Why You Should Nurture Your Child’s Creativity And 7 Tips To Get You There

There’s not one parent out there who does not desire to raise a multi-talented child that’s an asset to himself, group, and family – you most definitely are one such parent with similar goals for your child, but it doesn’t happen by mere wishing. Every child is born with a creative streak that will manifest in form of curiosity and a need to explore and create using mud, paper or some other ingenious material or it could be in their actions and mannerisms.

Essentially, creativity is about ingenuity and unique approaches to doing things. In this part of the world, sometimes, unfortunately, parents downplay or completely efface this important aspect of  child development, thinking academic excellence is all their child needs to excel at.

The truth, however, is that when you shut down your child’s exploratory behaviour, you are doing a great disservice to yourself and them.

READ ALSO: How Nurturing Your Child’s Curiosity Improves Their Learning- Psychologist, Susan Engel

Please read on to see why nurturing your child’s curiosity is all that important and tips to help you grow their creative capabilities.

Why You Should Nurture Your Child’s Creativity

Although children have the innate skill to learn deeply and lastingly, deliberate and informed parenting is key to nurturing those gifts. Not understanding how to help your child harness their creative thinking abilities can very well stunt their cognitive wealth, their social-emotional development, and generally hamper their self-confidence.

Having established that, there are a few tips you can adopt to foster your child’s creativity; see 7 ways how you can achieve that below:

1. Spend Time Outdoors

It is all too common to have our children protected by the walls of our flats but spending time outdoors interacting with nature has endless benefits for child development, and is a key compeonent for the full development of the creative, emotional and social abilities of children.

Expose your child to nature’s inspiration, allow him draw in sand, make designs with twigs, build forts with branches, or simply lie on the ground and look up at the sky.

2. Give Them Free Space and Time

It would suffice if you just step aside and monitor your child as he plays with his peers or tries to build something on his own. While structured classes for extra-curricular activities are good, it is no less rewarding to allow your child figure things out and express their imagination on their own. just keep an eye on them for safety reasons but let them have fun exploring.

3. Encourage Ideas and Verbal Activities

Creativity is more than just artistic expression. People can be creative with math, science, computer coding, and every other endeavor. Being creative means coming up with a new idea or putting things together in a way that hasn’t been done before. You can encourage that kind of originality and creative thinking by sharing and building on ideas with your kids in different aspects of life.

Hold family brainstorming sessions and encourage everyone’s participation. Help kids see that sharing ideas isn’t scary. From rhymes to riddles, debates, and quizzes. Simultaneously, these activities build vocabulary and help your child learn phonics. These games are also the perfect and fun way to spend time in car rides.

4. Show Interest In Their Creative

Showing interest in your child’s creative endeavours without necessarily interfering is one way to encourage them and nurture their talents. Creative expression through art, for example, painting, moulding clay, drawing and similar activities provides a sense of freedom yet also encourages focus and concentration.

Art activities also develop fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Furthermore, art activities build confidence because children gain a sense of mastery over materials resulting in a new creation.

READ ALSO: 8 Reasons Why Too Much Daily Screen Time Is Dangerous To Your Child

5. Limit Screen Time

Although digital devices can provide endless hours of entertainment and can offer educational content, unlimited screen time can be harmful to the development to a  child’s mind and creativity.

The challenges presented by advances and wide availability of screen gadgets means nurturing imagination and parenting in the digital age will be even tougher.

Regulate your child’s screen time and encourage them to engage in play, and unstructured activities that will allow them to move their whole body, rather than fixated in one position watching content on gadgets.

6. Provide and Make Supplies Easily Accessible

Once you have identified the activities that interest your child, do well to invest and make easily accessible the materials that they need to get their creative minds and hands working.

7. Be An Example

By now, you probably already know that kids internalise what they see. Let them see you start and finish something new. Let them witness you enjoy your own creative process, the mistakes, and the victories.

8. Don’t Be Harsh

The biggest cheerleader a child can have is their own parent. How you speak to your child becomes their inner voice, so focus on kindness and positive feed backs. If you must make suggestions or additions, be nice and helpful. Always watch what you say and how you say it.