When my son attended Montessori preschool, I was concerned about the abundance of structured play in his life. Because preschool years are crucial for developing children's creativity, I've tried to find the best ways to raise creative children and boost their creative thinking at home to support and improve their school curriculum. Here I present an in-depth blog post on teaching kids creativity, a skill that children can learn through everyday practice.
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The educationalist Sir Ken Robinson believes that creativity is essential for our economic and cultural future, and he describes it as "the process of producing innovative ideas that have value." We live in an uncertain and unpredictable world, and the employment market has altered significantly over the last several years, particularly as the global economy has shaken.
That is why there is a pressing need to give young people the skills to thrive in an ever-changing world. These are "meta-skills" – skills that are not specific to any profession or discipline but equip us to deal with change and uncertainty. They are the skills of adaptability, resourcefulness, and creativity.
There's a widespread misconception that just getting out of the way and allowing children to be creative is the best approach to encourage their creativity. While children are naturally curious, they require assistance to develop their creative abilities and achieve their full creative potential.
What is creativity?
The freest form of self-expression is creativity. The capacity to be innovative, to transform one's feelings and experiences into creative works, has a beneficial impact on children's emotional well-being. Every kid, however, needs the freedom to devote their time and effort to whatever activity they're engaging in. By allowing children to experiment with and test new ideas, creativity promotes mental development.
A study investigating the relationship between art and mental health found that participants who had recently engaged in creative activity had lower cortisol levels, the stress-provoking hormone. The evidence is clear: creativity positively affects people's mental health.
Many people believe that creativity is solely about artistic endeavors such as art, music, craft, writing, and acting, but this isn't true. People use their creativity in anything from maths and science to politics and business; everything people do requires creativity! Creativity is the process of using and developing our imaginations, originality, productivity, and problem-solving skills.
When kids experiment with unusual concepts and ways of accomplishing things, discover materials and manipulate them, disassemble and reassemble objects, dream about things, solve difficulties and figure out solutions, it's all part of the creative process.
What are the personality characteristics of a creative child?
There are many personality traits associated with creativity, but there are five that stand out as being particularly important:
1. Inquisitiveness: Creative children are often described as curious or inquisitive. They're constantly asking questions and exploring their surroundings.
2. Open-mindedness: Creative children are open to new experiences and willing to try new things. They're not afraid of change or of taking risks.
3. Flexibility: Creative children are flexible in their thinking and can see things from different perspectives. They're also comfortable with ambiguity and uncertainty.
4. Originality: Creative children often have original ideas and think outside the box. They're not afraid to be different or stand out from the crowd.
5. Persistence: Creative children are often persistent in achieving their goals. They don't give up quickly, and they're willing to put in the hard work required to succeed.
How do you promote creativity in kids?
There are many ways to support and encourage creativity in children. Some of the best ways to raise innovative and anti-fragile kids include:
1) Providing opportunities for children to engage in open-ended, exploratory play.
2) Helping children to develop mature dramatic play
3) Encouraging children to ask questions and think outside the box through design thinking
4) Encouraging creativity through the arts.
5) Promoting a growth mindset in children.
6) Helping children to develop their own unique identity.
7) Supporting and encouraging risk-taking in children.
8) Fostering a love of learning in children.
9) Encouraging collaboration and teamwork.
10) Creating an environment that is conducive to creativity.
Play for child's creativity
The world of a young child is one of make-believe and wonder. The creativity of many kids will reach a zenith before the age of six, after which it will begin to wane as formal education begins to take hold and children's natural desire for conformity kicks in. However, supporting your child's creativity in preschool sets the stage to foster its continued development in the years beyond.
The importance of children's play for creativity has been well-documented. A study of 3- to 5-year-old children found that those who engaged in more pretend play showed higher levels of creativity later. Similarly, another study found that 6-year-olds who engaged in the more creative play had higher levels of cognitive flexibility – the ability to think about things in different ways – than their peers who engaged in less creative play. "... pretend play uses cognitive processes that are involved in creative thinking. So pretend play is a predictor of creativity."
Dramatic play
Believe it or not, there are many types of children's play: pretend play (dramatic), close-ended play, open-ended play, adult-led play, symbolic play, heuristic play, and others. And every type of play is beneficial for a child. But there are some types of play that particularly help to encourage creativity in kids.
