Many busy parents really struggle for time or craft ideas for children. Not everyone has natural creativity so these tips will hopefully help.
- Using building blocks or construction kits, allow children to use their imagination (from books, films and friends)
- Never let your own skills take over from the children doing it (Although it can be tricky to resist temptation, its so much more fun watching the child do it, although be on hand to help if need be)
- Pretend play and dressing up games are great for younger children and spark natural creativity and imagination
- If you don’t want too much mess, then simple drawing pictures and colouring them in allow children to use their concentration skills as well as help their fine motor skills ( holding a pencil or using scissors) Many children can struggle with this when they are at school , so encouraging more will help.
- Dont be too strict with creativity – Having set rules on using colours for objects (ie – the grass is green, the sky is blue) can make the child bored easily. Allowing the child to have the freedom of what they are making , will spark so many great ideas)
- Scheduling in “creative time” into your week can be so much fun for both adults and children – whether its dancing to music, singing your favourite songs or painting pictures, having this creative time is so worthwhile.
- Having an “Art Box” or “Creative Cupboard” is a perfect solution to those rain days or bored moments – You can decide what to put in them too. So if you really don’t want anything too messy, then you can avoid paints and glitter and replace with pipe cleaners and puppets.
- Asking children questions about how things work and where they come from also helps a child’s creativity and ideas are all around – The cars we drive, the homes we live in, the things we eat and drink etc.
So whatever you are doing with your children, make sure time away from television and computers is filled with a little creativity
