Be sure to provide activities that are based on their interests.
Learn how to listen closely to what your children are saying or conversing.
Offer children a range of creative materials and experiences like drawing, painting, photography, music, trips to museums or zoos, working with clay, paper, wood, water and more.
Provide sufficient time for children to explore materials and pursue their ideas with those materials.
Don't forget to give them time to talk these ideas over with other people, both adults and children.
Look for ways to provide multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and other community experiences for children. The more variety of experiences children have in their lives, the wider their range of creative expression they achieve.
Let the child tell you about their creation rather than guessing.
Try not to judge, evaluate or compare one child's creative expression with another.
A little assistance and direction can be helpful, but be careful not to interfere with children’s creative explorations.
Encourage the children to make their own choices.
Give them frequent opportunities and lots of time to experience and explore expressive materials.
Show your support for the creative process by appreciating and offering assistance for the child's efforts without interrupting his/her ideas.
Try to foster or stimulate children's abilities to express themselves through play.
Helping children to express creativity:
Help children accept change-A child who becomes overly worried or upset in new situations may hinder his creative potential.
Help children realize that some problems have no easy answers. Make them realize that some problems may not be solved easily. Children should not become anxious when they cannot find immediate answers to a question or problem.
Help children recognize that many problems have a number of possible answers. Encourage them to search for more than one answer. Then they can evaluate all the different answers to see which one fits the best for the situation.
Help children learn to judge and accept their own feelings-Children should not feel guilty for having unique feelings about things.
Reward children for being creative. Let children know that their creative ideas are valued and recognized.
Help children feel joy in their creative productions and working through a problem- Children should enjoy doing things and finding answers themselves is fun.
Help children appreciate themselves for being different Children should learn to like themselves because they are unique.
Help children develop perseverance “Stick–to-activeness”. Help children by encouraging them to follow through. Provide chances for them to stick with an activity even if everyone else has moved on to something different.
Summary:
Creativity as a product. It is novel and useful
Creativity as a Process. It is divergent, yet productive
Creativity as an experience. It is subjective
It is inspired and immanent like a flash of insight.
A suggested definition of creative thinking is, ”the product has novelty and values for the thinker or the culture”
The thinking is conventional, highly motivated and persistent or of great intensity.
The task involves a clear formulation of an initially vague and unidentified problem” (Newell et al, 1962)
Participants