We have a fantastic blog post entirely dedicated to pretend play which we highly advise you to go through:
"Pretend Play: A Simple Path to Your Child's Emotional Well-Being"
Usually, for dramatic play to unfold, children need some encouragement from adults in inventing play scenarios. When your youngster creates a scenario, they may try on numerous roles and arrange their thoughts while growing social and conversational abilities. Encourage your child to play superhero, doctor, firefighter, post office, farm, space station, school, or store. Participate in the dramatic play by adopting a character of your own. Let your child take the reins of your play together.
Open-ended play
One of the greatest methods to promote creative thinking in kids is to encourage open-ended play. This type of play allows kids to use their imaginations and explore new ideas, and it also helps them solve problems and adopt creative thinking.
Open-ended play is fueled by creativity and imagination, which stimulates cognitive development since children use their creative pathways in the brain. Children may also use open-ended play to release steam and relax.
Provide children with a wide variety of open-ended toys: puppets, animal figures, vehicles, peg dolls, blocks, and play silks (or even larger pieces of any fabrics will do). Don't forget about art materials and loose parts: clay, play dough, pipe cleaners, paints, crayons, chalk, glue, sequins, buttons, etc.
Much of the time, open-ended play is best when there's little parental involvement and input. Freedom allows kids to have complete control and express themselves effectively. A fantastic approach to encourage open-ended play is to ask open questions to promote more complex thinking and communication in kids. Asking questions is a mild form of prompting that does not aim to impose new thoughts on the child. Instead, it allows children to broaden their horizons and discover new possibilities for themselves.
Loose parts play
Architect Simon Nicholson introduced the concept loose parts play in the 1970s as he observed how children used found objects in their play. He argued that these materials – which he called "loose parts" – were essential to creative and imaginative play.
Nowadays, loose parts are often defined as natural or recycled materials that can be moved, carried, combined, redesigned, lined up, and taken apart and put back together in endless ways. They are materials with no specific function or set of instructions that can be used alone or combined with other materials.
Loose parts can be found both indoors and outdoors. Indoors, some examples of loose parts include buttons, beads, fabric scraps, toilet paper rolls, and boxes. Outdoors, leaves, acorns, stones, and sticks are all examples of loose parts.
There are endless possibilities for what children can do with loose parts. They can use them to build towers or houses, make necklaces or bracelets, sort and count them, line them up in patterns, or use them to make marks on paper. The possibilities are limited only by children's imaginations.
Loose parts play is vital for several reasons:
- It helps children develop creative problem-solving skills.
- It allows children to practice using and testing new materials.
- It provides opportunities for flexible thinking as children try out different ways of combining materials.
Make sure to provide a variety of loose parts for children to explore. It's also essential to have a mix of familiar and unfamiliar materials so that children can experiment with different combinations.
Design thinking to teach children creativity
The best way to encourage creativity in kids is by teaching them design thinking. Design thinking is a process that helps people solve problems creatively and innovatively. It involves coming up with new ideas, testing them out, and refining them until you have the best possible solution.
Children's key skills through design thinking include creative problem-solving, collaboration, and resilience. These skills are important for children to have as they grow up and face challenges in life.
One of the best things about design thinking is that it's a flexible process that can be used for any problem, big or small. It can also be used by people of all ages, from kids to adults.
The five-step process of design thinking for kids
The five steps of Stanford d.school's Design Thinking are: "Empathize, Design, Ideate, Prototype, and Test." It isn't easy to implement every stage and complete a project at once with children, and it is better to go through every step separately when the time is right. For example, you can start with empathizing and trying to understand a problem first.
Empathize: This step involves understanding the user's needs and wants. In teaching kids design thinking, it means that children try to understand what other people's needs are. Thus, design thinking is an excellent exercise for the development of empathy.
We have an excellent blog post about other ways of teaching children empathy, which is important for success in life. You can read this article on social-emotional activities here:
10 Powerful Emotional Intelligence Activities to Raise Healthy Kids
Stories work exceptionally well for small children when you want to teach your kids empathy through design thinking. For example, when reading a storybook to your child, talk about the story's main problem, identify the emotions and feelings of the characters, and talk about the reasons that lead characters to behave the way they do.
