A common picture of a creative thinker is a person sitting still lost in his own world, questions marks are surrounding the head. There is a frown upon his head. The statue, “The Thinker”, by Auguste Rodin gives us another picture. Every muscle in the man’s body is engage in the thinking. Just like every muscle in a child’s body is engaged.Thinking takes place in an environment and every muscles in our body is involved.
A child’s mind is like the universe – billions of bits of thoughts, observations, and ideas floating around. These thoughts can be in words, metaphors, images, feelings, and sounds. Particles of thoughts can pop up from what appears to be nothing and get stuck to other thoughts. New connections are made and new insights are gained.
Yet children are educated to judge each idea and to be careful and critical. Often they are not allowed to explain something. And ambiguous thoughts are rejected.
But creative thinking involves several different aspects and getting the ideas is only the start. Ideas and solutions need to be twisted and turned around. Few, if any ideas, are born perfect. And in many cases, people who have made a real impact with their ideas, are characterised by their “stubborn desire” to consider what other people said was nonsense.
So the trick to creative thinking is to select from the rich waves of thoughts swirling around in our minds.
There are several reasons why we should engage our children in creative thinking.
Creative thinking
- Strengthens the bonds between parents and children
- Great way to prevent frustration from having “nothing to do”
- Helps children explore challenges in their lives with friends or school
- Teaches skills to deal with fear, low self-esteem, and anxiety
- But most important of all – it is FUN
There are many ways that you can use to spark your child’s creative thinking.
- Tell your child to imagine a place where she wants to spend the weekend. Ask her to describe or draw the place. Or look for pictures of wonderful places and imagine what sort of person lives there or what it would be like to live there What would it feel like to live in the house in the first of the two pictures below? (go here for some more pictures that may be used as inspiration).
- Music will encourage your child to explore different aspects. Happy, upbeat music may help her to spread some kindness with her creation. Scary music may spark ideas filled with monsters and ghosts.
- Crayons, paint, chalk and a generous supply of paper and cardboard may results in some stunning artworks.
- Children think with their body and they love to move around. Ribbons and scarves can be used to move around and explore the possibility of different lives and characters.
- Mask and costumes can encourage children to create stories and pretend that they are someone else.
So have some fun and Think Dive into the rich endless pool of Possibilities.
Photo: Your Amazing Places and Marvelous Kiddo
