When you think of creativity and children, images of finger painting, craft, play dough and drawing generally come to mind. And of course arts and crafts are fabulous ways to inspire creativity in children. However, you can encourage your young children's creativity in less 'messy' ways by using questions and story telling.
A good question has the potential to inspire imagination and creative thinking. One way you can do this is to ask interesting questions while reading a book to your children. Ask age appropriate questions like –“ if you were this boy/girl, what would you do?” “Where do you think the sun goes at night?” “Why do you think the grandma feels sad?” or “what would you do to help your friend?”
By challenging your children with questions that invite them to consider new concepts and ideas you enable them to use their imagination and develop their creativity.
Another powerful way to inspire your children's creativity is to invite them to engage in story-telling. For older children, you can talk over some themes they might like to explore and leave them to type or write out their story. They may also like to illustrate their story. Recently a friend's child completed a children's story (words and illustrations) as an assignment for school. Our Cameron was given this story as a gift and he LOVES it!
As Cameron is young, we tell stories together. This is one of our rituals at bed time. Once we decide on a theme I generally make a start and then Cameron adds the next part. If he is stuck, I ask him a question to help him along. It is so much fun to see where his imagination goes. We have been doing this for years now, and as time goes by his stories have become more sophisticated and we have developed quite complex stories on some of his more popular themes.
Why not try questioning and story-telling with your children. It is fun, educational and helps your child develop their imagination and creativity.
Find out more in our Inspired Creativity E Book.
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