Unleash Creativity in Your Kids
Encourage Children's Imagination With Fun Activities
Creativity doesn't come with a boxed set of instructions. By nature, creativity is unleashed by stepping outside the normal thought patterns to connect to a new idea or new way of saying or writing something.
Encourage students to devote time to the arts; writing poems, stories, lyrics, singing, dancing, sculpting or painting. Instead of using pressure to help a child complete (or begin) a creative project, use some of these activities to catch his or her interest. Sometimes a child will go through long periods of stagnation only to soar past the plateau in renewed interest and abilities.
Unleash Creativity
Creativity isn't black or white, it doesn't show up immediately or on time. But when children are allowed to play, ideas can suddenly bring whole worlds to mind.
For young school-aged children, a great place to experiment and "play" is at a desk or table. Provide enough materials for them to be able to play by themselves, for example; having building blocks is much better than having the latest action figures.
Other important resources for stimulating creativity include:
- large cardboard boxes
- crayons, pencils, markers, paints
- art supplies
- puppets
- microphone, CD player
- small instruments like drums, triangle, flute, keyboard, harmonica
- dress up clothes
Activity Ideas to Enhance Creativity
- Watch a TV show with your child that is a narrative. Turn the show off about ten minutes before it ends and take turns making up your own endings to the plot. If the child is upset about not seeing the end of the show, simply record the remaining part and watch it after the game has been played out.
- Cut out pictures from magazines. They can be pictures of people, animals, flowers, cars, etc. Once the pictures are all cut out, ask your child to take five or six pictures and make up a story using the pictures. Link the pictures together, using them as the basis for the story.
- Another idea using magazines is to have the children cut out letters and words. As they begin cutting and thinking, poems begin to form in their minds. One extraordinarily rambunctious ten year old cut out pages and pages of letters and then suddenly stopped to form the following line: "Water is like a whispering voice made by God."
Get Serious About Imagination
- When children are getting ready to write a story or a play, a great way to stimulate their imagination is to set out a box of old clothes or costumes and invite them to try on whatever they'd like. Once they've had time to try on pirate hats and fake beards or gowns from another era (buy these at your local thrift store), they'll be ready to write something. Be prepared to find them acting out the story, unasked!
- Ask questions to stimulate writing, such as: If you had a third eye, what would it see? What would your dog say to you if he could talk? What would your life be like as a cricket who lives in your house? Questions like these are wonderful ways to encourage your child to write.
- For the budding artist, try having a "conversation" with him without using any words. You have to draw what you want to say. This can turn into a fun group project that grows into something different each time. It's a game that encourages self discipline (no talking) while showing the children how to communicate through art. It can be played out with paper and pencils or on the sidewalk using chalk.
Helping your children to grow their imagination will be a gift that they will treasure always. Allow them time to be artists, writers and actors!
For more articles on teaching children how to be creative, read the following:
A Creative Writing Workshop Project
Unleash Creativity
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