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Stimulating Your Child's Creativity
Children are fragile creatures, and most parents really have their work cut out for them. Why? Not because the child cries a lot or demands constant attention, although this may be the case. The parents have their work cut out because the way in which they interact with the child now can affect the way child lives his or her life in the future. Of course, other people have a role to play in this as well as the parents, such as teachers, friends, and even siblings.
Up until around the age of eight the child's mind is at its most creative, and what the child learns and picks up from birth to age eight can have a profound impact upon his or her future. Creativity is particularly important for a range of reasons. Creative activity can:
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Improve the child's imagination
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Provide a foundation for the basic skills that the child will need throughout life
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Enable the child and parent to bond
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Provide the child with activity that is both educational and fun
It is important for parents to actively encourage the child to use his or her mind and imagination at every opportunity. Interaction is important, and will help the parent to both stimulate and nurture the child's developing mind, curiosity, and creative skills. Research suggested the following guidelines to stimulate creativity:
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Ask open-ended questions to involve your child in general discussions. For example: what would happen, if there were no rivers? Such questions will stimulate free-thinking and provide scope for many possible answers, but none of them is wrong.
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Involve your child to challenge the assumptions underlying the ideas presented by you.
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Involve your child in the activities, which stimulate creativity and fantasy. For example: Present some meaningless similarities, ' I am a horse', and let the child find out how it is possible.
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Involve your child in exploring activity, like make a list of as many problems as possible related to environment, or list of things around you.
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Present some statements of observation to explore the possibility of its reversal, for example 'The rose is red' 'Red is the rose'.
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Provide your child with as many activities and opportunities as possible, for the expression of ideas, which should be continuous, and in the area of children's interest.
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Whenever possible provide your child with supplementary materials, books and other experiences, you should avoid emphasizing the textual information.
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Provide your children with activities and projects which interest them and give them openness to think originally and express their ideas in their own way.
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Encourage your child to pursue their hobbies.
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Appreciate openly when ever a child expresses creative behavior like asking usual questions, giving unusual ideas and taking self initiated action etc.
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Appreciate the child when he/she makes ambiguous statements.
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Encourage the child to make as many as guesses as possible about the solution while solving the problems.
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Do not always insist on correct answers. Allow the child to think and re-think the correctness of the answer. Do not evaluate the goodness of the answer but insist on the number of ideas. Quality of the answer is automatically taken care of when the child examine all the possible answer of each question.
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Take care that child is not taunted by his friends or brother/sister for his answers to the questions posed by you.
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Do not make sarcastic and insulting remarks in front of the child or on the child.
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You should discourage self-criticism.
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Allow your child to think and express freely and find the facts for themselves. Do not tell them every thing.
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Let children do their best in finding the solution to the problem without giving any hint.
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Do not encourage rote learning or memorizing the facts. Allow them to pursue as much as they want without bothering themselves about giving the expected solution or answer.
In addition, there are many resources available for parents to help them to stimulate their child's creativity, and it is important that parents make the right choice when it comes to selecting toys for their child. Today's toys offer fun, activity, and educational value to a child, and this can prove invaluable in giving the child a head start in life on an educational level. The toys and recreational products of today can help a child to learn basic numeracy, literacy, and creativity. Your child can learn about everything from number and words to colors and textures, all through the world of stimulating yet fun toys and recreational products.
And with the selection of games, books, and toys available today, parents and children can have fun, and at the same time can help to inspire creativity. Some of the tools and products that can help to stimulate the child's mind and creativity include:
Books
Books have always been a superb way to develop imagination, creativity, and literacy skills in your developing child. You can get everything from picture books to children's novels, which makes it possible to stimulate creativity in children of all ages. It is important, particularly with younger children, that you get involved as much as possible, but at the same time allow the child to remain very involved. So, for instance, when reading a book, you could start off the story, and then allow the child to try and finish the paragraph or story with you as a guide.
Puzzles
Puzzles can prove very useful in stimulating the child's mind as well as his creativity. Depending on the type of puzzle, your child will have to use basic skills such as numeracy skills to work through the puzzle. Your child can also learn more about colors and textures from some of the puzzles around today, and will be required to use basic cognitive skills to work out the puzzle.
Board games
Board games have been around for generations, and even today they can prove invaluable as a tool for interaction and creative development. You will find a vast selection of board games that can prove ideal for the whole family, including your child. And you can even get special board games for younger children, which are filled with bright colors exciting features and sounds to help them make the most of their creativity and imagination.
These are just a few of the tools and products available to help you to stimulate your child's creativity. You can also get other great products such as coloring books, art sets, chemistry sets, stickers, glitter pens, and a whole lot more. But remember, you as a parent are integral to the successful stimulation of your child's mind, imagination, and creativity. Click here to find wide range of creativity stimulation products.
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