I don’t think many parents realize how important it is to keep their children inspired. Because inspiration breeds creativity, especially in the early years. It is the kind of thing that makes writers and poets and painters and singers and savvy entrepreneurs. The kind of thing that brings lava between your couches, or turns cardboard boxes into alien spaceships. And the kind of thing that schools appreciate but do not teach. Which is why you need to take the wheel here from the get go. Teach your kids to use their minds in more creative ways by using some of these techniques.
Stock Up On the Crafts Department
Origami is a great way to present kids with a mental stimulus
You know how proud kids get when they paint a picture and you put it up on the fridge? It’s because it is something they created, something that came alive from their imagination. And by putting it up on that fridge, you’ve validated their creativity. So you’ll need to do a lot of that.
Another thing you need to do is encourage them to create even more things. Which is why it’s a good idea to stock up on some crafts. Some construction paper, some paint, some yarn, a few brushes could be all you need. As long as your kids are spending their time making something, they are using their minds to good use. Cheer them no matter how the results turn out. Talk to them about what inspired their piece of art. Suggest some ideas of your own so that they learn to push their boundaries, too.
Invent New Games with Them
A cool idea by Artists Helping Children
Nothing has beaten creativity more than wiring kids to a console and sitting them down in front of a screen. Because that’s what play time has boiled down to. If you want your kids to think outside of the box, they need to be playing games that they invent themselves. For an hour or two they should live in a world where the ground is lava and the only way to survive is by hoping from one couch to another. They should indulge in imaginative play where they solve mysteries and save the day. Or they should playing games that are completely their own creation. So how do you achieve all of this?
Well first, get involved in their make-believe. If they introduce you to their imaginary friend who plays basketball with the aliens, so be it. Second, help them create their own games. Again, it is all about validation. When they know you’re taking their ideas seriously and giving them the resource for it to come to life, it blossoms their inner entrepreneur. So for example, if they’ve invented their own board game, help them develop the rules or timings.
Get In The Kitchen…
Cooking helps kids with math, and inspires them to be adventurous
Letting your kids help out in the kitchen is a pretty good idea. As long as you’re being careful by using safety knives and staying away from the oven and other sharp utensils, cooking can help children learn more about food groups and nutrition. Not only that, but there’s something about having all these different ingredients and combining them to make something different that should trigger their young minds.
Ask them to do little thinks like mash up the potatoes or mix up the cookie dough or sprinkle a cake with sugar. Baking should come in handy here because it allows them to play around with colors and frostings and designs. Allow them to put flavors together or decide what something should look like.
…Or Out In the Garden
Gardening teaches kids new skills to boost their creativity
Kids that are close to nature are always more inspired. Introduce them to new species of plants and insects. Point out the stuff that makes each creature fascinating. Let them help you pot plants or trim the hedges. What this will do is open up their horizons to newer worlds. And when they start discovering more plants and animals and bugs on their own, they will be inclined to learn more about them. By introducing them to the outdoor you’ve just, erm… sown the seed.
Kids that find adventure and learning in the great outdoors are also calmer and happier and have a better attention span. It’s not good enough for them to be looking at nature through a computer screen. They should get out and experience things first hand.
Give Them the Freedom to Be Different
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Theater gives the kids the freedom to be whatever they want on stage. Source: Iowa Now
From the little things that they say or do, parents teach their kids to conform to what is thought to be normal. And that’s unfortunate because it should be the other way around. Parents should polish what makes their kid different, not try and suppress it. What makes a kid different from the rest is what makes them special, what sparks their creativity. When they think differently, they think outside of the box. And that’s what leads them to their own success.
And think about it, if every parent had done just that from the very beginning, there would have been no cases of bullying in our campuses because kids would have been taught that not everyone’s the same, and that’s okay. So if your kid decides that he’s going to paint the banana purple and the apple blue, let him go for it. Don’t taint their imagination with ideas of what you think is right.
So you see? It’s just little things that you have to do to push your mini-mes in the right direction. Use these ideas as tools to help them discover who they are. Let them try their hand and everything and decide what they love the most. And remember, these are only some of things you can do to inspire your kids.
Got any method of your own to get your kids to be creative? Feel free to share, you might help out a reader or two!
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