Problem Solving with Young Children - by Ann Gadzikowski (Paperback)

About the Book

"Turn everyday frustrations into teachable moments. Young children encounter problems, mistakes, and accidents that challenge them daily. Helping children conquer everyday frustrations fosters the creativity, critical thinking, and resilience that enables children to thrive in a formidable world"--

Book Synopsis

Develop strategies for helping children become creative problem solvers

Whether it's building a rocket, learning to take turns, or forgetting a teaching material at home, both children and adults learn more from our mistakes than from our successes. Help children find solutions and learn to problem solve using teachable moments. Young children encounter problems, mistakes, and accidents that challenge them daily. Helping children conquer everyday frustrations fosters the creativity, critical thinking, and resilience that enables children to thrive in a formidable world. The ultimate guide to thinking on your feet, Problem Solving with Young Children will coach early childhood teachers, child care providers, and parents to develop a range of strategies to help young children become creative problem solvers, including:

Questions to ask

Ways to listen

Strategies for brainstorming and trying solutions

Suggestions for using the scientific method or design thinking to test ideas

Methods for reflecting on what worked and what still needs improvement

Featuring anecdotes and advice, and incorporating research on how children learn, emergent curriculum methods, problem-based learning, developmentally appropriate practices, and responsive pedagogies, this book will help you lead children through meaningful problem-solving processes and prepare tomorrow's critical thinkers.   

Review Quotes

Reading Problem Solving with Young Children: Building Creativity, Critical Thinking and Resilience by Ann Gadzikowski was a satisfying confirmation of everything I hold dear in guiding young children's creative problem solving. As Ann says, it takes time and intention to respond to the unexpected, especially as the unique characteristics of each classroom, child, and family are taken into consideration. With helpful examples, Ann provides sound, research-based strategies for making problem-solving a central component of the preschool day that both new and veteran teachers will embrace as doable. This book is an exceptional gift to the novice teacher and a wonderful resource for every teacher wanting to launch little problem solvers into a world that desperately needs them!

--Rosanne Regan Hansel, author of Creative Block Play and Exploring the 3-D World

Facing moments of conflict, misunderstanding, and challenge are part of the human experience we all share. Through our work with children, Ann Gadzikowski reminds us that we have inner reservoirs of creativity, courage, and connection to handle the moments that surprise us, moments when we feel less certain and skilled. The teacher becomes the learner and the learner becomes the teacher. Problem Solving with Children helps educators embrace difficult moments with curiosity, humor, and grace.

--Cori Berg, Director, Christ Lutheran Child Development Center, Dallas

Ann provides new and tenured teachers heirloom seeds of wisdom with pH balanced approaches to problem solving with young children. Her clear explanations and accessible examples are to be practiced as one may do after visiting a master gardener's tool shed, "Ah-ha! Now, this is useful!"

--Meredith Dodd, Lead Teacher, University of Chicago Laboratory Schools

About the Author

Ann Gadzikowski has more than twenty-five years of experience as a teacher and director of early childhood programs. She is Director of Early Learning for Encyclopedia Britannica and oversees the summer Leapfrog Program. Her book Robotics for Young Children won the Midwest Book Award in the Education category, Creating a Beautiful Mess: Ten Essential Play Experiences for a Joyous Childhood won gold in the 2015 National Parenting Publications Awards.