How to Boost Your Child’s Creativity
While raising your kids, it’s easy to think that teaching them how to read and do their chores is the most important thing. You can get sucked into teaching them the basic dos and don’ts of life that you totally ignore to teach them creative thinking. Creative thinking helps children solve the problems they encounter at any point in their lives. It also helps them fare better than other kids who have not been encouraged to think creatively. Raising your child to be creative can be a lot easier than you think. The following steps will help you do that:
When they come up with a problem, let them make suggestions as to what the solution will be
Children encounter challenges every day like a mathematics task from school or random questions they have seen on the television. And for them, the natural response to these challenges is to ask you for help. When you find yourself in this situation, you can do something differently. Before you provide them with the solution, ask your kids to give their opinions on how to solve the problem. When they do, affirm their options and help them logically get to the best option. That way, they pick up cues on how to be creative and thoughtful.
Make gifts with them
During holidays or festive periods, you might want to hop to the store to buy gifts. Doing this denies the child the opportunity to think or even make gifts for their favourite people. Making and giving gifts helps children to think about the receiver and how they can express kindness and gratitude. You should be present only in a helping capacity. You don’t want your kid to lose interest when the task becomes tedious. Thoughtful gift items they could make include bracelets, trinkets, good painting, etc. These items are simple examples that engage the minds of your kids.
Follow their lead
Allowing a child to lead the pace is an invaluable way to teach them creativity. When you play with your kids and their imagination starts to roam, go with them, no matter how dumb it might seem. If they say a dragon has got only two feet, so be it. As they make up their imaginary world, they will ask you to do a thing or two, like pick up the fallen dragon they have created in that world. Do as they have said. Those little experiences allow them to express their imagination and teach them to freely express themselves.
Encourage them to use building toys
From Lego bricks to simple building blocks, building toys have always been a toy of choice for children. However, they are gradually being supplanted by video games. Encouraging your kids to use building blocks forces their imagination to replicate things that they have seen. This builds their analytical and creative minds. It builds their problem-solving skills as well as their creative minds. Don’t forget to challenge them to build things that they are interested in. Give them a target and allow them to think about how to reach it.
Make use of apps and games
While it is true that excessive screen time can undermine any possible benefit that games might have, proper use can greatly increase their creativity levels. Many apps and games are designed to stimulate children’s creative thinking skills. You can pre-load your kids' devices with these games and use them to boost their creativity. Allow your kids to test run some of these apps to find the one that is most comfortable to them. When they find it, you can now use it to boost their creativity.
After these, what next?
Other ways to boost your kids’ creativity include letting them play and get dirty, tackling some home repairs together, and giving them a pat on the back when they do something innovative.
However, if you need extra help to keep your kids on the competitive edge and allow them to explore their creativity more, DABA Kids is where they should be. DABA Kids is an alternative school that teaches your kids the important skills that will help them get ahead in life.
We maximize your effort to build your child into a complete creative adult using alternative learning means to impart science, mathematics, and programming skills. Your kid stands a better chance to fulfill their potential when they join DABA Kids. Head over to www.dabakids.com and see all that we have in store.