8 Ways to Encourage Exploration in Your Kids

Want your kids to embrace life and all of its forms of adventure? These eight principles for parenting can help you encourage exploration. 

8 Ways to Encourage Exploration in Your Kids (Photo: Young white boy in a bucket hat standing in the sand in front of a mountain)

Watching my three-year-old scale the “rock-climbing” wall at the playground, I bite my tongue. Of course, I don’t want him to fall. But neither do I want to discourage him from trying this new piece of equipment.

In theory, I want my kids to explore their world enthusiastically. They should feel safe enough to climb high, able to assess risk well enough to know what’s too high, and gutsy enough to pick themselves back up when they fall. But as all parents know, it’s a difficult balance.

Embracing these eight principles to encourage exploration in our parenting has made my children more willing to try new things. It’s also helped them appreciate a wide diversity of people and experiences.

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