Children and creativity are both innovators of the world. Children are the ones who see human life now and have the ability to keep the generation going.
On the other hand, creativity is one of the most important skills that contribute to thinking, planning, imagining, and creating technology that furthers the need of others. (I don’t mean a television, but the accessibility to enhancing ways of eating, transportation, etc.) The mix with children and creativity has huge benefits.
They mimic the social world. They do what we do. Thus, before helping kids you need to evaluate yourself.
1. Evaluation
Questions you need to ask yourself. Have you created any limiting beliefs of your potential? Are you misinformed about careers or activities? Do you tell your children, It’s just how things are when there can be a reason for it?
Questions like these will be hard for you to ask. It’s always better to ask someone else to answer them for you. You could always ask your children if they think you are creative, too strict, or too easygoing. They will always be honest. That’s mainly because they can only tell the difference between reality and imagination.
After your evaluation, you will soon be able to open up your ways on how to expand your child’s creativity. Also being aware of how you say and do things, you can alter your behavior and take action with your child.
With all the next steps below, make sure you always evaluate and note down how your child responded to certain activities compared to others. It’s great to see where their strengths and weaknesses are. There you can see which activities they need more of.
2. Skills
You need to develop some sort of teacher’s personality. Coaching your child is huge to help their creativity. In the book called “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain”, Betty Edwards states on page 863 that creativity is actually a skill in the right side of the brain. If the right half is not developed enough, it lacks all the other skills. The list below shows how the left and the right side work in harmony. Hence, you will see how it’s crucial to develop the skill.
After you understand the importance of having equal knowledge of both halves, here are some activities that will help your child develop them.
- Help them draw a picture upside down. You can draw a family picture or their favorite movie.
- The continuous story. This is a game where one person says a few sentences and the other person continues it. Make it more interesting by timing them.
- Let them listen to classical music. Let them tell you about their mood and feelings. Then ask them to paint an abstract piece.
All exercises that make children do visual activity already help them think outside the box. They will pull information from experiences, or the imagination that allows them further develop skills that will strengthen their analytic, logical, or scientific side.
3. Mess
The hardest aspect of mentoring your children is the mess. EVERY PARENT HATES THIS. Trust me it’s a bomber. But the real issue is we need to embrace most activities kids do. The reason why parents or adults hate the “mess” is that they are not sure how to get around it. If adults knew the main benefits of a “mess” it would be less daunting to do better and exciting activities.
The before, the middle, and the end of ALL activities count. Don’t take out one or it could disturb their structure or fun. When the mess of a fort, coloring on walls or cutting their hair; stop and think what they will learn from it, how it could associate with future career and what they could create afterward. Here are some recommendations that can make a mess less terrifying.
- If they made a fort: Ask how they made it and do a “guessing game” where the toys go. OR, join in on the fun. Embrace the mess with them; it’s usually pretty fun.
- If they colored on the walls, be aware of this and get markers that are erasable. OR get coloring paints for the bathroom. Kids love the coloring on walls so instead of removing this activity; promote it in better and less damaging ways.
- If they cut their hair, tell them the skills which are required to cut hair and tell them to start practicing on their dolls. Informing them that it takes years to do any profession will make them feel more at ease.
Lastly, when it’s clean-up time. Tell them the benefits of cleaning up. If the toys aren’t put away, their brains will feel cluttered and they won’t be able to be that creative activity again. OR sing a song and do a game to see who puts the toys away the fastest.
End Result
Children want to become adults at a young age. We need to make sure they are discovering every little piece of their curiosity so they don’t wander off when they are older. That generally causes confusion or lack of motivation to fulfill their fullest potential.
Analyzing where they are at, perfecting their skills, and encouraging the messy activity will all help their mini-brains to perform better in school, their occupation, or hobbies. On the contrary, a unique way to get a child’s brain thinking is by traveling in your home town to the museum, parks, or popular tourist spots.
Observation is crucial for children. They get to experience the chemistry of buildings, people, and nature working all at once. They see different colors, species, and lighting through different shades, angles, and compositions. They will find how they fit in this world and their unique ways of helping themselves and others.
Keep creating with children and don’t underestimate the skills that the brains offer. They are all equally important. They contribute to our future of technology, occupations, and life.