Creativity isn’t something that can be taught later in life, which is why it falls on you, the parent, to teach it to your child in their developmental years. Even other soft skills like problem solving, conflict resolution, motor skills and communication skills are up to you to teach them. It can be a lot of pressure, but taking care of their development isn’t as hard as it may sound.
There are countless fun crafts for kids that help them develop all the skills mentioned above and nurture their creativity, arming them with the right soft skills to successfully navigate life as adults. In this article, we’re going to talk about some of the ways you can encourage this mental growth in your kids.
In This Article
Make Believe Exercises
A lot of kids love make believe exercises where they pretend to be a dragon or a superhero or even a McDonald’s. As strange as this may sound to adults, these exercises are a great way to encourage their creativity and problem solving skills.
Join in on the fun and help them prepare masks for their characters using paper plates, then play along with them to present them with different scenarios that they have to solve or get out of.
What can the princess of the jungle do to help the forest animals? What is the solution when the ice cream machine is broken and the customers get mad? Let your child come up with solutions to these simple dilemmas, all under the guise of having fun.
Encourage Creative Hobbies
If you ever notice your child picking up the pen to draw on random notebooks or even the walls, the best course of action is to direct that interest onto chalkboards or sketchbooks instead.
Get them some paints, crayons, coloring books, and any other art supplies that your kids might be interested in, and introduce them to things like coloring inside the lines, drawing by connecting dots, and then eventually copying drawings just by looking at them or making some with their own imagination.
Make sure not to micromanage any of their creative ideas though, and be mindful of when subtle nudges to your kids get a little too numerous. This will only make what’s supposed to be a fun activity for them seem like work, and will discourage your child from experimenting etc.
Making Things
One of the most important things in helping your children develop their creativity is encouraging them to make things on their own. Whether they are making a toy car or cookies, you should always encourage this kind of activity because it will teach them how to get creative with new things.
This is something that you probably did when you were a child, and it’s also one of the reasons why kids love making things so much. They might not be able to make anything fancy at first but they will always enjoy the process, and practice makes perfect.
Once your children start to get the hang of making things, you can even set up contests to see who made what using different ingredients or materials. This will help them hone their skills and push themselves even further into uncharted territories where they might come up with new ideas about how to make something more efficiently etc.
Find Out More About Your Kids
Lastly, one of the most important things in helping your children is to let them talk about what they like and don’t like. Find out more about what interests them, and why they think the way that they do. And then use that tactic when you want to teach something new or get their attention etc.
That may mean introducing them to some of the known and great artists and letting them in on some of the best ideas that ever made their way into the world. It may mean setting up a business where they can work with you, or staying in touch with what their hobbies are, etc.
But whatever the case may be, explore your own creativity first so that you have an easier time teaching your kids to use their imaginations.
All in all, creativity is simply about letting your kids be themselves. Scaring the creativity out of them will only lead to less productivity and innovation in the future, which is why it’s important to let them try out different things at their own pace.
Ask Them Questions and Encourage Their Ideas
When they’re making a new drawing or art project, make sure to show interest and ask them questions about it. They can be about the character on the paper, about why they used these particular colors, what they wanted the art to look like and if they were happy with them, or even about the story behind it.
Before your children decide to play, you can leave it up to them if they want to do a particular activity more than the others. And keep in mind that any kind of creativity – be it in the play area, the kitchen, with a musical instrument, etc is just as beneficial to your child as painting, arts and crafts, and building blocks, so encourage their passions.
Bottom Line!
Creativity is a very important aspect of life as it allows people to solve problems and express themselves in unique ways, but it is also important for innovation which leads to scientific discoveries and technological advances used by everybody on this planet. Creativity will lead to new ideas that may have never been thought of before so children should be encouraged to think and create in new ways. Children should be taught that it is good to challenge the way things are done, and maybe they will come up with a solution that everybody can use.
