Family Matters

Posts Tagged ‘fun’

It is funny how things evolve. Last week, I drove with a friend of ours in his car and I saw a buggy – a real buggy, not a Toyota or any buggy-like car, but a beautiful yellow buggy. I did not think he would understand, so I just smiled to myself and said nothing.

This week, on the way to one of my clients, I saw a red old buggy. There was no one with me in the car, so I said to myself “Kiss buggy” and smiled, although there was no one there to kiss.

I felt a bit strange.

Yesterday, when I picked my daughter up from school, she told me what kids said about her late birthday party and I said to myself “Yes, yes, yes! I did it again!” I was so happy and proud I decided I would share this with you as soon as I could.

Every morning, we can drop my daughter off at one of three different spots around her school, but she asks to be dropped off at the school car park, because this is where Miss Weidman, one of the teachers, parks her white Beetle.

Creativity is a learned skill and can be developed at any age and under any circumstances. Parents do not need a lot of resources and most of the tips and ideas described are easy and cheap. However, they do require that parents apply their own creativity and appreciate creativity as an important component in the success and happiness of their kids.

Don’t get me wrong, it is OK to be grown up most of the time. It is OK to work, to clean up, to look after the kids and to be nice to my wife. But all this being-an-adult business requires energy and very often self-denial of good things and sometimes, I simply run out of resources. Luckily, I have kids!

About 3 month ago, the kids, our 7-year-old daughter Noff and our 13-year-old son Tsoof started playing the “Punch Buggy” game. If you do not know this game, it involves looking out for a buggy (a Volkswagen “bug”), and the first person to spot one punches the other and says “Punch Buggy”.

Creativity is essential in peoples’ way of handling difficulties and solving problems. Although I think it is possible to spark creativity in anyone, I strongly believe that kids can learn it better and faster, if only because they have had fewer disappointments and they look forward to new experiences. It is never too early or too late to teach creativity and, although you may not see the results straight away, your kids will accumulate creative experiences and will use this skill at the right time.

In the past four Mondays, I wrote tips and ideas for parents to boost kids’ creativity. If you have had a chance to read them all, you know by now that kids’ creativity is very important to their success – experiencing life to the fullest and getting the most out of it.

In the last three weeks, I wrote ideas to boost creativity in kids. In my opinion, kids already have natural creativity in them and our aim is to nurture it and make sure it does not disappear. In my book, “Be Special, Be Yourself for Teenagers”, I wrote that creativity, along with flexibility and tolerance, are natural states of mind and our job as parents and educators is to nourish them to full blossom.

As you can see from the list, there are many things you can do with your kids to keep them busy and happy. If you decide to take a different idea each time and spread them over 52 weekends and 8 weeks of the school holidays, you may not even have to repeat any of them throughout the same year.