How do you teach your kid common sense?

this is funny that you ask this, cause I have wondered this about my daughter as well.

WE just came home alittle while ago from her being inducted in the national honor society at her high school. She is a straight A student. But common sense is lacking for sure.

We tease her about it because she is blonde (think about the movie Legally Blonde- she wants to be a lawyer) and she is also really short (no not a midget) . I tell her baby when god handed out common sense your were so short he skipped over you. It is a joke we all share with her in fun. .

But she is really book smart but common sense is really diffucilt for her. I personally believe it is part of thier personality and also how much they socially interact with other children at a young age. She was the first grandchild on both sides and also was babied a lot by those grandparents, including mom too :) But she is more of a loner type, she is going to be 17 in may , and she is just now starting to interact with other peers more. She likes to be by herself and read, write stories ect... It will come I believe when she finds herself and fully develops as well.. Maybe i should dye her hair, think that might help, ha ha. She is perfect like she is, she will be our blonde princess that is a little on the ditzsy side..

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Refereed Debate by participants with a sustainable common goal. The referee must be skilled in Critical Thinking and Predicting Consequences

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Given that physicists are not too far from being able to create technologies to manipulate space-time. We need to cultivate common sense in children to use those technologies wisely.

Common Sense = Self-esteem + Logic + Predicting Consequences

Refereed Debate builds common sense through practiced experience. The referee must be skilled in Critical Thinking and Predicting Consequences.

The referee learns as much and more about common sense because of their position of authority (respect conferred, contributing to self-esteem) and the motivation to provide useful critique and impartial scoring.

The opposite of respect is disdain. Self-esteem is the accumulated respect and disdain received from a social group.

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Common Sense can be learned by virtually anyone. But Common Sense self-esteem depends on the social group. An auto-mechanic that is highly skilled and sought after enjoys significant self-esteem in their environment. But in the House of Representatives they can be made to feel 2" tall.

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You can't! I was very smart as a kid but lacked common sense! I am lucky I'm alive. I don't know when, but all of a sudden I had all kinds of common sense...might have happened just as I stuck that fork into the outlet, or when I checked the mowers gas level by looking in the tank with a lit match to see better! Or just possibly when I left the lid down on the gas grill then lite it after the gas was on for a few minutes. I really liked those eyebrows and missed them dearly! But I am feeling much better now! Yes I did do all of that foolish stuff and lived, so I guess that if tou make it past 12 or so your common sence kinda just kicks in until you hit 16. Then all bets are off again!

That's what my mom always told me (and others), that I was book smart without any common sense. Honestly, I'd have to agree. I was a straight A student with honor classes and a very promising future in school, but at home, I did the dumbest things. For example, I was making sweet tea one day. In an effort to help me my mom put out a big jar of ice. I didn't realize she did that for me so I emptied out the ice and then poured in the tea. Later, (after my mom told me) it occurred to me that I could've used that ice to cool the tea instead of throwing it out. I know that sounds kind of dumb but it was little stuff like that that I had to learn on my own. It's not anything you can teach her, unfortunately she'll have to learn along the way. My husband, who has lots of common sense but little book smarts, sometimes thinks I'm ditzy but when it comes to balancing the bank account, negotiating the bills, arguing with a creditor or researching something for his organization, he knows I'm the one who can and will get it done. Find your daughter's strength and build on that. Let her do things to that make her feel smart and that confidence will exude in other activities which require common sense. Good luck!

If you know she has problems with common sense then. you should give her some what if questions. then see what she says an let her know if the answer is right. or wrong that may help her a little because its always good to be book smart .but she also needs street smarts .

What do you mean she has no common sense?You must understand what common sense is before you can ask a question like that. If she is able to use all her sense to figure out a problem then she has common sense. You might be referring to common sense as figuring out something obvious. You must understand that different people are taught to figure out a problem through different methods. Some may use what they already know, others may use trial-and-error. Ask yourself as to whether or not you have made yourself a model to your daughter. If you have, then she should be trying to figure out problems the way you do. If your not a model to her, then it's partly your fault. It is said that Albert Einstein, and other geniuses had no common sense, because they were taught to treat a problem like a math or scientific problem. Tell your child to solve a problem with her heart and not her brain.

By setting an example and taking the time to explain why you consider things that should fall into the common sense category. A child who is very literal is usually very honest but usually only sees things as right and wrong and if there is no clear right or wrong then common sense comes into play. Like explaining coming in from the rain is common sense but neither right or wrong.

It mostly comes naturally, but I guess this might help her think with common sense. The company MindWare makes activity books that use common sense, intuition, and logic. They use clues to help you solve the problems. These and puzzles like it have been known to aid in developing common sense. Hope this works!

-an 11 year old w/ plenty of common sense!

i dont think common sense is something you can teach somebody. You DEVELOP common sense from what you experience in life. The only person that can help your daughter is herself. The only thing you have to do is bring it to her attention. Common sense takes time. =]

How old is she? If she is less than 13yrs old they have no ability to reason. It is only after 13 that the are in the infancy of being able to reason and it either grows by being nurtured by life, a parent or not at all.

Some people are more right brained which means they are more driven by emotions and it is difficult for them to learn to think logically. This could be called the drama queene. I don't believe it is impossible to get a right brained person to reason, but it is a challenge.

I tried not to tell my daughter the answers to everything but instead asked questions about the results of choices. This was very important to me because our lives are mostly the sum of our attitude and choices. That seems to be something so many people miss and feel victum to cercumstances - no responsiblity.

So many girls for instance will throw their lives away for a boy and loose themselves and fail to see how they chose that and the answer is not another boyfriend. They don't know how do develop what they want for their lives and instead see their life wrapped up in a relationship.

I wanted to help my daughter see that the world is her oyster and she is talented, capable and able to make her dreams come true and not have her life be a succession of emotional ups and downs with no connection to that is what she chose.

How did it work - Excellently! She is 26, graduated college with a double major in 4.5 yrs, has traveled & lived in Europe and vistited Egypt, she has her own business in graphics, photography and webdesign and is a teacher. She is bright articulate with excellent decision making skills.

She did so much better than I did since I was raised to get married and have kids. I was her age before I started to learn how to think the way I taught her.