Creativity is vital to your child’s development. It helps teach cognitive skills, communication, problem solving, interpretation, and persistence. But it shouldn’t just be all about progress and growth. It’s also about having fun and letting your kid’s imagination run a little wild from time to time. Free-thought and expression can actually do them a lot of good and can help them to become better problem solvers and smarter adults. So how do you encourage your kids to become more imaginative? Here are five fun ways to encourage creativity in your children.
Build A Sandbox
Children need a lot of time for imaginative play that is unstructured and without adult direction. A great way to give them the space to expand their creative mind is in a sandbox. If you fill the sandbox up with a variety of different toys, you will be surprised at what kind of role-playing and creative play they take on.
Dress Up
One idea to foster the creativity in your kids is to play dress up. Collect a wide range of costumes, old clothing, kids clothes, hats, accessories, makeup and let your child come up with interesting clothing combinations and characters. Character play, especially when it happens with other kids, encourages them to expand their mind, socialize, take turns and cooperate with each other.
Painting
Playing with non-toxic finger paints and paintbrushes can help them to visualize and creatively express emotions on paper. Not only do kids love getting a little messy, but it’s also an excellent way for them to explore new concepts and ideas that come to them.
Legos
The power of Lego to boost creativity is understated. Google offices even use this for their engineers to play with to help promote new ideas. Designing, building, tearing it down and trying different strategies allow your child to use their imagination. This type of free building fosters unique patterns and ideas, which is important for them to develop as they grow into adults.
Cupcakes
Baking cupcakes with your kids is also an excellent way to promote more creative thought. By letting them choose the different toppings and flavours, it allows them to explore and learn at the same time. Hosting a cupcake competition with other kids in the neighbourhood is also a great way for them to show off their creative genius and can also teach them how to be unique and respect each other’s creative concoctions.
Encourage creativity in your children with these fun and simple activities. It will help unleash their creativity to develop the skills needed to be successful adults.
