What is the best way to start getting a child interested in physics ( child in mind is currently 4 ).

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"Banned by BAUT" Alumni (2008)

A child that age is already studying physics, every time (s)he finds a new object and does something to it to see how it reacts. He or she will have questions from time to time about whatever latest new thing (s)he's just observed. Answer those. (And maybe add other spinoff ideas or demonstrations directly from them.)

i just keep telling him that from my observational point I am not in agreement to his observations. He just doesnt get it ... uggg

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http://www.whatisorganicliving.com
http://www.againstthemainstream.com/

"Banned by BAUT" Alumni (2008)

Get him what Frank Lloyd Wright's parents got him.

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The best way is to let a child of 4 be a kid. You overstress it at this point, your efforts could backfire and turn him or her off of physics for life. Don't even worry about it until junior high.

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"Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge" -- Charles Darwin

Try Feynman's advice.

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"All your bias are belong to us." Ara Pacis
"A witty saying proves nothing." Voltaire

See how the chute you are standing in front of is curved, Jimmy? I am now releasing this very heavy bowling ball so it will roll down the chute at high speed. When it leaves the chute will it travel in a straight line or a curved line? Where are you going to stand, Jimmy? Better decide quick!

Sit him down in front of a blackboard, write Newton's laws in latin and refuse to let him leave until he remembers it all.

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"Bessie Braddock to Churchill "Winston, your drunk!"
Churchill: "Bessie, you're ugly, and tomorrow morning I shall be sober""
the solar system

Show them mysteries.

When they ask questions, don't fob them off with platitudes but spend some thought on the answers.

Even if you get the answer wrong they will see you thinking about it & learn to spend time thinking.

As they grow, spend some time learning how to think correctly so you can show them.

Above all, don't blindly repeat what 'everybody knows' as if it is TRUTH & nothing else could be right.

Remember they are never wrong - they may not be right but while they are trying to learn & explain, they are at least thinking & should be encouraged. While they do those things, their course doesn't need reversing, just minor adjustments in heading.

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* Never doubt there is Truth; just doubt that you have it!

Well, in order to get them to study physics properly, every time they pick up something and play with it for 5 minutes, you should make them spend half an hour doing error calculations.

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"I worry that, especially as the Millennium edges nearer, pseudo-science and superstition will seem year by year more tempting, the siren song of unreason more sonorous and attractive." - Carl Sagan, 1995

Why are you trying to teach the child? The reason I ask is that being single I do not spend much time around children. When I do it isn't me that usually does the explaining.

In a 20 minute burst a child recently explained to me what the difference between a back hoe and a front end loader was. What ants are, where space is, what bubbles are. I was confronted with a prodigy, just as they all are at a fairly young age. What they lack is an audience for what they observe.

But if you are going to correct them be quick because their young minds are already two or more ideas ahead of where you thought they were ... if you give them a chance to tell you what they know. If you are really good you may add an idea, just one now and again or give a bit more of the picture or correct one small detail but that is about it.

It is exhausting to see how quickly their minds work. Perhaps the thing that slows them down the most is if we ask them to be quiet for any length of time so that we can explain what they probably already know instead of encouraging their side of the story and just being there to confirm the correctness of an idea or answer a brief question.

Direct them certainly and then try and keep up. Well that is my limited experience in a nutshell.

Can I quote you on this when I get yelled at for my ATM discussions?

Thanks for this post though. Good advice!

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http://www.whatisorganicliving.com
http://www.againstthemainstream.com/

"Banned by BAUT" Alumni (2008)