Encouraging your child's creativity is a wonderful way to help them develop motor skills, process emotions, think creatively, and express themselves artistically. Whether you're after a rainy day indoor activity, or something for the kids to do outdoors, looking to use traditional artistic mediums, or seeking a creative physical and mental challenge, here are some great ideas to get you started.
Encourage your children to find additional uses for household items by creating
pasta art. You can include all sorts of household odds and ends such as cotton wool, and aluminum foil, and add in traditional art supplies like construction paper, paints, crayons, fabric scraps, wool, and of course, glue. Pasta art can be made on a flat surface or turned into a three dimensional construction. Your children will constantly be thinking of new and creative ways to put these items together.
Create an
obstacle course in your yard or local park. You don't need anything fancy to get started, just look around the house. Balloons, hula hoops, tubs, balls, and wooden ladders are just a few of the items you can use to get your children using their creative thinking skills to navigate through your course. This is a great group activity, so feel free to get the neighborhood involved.
Have your child
create their own superhero. All good superheroes need a name, a secret identity, a costume, and of course, super powers. Once your child has chosen his or her alter ego, help them put together a costume, and create endless hours of fun as your new hero battles it out against the forces of evil,
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Encourage your child to
paint or draw their emotions. Encourage them to explain why certain feelings remind them of particular colors or shapes. Have them color a simple body silouhette to see whether they experience emotions differently in different parts of their own body, or give them some crayons or paints and create something more abstract. This can be a very useful tool in encouraging children to deal with their emotions in a positive and creative way.
Pull out the crayons, break out some music, and
watch your children create. Ask your child what colors, shapes, and themes the music brings to mind, and have them draw what they are feeling. This project works well with children of all ages and will encourage them to think about the ways in which different senses can be connected.
Send your children on a
scavenger hunt. Watch them use the creativity and critical thinking skills to decipher your clues and find the objects you've hidden. You can hide toys, art supplies, or sports equipment, and have your child complete a task using the hidden object before giving them the next clue.
