Child Carers and Creative Children
As children grow and spend more time in schools, their ability for creative thinking is stifled and converted into a more linear way of thinking or solving problems. Schools commonly focus on learning by imitating or repeating, discouraging children from learning through experimenting, observing and imagining. For young children at child care centers, the time they spend interacting with other children and adults can teach them to harness and develop their creative thinking skills through games and creative thinking activities.
Childcare Professionals and Children Thinking Creatively
Childcare centers usually have the potential for offering more creative outlets for children. While parents may be busy with work and household duties, child carers can use their time with children to maximize creative thinking skills. Through learning activities for children and through guided discussions, a child carer can create a positive environment in which children feel safe to explore their creative thinking skills.
Tips for Child Carers to Encourage Creative Thinking Skills
- Provide plenty of creative aids and toys for children to use. Play dough, colorful paper and cardboard, paints,
Encouraging creativity is important
crayons, string, ribbon, child-friendly scissors and glue, toys that can be assembled over and over, building blocks, sand pits and sand toys: all these offer a range of possibilities for creative thinking activities.
- Play dress-up with children. Stock up on a collection of old hats, costume jewelery, character outfits (like pirates, witches, cartoon characters, etc), shoes and bags. This offers a chance for children to make up stories, create props and enact the characters.
- Allow children to choose books to be read aloud to them. Reading each character with a different voice or a cape/spectacles/hat not only entertains children, it allows for characters to talk to children and ask what to do next, or what happened before.
- Not all parents appreciate that their children are expressing themselves if they take home drawings of one-eyed animals or people with too many legs. For a child care professional, maintaining the fine balance between a child’s creative thinking skills and a parent’s approval can be tricky. However, when a child shows you a picture of a boy without a mouth, correcting it can mean stifling the child’s imagination. By saying “That’s a beautiful drawing! What does he like to eat?” a child is reminded to draw a mouth, and yet does not feel abashed about ‘making a mistake’. Talking to them as they draw or paint is also a chance to direct them to think creatively, or recall a memory or something they might already know so that they can utilize that information in their drawing.
- Encourage children to make decisions about their own creative thinking skills. When they come to ask for advice, turn the question back by asking them what they think it will look like. Providing answers immediately does not encourage imagination.
Every child has the ability of thinking creatively, and it demonstrates a unique personality difference in each individual. It allows them to solve problems in distinctive ways, or to observe problems in a new light. When one solution seems ineffective, a child with creative thinking abilities will search for another method. By encouraging a child to think creatively, he or she is equipped to deal with the world in multiple ways.
References:
- Creative Play Helps Children Grow – National Network for Child Care
- Stereotypes and Divergent Thinking – Goshen Education
- How to Promote Creative Thinking. Scholastic
- Fostering Academic Creativity in Gifted Children – Kidsource
