Even today, most parents, emphasize academic excellence. In this new world what is given importance to, is creativity, along with academic excellence. A child develops intelligence and creativity (brain development) within 6 years of his age. Therefore, leverage this early childhood days to nurture creativity in children.
Have you ever thought that why the first boy in your class could not bag the best job in his industry? The answer could be as simple as, today most businesses are looking for individuals who have academic excellence, and can think out of the box. His thinking ability and multiple solution for one problem make him the right candidate for a company.
Things you will read ahead
- What makes a child creative?
- How to identify your child’s creativity?
- Does creativity lead to success?
- 10 best practices to encourage creativity in children at a young age
- Let’s support creativity in children at an early age
What makes a child creative?
According to research, it is established that “All people are capable of creative achievement in some area of activity, provided that the conditions are right and they have acquired the relevant knowledge and skill.”
It is also established by studies that creativity is not only about art, but it also comprises a lot of other factors such as critical thinking ability, problem-solving ability, thinking out of the box, decision-making ability, and a lot more.
You can easily inculcate creativity in children at a young age. As many of us think that to raise a creative child, we should set them free, but this may not be correct every time. Indeed, it is true that kids need freedom in order to bring out their creative side, but a child can only progress his creativity with proper guidance.
Therefore, your guidance and the atmosphere you provide your child at home, play a crucial role in developing his creativity.
How to identify your child’s creativity?
In my case, I allow my child to try different things. The word ‘identifying’ means, picking one amongst many. So let your child explore what comes his way and as a parent, you should observe what he is interested in.
However, creativity does not always imply to be good at arts. Creativity is a broad subject, which includes different thinking abilities, special abilities, problem-solving attitude, decision-making ability, leading ability, and a lot more.
So, do not worry about the mess which you have to witness in order to enhance creativity in children at your home and support them for what they do. But yet again, there should be certain parameters that a child should abide by.
Did you learn the first alphabet of your won? No, because we need guidance to learn new things. What matters is proper guidance. When a mother teaches her child the English alphabets, she utters the sound of each letter and then let her child follow. After a few days, she stops uttering the word herself and lets her child pronounce it of her own. The same way limited guidance also plays an important role while encouraging creativity.
Our child still needs our involvement, but we should understand where to stop without being overprotective.
Does creativity lead to success?
Success may have a specific definition to each of us, but if we talk about grabbing a well-paid job or getting into the list of fortune 500 companies, yes creativity has a great stake in it. Today, companies have created designations like creative heads. This may imply that the person employed under such posts is liable to attract new business with his out of the box thinking ability. When we talk about arts, creativity is the only thing that suffices.
10 best practices to encourage creativity in children at a young age
Now it is clear to us that creativity is the key to success. And the age below 6 years is the best time to sow creativity in your child. It is easy to teach through fun and creative children activities when they are young.
You can include activities like creative plays, songs, and dance, etc. Let us take a look into the 10 best practices that will help you raise a creative child.
1. Provide a supportive environment for your child
Give your child enough opportunity to be creative as you provide a supportive environment to promote creativity. Let him play, imagine and explore new things that come his way. Pretend play is also a good source of promoting creativity in your child as it gives him enough option to think and the whole play depends on imagination.
2. Make your child exposure to a wide source of information
My grandfather used to recite stories to me when I was young. Through his king and queen characters, he would tell me stories with great value. Maybe I was unable to process the meaning at a young age, but today his teachings helped me in a lot of ways to establish my thoughts.
So you can make a wide source of information available to your child which will help him in building the base of his creative journey. Sources can be your experiences, books, stories, and even social life.
3. Give them the opportunity to think
Most parents jump in, to rescue their children at difficult conditions. I would request not to do this until they actually need your help. For example, while doing a school project most parents take the lead role while the child becomes an observer.
Let your child try himself. Let him fail and then when he turns up to you for help, offer him your expertise. But, in a way in which he can learn from you and not just follow you.
4. Motivation and expressions will help boost creativity in your child
Do you frequently appreciate your child for what he does? Well, motivating your child through your expressions will boost his urge to do more. You can motivate your child by expressing your thoughts such as “wow! That is nice, how you did it?” But do you think you can appreciate your child while they scribble on the wall? No, so, you judge the reason for your appreciation.
You can also motivate your child with your presence, by complimenting him, by giving him the approval to do certain things.
5. Give your child the freedom to explore his ideas
Most mothers are afraid of the mess which a creative child leaves behind. Give him enough options to explore his ideas and be supportive. If required, allocate space in your house for certain activities. That will limit your hard work.
Next, we keep our kids busy all the time with their academic goal, release your child from that pressure and let him think of his own. A creative brain needs time to think and explore. But again, it all depends on you that how you will guide your child.
6. Keep your child away from gadgets
A child cannot be creative unless he explores and uses his brain enough to think. While a child is occupied with extended screen time his thinking abilities are shut. It is also observed that kids who are overexposed to gadgets have low remembering abilities. Therefore, it is better to be extra cautious with your child’s exposure to screen time.
7. Encourage their creativity and nurture them
Not all mothers are great cooks, not all of us are good at one single objective and so are your children. Discover the path of excellence of your child’s creativity and nurture it for a more polished outcome. Your child’s creativity can be a problem-solving attitude, greater interest in math, art and crafts, abilities to mold people and so on. So find their excellence and work towards it.
8. Plenty of creative toys won’t help to boost creativity
Many parents believe that flooding their kids with creative toys like puzzles, LEGOS, etc., will make them creative. Actually, in reality, this will not help. Limit your child’s reach to extensive toys and see how he can manage with what he has. When he will have limited resources, he will try to think in creative ways.
For example, I spotted my child mixing her colors. As she mixes two colors it became a new color. She noted each one of them and showed it to me. She told me, blue and yellow make green. I encouraged her by saying “Wow! Where did you learn it from” and she replied, “I tried it myself and found out”. Isn’t that amazing? If she had all the colors handy, she would have never tried to make a new one.
9. Be responsive to your child’s intriguing questions
Build-up situations that arise questions and be responsive to your children. A child asks hundreds of questions each day. We ignore them or just neglect them. As a parent, you should always encourage your child’s questions and be ready to answer them. Maybe you can phrase another question to make him understand the fact, but it is crucial to attend to their questions. It also encourages critical thinking activities for kids.
10. Lead their way by being creative yourself
As I always say, kids follow what we do as a parent. So, before you teach your child to be creative, be creative yourself. Read books, explore new food, travel to new places, and keep raising questions and create an atmosphere where your child becomes an avid thinker.
Let’s support creativity in children at an early age
Let me share a funny incident with you. Yesterday when we were sitting together in the evening, my daughter asked me “mom, I can understand that I will be a doctor when I grow up, but how can I do everything by myself?” My husband and I inquired about “what is that ‘everything’ you need to do as a doctor?” She replied, “I mean I can’t drive an ambulance and I don’t know the way to the hospital” Isn’t this silly?
As a parent, you must make her thoughts clear. She still needs to learn what it means to become a doctor and the responsibilities of a doctor and other medical staff. So we explained to her in our own way.
Write a comment and let me know if you have experienced similar questions from your child.
While your child becomes a vivid learner and an explorer, fuel his creativity with your experience and guidance. Creativity is a seed that is best sown at the early age of your child.
Please write back to me if this article has helped you in nurturing creativity in your children.
