This is a sponsored guest post.
One way for you to bond with your child while developing his/her skills is to enhance creativity. A child’s creativity is intense and imaginative, so boosting it will help them express themselves with confidence. Fostered self-esteem, stress management, and self-expression are some reasons why you must encourage innovative thinking to your child. Here are nine tips that we compiled for you to reinforce and develop a creative mind for your child properly.
- Introduce Creative Activities to Your Child
Discovering what the interest of your child is a tough mission. You can never know at first what may appeal to your child. You can attempt to encourage him/her to try singing, dancing, drawing, story-telling, or playing dress-up to help nurture his/her creativity. There are also mobile apps today where your child can sing, dance, draw, and do other creative activities with compelling visualizations. Fun crafts are also ways to build creative thinking of your child, which may be doodle art, hand puppets, clay playing, etc.
2. Don’t Force an Activity that Your Child Dislikes
Your child’s liking must be prioritized, rather than yours. Keep in mind that your interest is not always similar to your kid. To effectively encourage your children to be creative, do not push them towards something they never want to try. Embrace what they genuinely like and never discourage them from doing so
If your child loves coloring, upgrade this activity by trying similar activities like drawing or painting. No matter how much you insist, forcing them will possibly only stress them and make them less interested instead.
3. Never Scold Your Child for Being a Skeptic
You might lose your patience as you answer your child’s curiosity, but this trait is a good sign. If your child is questioning you, that means he/she is interested and willing to learn. Nowadays, a digital assistant, like Alexa, can assist you with your child’s inquiries, as it is challenging to keep up with tons of questions and answers.
However, your case might be contrary to the mentioned, where your child is not the type to ask questions. If he/she is not naturally inclined to ask, turn the tables, and ask them instead. In this way, your child might feel the urge to answer your questions, making them unleash their innate creativity. You could try asking, “Why the sky and ocean are blue?” or “Where does the river come from?” You might never know how he/she could provide you imaginative answers, thinking about the mysteries around them.
4. Foster Problem-solving Skills of Your Child
Never rely on textbooks and typical cynic teaching. Remember that your child is still young, so you must always level your thinking to his/hers to catch his/her interest. Developing your child’s problem-solving skills can enhance their logical reasoning and innovation. Instead of spoon-feeding, demonstrate that there will always be more than one way to solve a problem. Tell him/her that an item has more than one purpose.
For instance, a pencil is for drawing and writing, but do not settle with this note. Show its other uses, which may be as a drumstick or a hole punch or a pole for a mini fort. This strategy teaches him/her how to perceive things in different aspects and discover new ways to use an item.
5. Give Time to Slow Down
It is not always necessary to always keep your children busy to boost their development. In every pre-school homework, chores, screen time, extracurriculars, etc., there must be little downtime. This downtime is crucial, as it pushes your child to think of ways to entertain himself/herself. You must not have known that slowing things down can also enhance creativity. Being bored allows your children to be more driven, engaging, and psychologically sound.
6. Dedicate a Space for Creativity in Your Home
Do not panic with this tip as your dedicated “creativity space” does not need to be a full room. Even a corner or a desk or chest filled with play items works can be your “creativity space” for your child. To make it more lively, fill the area with art supplies, like old clothes, construction paper, and crayons. Bobbleheads are one of the newest trends in crafts for children, and it is also affordable to make. You can try making spiderman bobblehead for your little guy who might have been recently into spiderman films.
7. Schedule Time for Creativity
Inconsistency gradually decreases your child’s interest in the long run, so do this creative engagement often. Having regular and committed intervals for imaginative play can develop your child’s motor skills, concentration, and communication. Even with your family’s hectic life, make sure to make your child dedicated to this activity.
8. A mistake is to be Corrected, Not to be Insulted
Instead of pointing out errors, you should celebrate even the tiniest achievement and creativity with your child. Have a talk to your children about their ideas and feelings to make your relationship even closer. When instilling creative thinking into your child’s mind, mistakes are inevitable. Focusing on correcting faults deals more with perfectionism rather than exploration and imagination. If you always make this habit too much, it might make your child anxious to try new things and express themselves.
9. Be a Role Model; Be Creative Yourself
Set an example to your children and be a role model by showing them how you value creativity. Demonstrate and talk about new creative activities at home, like culinary, carving, or painting. You can also hang art canvass around the house. The more you establish creativity in your life, the more significant it appears to your child.
As Albert Einstein said, “Imagination is more important than knowledge.” Creativity has a lot more benefits to your child, not only during his/her early ages but also in the future as an adult. Encourage innovative minds as early as possible as it can be more challenging to do when your child is grownup already.