A good example is the story "Room on the Broom." While reading this story, ask children why the witch agreed to take on all the animals on her broom.
Or, what were her relationships with each of them?
What problem did they face together?
Why did the animals help the witch?
What could be the other possible ways to help the witch?
What other flying vehicle could they use instead of the broom to travel together?
Define: In this step, children start to define a problem and clearly understand what they need to create. It could be something as simple as coming up with a new way to play a game of inventing a new toy. In the "Room on the broom" scenario, you could help your child ask the essential question: "How to improve their flying vehicle so that all friends could fit there, but it would also be sturdy and safe enough to withstand possible attacks from the dragons?"
Ideate: This is the stage where children brainstorm different ideas and solutions. It's essential to encourage them to think outside the box and come up with as many ideas as possible, even if they seem far-fetched at first. At this stage, children sketch out their ideas and solutions and think about how they can turn them into reality.
Prototype: Children take their ideas and turn them into physical prototypes in this step. A prototype could be anything from a sketch to a cardboard model. For example, children could use loose parts to create an armored broom for the witch and her friends; their broom may be made out of steel so that it wouldn't break down; it shouldn't be even a broom; it could be a shockproof flying ball, etc. Children may use any material they want to create their prototypes at this stage. A rich abundance of loose parts, Legos, or craft materials would make this creative process even more exciting for kids.
Test: The final step is to test the prototypes and see how they work in practice. This step helps children understand what works well and what doesn't work so well, and it also allows them to improve their designs.
You can help your child test a prototype, for example, by heating their broom with hot airflow from a hairdryer or putting it on a hot surface to see if it withstands a dragon attack. The testing step requires your full attention, especially if using fire. Then the children can see the effectiveness of their prototypes. If their prototype turns out to be ineffective, encourage children to make improvements or develop a new solution. You can repeat this test stage until children are satisfied with the result.
Finally, once the problem is solved, it's time to celebrate! Celebration is a great way to show children that their hard work has paid off and that their creativity can help them achieve their goals.
Creative environment sparks creativity in kids
1. Free time
Stephen Covey once said: "The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule but to schedule your priorities." Look at your child's day and week and make sure there is time for free play. Free play allows kids to use their imaginations, be curious, take risks, and problem-solve.
When it comes to creativity, quantity beats quality. Give your child opportunities to create and experiment often. The more they create, the better they will become at ideation (generating ideas). And don't worry about mistakes — they are part of the creative process. Embrace them!
2. Allow for messy play
Messy play is an essential part of child development. It helps kids explore their senses, use their imaginations, and be creative. So don't be afraid to let your child get messy! Set up a "messy station" in your home with some old clothes, finger paints, glitter, water, foam, and other "messy" materials. Allow your child the freedom to create and go into the flow state. This extraordinary experience can shape your child's brain for creativity and concentration.
3. Provide a wide range of art supplies
Art is a method for children to express their feelings, make decisions, and resolve difficulties through painting, sculpture, collage, clay, drawing, etc. Art materials stimulate a full spectrum of senses in kids and help them develop deep focus, fine motor skills, satisfaction, and a sense of competence and freedom. You do not need to buy too many expensive art supplies for your kids. Give them regular household materials like salt, pasta, paper rolls, or egg cartons and encourage children to use them in their crafts.
However, we encourage you to buy quality watercolors and thick watercolor paper, especially for 5-year-olds and older. Watercolor paper is particularly excellent since it doesn't bend when children use a lot of paint on it, so they appreciate their work more after they've finished.
Here is an excellent example of these decent-quality materials:
Also, try to buy a sturdy air-dry clay. It is very frustrating for children when their sculptures come apart with the slightest impact after drying. We recommend this clay for your children:
4. Limit screen time
Screens make children's brains lazy and passive because when children engage with devices, they do not use their brain skills enough. Electronic devices grab children's involuntary attention and keep them engaged without engaging in any intellectual work for the child's brain. Alternatively, when children focus on play, arts and crafts, and exploring the world, their brains develop enormously and become more creative and enlightened. Often children complain that they are bored and ask for the TV, phone, tablet, or any device to entertain themselves without any active participation from the child.
