How to Foster Your Child’s Creative Side

Creativity is something we often associate with arts and crafts; however, it is not the only way we use the skill. We need imagination and creative thinking ability to think of innovative ways of doing things, for problem solving and to engage in deeper levels of thinking. It’s therefore a vital area to work on with children and in this post, we share guidance from a primary school in Cobham on how you can foster your child’s creativity. 

Make Time for Play

Play is an essential part of a child’s growth and development, and in particular their creativity. It gives children the space to try out their ideas, experiment and exercise their imagination.

Explore Arts and Crafts

If that’s not really their thing, your child might like to create something by hand instead. Children love arts and crafts, especially when there’s glitter and a variety of resources at their disposal. It’s also a good way to work their fine motor skills as cutting, sticking, and connecting the pieces together requires hand-eye coordination.

Have a Go at Story Writing

There’s also creative writing that you can choose to explore. Children can write their own stories, poetry and exercise their creativity through other forms of writing. 

Unstructured Play

Going back to play, the best way that you can get your child to develop skills and learn something new often involves you leaving them to their own devices. It allows them to learn independently and explore their own ideas which can help them with their creativity and problem solving. Games/toys that don’t have any particular guidelines or ways to play are ideal. A few excellent resources for unstructured play and a child’s creativity are Lego, building blocks, instruments and others that are open ended. 

Writing Screenplays

Has your child ever fancied taking up a screenwriting or directing role? For this activity, think of a show or film they like and get them to create their own storyboard and script. This is their chance to bring their ideas to life and create the perfect ending should the storyline need one.

Using Technology

Thanks to technology there are a multitude of digital creations children can make. They can have a hand at graphic design, create their own blog where they talk about something they are passionate about or even create a website of their own.

Brainstorming Ideas

A great way to conjure up new ideas is brainstorming. It’s a visual way that your child can exercise divergent thinking and continuously come up with different variations of their ideas. 

Ask Your Child Questions

Something you should do as a parent is constantly ask your child questions to challenge their way of thinking and encourage them to consider new points of view. This can help children look at situations differently, strengthen their creativity and help them come up with much better ideas. Other things you should do are of course, push your child to share their thoughts and ideas and respect them so that they feel comfortable in exploring their creative side.

Read More Often

While it doesn’t sound as exciting as the suggestions above, reading is an amazing way to improve your child’s understanding of the world and help them gain new insights. With their new ways of thinking and what they learn, they can consider new ideas and produce a higher quality of answers. 

These are just a few ways that you can get your child to exercise their creative thinking. What we’d recommend is finding an activity that naturally appeals to them as they will enjoy it and their creativity will shine through.