6 Tips for Parents to encourage creativity in Kids
Kids are born with innovator characteristics. Creativity and imagination in them are in-built. This article explains how parents can play an important role in kids life by providing a perfect environment to boost their creative ideas and innovative skills.
Introduction
Creativity is food for the brain. It is as good as an exercise is for physical health. Creativity is a brain exercise which keeps mind healthy and active. Thus, right from a young age, kids should be encouraged to come up with innovative ideas and develop new skills. Parents should not force kids to focus only on academics. They have to also encourage all those activities that boost creativity in kids. Every parent must allow their kids to ask innumerable strange questions. They should not get annoyed when kids come up with an inquiring mind to them. Every parent should create a perfect environment for their kid in which kid's imagination power and innovative ideas should flourish. Allow them to dream but also help them to think logically. Below-mentioned is some simple ways to flourish creativity in kids formative years.Why is creativity necessary?
Creativity encourages kids to come up with unique and innovative ideas. Innovation is necessary to succeed in life. Thus, kids who have developed the skill of using their imagination succeed in life. Innovation is essential no matter which field they choose later in their lives. Childhood is a phase of life when the learning process is quick. If creativity is encouraged during the early years, kids ability to think innovatively sharpens. They will feel at ease with coming up and sharing their new ideas with the world. In short, their social skills improve largely. Also, it improves their decision making power. Creativity keeps a kid fit emotionally as well as intellectually. When mental health is good, it promotes physical health and overall wellness. It also helps them to deal with pain and other disturbing situations in life in a much better way because of good emotional health. Creativity keeps a kid busy in learning and creating something new. Their motor skills sharpen. When they spend endless hours creating something new, their coordination with eyes and hands improve.Why innovative skills should develop in childhood?
Parents do not have to teach the creative skills to their kids. Kids already have that innovator characteristic inbuilt in them. Moreover, the imagination power in them is strong. Every kid is creative. The only duty of parents is to recognize the talents their kid possesses and encourage kid's instinct for creativity and create the right environment for them. As described earlier, creativity is food to boost mental health. As mind remains active, learning process improves. Kids whose creative instincts are improved during formative years develop better learning and grasping power.
During the first five years of age, around 90% of brain development takes place. It is the age when cognitive development is at its peak. Kids at that age think differently. Majority of parents and elders, therefore, have experienced that the kids come to them with lots of questions. Sometimes, the long list of questions amazes them and at other times, annoys them. It is the age when creativity and innovation should be encouraged and not suppressed. It is because this stage does not last long. Creative parenting
Kids are born inventors and discoverers. They do not have to be taught the art of creativity. The only thing parents should take care of is that they should not suppress the creative instincts of their kids. Parents should not think that their creativity is wastage of time and force kids to concentrate only on academics to score good marks in schools. Parents are the first teachers to their kids. Every kid looks up to parents and considers them as role models. When parents say that their innovation is wastage of time, kids believe it. They soon bid goodbye to the talent to learn and create something new. Instead, parents should encourage kids to learn whatever they want. They should not suppress the kid's curiosity. With parents support, kids can build immense confidence and rise high.Tips to boost a child's creativity
Kids have to learn something new. Who can help them learn better than nature itself? Let kids learn every day something new. They will do it when they explore something new. Do not keep them trapped within four walls and limit their time to attending schools, tuitions and finishing home works. Allow them to go outside. Let them explore the beautiful nature. Outside there is immense scope to learn magical things, and the child does it by exploring nature. Let them play outside. Take them to short and easy hiking trails on weekends. Take them to nature parks and the zoo. Let them learn about flora and fauna. Spark learning ability in them by allowing them to feel, touch, taste and see beautiful things around them. Practical learning is much more powerful than theoretical knowledge gained by books and DVDs. Let kid solve the puzzles and strange mysteries by colliding with nature.
It is well known that kids first learn to draw before they learn to write or read. Why suppress this art form of theirs? Drawing is as important as learning to read or write. Thus, parents should encourage their kids to draw and paint more. Most of the parents take away the pencil colours from their kid's hands and instead ask them to finish their home works. Never discourage artistic abilities of kids. Kids draw what is in their minds. It is a perfect reflection of what they think and feel. Parents may not understand it as they do not have that same type of creativity a kid has. However, they have to spend time with their kids and ask them to explain their drawings. Parents will be amused when they come to know of their kid's imagining capabilities.
Parents should purchase toys for kids and allow them to play. Let them play alone or along with other kids with the toys. It is seen that kids unfold their imaginations, and make use of all the playing material available to them. They start making stories and assign roles to each other. They happily pretend play. It makes them come up with different story ideas. Sometimes, their story will have multiple outcomes. They base their stories on self-made rules. Also, when they play along with other kids, it develops their cooperation and social skills. Buy toys which help them to get more creative. Teach them how to play with the toys and step back. Do not interfere if kids use those playing materials in different ways. Let their imagination unfold. If possible, bring some costumes so that they can wear and enact as if playing a role in a drama. Toys, drama, plays, building materials, art supplies and other stuff help kids with their imagination.
Reading helps kids to gain knowledge and widen their horizons. Thus, help them to read more. Bring reading materials suitable for their age. Instead of making them watch cartoons on television, bring them some comics. Let them understand the characters. Read along if they find it difficult to read initially. If they find it boring, enact the characters to them so that characters of comic books and various stories come live in front of them. While reading to them, ask questions and answer their weird questions to let the creativity flow. Parents will be amused when their kids come with alternate storylines and create peculiar endings for different stories. Help them to create a play based on stories. Encourage them to create crafts or drawings based on the stories.
Kids who are taught the basics of different languages end up being more creative than those kids who are not introduced to the second language at an early age. Pick any language. It can be a mother tongue or a foreign language. Teach them new words every day with their meanings. Slowly teach them to frame sentences using the words they learnt. When they grow up, they will be automatically inclined to learn more about the language of which only basics were taught. When they learn a new language, they develop a curiosity to learn more about it. For example, if they are taught, French language. They would want to know more about the country and culture. Though they might not have travelled to France, they will start imagining things in front of their eyes.
Every day is dedicated to something. Thus, every day is special. Parents should encourage creativity in their kids by asking them to be innovative with their skills and celebrate every day. It can be a simple celebration to honour special occasions. Ask them ideas on how to celebrate and help them create a play or a drawing relevant to the occasion. A celebration can be in the form of a craftwork, story writing, enacting a play, preparing recipes or reading a relevant piece of information. Not only will the kids gain good information but also it will help their creative instinct a lot. Encourage their ideas on celebration no matter how strange and weird they are.