Talk About It – Creativity and Children

"That's so beautiful! What a great drawing!"

Try to replace generic praise with more specific observations about the ideas and work. Try to say thing like "The way you draw the shape of the polar bear's paws shows how large they are." or "You seem to have use all the colours of the rainbow."

children are curious and creative, they explore the world and interact with an object, play with language and imagine new worlds. They draw and scribble and it is vital to continue to nurture this interest to explore the world. Believing that you can create and can think dive to find new solutions and ideas might be something that every child is born with. But experiences may change and undermine this appetite to create and ask questions.As a result, a child may stop asking questions and play it safe. Safe answers and ideas are seldom creative, interesting or innovative.

The wonderful and insightful book Frances Dean Who Loved to Dance and Dance. by Birgitta Sif explores how scary it can be to dance when someone is watching. To enjoy dancing and to be creative it is important to build up children who are not vulnerable to the reactions of everyone around the. To dance, to really dance, you need to feel the music and to dance like nobody is watching.

Allow children to explore on their own. Leave children alone to play and something the most amazing things happen.

Ban the idea, that it is good to be bored. Talk about the benefits of having nothing to do which is not the same thing.

"Boredom is what happens when you have nothing to do and you let that actually bother you. Boredom could be an uncomfortable feeling and it might be the fact that a child is allowed to have no planned activities that nurture her creativity rather than being frustrated and bored. Freedom to spend time the way you like to may motivate a child to try new activities and daydream. Children who have not been allowed time to watch the rain play on the window may get bored when they have no planned activities. And this may in itself not encourage them to explore the world in a creative way."

Take risks and talk about why things may not have worked. And then try agin. To take risks is a step towards being creative. Everyday experimentation and exploration are a wonderful way to enjoy little risks. if things do not go according to plan, it is part of a playful approach to learning and creating. So many projects that are used for children are created with the aim for not letting them fail r take any risks. The results should always look like the model answer or model painting, or craft. Unexpected answers, drawings or additions to crafts are a way to help a child develop their own style and confidence.

Instead of saying "Good job!" which is a way of measuring everything a child does, invite your child to describe their creations in their own words.

P.S. It is Happy Birthday Life Day and you can download the free posters here. Also, you can download a free PowerPoint about biomimicry here or here.