5 Ways to Encourage Child Creativity

Schools don’t have to kill the creativity Sir Ken Robinson laments in his popular video. To follow are a few ideas that can teachers can share with parents, or use in their classrooms, to provide young people with the inspiration to be creative.  

1) Create safe havens

Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way tells the guardian that by “Creating safe havens where our children are allowed to dream, play, make a mess and, yes, clean it up, we teach them respect for themselves and others.”

2) Interact with your child

Spend time interacting with your child while she is learning. For example when learning about historical events you can discuss questions like, “what do you think happens next?” Then you can compare what they thought would happen with the reality and talk about what outcomes might have been had events occurred in another way.  These “inbetween” lesson times are ideal for creative thinking. You can find materials for these types of activities at places like the Library of Congress Primary Source Sets or Pencil Street kids history resources.

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