How to Encourage Your Kid’s Creativity
In today’s hectic lifestyle, it sometimes feels like we’ve lost the ability to simply play and discover. It seems everything is scheduled, for leisure as well as work. While that’s not necessarily a bad thing, making time for creative pursuits can help both mental and physical well-being. But we need to find time to encourage our kid’s creativity.
All kids are creative
Actively encouraging curiosity and creativity can help to build self-confidence and a willingness to experiment. You may need to teach them it’s okay that not everything works or is perfect the first time. Let them know that when something goes wrong, it’s a chance to get even better by overcoming setbacks, solving problems, and trying again.
Growing up with a confident belief in their abilities, kids aren’t scared to aim high and follow their dreams.
Make Films Together
This is a fun project that can bring out the creativity in all the family. Ideas for family films include:
- Recreating a favourite movie scene with family and friends as actors.
- Writing your own short film in a genre you all enjoy, such as comedy or adventure.
- Replacing still photos with video clips of holidays or day trips.
- Filming family pets indoors and outside.
- Trying stop-motion animation with favourite toys. You don’t need to try and recreate Wallace and Gromit, just getting a teddy or doll to wave would be cool to start with.
One of the best things about making films together is you probably have everything you need to get going. You almost certainly have a mobile phone or camera, you have actors, and you have a location even if it’s your living room, and you have the endless stream of creative ideas that kids come up with. The hardest part will probably be getting everyone to agree on an idea.
If you find the filmmaking process fires your kid’s imagination, you could consider taking it a step further and asking their school to get involved with the Outreach programme from London Film School. Have a look at the short video on the webpage to see how kids are inspired, and maybe get inspired yourself by the possibilities.
Because it’s endlessly flexible, it’s the kind of project you could complete at a weekend, or it could take several months over the summer. And it offers outlets for other creative pursuits, such as designing costumes, writing scripts, building sets, or exploring locations.
It’s a great, accessible project that’s a lot of fun but which also opens minds. With encouragement, it could even lead older kids to pursue a filmmaking career.
Plan Activities Together To Encourage Kid’s Creativity
Planning and organising takes creative as well as critical thinking. Involving kids with the planning aspect of a day trip, for instance, not only gets them thinking about possible venues but also gives them the opportunity to follow through and experience success through planning.
Ways to get kids involved with creative planning:
- Involve older children with planning the route, maybe noting any interesting sites along the way that you could all visit – even if it’s just a place to stop for refreshments.
- Set a challenge by asking kids to find an activity you can all do within a certain distance from the house.
- Make lists together of all you’ll need for the trip, such as wet weather or emergency clothing, food and drinks, cameras, toys, or other equipment.
The idea is to make them active participants rather than passively going where you take them. It gives them responsibility without too much pressure and encourages them to use their imagination as they visualise what the trip might include.
De-stress in Nature
Getting outdoors is a brilliant stressbuster and great for your Kid’s creativity, offering endless chances to imagine and explore. You can indulge in deceptively simple exercises such as:
- Building dens
- Making daisy chains
- Watching the clouds
- Listening to insects or birds
- Finding animal tracks
- Identifying wildflowers
- Drawing in the dirt with sticks
- Looking for aquatic life in ponds
And hundreds more!
These easy activities encourage kids to think about problem-solving, discover possibilities, explore their creativity, and makeup stories or games. And you don’t have to head into the wilds to find nature. A local park can be just as good.
Creativity and curiosity about the world are natural in kids. Part of our job as adults is to nurture and encourage both as valuable skills. In the long term, developing and retaining creativity helps kids grow into confident, happy, and high achieving adults.
And what parent wouldn’t want that?