Encouraging Creativity in Young Children
"I must study politics and war that my sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. My sons ought to study mathematics and philosophy, geography, natural history, naval architecture, navigation, commerce and agriculture in order to give their children a right to study painting, poetry, music, architecture, statuary, tapestry, and porcelain."
—John Adams
As I write in Distinguish Between Your Child's Needs and Wants, you don't have to buy expensive toys for your child to be creative. You don't have to have a lot of toys, period. You do, however, need to give your children lots of experiences that encourage their minds to come up with interesting ideas.
My friend Lucy is a good example of a mother who does just that. She home schools her children and makes a weekly pilgrimage to the library, has read to two sons and a daughter almost from the time they were born. She may not have the cleanest living room on the block, but her children have created imaginative play there for hours on end. And when she takes a trip, there are always books on tape and lots of discussions about what they see along the way, with questions like, "What do you think the cows in that field are thinking?"
Other discussions might stem around the idea of how big a pie would have to be if you baked it with all the ingredients in your house. Or what would happen if you dug a big hole in the backyard and invited all your friends to climb inside? Or what would happen if you dug a big hole in your backyard and invited all your friends to climb inside and they couldn't get out? Or . . . well, you get the point. Lots of "what if's" stimulate the imagination.
The consequence of Lucy's efforts is that she has very creative children, and one of her methods of encouraging their creativity is to have them dictate stories which she then writes down. Once they are able to write by themselves, they have the added experience of learning to put their thoughts on paper. But when they are under six and not yet writing, the dictate method is great. It allows the parent to ask questions that encourage the child to go off in a new direction when she seems to be stuck.
When Lucy's youngest son, Carter, was two-and-a-half, he told a babysitter he wanted to write a story. She didn't write it down, but when Lucy and her husband returned home, they heard their son's first solo story:
“A mouse sat at the table. The End.”
Four years later, as part of a home schooling project, Lucy asked Carter and his brother, nine-and-a-half, to write a story about Christmas, choosing either one of the things they liked or something pretend. They both chose fiction and I am pleased to reprint Carter's stories with Lucy's permission.
I think you will agree the story demonstrates how a child, given lots of books and encouragement to be creative, can write stories that many parents are unable to come up with if they've had their creativity pushed out of them by role learning in school. (Incidentally, I am not making a comment here about home schooling, for I believe children can also be creative if they attend public schools, although it often takes concerted effort on the part of the parent, especially with the lack of many art and music programs. (See Instill in Your Child a Love of Learning.)
While there may be some correlation in the story to Carter's own life, with his older brother, Michael, and a younger sister, Rachel, he seems able to pull together lots of different experiences as his mind unravels a tale. In the interest of clarity, I must point out that the relationship between the chicken in this story and any real chicken living or dead is purely coincidental.
The Elf's Gift
One day, a young elf wished that he had a chicken. The elf was to have a lucky ring for Christmas and it was very strange. When the elf family woke up that Christmas morning, the young elf found a little box that held his lucky ring. And then he opened the box and said, “I hope this will grant me wishes.” And then he put the little ring on his finger, and, in a little while, he felt some pecking. And then he said, “Is this a chicken?” to himself. Then a chicken came off of his finger, and his big brother said, “Why is there a chicken standing right next to you?”
Then the young elf said, “Chicken, why are you standing right there, next to me?”
And the chicken said, “Why, it's the only place to stand, right now.” And the young elf's little sister said, “If we are to keep this chicken, where shall we put it?”
And then the young elf said to his big brother, “Where shall we?” And then the big brother elf said to his other little brother, “Where is that big matchbox that you own?”
And then the chicken said, “Why, I don't want to be burned to death in that big matchbox. In fact, I don't even think I would rather be burned to death in a little one.”
And then the big sister said, “Why, Jack,” (Jack is the big brother) “Why don't you explain that there won't be any leftover matches in the matchbox, for we wouldn't want to burn our house, would we?”
And then Jack, Sally, Jim, John, and Margaret all agreed.
And then Jim scurried back with the big matchbox.
The chicken ran into the matchbox. Then the chicken said, “If I'm going to be in here for a long time, I'm going to need some furniture, for I do not want to be squished to death, either.”
So Sally, Margaret, John, Jim, and Jack all went off for some furniture for the very wrong-sized chicken that was about the size of an elephant. While they were off they did not realize that one part of the chicken was slowly moving out of the matchbox. The head was coming out because, you know, you can't move backwards when you are a very wrong-sized chicken and you are about the size of an elephant.
The matchbox said, “Don't go out of me for I am getting a little comfortable with you inside of me.”
And then the oversized chicken said, “I shall have to move out of you before I move into you for, you remember that a very large thing cannot move backwards if it does not want to fall over, and I do not want to fall over.”
So the matchbox said, “OK, just get out of me and get back into me.” All the elf children came back with the furniture. And then Jack said, “How are we going to keep this chicken a secret, for our mom and dad never said that they wanted a chicken in the house.”
And then Sally said, “Well, I'll go tell them that there's a chicken in the house.” And then, she did.
She found that Mom was in the kitchen and Dad was in their bedroom, and said to herself, “Well, I will never get to say to both Mom and Dad, if Dad is in their bedroom and Mom is in the kitchen, for on one has ever jumped the long jump of the flight of stairs. Only the bus will get from the staircase to the other part of the staircase. Dad will never get to come back down if the bus is getting me, so I shall wait until Dad comes back down.
The End
The story could have gone on and on because Carter He really enjoys unexpected plot twists and had a lot of fun telling the story. But by this point the story had to end because Lucy, the scribe, was tired of writing and said, "Enough."
But I hope this gives you an idea of how you can encourage your child to tell stories, expanding his ability to build the creative pathways in his brain.
SIDEBAR TO ABOVE ARTICLE:
Listening to Picture Books Without Looking at the Pictures
Nancy Pekarek, who has eleven grandchildren, is the creator of Picture Books on the Radio.
She thought it would be great to have a radio program where someone read stories to kids while their mom or dad got dinner ready. She says, “The uniqueness is that the kids can't use their visual skills. They have to use their listening skills, and their pretend skills. We’re such a visual world now, I thought it would be a good balance."
Her program is on the low-power FM radio station WVLP in the Chicago suburb of Valparaiso, Indiana. However, if you're not in the vicinity, just try reading to your children stories without showing them the pictures. Ask them to imagine what the pictures would look like. Too many of these at one time would be boring, but one or two could stimulate their imagination and demonstrate that they don't have to be given examples of scenes before they can imagine them.
Having Squishy Fun
The Idea Box website has several fun activities that use touch as the main ingredient. such as Back to School Bus Cookies.
A Really Neat Website With Good Illustrated Books
If you have a fast speed connection, this site is your ticket to some really exciting reading experiences. As you may have noticed in the article on the left, the reading that Lucy does with her children is a prime ingredient in developing their creativity.
The International Children’s Digital Library website is designed by an intergenerational, interdisciplinary team, including researchers from the University of Maryland's Human-Computer Interaction Laboratory. On it you will find 611 books on everything from picture books to mythology and folk tales.
Lots of Real Cool Activites for Kids
Activity for kids is very important in growing up. There are differnet kids games including math games and other games that can encourage math help. Encourage your child to engage in activities that are good for learning.