Boredom is the best way to teach children creativity and independence. Explain to your child how boredom is good for their brains and what a valuable outcome can be if they find a way to entertain themselves and create something. We would not recommend giving suggestions about what to do for the kids over 7, but for little ones, you could offer them some options on what they can do. Or simply give them a big box of loose parts that they do not have regular access to and ask them what they would like to create. Do not give your direct answers or opinions to your child. Let them think and get into the creative flow.
Risk-taking and rule-breaking for an innovative mindset
The ability to innovate is about taking a leap of faith and exploring unknown territories with the potential of discovering something new or different. That's not possible without some risk-taking.
The study suggests that a specific type of risk-taking, the intellectual kind, may be used to forecast who will engage in more creative activities and have greater creative achievement. For those hesitant to take intellectual risks, believing they can be inventive may not help. Intellectual risk-taking is defined as attempts to learn new skills or experiment with new ideas that may fail.
According to a recent study, intellectual risk-taking was linked to both creative confidence and creative behavior. In other words, those who were willing to take intellectual risks were more likely to believe that they had the creative potential and capacity to engage in creative activities regularly and achieve innovative results than those who were not.
We suggest urging children to do familiar things differently and encouraging them to take some mild intellectual and social risks. Remember, breaking the rules to accomplish things in a unique manner than everyone else requires a lot of bravery and mental flexibility. If you want to raise a creative and innovative child, support your kids' "thinking differently" mindset and practice it daily with them.
Some examples of how to promote creative thinking in kids:
- Play a game where you and your children should think of the alternative ways to use conventional products, like kitchen spatula, paper rolls, pencils, etc. A person who comes up with the most ideas wins. This is an excellent game for a road trip, waiting in line, or even a family night.
- Offer your children to invent new rules for the old board game or develop an entirely new board game. A new board game task can be executed best through design thinking.
- Invite your children to do something silly or unusual. For example, dance in your front yard, sing a song in the mall, or any other type of small social risk that you find appropriate.
- Have your children try new tastes, and create their own recipes and unusual product combinations, for ex., salmon with watermelon as a side dish, lemon with olive oil and salt, etc. Creative cooking is a great way to teach children small risk-taking.
- Let children do arts and crafts with unusual supplies like noodles, salt to create pictures, spices for coloring, marshmallows to make a sculpture, etc.
- Encourage inventive storytelling by changing the scenario of well-known stories, switching the main characters, and creating a story from their standpoint (for example, from the stepmother's point of view, instead of Snow White's). Ask children thought-provoking questions like "What if...". And, of course, help your child to make up their own stories. For example, create stories about the pictures in a magazine. But we usually recommend using story cubes for inventive storytelling. They are a big help for children but are not limiting chid's imagination.
Explore the world and support learning
Fresh air and sunlight are not only good for children's physical health — they also help with their mental and emotional well-being. Outdoor play allows kids to explore the world around them, discover new things, question and solve problems, make predictions, and develop creative minds. Nature inspires children to observe, dream, and design: they create forts, hiding places, houses with twigs, branches, and leaves; children learn to imagine and dream when gazing at the clouds or stars in the sky; they learn to focus and analyze when observing insects in the grass. These sensory-rich experiences expand children's outlook and provide a substantial knowledge base about the world around them.
For children to be creative, they need a variety of experiences to build their foundation of knowledge. The more experience a child gets, the more creative they can become because creativity requires a decent knowledge base for the mind to come up with truly innovative solutions.
We highly encourage you to provide your child with an array of cultural, social, and nature-exploring experiences. Go to museums, attend concerts, visit libraries and art exhibitions; explore different nature landscapes, the zoo, and botanical gardens; visit new neighborhoods in your town; meet people from other countries and races, if this experience is available to you with your little ones.
Make sure your kids have a lot of opportunities to get first-hand experience because it is essential for creativity. Field trips, visiting new places, and trying new things are crucial for children's intellectual development. When children travel, they learn by doing, which helps them understand the world better and develop more innovative solutions.
Afterword
We hope that our in-depth article will become your road map for raising innovative and anti-fragile children. We would love to hear your stories about fostering creativity in kids in the comments below.