How To Encourage Creativity in Your Kids
Parents, think back to your childhood. Do you remember playing self-invented games with your friends? How about giving personalities to your action figures or dolls to act out elaborate scenes? Did you draw pictures of robots and flying cars, depicting your vision of what you predicted life would be like in the future?
If your answer is yes to any of those questions, great. Even if you did not engage in those activities, chances are that you did something similar at some point during your childhood.
The point is that you embraced creativity. You allowed your imagination to run free and you likely remained entertained throughout hours of whimsical play.
Creativity comes in many forms – writing, drawing, building, singing or playing instruments, cooking or baking, inventing, designing, and even problem-solving.
In today’s world filled with technology, traditional play has taken a backseat. While it is important to adapt to ever-changing advances, it is necessary for kids to engage in unstructured play. Limiting screen time is a helpful tactic for emphasizing inspiration to bring new ideas to life. Allowing for freedom of expression during playtime fosters the development of creativity, a necessity throughout all stages of cognitive development.
As a parent, you can help your kids develop creative skills. A parenting website called Stay At Home Mum published an article called “12 Simple Ways To Encourage Creativity In Your Child.” This article outlines ways to foster creativity. One of the easiest ways to do this is by encouraging play. It is recommended that parents provide their children with a variety of toys, crayons, instruments, blocks, and dress-up clothes, to name a few items, to open a world of infinite imagination.
Creativity can extend beyond the common outlets of music and art, as represented by the items listed above. It is part of nearly every avenue, even the ones that have a reputation for being analytical, such as math and science. Even if your child does not have interest in the typical creative outlets, his or her creativity can be ignited through the need for problem-solving in math and science activities.
When your child is unsure of how to do something or how to solve a problem, Stay At Home Mum recommends encouraging him or her to try different approaches. This method forces your child to challenge himself or herself to push creative boundaries to come up with a solution that he or she likely would not have arrived at if immediately given an answer from an adult.
An organization called the Greater Good Science Center published an education-based article by Christine Carter, Ph.D. entitled “7 Ways To Foster Creativity In Your Kids.” This article details ways that you can provide an environment conducive to creativity. The first aspect is to provide a space. Have a room or a portion of a room that is dedicated to play. Allow for playtime that is free of parameters since creativity is often born from freedom. Next is setting an example for your kids by being transparent about mistakes you have made when trying something new or trying a different way of doing a task. This openness sends the message that being creative stems from experimenting and having fun. When you remind your child that flaws along the way are expected, your young one will be empowered to push the creativity to another level, without a fear of failure.
Carter also notes the value of encouraging problem-solving. You can do this by challenging your son or daughter to uncover multiple solutions to the problem. This forces your child to use imagination and rationale when thinking beyond the first solution that comes to mind. Another helpful approach is to ask your child open-ended questions about the activity he or she worked on that day. Whether that activity was building a city out of blocks or writing a story about a newly created character’s adventure, presenting questions that require elaborate responses keeps the creative hub of your child’s brain activated.
Asking your child questions about the activity that need more than a simple “yes” or “no” response will cause him or her to provide detailed explanations. Your child will reflect on the creative activity to formulate coherent responses. Also, your interest in your child’s activities will make him or her feel validated and energized to continue pursuing creative endeavors.
Either separately or in conjunction with the question-and-answer conversation discussed above, providing words of encouragement for your child’s efforts on a project can further develop creativity. When your son draws a picture, you can deliver a compliment on his choice of colors and can display the art on the refrigerator. After hearing a song your daughter wrote, you can praise her on the topic of the melody and can record her singing it.
Another proactive way to foster creativity is to support your child’s curiosity. Instead of instinctively answering his or her questions, ask your child to make educated guesses to explore possible answers. You can also direct your child to books or educational websites about the topic. This approach fuels the curiosity, which also keeps creativity alive.
An additional way to continuously grow creativity is to immerse your child in physical environments that are known for being inspirational. These places include the outdoors, museums, concerts, and theaters. In these inspirational realms, your child’s senses will be heightened, which can spark questions and “outside of the box” creative thinking.
On the opposite end of immersing your child in an environment synonymous with creativity is your child’s complaint about having nothing to do. In the article by Stay At Home Mum, contrary to instinctual thought, boredom is a positive thing. Your child’s initial exclamation that he or she is bored will spark new ideas out of the need to survive the dullness. Your child will unintentionally push imaginative boundaries to invent a new game or to write a story, all out of necessity of overcoming the dreaded boredom.
Similar to the preconceived negative connotation of boredom is the realization that your child has made a mess. Though a mess is often viewed as a burden, it can be a sign of creative expression. A mess may be anything from art supplies dispersed on a table to toy vehicles scattered around the living room. The actions that resulted in glitter decorating the furniture or in miniature racecars sprinkling the carpet may have been deliberate choices to accomplish a creative task or to depict an imagined scenario. As a parent, though cleaning up a mess isn’t considered to be a fun activity, you can feel appreciative that the mess is a representation of your child’s creativity.
Though there have been a variety of ways discussed here to encourage inspiration in your child, this is by no means an exhaustive list. The possible outlets and the ways to propel creativity are endless. Providing your young one with the resources to engage in inventive activities is just the beginning. Your involvement by nurturing your son or daughter’s interests and innovative talents will cause that creativity to exponentially grow. Creativity will forever be a valuable entity. Taking the time to foster it has endless rewards in your child’s continual development and success throughout life.
References:
Stay At Home Mum. “12 Simple Ways To Encourage Creativity In Your Child.” 2018. Retrieved 19 November 2021. https://www.stayathomemum.com.au/my-kids/12-simple-ways-to-encourage-creativity-in-your-child
Greater Good Science Center. “7 Ways To Foster Creativity In Your Kids.” 2008. Retrieved 19 November 2021. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/7_ways_to_foster_creativity_in_your_kids