Do you think it’s important for children to have creative and imaginative childhoods? Do you want to raise your child in an environment that supports his or her creative capacity? Here are some of this week’s best places to look for ideas that foster creative growth and kids.
Frog Design: The Four Secrets of Playtime that Foster Creative Kids
“When 85 percent of today’s companies searching for creative talent can’t find it, will more focus on standardized curriculum, testing, and memorization provide the skills an emergent workforce needs? Not likely. Play is our greatest natural resource.”
Wall Street Journal: A box? Or a spaceship? What makes kids creative
“To nurture creative skills at home, parents can invite children to come up with possible solutions for everyday problems, and listen to their ideas with respect, says Don Treffinger, president of the Center for Creative Learning, a Sarasota, Fla., consulting group. A child who notices that an ailing neighbor is snowed in might shovel her sidewalks, for example. A child who is troubled by photos of Haitian disaster victims might donate allowance money to a relief fund.”
WSJ Blog: Sparking Creativity in Your Kids
“With school holiday breaks looming, many parents will be racking their brains to come up with fun activities for their children while they are at home. This might be a good opportunity to nurture a little creativity in your kids…”
I think that last blurb says it all. Should it really be the parents racking their brains to come up with fun activities for the children? Shouldn’t the children be capable of (and allowed) to do that for themselves? While I am ALL for taking advantage of school breaks to do stuff with my kids I don’t normally have time for, because school sucks up so much of our time, I don’t see it as a week to dread because I’ve got to entertain them. I think the WSJ blog is approaching this topic completely backwards.
I hear you loud and clear! And I also see the need for this article, as I expect there are some parents who aren’t practiced at providing their children with opportunities for creative growth. How easy is it to turn on the TV or play video games? Children should be capable of guiding their own play, but if children don’t know how to get started (as was the little boy in the WSJ article, “A Box…”), parents could probably benefit from some tips on getting creative juices flowing.
Great roundup!
Thanks for the information. All of the stuff coming out lately about how kids are becoming less creative for the first time in our history has really got me thinking about encouraging imaginative play with my Christmas gifts this year.
My gift-giving has changed dramatically as well. Glad you found this useful 🙂
mwin6x Very true! Makes a change to see someone spell it out like that. 🙂
Thanks so much for the links – I liked the Frog Design article so much, I reposted it on my site (with a reference to you of course).
I know…what a good article! And thanks for the reference. I’m off to look around your site 🙂
oops and here’s the link – http://bedtimemonsters.blogspot.com/2010/12/things-to-do-magnatiles.html