Are children all born creative and full of imagination? Or are some kids born without the natural proclivity toward creative play? Are they born full of imagination, or are they simply the sum of what we put into them? Here’s my thoughts and experiences as a mom of five.
Creative play
This is when a child is doing their best playing, painting, coloring, roll playing. This is so important to a child’s developing brain. Creative play helps develop critical thinking skills, language, emotional regulation, social skills, and even physical development.
So are all kids capable of this type of play? Yes, absolutely! Although, there are definitely some children that are naturally more inclined to this type of play, all children are creative when given the chance. When there is a child who doesn’t seem to be into creative play or struggles in this area it can almost always be traced back to the parent. Often times without intending to we stifle our child’s creativity.
The most common compliment I get when it comes to my kids is how they have such vivid imaginations! Although, I believe all kids are born with wonderful imaginations this is not just by design. We have been intentional with fostering an imagination in all of our children. This can be done many ways; it can also be hindered many ways.
Helping or hurting their imagination
So there are a few things we might do without realizing that can harm our child’s creativity. Constantly cleaning is one way to ruin a child’s imaginative fun. Your child is busy playing with magnet tiles, they have built some pretty cool things now their headed for a puzzle and you jump into action, “Honey before we take out a puzzle we have to clean up the magnet tiles”, You have possibly just switched off your child’s creativity without even realizing it.
Does this mean you should never expect your child to clean and just live in a pig sty? No, but let your child take out several things and play for a long time so that in the future its worth the effort of cleaning up, for the amount of play they get out of it. Also, the interruption while they’re in their creative zone can pull them out and it can take awhile to get back into it.
Another example of hindering a child’s creativity is if your child is coloring, lets say they have a sonic coloring page, “Mom is this the color of sonic?” They ask holding up a blue marker. How you respond to this can make or break their imagination in this moment. “No, I think its this shade”, you respond handing them a different marker. Or you could try this, “I think its a different shade of blue, but honey you can color him any color you like you know?” Now your child is thinking, “Hmm I really like the color green!” The child lights up realizing they can choose the color. “Green would look so cool.”
In this scenario you have just taught your child one of two things, color all characters as close to their original color. Or think outside the box; create your own new unique character. These types of simple shifts will make a huge difference.
Allow creativity
Allowing creativity might be harder then you realize, it often times means messes! When your child comes and says “can I craft?” Rather then saying no because you don’t have anything “planned” or “prepared” say yes. Give them the items they ask for and see what comes of it. It might just end up being random snips of paper glued to some cardstock, but just let it happen.
When the Lego set you just got done building suddenly gets turned into something completely different, let it be. The things your child will create if given the chance might surprise you. When every space is turned into a hide out, or you have to listen to hours of stories about all the underground tunnels there going to build, with all the miniature RC construction vehicles just nod and say “and then?” All these things are fostering the best imagination that will help your child entertain themselves for hours!
Restaurant’s and Screen time
When going out to eat creative play can come in very handy. You can play a quite game of I Spy. You can listen to all your child’s interesting plans of tunnels, robots, and rockets. Or you can play that your fingers are people and walk around the table and chat to each other (this is a personal favorite of mine) This will help keep boredom at bay and encourage patience as you wait for food.
Outdoor play is also a great tool for fostering creativity. Having your child in new and different environment’s helps get there mind going. Exposing them to new things, trees, bugs, and streams. Having them explore without hindrance will also help them build a better imagination.
Lastly screen time. Is there place for screen time in creative play? Yes, when its limited. Screen time can bring new ideas to your child, it can give them ideas of what to play. Screen time in moderation can be a great imaginative tool. However, like with all things when overdone this will hinder your child’s creativity. If given to much screen time they forget how to play. They end up lacking all desire of self entertainment. Screen time is something that is easily overdone and effects each child differently. Watch your child’s imagination and determine what a healthy amount of screen time might be.
So keep these things in mind the next time your child gives you the opportunity to foster their creativity. If they want to make a craft, climb a tree, or tell you a story of impossibility. Allow it to happen, encourage out of the box thinking, it’s how the most artistic, creative people are made!
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