As a parent, you want what’s best for your child. Everything from getting good grades in school, to making plenty of friends, to regular trips to the dentist is on your parental checklist. While all of this is well and good, there is one thing that many parents do not pay nearly enough attention to when their children are growing up, and that thing is creativity. Encouraging creativity in your child can lead to a lifetime of fulfilling inspiration that can help them in so many aspects of their life. Creativity is a beautiful gift that can enrich the lives of so many, so you should do all you can to bring it out in your children! Here are some great tips for raising a creative child.
Encourage Unique Choices
If your child shows you their colouring book and you see that they’ve coloured some grass blue, or a cow pink, or any other unusual combination, you should always tell them what a good job they have done. Behaviour like this is the first step to thinking outside the box, and can start your child on the path to creativity.
Let them be Inquisitive
Always encourage your kids to ask questions and never get annoyed if they ask too many. Sure, sometimes you may not want to deal with so many questions, but encouraging inquisitiveness is a great way to start your kids early as free-thinking individuals that question why things are the way they are.
Let them Explore Nature
Having your children spend time outside is a great way to encourage creativity. Digging through dirt to find bugs and rocks, or picking out shapes in the clouds is a great way to expose them to all the world has to offer. After all, is there anything more inspiring than nature?
Expose them to Music
Music is a wonderful way to foster creativity in your child. Try making rhythm, harmony, and melody a part of your child’s everyday life. Encourage them to dance, play games that involve music, or buy them their very own musical instrument to start practicing on.
Act out Stories
Don’t just read your child stories, try acting them out! This is a great way to get your children to use their imaginations, and also a perfectly reasonable excuse for you to act like a kid again. Putting together makeshift costumes and using props will make acting out stories even more fun and imaginative.
Boost their Confidence
Children love to be praised for their actions, so you should take every chance you can get to tell your kids that they’re awesome. Tell them that the picture they drew looks great, or that the silly song they made up sounds wonderful. Filling your children with confidence early on is going to help them be creative in the future without fear.
Be a Creative Role Model
At the end of the day, your children are going to look to you to set an example. By being creative yourself and sharing that creativity with your child, you are letting them know it’s ok to be creative and think outside the box. Seeing their parents express themselves creatively is going to make kids much more comfortable when they do the same.