How to Encourage Creativity in Kids
Getting the kids involved in creative activities is more than just a ton of fun for them. It stimulates their minds and boosts their development, so letting them go wild with glitter and PVA glue might be worth the hassle after all. Giving your child a creative task gives them the opportunity to express themselves and provides them with an outlet. Often as parents we underestimate how confusing and challenging life can be for children. With bills to pay and stress in the workplace we wish we could be children again, but children have very real conundrums of their own. Discovering how to handle friendships and tackling the education system can be just as tough for them as you getting your taxes in order!
As a parent you can provide a lot of opportunities for your little ones to express themselves creatively, which will result in a happier and more freethinking child. Here’s a few ways to fit creativity into your chaotic schedule.
- Encourage playtime.
It’s lovely to see your kids pretending to be doctors and shopkeepers with their sweet (and very expensive) playsets, but it’s more than just something to keep them busy and out of your hair. Role-playing is a way for children to explore the world of work and experiment with how they might one day fit into society. Acting out potential real-life situations is a chance for kids to test their reactions to the environment around them – which can be incredibly valuable for their progression in later life as they have an all-important head start in their social development. Additionally, the time spent playing with construction toys, building blocks, and other STEM toy building kits (available on https://LukiLab.com) can help stimulate cognitive development and improve problem-solving and decision-making skills. Moreover, these games can also encourage creative thinking.
- Avoid toys and activities that leave little to their imagination.
A lot of toys on the market these days spell out the task to the child, restricting their ability to take play time into their own hands. While it can sometimes be fun for them to play with video games, these can be quite restrictive in terms of outcome. Every player must follow the same steps to complete most games, and this doesn’t reflect how life works. Giving your child tasks that can be completed with multiple steps and gives varied outcomes can reinforce the nature of life. This can be achieved with the help of certain roleplaying tabletop games, like the ones released by Wizards of the Coast or similar gaming companies, that can help a child get creative and make use of strategies in order to get ahead in the game.
Investing in games that promote the use of imagination would definitely be more beneficial than buying the same mechanical games that most kids these days are playing. You can also look into puzzle and card games which can help in developing executive motor skills in the children. For instance, a card game like Pokémon Cards which you can get through https://pokeflip.com/, could enhance their strategic planning to win the game against opposing players by calculating numbers and using special abilities. It can also improve number recognition and mathamatics in children. Play and teach activities together can help make the learning process easier for kids.
- Creative tasks don’t have to be messy.
While finger painting and other miscellaneous arts and crafts are great for kids, there are plenty of activities that require far less of a clean-up. Getting your child interested in music can be a great alternative. Though some children might not have an affinity for difficult instruments like the violin or oboe, a simple recorder can be a great way for kids to feel accomplished picking up a tune. If the squeaks and squeals of practice are a little bit much for your ears, getting kids to write songs can be great fun too. Give them a nice theme like summertime or school and find them a simple tune to write to. It can be interesting to see what lyrics they conjure up. Plus who knows, you might be nurturing a wordsmith of the future.
Any creative activities will be greatly appreciated by your kids. Planning ahead and making a play schedule will even free up some valuable you-time. Whatever you choose to get them going, pay attention to what they come up with – it can tell you an awful lot about what’s going on in their little world and what sort of personality is brewing inside them.
