Creativity is a requirement of the hour and rightly so because it is an essential 21st-century skill and a much sought-after commodity of the future. The world of the future needs young minds to think differently to progress and innovate, so give your child a boost to be more creative.
4 steps to boost your child’s creativity
- Change the routine: Change your child’s everyday routine occasionally with a new experience. It can be an hour of collecting things from nature, reusing old things, painting using fingers or some other unique object. These are simple ways to make your children think differently. The key is to do a different task in a different way. For instance, if your child always does their homework inside the house, they can try doing it on a terrace or an open space. This need not be an expensive experience or one with a lot of effort. This creates an opportunity for your child to think differently, creatively.
- No judgments: For creativity to develop, there needs to be a less restrictive environment where the child is not afraid to make a mistake, willing to give it a try and feels no fear of judgment or criticism. So, a drawing or a child’s piece of art may not be a work of fine art but appreciating them for their work and acknowledging the effort and interest is pivotal. This enables a child’s creativity to grow, as they begin to think and believe that they can give things a try, do things differently and essentially not be afraid to try. Trying is an important step in being creative.
- Exposure: It’s good for children to see, know and understand things that are unusual or different as this opens their minds to new possibilities. So, watching videos of different kinds of art, meeting people who have different jobs, watching different forms of dance or music. All of these create different experiences that will impact how a child thinks and responds. Increasing exposure will make the child see less limitations and more possibilities, which enables them to be creative and innovative in their thinking.
- Opportunity: Giving children time and opportunity to experiment is crucial to how creative they can be. When they have an idea to build, create or change something if they are given support and encouragement to pursue, they begin to make sense of the world themselves and find out limitations and possibilities by inquiry, and this has proven to be effective as their learning is more meaningful and lasting. Often, being told that what they plan to make, or build is too difficult or not practical can deter their intent to pursue an opportunity and hence limit their creativity.
So, when it comes to creativity, the best way is to loosen the reins!
-Melisha Robinson, Teacher British Council