How to Encourage Creativity in Your Child
by Prescolaire Early Learning Academy | July 12, 2022
A child's creativity begins with their way of thinking and problem-solving. Providing your child with daily challenges will broaden their thinking and understanding of the world. Therefore, a supportive environment will help them become more confident in their views and opinions. There is a number of methods that parents can apply to encourage creativity in your child in their everyday life.
Let Your Child Make Their Own Choices
Teach your child to make choices about simple things like what to eat for dinner or where to go on the weekend. This will encourage creativity in children, allowing them to think independently and express their opinions.
Shop For Items That Stimulate Your Child's Imagination
Painting sets and books can help stimulate a child's imagination. At a young age, your child will not know much about the world, so the information in books can make them feel strange and will always ask questions, wonder, or imagine what they have read and heard from those books. In turn, these actions will encourage creativity.
The painting also plays an important role in educating children, teaching them how to express what they have imagined.
Create From What Is Available
Encourage your child to use existing materials to create new things. For example, a piece of cardboard can turn into a telescope, a tower, or a person. An empty carton of milk or a box of cakes can also become a phone or a homemade car, etc. At the same time, do not forget to praise your child's ideas and amazing imagination to encourage them to create more.
Ask Open-ended Questions
A child's interactions with their parents and caregivers are also crucial. Regularly ask your child open-ended questions to increase understanding and open up more ideas. You can ask questions such as: What if everyone could fly? What if everyone lived in space? What if dolphins can walk on land?
Let your child practice thinking about doing something to improve the situation, for example: How can I clean the living room faster? How can I provide water for flowers without watering? How can I make the ball bounce higher?
Play With Your Child
Parents should often play with their children to encourage creativity. You may come up with a script and then use props to be able to fill certain roles in a make-believe story. Participating in drama allows children to imagine life from different angles, which is an important foundation for creativity.
Immerse Your Child in an Encouraging & Creative Environment
Children, especially toddlers, are active learners. As such, they always try to discover how things work, what things do, and what they can make happen. Therefore, immersing them in an environment tailor-made to encourage creativity is one of the best ways for your child’s imagination to flourish. You can find such an environment in many modern preschools.
However, a great preschool program will aim to help your child develop appropriately as they learn to engage in the physical, natural, and social worlds through observation, manipulation, and exploration.
The Prescolaire Early Learning Academy understands children’s needs to explore the world. Our programs are built by the most brilliant educators around the world to support your child’s development. To learn more about Prescolaire and enroll your child in our courses.