Nurturing Creativity in Children: Part 3

Today is the final post on Nurturing Creativity in Children. I have enjoyed visiting this topic and thank you for all the feedback . If you missed Part 1 or Part 2, be sure to click here and here to read the other posts. Continuing on.....

* Let your children see you being creative in everyday life. There is no substitute for leading your children by example. Fortunately for moms, motherhood provides a vast and varied smorgasbord of creative opportunities. Making up games while riding in the car, telling bedtime stories, making meals out of whatever you have on hand, decorating your home, scrap booking, blogging, photography...the list could go on and on.  Involve them in your own projects as their age and attention span allows, or give them their own special project to work on alongside you. As your children see you delighting in creative moments they will naturally be drawn to the creative process.

* Provide a variety of quality, imaginative literature. Supply toys that make children "work" for their  play.   In a recent article on creativity, Andrew Pudewa  provided a great quote by Albert Einstein: " If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales.  If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales." I love that!  The intelligence he is talking about here surely is of the "thinking outside of the box" variety. Whether you choose fairy tales or not, engaging and imaginative literature will get your child's creative thoughts going, leading to active play time. As far as toys, go for the items that are "open-ended" ( the child does the work, not the toy), can be used for storytelling play, and are able to be used in a variety of ways. One of the favorite toys at our home is Connectegons.  These little disks have been used to build all kinds of creative structures ( their intended purpose), but also as toy money, lilly pads for small toy frogs, baby doll food, and roads for cars.They are great math manipulatives as well ! Building toys, play dough, dress up clothes, a variety of paints and art supplies, dolls, cardboard boxes and tubes, and so on are the types of toys that will encourage imaginative play rather than merely providing passive entertainment. Limiting the number of toys available at a given time also develops creativity. They will learn to use and have fun with what they have!

* Encourage your children to serve others with their creative gifts.  One motto we are currently working to instill in our children ( and ourselves!) is " Non Nobis Solum"...Not for Us Alone. This applies to creativity just like it does to so many other areas of life. Whatever we have was given to us for God's glory and to serve Him.  Elderly neighbors will enjoy having a child's painting to hang on their refrigerator, a younger child will be pleased to have an older sibling read a freshly written story to them, an expectant mother will be delighted to drop her young children by your house for an afternoon of puppet shows ( or come to stay for a time of encouragement with another mom). Teach your children not to hoard and hide the gifts and experiences the Lord has given them, but to actively look for ways to use them to bless others. As Michael Card stated so well in an interview printed in the February 2011 issue of Tabletalk magazine, " Jesus always points away from Himself and His gifts and thereby wins praise for the Father. We are not our gifts. We are called to give more.  Like Jesus, we are called to give ourselves. That is the real purpose behind our gifts; they are vehicles for giving the self."

Many blessing to each of you as you nurture those wonderful, creative little ones the Lord has placed in your care. If you are interested in buying Connectegons for your children, see the link below!