How to encourage creativity in children

We are all innately curious and creative, one way or another. Creativity is one of the keys to success and it’s something that goes beyond art and music — it’s a skill that can be used for almost everything we do. Opportunities open up to the most creative person in the room, and as parent, you have the important role of developing creativity in children.

To encourage creativity in children, we should encourage them to explore and be adventurers of art and of life. One of the best ways to encourage creativity in children is to lead by example. Children are influenced by the world around them and the parents’ influence is the strongest.

Not a creative person? You don’t have to be good at drawing or playing an instrument, as simple as experimenting on a new recipe, mixing up your wardrobe, or even a hobby, can be your creative outlet. A creative project could be hand-pouring candles or making bath bombs. Before we encourage creativity in children, it’s important that we explore our creativity first.

Creative individuals are the best problem solvers. They connect with the community by expressing themselves in the most unique way. Teaching kids that creativity is amazing and that it’s a beautiful talent they should embrace will change their perspective at an early age.

Let’s foster creativity and continual curiosity in our kids. Here are some tips to encourage creativity in children.

Tips to Encourage Creativity in Children

Even the Tiniest Creative Projects

Using positive reinforcement for the efforts or achievements of our children will greatly help in their creativity. When you celebrate even the smallest creative projects, you’re boosting their self-esteem and confidence which encourages them to go and try out even more creative outlets.

When our children see that we appreciate their effort, be it a drawing on a piece of paper, a silly dance move, or a new song, it will encourage them to explore more and learn new things. Let’s take time from our busy schedules. Let’s stop whatever we’re doing and ask our children about their artwork. Ask them to teach you that new dance step or song. These simple acts make all the difference.

We have a wall at home that’s just for my daughter’s drawings. It’s our little way of showing how proud we are of her work even if it’s just a random doodle. By supporting our kids’ creative senses, they can easily express their artistic mindsets without constraint and the feeling of disapproval.

Subscription boxes are a wonderful way of encouraging children to experiment with different creative projects. We recently discovered Sculpd‘s craft kits for kids. With two different kits to choose from – pottery and painting each Sculpd Kids kit has been made to capture their imagination. The pottery kit provides step-by-step instructions on how to make quirky coasters, domed treasure pots, curvy coil pots and wall hangings; or children can use their imagination to create whatever they wish! Meanwhile the painting kit includes everything to create abstract and pop-art pieces on a hanging canvas and two mini-canvases and is a wonderful way to get to know famous artists, artist lingo, tool techniques and colour mixing.

A new subscription line will also be available, allowing children to explore contemporary topics. Each month, a new kit will be delivered covering pottery, painting and mosaic. With a new range of craft kits coming out next year that will delve into topics like space travel, marine life and wellbeing.

Bring Paper and Crayons With You All the Time

It’s a good idea to bring with you an art box whenever you leave the house. Just use an old lunch box and put crayons and papers in so when the opportunity presents itself, like waiting for a line or waiting for food, you’re not letting a creative moment pass. This fosters an even broader creative atmosphere and it’s a good habit to cultivate.

Do Creative Stuff Together

An environment that shows support as opposed to restraining creative efforts is a more suitable place to encourage imagination and resourcefulness. The impact of bonding with our kids through artistic ways shows lifelong benefits socially, emotionally, and mentally.

You can encourage creativity in children through painting, storytelling, or even a goofy dance-off will make our children feel that they are in a safe zone to laugh, to be silly, to learn, and to bond. This is an important building block to success. When our kids see and feel that we celebrate creativity in any form, we’re nurturing their talents and skills yet to be discovered.

You could also get your children into scrapbooking with you. The great thing about scrapbooking is that everything you need to get started will probably already be lying around the house. Just order a scrapbook and get some colouring pens and pencils, different papers, scissors, glue and get going! Want some inspiration?

Give Them The Freedom to Choose What to Wear

Our kids are capable of doing a lot of things themselves early in life. When you let them become independent, you’re not only boosting their self-esteem, you’re also showing your confidence in their abilities. Independence plays a big part in creative development.

As simple as letting them decide on what to wear gives our children a chance to showcase their taste in style. This gives them freedom on how they want other people to perceive them. It has become a habit for us to do things for them because we’re in a rush or we don’t have the patience, but a calm, less demanding approach promotes problem-solving and kids tend to grow up as critical thinkers.

My daughter has chosen what she wants to wear as long as I can remember. She often ends up with an unusual look but the self-esteem and confidence she gains is incredible. Follow their lead and you’ll be pleasantly surprised where they take you.

Let Them Take Over Story Time

Children are the most imaginative people and are great storytellers. To encourage creativity in children, let them take over story time and most importantly, pay close attention when they do.

Help them understand the pictures by asking questions like, “what do you think they’re doing?” Ask them what would they have done instead to solve the problem in the story. This promotes critical thinking and improves problem-solving skills.

Get Them Reading Comics

Along with being humorous and interesting, a comic book is a great way to make your child understand comedy. The funny punch lines will broaden the child’s vocabulary, while the attractive illustrations could motivate the children to visually express themselves. Moreover, encouraging the child to make his or her own comic is a good way to unleash their creative side. Let them make their own characters and storyline. Help the child draw a comic by using crayons, or if you are handy with the programs for illustration, make a short comic together that you will later print out and enjoy.

