Want to jumpstart your child's imagination? Here are some tips on ways to encourage them to be creative.
Although such methods provide a quick-fix to keep our offspring entertained, the long-term damage manifests itself in teens and, later, adults who have neither the skills to entertain themselves nor the motivation to seek innovative solutions to their problems.
If you want to encourage creativity in your youngsters, there's no time like the present to get started. Here's how.
IMITATION
Children learn how to speak and to act as a response to the external stimulus that surrounds them. Whether it's talking on a toy telephone like their older sibling, singing their own version of a song on the radio, or trying on their mom's high heels, this form of copy-cat play is laying the foundation for their fitting into the grownup world. Accordingly, you as the parent need to provide them with as much variety in the context of "play" that will stir their curiosity and make them eager to be a part of it.
Instead of shooing them away while you're trying to plant flowers, for example, invite them to participate by allocating a mini-patch of dirt or a small flower pot and let them repeat the same thing you're doing. Enlist their aid in housework by letting them sweep or dust. Let them taste things while you're cooking, introducing them at the same time to new flavors and aromas. Put on different kinds of music and either sing along or dance; you won't be alone for long! Even something as simple as going for a drive to the grocery store can become an observation exercise in asking your child to pick out familiar landmarks along the way and to tell you when you should turn.
IMAGINATION
Nothing can open the doors of imagination faster than the act of opening up a book. While stories for younger children always include pictures of the characters and places, there's still a lot left "behind the scenes" for you and your child to guess about. Let's say, for instance, that you're reading a story about a prince who lives in a castle. What kind of pets does this person have? What does his bedroom look like? What's his favorite meal? What kind of games does he like to play? The more opportunity a child has to think beyond just the words and pictures on the page, the more likely he or she will bond with the story itself and even feel encouraged to want to try writing one, too.
Don't impute your own values on these junior literary efforts. While a tale about a snail named Larry who wants to own his own grocery store and play baseball may not strike you as particularly compelling, a child who is discouraged from the act of creative expression""be it writing, painting or performing""will quickly become reluctant to ever try it again.
It's not just works of fiction, of course, that can ignite a young person's curiosity. Do you have some old family albums around the house? These were people who were as real as you and your child but who lived in different times and wore outfits and drove cars that might look silly by today's standards. As you go through these family snapshots, encourage your kids to ask questions about who they were and what happened to them. If there's a question you can't answer, resolve to find it out together. This will instill in your offspring an enthusiasm for solving mysteries and doing research as well as understanding the historical and social events that shaped their ancestors' decisions.
Is there a community playhouse in your neighborhood that performs shows for young audiences? Certainly the characters on stage had lives before the curtain went up and will continue to do so after it goes down. Just like the exercise with making up scenarios for the characters in books, treat your child to lunch or a special dessert after the play to talk about what they learned from it.
INTERPRETATION
Have you ever watched a young child play with an empty box? To us, it's just a square cubicle made of cardboard. In the course of a child's day, however, that box can be a car, a fort, a table, a well, a puppet theater, a boat, a cave, a drum, a treasure chest or any number of other props pertinent to the imaginary venue they've come up with to entertain themselves.
Contrast this to a child who has had a steady diet of video games and TV and wants his or her playthings to look exactly like the real thing. By demanding that all of the details be spelled out for them, they have a higher likelihood of relying on the Internet instead of libraries for writing creative essays and will deem "reel" life more addictive than the wonders and surprises of everyday reality.
When was the last time you took your child to a museum or put on a piece of classical music to listen to together? These experiences pave the way for appreciating how they absorb sensory data. While their sophistication skills may not go much beyond "I like the cat in the picture" or "Why are they playing this part so loud and screechy?" it opens a line of dialogue regarding likes and dislikes and provides a frame of reference for further exposure to these mediums of expression.
How a child interprets his resources and his environment is a product of how much he is encouraged to do so by his parents. Much of this starts at the family dinner table. By asking a young person for an opinion about something, the subtext is an expression of respect and interest in what they have to say. Not only does this become a platform for understanding how they think and process their daily intake of information from peers and the media but also serves to clarify misconceptions without imposing parental judgments.
INDEPENDENCE
For a child to develop self-confidence and self-esteem, a parent needs to be willing to provide progressively challenging experiences that will call upon problem-solving skills and imagination. Whether it's letting the child plan the menu for a family dinner, giving him or her a map and soliciting assistance in deciding the best route to one's destination, or participating in the resolution of a problem with siblings, these benchmarks will encourage a young person to apply past observations and current knowledge to future outcomes. Just like pre-packaged games and TV, if a child grows too dependent on outside influences to supply all of the answers, he or she will be ill-equipped to enjoy the adventure and satisfaction of discovering answers and solutions for oneself. The younger you can start them on this journey, the farther in life they are likely to go.
