I’m endlessly fascinated by children’s ability to create worlds full of amazing nooks and crannies. Mine can be lost for days roaming with dinosaurs or taking high-tea at parties or trekking in jungles or visiting with fairies or saving endangered species… on and on and on goes their childhood voyage.
I’ve written before about how important I think creativity is in life, so we do everything we can to nurture childhood imagination. Hoping against hope that we find a way to solidify these magical worlds so that they may remain with the tsunamis for life. Their rooms are havens for creating and all inventions are proudly displayed. Paints and pencils and glitter are always within easy reach (my carpets do not agree with this tactic). Within reason, the tsunamis are free to wander and explore their hearts’ desire. We talk about night dreams and day dreams and in-between dreams. We break up our routine and let our hair fly in the wind as often as we can.
Will this be enough? Will the expectations of schooling and society mean the tsunamis’ unique take on the world will be stifled and lost? What more can we do to help them stay in the vast, endless worlds they create for themselves?
Do you have any thoughts or suggestions for helping children hang onto their wondrous creativity? How do you nurture creativity in your own children, or even in yourself?
[Image]
Lucy says
Ahhh, lovely.
I am amazed at my three children and the burning need they have to create, in such different ways.
I love how they just start, as early as 6am, and that it is their focus. Lexie is up at 6am with paper and scissors (?!) and textas already on the go.
I love that Olivia (6) comes home from school and strips as she runs down the drive and dives straight to her “worktable” to immerse herself in wax crayons and paper, to relax. I can see the days routine and rules drain from her.
And I love that Charlie plans and executes with quiet ambition and no fuss. Then sits on his bed cross legged and reads his work.
Maxabella, thank you for helping me recall how gorgeous this creativity business is, in my children.
Sarah says
Lovely post on a subject close to my heart as a mum. I think the key is lots of free time – for them and my own creativity too. I must admit I have rules about play-dough staying at the table (a vain attempt to protect the carpets!) but I haven’t the heart to paint over some of the little crayon portraits that have appeared on the walls in little corners of our house!
In Real Life says
I love this! Creativity is so precious and so important! I try to preserve this quality in my children as well.
life in a pink fibro says
My boys also have wonderful adventures and LOVE dressing up, so we have a fair variety of bits and pieces around the place that can multi-task as your basic Jedi Knight/explorer/Ben 10/fireman/space ranger/knight… etc
Always the pens and paper. And Lego. I confess I hate the paint. I have it. I get it out. But I WISH they’d paint for more than five minutes once I’ve gone to all that effort. Still, I don’t say no. That counts, doesn’t it?
supremevision says
Hi there!! I am a new follower thanks to a comment you posted over at a dose of Dannie’s blog. So glad I stopped by. Your blog is great!! My own creativity gets stifled at times, but I try to make sure I do at least one thing that I deem creative each day. My children’s creativity astounds me to say the least. They are 18, 16, and 11 and I still see that twinkle in their eyes when they are using they’re imaginations. I have always stressed to them to enjoy just being a kid and all of the wonderful things that go along with childhood and it seems to have worked. My 11 year old is hard at work right now building a fort in his bedroom. I LOVE IT!! I’ll soon be going in to “man” my battle station. We’re battling renegade stuffed bunnies tonight!!
Little Ted Canvas says
I do love your posts! My kids spend all their waking hours (and probably their sleeping hours) imagining amazing & wonderful worlds. Their entire life is play, everyday full of adventure..and all in our very own backyard! I adore that my almost 9 year old lives in an imaginary world, exploring, creating & most importantly enjoying being a kid. Some of his friends parents say their boys just don’t do that anymore..surely there are a few good years of playtme left yet! I was still setting up my dressing table to be an enormous, divine castle for my barbie’s at 13…
Cat from Raspberry Rainbow says
Another lovely post. Do you ever sleep and turn off your mind?
I am noticing my little Miss 4 gets even more creative when she has seen me making things – she wants to copy what I am doing at first, then gets her confidence and does her own take and very own interpretation of it.
I am always astounded that other kinder mums say “wow, she creates the most amazing things” when I think what she is doing is completely normal. I guess she makes elaborate things, as she has the confidence to do so, and has been shown by me how to use so many different art supplies – or is it just her “creativity” shining through – we will never know π
Tenille says
I wonder about this too. I know from my own experiences that there is little room for creativity or something that is genuinely new in structure society. Just look at the ‘new’ music and movies we’re offered these days, one reproduction of something that worked in the past after another.
