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Creativity

Emma's monsters

One of the best things about having a three-year-old is that, now that Emma is fully conversant and able to draw (monsters, in this case), I see more and more of her personality. I am always amazed by the creativity of young children.

While scholastic achievement is important to me, I feel like fostering creativity in toddlerhood is at least as important as teaching letters and numbers. My mother called her home a “laboratory of learning” – a home full of opportunities for creativity and self-teaching. Looking back on my own childhood and at the environments I see in the homes of friends as well as on blogs, I’ve tried to identify a few ways to create this unique environment:

  • Books. Lots and lots of them. Both parents read aloud to us on a weekly basis, but there were books full of pictures, craft books, science books, medical reference texts and two full sets of encyclopedias. Books are academic, but they can be used to foster creativity as well – and they are often necessary for self-teaching. I love the internet, but books provide information in ways websites cannot. I was by far the most craft-oriented of my parents’ ten children, and most of the ideas I got and (skills I learned) came from books. Check out ikat bag’s post on the books for more on this topic.
  • Time for child-directed play. We had hours of unstructured time when we could come up with our own activities. My parents purposely limited extracurricular activities to create time for this. It helped that we spent most of our lives overseas, living in communities that offered a fraction of the activities available in the US.
  • Structured activities to teach concentration and discipline. In my home growing up, this was music lessons, but I think it could be any activity requiring a child to focus. True creativity requires an ability to focus.
  • Willing suspension of disbelief. Appreciate the magic of make-believe (I love this post on make-believe from Filth Wizardry).
  • Tolerance of messes. Your entire house doesn’t need to be taken over by creativity, but designate an area where messy creating (be it painting, cutting paper, playing with cardboard) can take place.
  • Underlying order. Complete chaos hampers creative thinking. Craft supplies aren’t useful if they aren’t organized.
  • Appreciate the potential of simplicity. Simple toys frequently allow for more creative thought than complex ones.
  • For toddlers in particular, the creative process is more important than the product.
  • Things don’t always have to be done the “right” way. Who knows, maybe your child will discover a better way ;)
  • Teach flexibility. A Large Room shares a brilliant example of this.
  • The primary goal should always be to have fun.

What do you think? What have I left out? What would you change?

MaryAnne is a craft loving educator, musician, photographer, and writer who lives in Silicon Valley with her husband Mike and their four children.

13 thoughts on “Creativity”

  1. Wow I love this site!! I am having trouble trying to keep my 20month entertained. You ahve given me some great ideas. Thank you!!

  2. Thanks everyone for your great comments on this post!

    @Sunnymama, I agree that creativity often suffers in schools, particularly as many lose what little funding they had for arts/music programs and teachers struggle with large classes.

    @LiEr and Kelley, I wish my home was as organized as yours – we tend to suffer from excessive chaos rather than an excess of order!

    @Valerie, thanks for the comment on limiting toys – I’ve definitely found that to be true with my children, and for that reason I have a new policy of donating one toy for each new toy that enters the house. This also makes it easier to keep the house neat(er)!

    @blissful_e, great point, I think I’ll write a post on this topic

    @Life as a Greenstreet – thank you for bringing up music! I used to study community music programs, and I couldn’t agree more. In fact, I can’t believe I left it off this list!

  3. Life as a Greenstreet

    Great post! I agree reading and unstructured time are excellent for fostering creativity. The funniest things happen when I just leave my kids to play and overhear what they are doing. I also think music adds to creativity. Silly kid music (Raffi) has helped our kids pretend to play instruments, hum and make up their very own silly verses to songs.

  4. This is fantastic, and beautifully sums up what I’ve been thinking as well.

    My sticking point is creating a space where kids can be messy in a rental property… If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them!!

  5. Beautiful post! I completely agree with your point about simplistic toys. Also, the quantity of toys is out of control sometimes! Children really do play more with less toys. Love Emma’s drawing!!

  6. Thanks for the link again, Mary Anne! I love this post on creativity – and Quadmama’s comment on mess, and Keri’s on letting the kids sometimes steer. It’s hard for me sometimes to be open to either, especially when I’m trying to keep to a timetable for the day (like punctual lunchtime!) But I love hearing the kids recount to dad when he gets home from work, whenever they’ve actually Done Stuff. They never, for instance, proudly tell him they had lunch at noon and cleaned up neatly after! Like you, I’ve found, too, that my three kids are so different. The baby aside (who eats art materials), the older two need different things to stimulate them, and the challenge is to do it concurrently. Challenging, but isn’t motherhood great that way? Certainly no complaints about dull days!

  7. I love this post, I love Emma’s picture, and I love watching my children use their creativity. I definitely agree with your parents’ idea of not getting kids involved in too many activities to let them have plenty of time to use their own imaginations and make connections on their own.

  8. Brilliant! You are absolutely right, especially about the tolerance of messes. Honestly, that’s probably been my downfall. The environment you’ve described, though, is exactly the one I want to create, so thank you for such an insightful post. I REALLY appreciate it.

  9. Such a fantastic post! I love the monster pictures. I agree with all of the points you make about fostering an environment of creativity and self learning. A home full of books, unstructured play, and of course tolerance of messes are all major features of my life with sunnyboy at 2 1/2 years. I also enjoy watching his interests develop and trying to provide him with the opportunity for related experiences and materials he can use to further develop these interests. In other words, I try to help facilitate his passions :)
    Have you seen this marvellous TEDTalk about creativity by Ken Robinson?
    < HREF="http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html" REL="nofollow">Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity?<>

  10. Great point, Keri, I completely agree!

    I’m noticing with my two children that different activities interest them and they are gaining different skills at different rates because they were born with different talents.

  11. i enjoyed reading your post- i think it is important to foster our toddler’s learning with books, creative and imaginative play, allowing them to participate in the creative process… your list is great! i think the only thing i would add on is to let your child take the wheel of her learning approach and then you as a parent provide them with those opportunities. my daughter will definitely be one where i need to provide with lots of large motor activities (she is a little fire ball!! :) )

  12. Tolerance of messes… all parents need to keep that in mind. Being a parent is messy work, but I’ve learned if I have a big mess to clean up then we’ve had a fun day.

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