Building and Crafts Activities

Another activity highly recommended by many pedagogues is playing with Lego blocks. When children are building with their Lego, they are architects who are building their ideas. They are engaging their creativity; they are creating their own scenarios and developing their motor skills as well. Puzzles are a great way of engaging the child’s creativity. For older children, give a thought to encouraging their imagination by letting them craft their own toys. Let them make doll clothes, a cardboard house, and cars, which they can later treasure as childhood souvenirs. During this interesting project, their creativity will surely come to light. For more inspiration why not check out these craft ideas.

Learn A Language

Are you thinking about signing your child up for a French or Spanish class? Not only is learning a new language an extremely valuable skill but it also boosts creativity. Therefore, after letting your child pick a language, introduce that language in your home, too. By simply decorating a corner in the child’s bedroom with some basic words from that language, or speaking the language during dinner, the child will get used to it. Using some apps for learning a second language such as Duolingo, is also a great way for a child to develop speaking skills and creativity.

Play Sport

Along with many health benefits, playing sports will also let their creativity flourish. For example, encourage the children to express themselves through dancing. Dancing lessons will develop their motor skills as well. Another sport, which is known to bring out the creative side in kids, is golf. While they are trying to make a perfect golf swing with the right club, children are engaging their whole mind and body. As a result, through this intelligent game, a child is learning patience and new inventive ways to solve a problem.

Acting

Another activity that many children enjoy doing from an early age is acting. If you notice that your child enjoys playing different roles or likes to sing and perform, think about signing your child up for drama classes. Along with creativity, this will help them build their confidence. Moreover, take a step further and make home-videos together, so the child can have a chance to perform. It can be a music video or a short film made on your smartphone. You can also organize a play in your neighborhood and ask other parents to let their children participate.

Engage in Role-Playing Games

Storytelling stimulates our cognitive functioning and there’s no better way to promote this other than role-playing games. Reading stories is one, but actually experiencing them is a good exercise for our brains.

Role-playing to kids not only teaches them to be creative, it also makes them better communicators. They learn to collaborate with other people which is essential in social development and it’s a great way to help them make sense of real-life situations. It sparks creativity and imagination and the bond created after is priceless.

Embrace Your Child’s Individuality

When we encourage creativity in children, it is important to understand that our kids have their own unique ways of expressing their creativity. It can get messy, it can get loud but what matters most is your creating an atmosphere that’s conducive for creative learning and you’re with them every step of the way.

Fun Equals Creativity

‘’Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.’’- Pablo Picasso. Creativity lies in every child. As a parent, your job is to let the child discover their creative side and nourish it until the child is ready to share it with the world. There are many hobbies that help nourish the creative side such as reading comic books, crafting, learning a language, playing a sport or even acting. Not only will the children discover their creative side, but they will also have a lot of fun.

We hope you enjoyed our tips and that they will empower you to encourage creativity in children.

Picture credit: Designed by Freepik. 

This post was featured by Twinkl in their Creativity in Children blog

40 comments

  1. My kids love playing with Ubleck and making things out of the recycling box! They love to be creative.

  2. I always keep a good supply of craft items in and when we have a big cardboard box they can design it into whatever they want and decorate it.

  3. My youngest two grandchildren have just taken up cross stitch – I have made up little kits for them and they love it. My oldest granddaughter is currently into watercolours and calligraphy, while the one in between is a very keen cook and at 8 years old creates her own amazing dishes like venison with a red wine and caramelised onion reduction, which she cooked yesterday, followed by chocolate macarons.
    Jane Willis

  4. We pick up twigs, sticks, stones, leafs etc when out on walks and make pictures with them. We made all of our Christmas decorations from items we found on our travels

  5. My youngest child is really creative and is always doodling, sketching or painting. She also likes to do the little sticky square mosaic pictures …. my middle chlld is creative when I can get him off his computer! LOL …. They like making things like robots, bugs, etc out of recycling! They actually won a prize at school with their giant recycled robot Robbie ! 🙂

  6. My kids love choosing what they wear – it’s absolutely fine as we’re barely leaving the house right now….knock yourself out with the rabbit onesie and mismatching socks!

  7. We love getting sticky and covered in glitter! Ir’s also fab to pass those birthday cards to friends and family as acts of love and my infinite patience (haha, I enjoy the mess as much as they do!)

  8. My son has an incredible imagination. We did a lot of these when he was younger, but a lot of it must be his temperament!

  9. This pandemic has reinvigorated my love for creativity (blogging, reading more books, doing my arts and creatures wth my little one)! This would be an amazing project to do with her! 🙂

  10. My granddaughter loves drawing and colouring. She makes birthday and Christmas cards and loves gettting hold of bits of ribbons or coloured paper to stick on and make them pretty

  11. My kids love all types of arts and crafts but they also really love writing. This is such a grat idea for all their stories.

  12. A helpful and interesting post. Thank you. I like the idea of a wall of drawings for children. Much better than randomly sticking things on the fridge

  13. My granddaughter loves to help with the baking and she is getting really good at decorating cakes too. She is also quite an artist and draws some lovely picture.

  14. Some great tips here, I enjoy making things with my grandchildren that they can give to their parents because it makes the gift extra special for everyone!

  15. My 6 year old daughter loves drawing and colouring in. She especially loves drawing mermaids and is always colouring them in different bright colours. However they look very rude and always have me in hysterics!!

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