Creative Kids (summary)

Broken pencil In the past few months, I wrote about why it is important for kids to be creative, what character traits they need to be creative and how to boost kids’ creativity and bring it to a form of art.

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.

This chapter is a summary for all those who want to keep the ideas in one place, refer to them from time to time and implement them one at a time.

Teach kids to be curious about everything. Yes, it is a pain sometimes, but it is better to be curious than indifferent to everything around you.
Encourage your kids to fix broken items. Fixing is a form of problem solving. If they cannot be fixed, broken items can be a great source of learning.
Give your kids projects to do. Projects are goals and completing them requires kids to research, plan, commit and persist.
Allow your kids to be kids and let them play as much as they want. Playing games is a great way to learn new things and build new skills.
Post inspirational writing about creativity to help your kids think creativity is a treasure. Just browse the Internet for inspirational writing about creativity, print big and bold and post in a visible place. You are welcome to use the many quotes on this blog.
Find objects in the clouds. Imagination is a key ingredient in creativity.
Encourage your kids to be creative about failure. Make sure they understand that trying and trying again is a formula for success.
Encourage your kids to have a treasure box, collect things that interest them and play imaginary games with them. Join in their games too.
Play with your kids the “What if?” game to boost imagination.
Explore art as a way to develop creativity. Any form of art will do the trick.
Teach your kids planning by using questions. Remind them to ask who, what, why, when and how.
Encourage your kids’ sense of humor. Creativity and sense of humor go together. Tell jokes and watch funny movies with your kids.
Play the “white page” activity. Find 100 things to do with a white page.
Encourage recycling art. Recycling art requires the ability to see other usages for common things.
Encourage interest in science fiction and fantasy. Watch science and fantasy movies and bring home fantasy and science fiction books.
Use quiz books (word search, Sudoku and other quiz games) to develop your kids’ problem solving skills.
Use puzzles with more and more pieces.
Encourage your kids to read inventors’ biographies. Learning about creative people can be very inspiring.
Play dictionary games.
Allow your kids to experiment with your digital camera.
Encourage your kids to make music. Let them make noise until it becomes music.

The theory behind raising successful and creative kids is that it requires creative parents with all the character traits they want their kids to have.

If you want to make this goal of raising creative kids manageable, read Creative Kids (1) and examine all the character traits described. Tick the character traits you think you possess as a parent. The ticked items are probably going to be easier for you to teach your kids and can get you some of the way there with less effort and more fun.

Puzzle Look at the traits you do not have and ask yourself what you can do as a parent to develop those abilities? Ask and the answers will come. If you develop those traits and they become part of you, it will be easier for you to teach them to your kids.

Many times, a combination of both parents can do the trick. If Mom has some of the traits and Dad has others, it will be enough to encourage kids to adopt them all. I can recognize traits that I naturally have and others that I am very lucky Gal naturally has and I can see each of those in our kids.

Remember

Creative parents raise creative kids

Happy and creative parenting,
Ronit

This post is part of the series Creative Kids:

Experimental Digital Art

My junior high kids need to a 10 minute presentation on volcanos, tornados and earthquakes in front of a group kids. I don’t want them to simply stand up and state what they know about volcanos, tornados and earthquakes. I am trying to come up with a creative way for them to present the information. Any ideas?
Ronit Baras

Experimental digital art,

It is great that you are looking for creative ways to present.
I think if you talk to them about different ways to present, they will learn in the discussion that standing in front of everyone and talking talking is not the only way.
by the way 10 minutes is a loooooooot for kids – especially if they are afraid of talking in front of a class.
A good way is to ask them to tell a story about something that happened while they were studying the subject. something funny, interesting.

Giving them many questions to consider will help them come up with ideas.

You can encourage them to build a model and talk about how they built it, material used, problems they had to solve…

making a video is a nice way of presenting.

Making a poster is a nice way of presenting.

Making a game – a board game with Volcanoes, Tornadoes and earthquakes information is a nice way of presenting . or even making a bingo game or a matching game with the information they need to know.

writing a funny story about the topic and include 5-10-15 pieces of information about volcanoes in the game is a creative way to present ( and trust me, that will make them remember it forever)

Having a drama scene as a radio reporter or a TV reporter about an earthquake is another creative way.

With kids, it is a good idea to throw the ideas and let them choose what they want to do.

Good luck! naaaa, you don’t need luck.

tell us how it went

Ronit
Family Matters
Gal Baras

Whenever Noff needs to present, she starts out sticking to her cue cards, but I always ask her questions about her work and help her find the coolest and most interesting bits. I then encourage her to leave the cards and just talk to us about her work, while I put on a big smile and make comments like “Wow, that’s really cool! I bet your friends don’t know that”.

You can tell your kids that the board isn’t only for the teacher and that they can use it too. You can build a model or make a poster, depending on the project. Most importantly, ask questions or make suggestions that will prompt your kids to go find that creative presentation themselves. They can get lots of ideas on the Internet, but also in the library.

Does this help?