November 16, 2018

GIVE THE GIFT OF CREATIVITY THIS CHRISTMAS!

Creativity can help children gain skills which extend well beyond the craft room. One way to foster creativity in your children is with play through arts and crafts. As young children learn how to manipulate a paintbrush, they are developing their fine motor skills. They learn math basics by counting pieces and colours and have their first taste in science as they experiment with materials.

Here are 4 tips to inspire creativity in your little ones:

Remember that it will get messy – and allow it!

Arts and crafts can be a very messy process – you just have to prepare for it! Have a dedicated art area for your children to experiment freely with paint, clay and glue. Encourage them to express themselves and try to avoid giving too much direction – you’ll be fascinated with where their imagination can take them!
Embrace Mistakes

Facilitate exploration and wonder in your children by allowing them to produce their own ideas and solutions. Purple skies and blue dogs? The result may not make sense but try to embrace the uncommon and you’ll be helping them think outside the box.
Have a wide variety of craft supplies ready

Paper, crayons, paints, brushes, twine, glitter – allow free reign with the supplies and have them readily – and easily – accessible for those spur-of-the-moment bursts of creativity!
Focus on their efforts instead of the outcomes

We already know that the results of a child’s imagination may not make any sense to us so how do we encourage what we don’t understand? Focus on the process and their efforts despite the outcome. Young children don’t always think of their artwork as representational, why not get them to tell you about their artwork in their own words instead?