critical thinking? Here are some ways in:

Okay, there’s still snow on the ground in some places, but spring is officially here! It’s a time for newness, for awakening, and there’s no better way to celebrate with a little thinker than playing with some really fun spring-themed big questions.

Ask pretty much any parent, particularly those with small children, and they’ll tell you as much. What parent hasn’t been ambushed by a million bouts of “why”? Who hasn’t been minding their own business, going about their daily tasks, only to have the little in their house hit them with a truly difficult question for which there is no easy answer (if there’s any answer at all)?

Grab a cup of tea, put your feet up, throw out a big question, and (with sincerity) ask “What do you think?” In this case, silence is gold

We’d like to remind parents, caregivers and teachers: you deserve this feeling too, this comfort, this connection. You deserve to be able to admit you don’t know. You deserve to have time and space to ask big questions, and to bond with others through dialogue. You deserve to the security of knowing that, like the many, many humans before you who have lived through trying circumstances, that there are ways to think your way through things, to come out on the other side with even bigger and better ideas.

We’ve kicked off the season with a countdown of big questions, and we’ve already put up eight of them on our social media channels. In case you need to catch up, here are the ones we’ve posted so far. Be sure to follow us on Instagram and Facebook for more! There will be a new question every day until we ring in 2023.

With warmer weather comes more opportunities to get outside and one step closer to nature. It also throws things wide open for all kinds of marvelous, thinky adventures with big questions about nature and our relationship to it! Yup, you can play with critters, catch some rays, go for a dip, and get muddy, and develop amazing thinking skills, all at once!

Taking risks, being critical of ideas (even your own), and being willing to back up and try again, are all part of learning, for thinkers big and small. Don’t let the thought of getting it wrong keep you from taking on big questions with your kid!

One of the best parts about fun sports activities like these is that they give us an amazing opportunity to talk with little thinkers about fairness in games and sports. Since your kids’s mind is engaged in the game, it’s also poised to help grow!

In philosophy (even kids’ philosophy), big questions don’t generally have only one answer, but that doesn’t mean that anything goes. There are rules and guidelines for working through a big question, and even young kids need to learn them.

Whether you have a kid that likes to study them buggies with a microscope, paint pictures of our multi-legged friends, or generally avoid anything to do with the little dudes, there are opportunities to turn any encounter with creepy crawlies into some big questions!

While we can all agree that no two kids (or people for that matter) think alike, we’re pretty confident that in some way, shape or form, all kids like to ask big questions.