Childish Critical Thinking

(picture from Klepsacovic's site)

I find myself of the opinion that we should all be more critical, than less, of children. This also means paying more attention to what they say. All too often I see adults pretty much just shaking their heads all the silly things their children say.
Responding to, "Mommy I wanna fly on the lawn mower when daddy gets home," with something like, "Thats nice honey," as a reply. This could amount to some lazyness or being too indulgent.

When what should be happening is a critical analysis and breakdown of the statement. In this case, lawnmowers don't fly and you might get asked why. Be prepared to give and explanation of your answers to their questions. "Because I said so," is a bullshit answer (I heard this the other day at lunch). Its very surprising how much a 2 or 3 year-old can understand, and even more so at 5 or 6 if critical thinking is taught from the very point they can put together more than one word.

Now, I'm not saying that we should never let our children imagine crazy shit. But, we are not helping them along in their educational development by letting them completely immerse themselves in bull-crap.

Not that I know anything about raising children... I just had this one my mind after browsing some blogs this morning. And a quick google check gave me tons of sites dedicated to this stuff.