Three Keys To Cultivating Creativity In Children
Most parents want their children to be obedient, accommodating, smart and friendly. They want the best for them and work long and hard hours to achieve it. Cultivating creativity in children is also something they want. If only they had a magic wand to do it!
What are the keys to cultivating creativity in children? How do you get them to produce the magical moments where brand new ideas emerge?
There are several different strategies for this. They are all logical, consistent and effective. That said, they demand that parents be active and involved and far from the popular phrases like “can’t you relax?” or “I do not have time right now”.
If you want your children to be creative even if they are part of an education system that celebrates homogeneity, then you must make an effort to break this link.
Three keys to cultivating creativity in children
Schedules, a challenge for creativity
English, swimming, math, football, chess, writing… the diversity of activities for children is enormous. You can say that they are privileged because they do not have to live in a big city to find activities that they or their parents are interested in.
The threat of a competitive adult world has led many parents to ensure that their children receive free education.
However, this change in orientation comes with a price. Children are not bored, so they do not have to invent toys. They do not have to make an effort to transform an environment so that they can have fun. This is because creativity starts with mischief, toys and control over one’s time. This is very difficult to achieve when they have no free time.
Thus, the first strategy to stimulate creativity in children is to give them time and space to make decisions without the pressure of having to respond to external demands. Deviant thinking without conquering autonomous meaning does not make sense otherwise; Creativity is enhanced when it helps solve real problems.
2. The difficulty of challenges
It is true that children can also develop their creativity during directed activities. This happens in a special way when there is an intelligent regulation of challenges. Let’s talk about two of them:
The first group consists of challenges that the child may face himself. In this situation, adults can help with encouraging sentences, taking a parallel challenge or avoiding the temptation with them. Children are talented and achieving their goals will strengthen their self-confidence.
The second consists of challenges that children need some help with. They may not know what to do. They may not know the meaning of a word and the library is too far away for them to visit it themselves.
In these cases , the temptation to avoid things takes control. The parent can help the child count, but they must solve the problem. You can look something up in the dictionary, but they have to answer questions about history. You can go with them, but they go the way they have learned.
Technology and social gatherings to cultivate creativity in children
So sweet, so nice! Many parents love it when their children show off skills they have just learned. That said, most children do not like it when their abilities are tested in an environment where they feel evaluated and insecure. This can cause them to fail. It can give them anxiety and make them not want to continue.
On the other hand, social environments are good places to develop creativity. There are natural and unexpected changes to which they must respond. They have to think and respond.
This is why it is important not to give them access to technology yet. It is about children who face the challenges that reality brings. It’s about meeting challenges from others as well. However, it is not about playing on a screen.
Creativity has several components: person, process, product and personality (the four Ps, as described by Kaufman and Sternberg).
