Gone are the days when children were only interested in two things: academics and sports. Now more and more children are pursuing the path weaved with creativity and imagination. With the evolution of the digital era and easy access to everything that interests them, children are getting more creative in their pursuits.
While most of them start to show the signs of their creative side at an early age, others might need a little push. There are various ways to know if your child has a creative side that is ready to come out in the open and do wonders with it. Here’s a set of few things that you can do to find it out.
Read to them: Reading is one of the few activities that not only enables a child to learn, but it also allows her / his creative juices to flow freely. When a child reads she / he creates various motion pictures in her / his head and designs her / his own set of characters. This helps her / him to imagine the story as she / he goes through the written or spoken words. Depending upon the age and interest areas of your child you can pick the best suitable story book. A book with pictorial descriptions will help her / him to easily get hold of the story.
Weave a story together: When not reading, you can spend some quality time with your child and create your own story together. If your child still plays with toys, bring them into the picture too. Initiating the whole imagination process by letting her / him name the toys. Ask her / him to imagine that they are part of a family and assign them roles and responsibilities. This way she / he will have the freedom to build everything from square one. Giving her / him the charge of the main creator will inspire her / him to churn out a creative angle to it. And whatever she / he comes up with, don’t forget to appreciate her / him.
Take them to nature: A place that enthralls their senses is bound to bring their creative side out. Children love to be one with nature. It’s a place that fills them abundantly with creativity and imagination. Trees, landscapes, waterfalls, birds – all of this let their imagination run wild. Plan a picnic in the lap of nature and see your child giving birth to great ideas and stories of her / his own. If she / he happens to be a photo enthusiast, hand your phone or camera over and let her / him capture nature in her / his own imagination.
Introduce them to art: Drawings, paintings, graffiti, abstract art – all of these are a great way to know if your child has a creative knack. Buy her / him a few drawing books and take her / him to an art gallery. While you do that, also explain her / him about the various aspects of art. Children love to play with beautiful colours and exposing them to arts might just trigger their creative side and help find a permanent place in their heart and mind.
Show them the night sky: There’s no beautiful canvas such as the night sky full of brightly lit stars. It is full of motivation and inspiration for the young if they have the creative bend of mind to appreciate it. Simply ask them to connect the stars to make a figure out of them. What they make will tell you how imaginative they can be. For starters, you can help them out with one or two figures. This can be a great fun for all of you and can sharpen your child’s imaginative side.
Every child is creative in her / his own way. If you can spot it, you can bring it out. It will require a little effort initially, but once it is done, the results will only make both of your very happy.
