Introducing Children to Philosophy with Big Ideas for Curious Minds | AD

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Have you ever thought about teaching your children about philosophy, broadening their mind and showing them new ways of looking ay everything life throws at them? Big Ideas for Curious Minds is an introduction to philosophy that does all of those things and more. This beautiful hardback book is something to keep and treasure, the kind of book that can be picked up endlessly throughout childhood and that children can dip in and out of as time goes by.

Big Ideas for Curious Minds is beautifully illustrated with pictures and diagrams on most pages that really help to illustrate different points and ideas so that children can really understand them. The book begins by explaining what philosophy actually is before starting to teach children more about it.

Philosophy is something that isn’t really taught in schools and so many people don’t really understand philosophy at all. But, philosophy can be one of the most important subjects to learn about – helping you to really understand life and live a wise life too. The book, and philosophy in general, teaches us to be sensible, kind, calm and accepting of life and everyone and everything in it.

Working through Big Ideas for Curious Minds teaches children the difference between wise and unwise reactions to things – being calm and rational compared to screaming and shouting. It shows children the alternative reactions we can have to anything that happens in life and it shows children the need to really be in control of their reactions, to think about things and to take their time.

LP and I have worked through this book together and she immediately understood the wise and unwise concepts in it. The book gave examples like how you react when you lose a game – from accusing the other person of cheating or hating the game and refusing to play again through to the more wise reactions like realising it’s only a game, that it can be played again and that losing says nothing about who you are as a person.

Big Ideas for Curious Minds has ideas from so many famous philosophers – Socrates, Wittgenstein, Zera Yacob, Matsuo Basho and more. They seperate different sections of the book and help to close each topic, giving children a story that puts the learning more into practice in ways they can really understand.

Throughout the book LP and I have read about learning to know yourself, learning to say what’s on your mind, trying to work out what we really want at various times in our life, understanding that you are not always the reason for the way other people are feeling and that often people are not being mean they are purely unhappy.

Although Big Ideas for Curious Minds is aimed at children I have got a lot from it too – and I wish I had read it myself as a child. It’s the sort of book that just makes sense – and as an adult I was able to relate to so much in it. For LP though it is teaching her situations she may come across in life and the types of people she may meet. At those times she now has new ways of thinking and new ways of expressing herself as well as understanding other people and situations so much better.

LP and other children are born philosophers, asking some of the biggest questions. They ask about time, mortality, happiness and the meaning of everything. But, over time the questions usually fall away. Big Ideas for Curious Minds can harness a child’s spontaneous philosophical instinct and help to develop it through the most vibrant and essential philosophical ideas of history.

Before reading Big Ideas for Curious Minds it had never occurred to me to even begin to talk to LP and Little Man about philosophy and, honestly, when they both ask those big questions I always found it hard to answer or to know what the right answer is. But, this book has taught me, and LP, new ways of thinking and new ways of being. I know that going forward when the children ask a question I’ll embrace it, and open up a discussion about it. Often in life there are no right or wrong answers just curious minds and that is definitely something worth cultivating.

Big Ideas for Curious Minds has an RRP of £18.00