Thursday, July 12, 2012

Allow Your Kids to Be Creative!

Creativity is something that is inside kids. When they talk to themselves, build up stories and want to play dress up, it's all normal.

We live in a fast paced society. Sometimes all we have time for is work, daycare, dinner and sleeping. It's important to face each week with a creative goal. Kids need activity and room to explore.


I have a giveaway up to win a t-shirt from Warrior Poet Clothier that stands for dreaming big and looking good in the process. Please enter here.

The t-shirt says, "What if we all lived like heroes?" - Warrior Poet Clothier


Your Creative Background
  • A person could be innately creative. Meaning that creativity is in their genetics.
  • The product produced is creative. Meaning that they got lucky with one art piece, song or writing, but other works lack in creativity.
  • The process is creative. Possibly the technique used is creative. Artistic evolution, which stresses on "classical" rules that move towards breaking them. 
  • Their environment is creative. Meaning that something in ones environment has strongly influenced them to be more creative than what they'd be on their own. Someone or something that inspires the artist to be great at creating. This is where you as a parent can really influnence a child. It doesn't matter if you find yourself to be creative or not. You are inspiring your child to be exercising that part within themselves. 

Stimulating Creativity
There are many ways to do this. This is just a list of some ideas. 
  • Go for a walk. Yep it's that simple. It's best to go in unfamiliar, yet safe territory. 
 
  • Search for bugs, pine cones, rocks, arrowheads and more. Get them sidewalk chalk and let them draw or write.

  • Allow them to go off on their own to be whatever they want to be. My oldest is super into Karate Kid. He saw these poles sticking out of the ground and practiced being Daniel Son. 


If you have trouble stimulating creativity try using this check off list to help you write a story or create an art project with your child.

  • Substitute one thing for another. Example: If I want to create an illustration about love. I could possibly substitute two people with puppies falling in love. This gives the image more of a childlike feel.
  • Combine elements together. Example: Instead of the foreground being separated from the middle ground and background, they could overlap. Layers that can be seen through one another. 
  • Adapt something for a new use or purpose. Example: Instead of a person pushing a cart, a cart could be pushing a person.
  • Modify to a different size, scale, shape or color. Example: If a person were to be eating an orange and the person is turning orange in color. Alice and Wonderland plays with the size of Alice to alter the movie.
  • Eliminate something out of the idea. This is a great way to simplify. Example: If a person were to create a commercial where someone is walking through sand. The footprints in the sand could disappear before the viewers eyes could add another meaning to what's going on.
  • Reverse the image or order of events. Turning something inside out. Example: A plant going from full size to shrinking down to a little seed would be interesting.

Characteristics of highly creative individuals:
  • Many display a great deal of curiosity about many things. 
  • If you are one that asks a lot of questions about anything and everything.
  • Have bold interests in unrelated areas.
  • Diverse collections.
  • Are often uninhibited in expressions or opinions.
  • Sometimes radical and spirited in disagreement.
  • Usually tenacious or persistent. 
  • Fixate on one idea or project.
  • High risk takers or adventurous! 
  • Able to generated a lot of ideas at once when in the creative mode. 
  • Display a good deal of intellectual playfulness.
  • Display a keen sense of humor and see humor in situations that may not appear to be humorous to others.
  • Exhibit heightened emotional sensitivity. Visibly moved by something that appears to be beautiful.
“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.” -Pablo Picasso

Disclaimer: The opinions on the post are my personal take on the product. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. I am not compensated to provide my opinion except for receiving the products themselves to test out. Warrior Poet Clothier provided to me a free product to help with this review/giveaway. 

7 comments:

Nancy said...

What a great post, Alissa. It's so sad these days that many children never even go outside or step away from the television. You provided some great ideas to keep them busy and engaged during the summer.

Thank you for sharing at Rural Thursdays this week.

Eat To Live said...

Looks like Mica is good at balancing. I need some of those logs to practice on.

carol l mckenna said...

Fantastic post and great 'actions' shots! ~ thanks ^_^ (A Creative Harbor)

EG CameraGirl said...

Wonderful post! I believe in fostering creativity, that's for sure!

TinyTyrant said...

I love your idea about going for walks in new locations... Too often, we get stuck in a rut. But it's so important to combine those new experiences with talking to your kids about them...

Unknown said...

What a great post! I teach PreK and am continuously amazed by the experiences my students miss (in terms of walking away from the t.v.). Stimulating creativity can be as easy as changing the way you converse with your child - love your ideas!

Eat To Live said...

Stopping by to say hello!! Hope the kids are being creative this weekend.