This Wall Street Journal article on creativity struck my fancy. An interesting fact cited in the article is that creativity scores for children kindergarten to 6th grade declined from 1990 to 2008. When you think about how the concept of “play” has changed over the years, this decline is not surprising.
When I was a kid, I had to “go outside” until the street light came on. We made up such games as “stick ball” and “can ball.” Almost any object could be used as a toy or for a game. When there was nothing around but the sounds of music, we would even create our own dances. Now that was creative, not to mention shameless. 🙂
Parent tips for Creativity
Today’s kids have a lot more entertaining diversions inside. Television and video games have certainly contributed to children expressing their creative even less. When the television and video game are turned off, parents have several options for stimulating creativity:
- Invite your child to come up with ways to solve everyday problems
- Ask open-ended questions and . . . get this . . . show interest in their responses 🙂
- Refrain from judging your kids’ ideas
- Emphasize effort over results
Unfortunately, our schools don’t always have the time to nurture creativity during the school day. Many K-12 programs have even cut their art classes. In these situations, parents may consider volunteering at school and presenting a project or event that will stimulate creativity. What creative activities have you introduced to your child’s classroom or school? Please share your ideas, especially if you have kids in middle or high school. Many parents may reduce their involvement when our kids are in middle and high school, but I encourage parents to step it up then. That’s when our kids need us even more.
