I hope that everybody reading my blogs by now has figured out that I’m super passionate about art and I’m also extremely passionate about Mental Health. Creativity, being artistic and having a healthy psyche really go hand in hand. That being said, having creative outlets for people of all ages is quite important and to be honest during the time we are living in, extremely necessary.
Most personality development happens within the first three years of a child’s life. The experiences and opportunities that we give them as well as their abilities to thrive and flourish are what make up who they are as adults. one of those necessary developmental skills is creativity. we must give them the opportunities and outlets to be creative, using their imagination, and fostering different types of artistic opportunities.
There’s so many types of creative outlets. There are some that are obvious. Like sketching, painting coloring and crafting. How many times do we see scissors that are for “starters” or different stages of the size and thickness of a pencil or crayon? Those are designed to foster the children’s developmental skills at different ages and abilities.
Children can also be encouraged to try handcrafted things like clay and stringing beads for a
necklace. Obviously you want to make sure that children are of an age where they don’t try to eat the materials they are working with but also at a young age and at a level where they can continue to develop their hand-eye coordination and fine and gross motor skills.
Engaging your young child and things like sports music and dance are also vital at this young age. When you see the youngest for three and four-year-olds trying to learn how to play soccer and every single kid on the field is chasing the ball around like a hive of bees you tend to laugh and think what is this all good for?
And to be honest it is good for a lot of things. Many of those things are hidden underneath the surface and not all of us understand the complexities of why “playing a sport” when they’re not really “playing the sport” is such a big deal.
At a young age I like to give kids very large pieces of paper, add very large thick crayons, pencils, and paint brushes that have a real thick body to them. They are good for children at this age.
Remember that we’re working on their fine motor skills and that the development of a child starts at their center torso and moves out words towards their fingers and toes so typically those of the last places on a child’s body that finishes developing.
Interlocking wooden blocks such as the very famous yellow brick that we all have come to know and love as Legos. Are also a really great option. Again they’re working on fine and gross motor skills but they’re also allowing a child to create what they see in their environment.
Make sure you’re setting aside time for your child to be working on these important creative and imaginative stages in their life. Set up a small table and chair somewhere in the corner of the house with a pile of supplies that they know that they can use anytime when they are looking for something to do.
You could also get creative with cooking and have them help you with mixing things by hand or possibly even making salt dough.
Check out one of my earlier blogs on how to make salt dough. Again the cookies are the bread that you’re making don’t have to look perfect. It’s about the process not the product!
Moving on to the next stage of children that need the developmental boost are tweens and teens. The materials, oddly enough, are still similar.
But their need for larger thickness of crayons and paint brushes has diminished and they can focus on their small fine motor skills here. Using a 10 x 10 canvas or even 4 x 4 canvas with smaller paints or with puff paint it has a fine tip that is a big draw for our more mature population.
At this age, tweens and teens are looking for opportunities for creative outlets like making things, building things or creating things, they’re looking for reading opportunities for the books really drawing their attention and helping foster their imagination.
Acting and singing are big on their list at this age so finding a creative outlet for them to participate in a theater group either at their school or through a community center is vital. A new to the scene is video editing.
This isn’t like making a Tik-Tok video this is like pulling out a semi professional video editing program (iPhones have this installed on their phones when you get them) is another opportunity for them to express their creativity and show their imaginative skills
If your kids are stuck trying to figure out ways to express their creativity or enhance their
imaginative skills. Expose them to as many opportunities as you can! This is much easier to do when they’re younger and you can kind of take them around in the car and force them to go to things.
As the parent of an 18 year old I completely feel you when it comes to trying to get a 16 year old to get off the couch or out of their bed take off the hoodie from their face and put their phone back in their pocket.
But finding these opportunities is extremely important so keep trying! Perhaps one suggestion will work one day when it didn’t work for the last 3 weeks or 3 months or 3 years. Lol
If you’re looking for help online there’s a site called Common Sense Media which has an Essential Creativity Guide that has basically an index on all the websites and apps that help Foster creativity for your kids. You can even sort it by age!
However if your kids are already on Tik-Tok and Instagram it is more than likely that they have been looking at and seeing various types of videos that are teaching them how to do different creative things.
Take a few minutes to ask them what they’re looking at and what they see and if there’s something that they’ve been eyeing for a while that they’d like to try. Be open to trying new things together and be open to laughing at your epic failures as well as celebrating your successes!
Take a chance on creating and fostering more imagination in your child’s life. Stop saying to yourself and to them that you’re not creative or you’re not artistic. Just say let’s try, let’s explore, let’s check this out.
You’ll be surprised at how much fun you have and possibly even impress yourself on what you were able to accomplish. Happy crafting!