Kids Art Projects
I think one of the best ways to foster creativity in your preschool children is to be able to communicate with them as a parent. An example to begin with is if you take your preschooler to the zoo and a hippo is in the pool – ask the child what it notices about the eyes and skin, can your child describe what the skin looks like?
Encourage your child to use the senses imagine what skin would feel like? Can you and your child together describe what the hippo smells like? Can your child hear what sound it makes? Asking your child to describe all these first observations develops what is known as ‘descriptive skills’.
What we are trying to do as parents is encourage your child to think and verbalize their thoughts. This means we should always be open ended and flexible as a parents not constricting ourselves to one right answer.
Returning to the hippo example we can also foster ‘numeracy skills’ in our children. What else does your your child know in its world that is comparable to what it’s seeing right now? How many eyes does a hippo have and how many eyes do you or I have? How many legs do you think they have and how many do we have? How many tails does it have and how many do we have?
Suddenly, your trip to the zoo becomes quite magical and can branch into so many different creative directions. This is dependent on your ability as a parent to use your intelligence and brighten up any experience for your child. Maybe there is a man who feeds the hippo? Can we talk to him? This increases ‘research skills’ in your child. If no zoo staff can be asked – questions like what do you think the hippo eats? Can be taken from the zoo back home to research on internet sites such as Wikipedia and Google. Use all other resources available including libraries and museums.
Also once home, a good idea is to call Grandmother or Auntie and let your child tell her all about the hippo at the zoo. This encourages ‘communication and recall skills’ in your child.
Ira Griffiths is a teacher with an MA in Education – her thesis was specifically on nurturing creativity in gifted children.
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