6 Ways to Develop Creativity in Children

Did you know that creativity is a character trait? That’s right! Creativity is defined as the ability to produce novelty and contrary to popular belief, creativity is not a talent a person is born with! Our brains have some degree of creative potential and, as with any other ability, this requires training and practice.

Creativity builds a “thinking outside of the box” experience for children shaping them to be more open, flexible, sensitive, and adaptable. These skills become useful when approaching a need, problem, or task from a new perspective to find a solution. Some may say that creativity is a great foundation for critical thinking.

Children are a blank canvas, ready to learn about the world around them. As parents or nannies, our job is to shape and encourage creative and critical thinking!

Corporations associate creativity with generating ideas, possibilities, and alternatives that are useful for problem-solving, effective communication, developing new technologies, and making groundbreaking discoveries. In other words, progress and innovation are accomplished by minds with the ability to revolutionize.

As a parent or nanny, you can help develop and grow creativity in your kids. Here are a few tips to consider:

Support Their Ideas

Children are curious to understand their environment. It is this curiosity that inspires them to imagine, create, try new things, and explore. Some easy ways to support their creative minds are:

• Ask additional questions, make suggestions to prompt them to think further or analyze a situation. Offer some help to find additional resources on the web, buy books or drive to the local library.

• If the kids have specific interests, consider enrolling them in a class, search for tutorials or figure out ways to develop their ideas together.

• Encourage trial and error to make them think, recreate, and adjust! Boost their imagination by having them write, trace their plans, draw pictures, or make notes.

• Organize a show and tell and provide positive and valuable feedback. Children crave attention and have a sense of pride in their work. It is natural for them to approach their parents or nannies to see their reactions or ask for their thoughts. Look at their work, identify something you like and describe it, make suggestions on how they could improve it, and remember, you are not a critic!