It’s wonderful that you’re nurturing the creativity of the tsunami’s, I think that is just about the best thing you can do. When Lil is a bit older, my hope is to expose her to as much that is genuinely new and different as possible, and hope that she resists the pussy-cat-beiber-diddy-cookie-cutter crap for as long as possible.
Foxglove Spires says
Maxabella, I believe for myself if I encouraging creativity and express it myself, letting her develop in her own unique way and at her own pass are some of the things I try to do with my little princess, giving her time to be herself and cherishing it!! I believe you can only follow what is deep in your heart, and leave the rest.
You seem to be doing a wonderful job though with your precious children giving them time to be themselves and wondrous opportunities to create.
Have a wonderful day. xxx
m.e (Cathie) says
wonderful post Maxabella!
I was actually thinking about this today & how as parents we need to nurture their creativity and allow them to be themselves.
I have always had craft stuff everywhere for them, I don’t care if the make a bit of a mess, I just want them to be kids as long as they can.
if they see it around them & are encouraged in a positive way I think it’ll stick with them forever.
they woke up this morning & started drawing first thing..I LOVE that ♥
happy day to you Ms Maxabella
♥
Corinne says
Fantastic post! Something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. I agree with the person who said ‘free time’. Lots of time to for kids to get bored and challenge their minds to entertain themselves really helps. We all need time to let our minds wander.
Reading great stories helps cultivate a wonderful imagination too.
I hope that I can encourage my girls to keep their imaginations alive. We spend a lot of time lost in imaginary worlds.
My eldest is doing an intensive swimming course at the moment as she’s had a fear of putting her head under water. She’s now really coming along. When my hubby asked her what she could see in the pool with her goggles, we got a five minute answer about fish and a mummy shark looking for her baby and a mermaid who came along to help look.
Gill@OurParklife says
awesome post! I feel very strongly about embracing the imagination of children…I have taught children, aged 4 and under, who struggle to “imagine” and to me it was such a sad thing…I used to work the hardest with these kids on little made up stories starring the particular child as the story’s hero…use to work quite well
I use this technique with my boys too…Passed on from my own mum, every night she would make up a little story and I think this did wonders for helping us stay creative in our thoughts..
Oh and taking “fairy walks” through the forest….asking the boys what they can hear….I think i love it even more than they do!
Mrs Woog says
Woogettes do not have a lot of toys and I think it is because they have a lot of imagination. I am arty and we create together. I am a kitchen disco queen, so everyone loves to dance. And this morning they spent hours in the backyard making up games. Only one ice pack was needed. xo
Gina says
I was a really creative child {and still am creative as an adult} and my parents just let me run with it.
My mom always tells stories about how I preferred to play alone in my imaginary worlds than have friends over…weird? Maybe a little, but it was fun!
Your children are lucky to have a mom like you that fosters creativity!
Jacki says
What a lovely post! I agree that it’s important to foster creativity and imagination in children as Albert Einstein said – it’s more important than knowledge!
Simply_Tea says
I definatly think it’s important for kids to stretch and use their imagination and creativity. I think encouraging their passion in whatever they like is a definate must! I wish my mum did that!
Posie Patchwork says
Oh yes, my 4 are hyper creative, they blow my mind. We talk about their memories all the time. I’ll just give you a low light – from when my 3rd girl was in Kindergarten. Her creativity at school came in the form of a huge princess castle (she is not princessy) with intricate detail. The teacher suggested we ask what the orange & red curtains are (she damn well knew what they were) & our little sweetheart said “that’s where the princesses are murdered & set on fire”. Oh nice creativity!!
Apart from that faux pas in creativity from the dark child, they live in a house with a massive handmade studio & have been babies sleeping to the hum of my sewing machine. They have all happily played at my feet with off cuts & played.
As for school craft, let’s say the car boot is in line with the recycling bin & there are only so many 5-cereal-box-dragons a house of 6 can keep.
Love Posie (will wave when i drive past you on Thursday)
Curvaceous Queen says
I sometimes think that we place too much emphasis on the physical act of creating and not enough on where creativity is born – the heart and mind.
When my eldest son was a little un we used to play a game where I would give him a random group of words and he would create the storyline to suit and then physically create the illustration to go with it.
To be creative you need to have imagination and vision.
What a beautiful post.
Heartfire At Home says
Hear, hear! Imagination is so, so important. As a primary school teacher who also dabbles in art, design, and singing/dancing (I perform in theatre), I love being able to encourage and nurture imagination, creativity, and invention in my students.
I think the way (apart from those above, which I’ve always done) I used to nurture my imagination as a child was through books and stories.
Reading stories, telling stories, listening to stories. I’m sure my imagination, my moral core, my ideas, my fascinations, my creativity, and many other things are all founded from my journeys through books when I was young.
