I hope the following topic can be of use to youth ministries, family counselors, family devotionals and home evenings.

I came up with an idea that might be useful to teach a child how to observe their world around them. First of all, and this could occur after you taught your child terms they may not be familiar with. You may tell a child not to step out of the yard; but, does the child yet understand what the word yard is? Last week I discussed how to introduce a child to new terms so that when you give rules to a child, they can better understand what you expect of them.

Now let’s move forward to observation skills. Let’s say you want a child to notice things in their yard and neighborhood.  First begin with a frequent trip the child if familiar with such as going to a local grocery store.

1. You could say, let’s go ahead and draw a map of what we how we go to the grocery store. You begin by drawing your house and your car in the drive way. Next you draw the street that represents our block. Next draw the streets that lead to the store. As you draw the streets, point out the different stop signs and stop lights. Maybe talk about where you often park when you arrive at the store.
2. Now have your child start to add details about houses, trees and other details not explain in your simple map. Maybe give them some prompting of what you remember. Have them explain to you what they remember the different details along the trip. Do they remember what the house looks like that’s across the street? What do they see when they leave the neighborhood? What does the grocery store look like?
3. Now say that you take an actual trip to the grocery store and you want the child to pay attention to things they see. You simply go ahead and have them look at things and pay attention.
4. You take a third trip to a local store and you with your child brainstorm on the different details around them. Describe the house that you pass at the end of the street. Maybe you would point how certain streets are often busy while others are not. You and your child discuss the different houses and observe people walking down the street. What are they wearing? What are different people doing outside? This is a way for the child gets a more perspective of the world outside them in safe environment within their car or a trusted transportation system. This could be the beginning stages of the child and observation skills.
5. As you go on additional trips a lot times young children get bored. This might be an opportunity for the child to describe to you what they see as they travel. This increases their abilities and engages them in their activities. Make observations using words and statements that may be new and should be defined or explained if it is a new word for the child.

This is one idea on maybe how to teach a child how to observe the world around.  If you have had success in teaching children or adults observation skills, please feel free to share hour suggestions or observations in the comment section of this blog.  Thanks