How many spring celebrations have you attended these past few weeks?

This is the time of year that we see our kids or our friends’ kids through assorted awards ceremonies, graduations, and gatherings to commemorate their accomplishments.

It’s a fun, busy time spent with family and friends.

But once the excitement is over and everyone goes home, how do your kids really feel about it all?

Are they burned out, like mine was when he graduated high school?

By the time my youngest son was done, he was sick of the whole thing -- schoolwork, extracurricular commitments and endless testing. The last few years of his high school experience became all about the numbers needed to get into a good college.

What was his cumulative gpa? How many extracurriculars and leadership positions did he have? Any awards? How did he score on his AP exams? His SATs? His ACTs?

It was A LOT. Too much, really. By the end of it all, my kid was worn out and disillusioned.

I hated that for him!

He was so curious about things when he was little, and he lost that for a while.

All of our young kids have that sweet sense of wonder, don’t they? As parents,  we should give more energy to protecting that sense of wonder in our children and not let ourselves get too caught up in the competition to achieve.

How to Protect Your Child’s Innate Desire to Learn 

Why do we care about our children’s natural curiosity and sense of wonder about the world?

We want train our kids to be creative independent thinkers, not automatons. If we can protect their natural wonder and curiosity as they grow older, our kids will be happier and healthier young adults.

Responding to All the "Why Questions When They’re Little 

As soon as our little ones are able to speak in words and sentences, they constantly ask why about everything. This is great! They’re curious and want to understand the world around them.

But this can get enormously tiring when, for example, you’re simultaneously cooking dinner and calming down a crying infant while being bombarded with why questions from your curious little one.

You don’t want to shut them down or stifle their curiosity. However, your curious child can’t endlessly interrupt you in your work. I recommend sorting out a “save it for later” time when you can give their questions your undivided attention.

Engage in situations that activate their curiosity. Explore! 

Expose your kids to a wide assortment of experiences and see what they like. It’s very easy to unconsciously expose them only to what you did when you were a kid and avoid those things that didn’t appeal to you. They might LOVE those activities you hated!

Occasionally choose new activities that don’t necessarily appeal to you right away. Pick something you know nothing about and see what happens. Hip hop dancing! Scrapbooking! Bear Grylls style survivalist skills!

As your little ones develop passions or obsessions about a topic, i.e. dinosaurs, support those passions. Give them opportunities to explore it.

Make more time for human connection and less time on electronic devices. 

Electronics offer easy entertainment, and they’re a valid way to unwind after a long day or week. However, they’re much too isolating when relied upon too much. Social media channels don’t ease loneliness or make genuine connections with others. Relationships are made through live conversations and in-person interactions.

Try to carve out time for whole family fun, like playing cards or board games in the evenings or whole family outings where everyone can truly connect. Being in the same room where each person is staring into their own electronic device doesn’t count.

Allow time for free play. Don’t put your kids in structured activities all day. 

This can be hard to do as your kids get older and more involved in more hobbies or sports, particularly travel sports. If you’re homeschooling, you have the advantage of not sending your kids off to school for 8 hours a day in addition to hours of daily sports practices, so good for you!

Model curiosity for your kids. Let them see you pursue YOUR interests. 

Can your kids name one thing they know you love to do in your own time? Pickleball? Crafting? A monthly supper club with friends?

Remain Aware There Are Multiple Paths After High School Graduation 

By the time your kids graduate high school, what do you want to see in them?

Here’s my list:

Intellectual curiosity
Self-confidence
Emotionally grounded
Understanding their strengths and weaknesses
A plan for moving forward into adulthood
Executive functioning skills
Critical thinking and writing skills
Foundational knowledge in history, language, math, and science

We all want our kids to be well-rounded individuals and send them off into the world prepared to meet its challenges.

That might not lead them to a college education, at least not right away. And that’s ok. Grooming your kids for college and putting them through all that’s entailed to apply may not be best for them.

Support their curiosity and interests so they can choose a path that will make them happy and, of course, able to support themselves financially.

Lily Iatridis is the founder of Writing Rockstars, an online writing program that prepares teens for college level writing.