Books can take us anywhere, show us what we can do, encourage us to create, and also (the good ones) give us a good moral example to follow (in my opinion). The classics all tended to have a message about what was ‘good’ and ‘right’… and I grew up drinking in book after book and learning the lessons they presented.
I was also a ‘rural’ kid, so playing outdoors took up my time until tea-time. Climbing trees, making cubbies, rolling down grassy hills, riding my bike for hours with my dog running alongside, feeling the sun and warm breeze in my face, finding natural objects to collect. No commercialized toys or expensive name brand items!
The thing I looked forward to spending my money on was books. Every Friday night (that’s when we went into town to shop), I got to go to the toy store, and I went straight to the carousel at the back where the books were….. oh how I loved them. I saved my money and bought nearly all the ‘Three Investigator’ and ‘Hardy Boy’ books, and some of the ‘Nancy Drew’ ones. (I was a tomboy and loved those adventure/mystery stories). Then it was the whole Narnia series. Then the Hobbit and The Lord of The Rings by grade 6!
When I was inside I spent my time drawing things from my books or from my travels outside… writing poetry inspired by my books, copying my favourite verses and illustrating them, or simply coming up with my own imaginative drawings and art after being inspired.
I guess what I’m saying is I firmly believe good children’s literature has a really important part to play in opening up kid’s imaginations even further and giving them wings to soar.
Linda. xox
PS: Just found your blog a few days ago and LOVE it!
Bron @ Baby Space says
I believe that if we make space for it, allow it and encourage it, our children’s creativity will continue to develop and grow as they do.
To be honest I don’t do anything special to hang on to creativity –We do the art stuff and the singing, dancing, reading, writing and playing…but that’s just having fun. Creativity threads through everything I guess.
Cool post…I shall go forth and ponder some more.
π
Jodie at Mummy Mayhem says
The 8yo loves to draw and write books. The 6yo can lose himself in his own world with his imagination. He’ll often drag the 3yo in to his world too, and they have a great time creating a world around them. The 3yo loves to colour and draw and glue and paint.
Hubby plays fun games with them. One is called “Hide from the aliens” – he’s the alien and they have to hide under the bed pillows and then he lifts them off as they scream and laugh. Then there’s ‘invisible spray’. He ‘sprays’ them all with the invisible spray, then they run around the house whilst he looks for them, using a blanket to throw on to them so he can see the outline of their bodies, before spraying them with the anti-invisible spray.
The boys LOVE it.
I love seeing them use their imagination. I was such an imaginative child – I’m still a daydreamer, so probably my boys will be too!
x
ClaireyH says
Fewer toys and not packing things up. Popps is sleeping in her tent bed she made on the weekend and our front room has the boxes from a new bed, will leave it there til I am sick of seeing it, then take it outside with some paint for foot prints or something. Just using what we have.
Naomi says
I don’t like to let school get in the way of the ‘real life training’ which happens at home and let the kids have a day off school every so often to do some fun activities as a family and to be creative in our relationships with each other {I hope that makes sense and comes across alright!} Naomi
Glen says
I’m not sure – would introducing them to “The Simpsons” help do you think?
Kelly says
I haven’t had to cross this bridge, as my kids have creativity in spades. But to show them that I support their imaginations, I make sure they are able to paint and draw and tell stories. I encourage their flights of fancy. At this point, I think it’s working. The teenage years will likely be much more difficult.
Kim H says
I so agree. It’s so important to encourage and allow for creativity to flourish in our children. That’s one (of many) reasons why I chose to homeschool my son. Not just replicating school at home though – we follow a natural learning approach (unschooling is another name for it). It’s so about honouring and encouraging children to be self-motivated learners. A huge part of that is creativity and not hindering it by insisting stopping and starting and ‘do this and do that’ type teaching rather it’s about encouraging children do follow their passions and creating an environment that is sensitive to that. Meanwhile, the adults in our children’s lives also get to us us following our passions alongside them. It’s really cool;)
fairchildstreet says
I be creative as well so hopefully my son will pick up that creativity never have to stop Charmaine
Louisa says
Freedom, space, laughter, encouragement and a few imaginative pointers along the way. I hope I never make Coco feel embarrassed about her make-believe games so that she has the confidence to continue enjoying them for as long as possible.
Melbourne Mumma says
Free time, the chance to be a kid before school and extra curricular activities kick in…less toys and more time outdoors just exploring…lots of drawing and reading and story-telling. My 4yo loves me reading Enid Blyton to him at the moment – I’m enjoying recounting the Magic Faraway Tree with him and all the lands that are up in the cloud above the tree.