Today, Daniela Baker from the consumer credit education website, CreditDonkey shares some easy-to-do activities that will help develop the creative side of your child.  Enjoy!  ~EMP

It is important for parents to understand that physical development and cognitive development do not occur at the same rate.  While physical development may progress over a period of years, creativity peaks during the early childhood.  As the parent of a young child, it can be exciting to know that you are witnessing the most creative period of his or her life! Creativity is shown by your child’s ability to take current information and make new connections. This differs from knowledge which is the process by which we store information for future use.

According to Arlene F. Harder, MA, MFT, in her book Distinguish Between Your Child’s Needs and Wants, it is not necessary to buy expensive toys to develop creativity in your child. However, you do need to provide your child with a rich diversity of experience that encourages them to develop creativity in different areas.  Creativity takes many forms: art, dance, music, writing and it is important to expose your child to each so they may learn where their special talents lie.

Ask open-ended questions.  When your 2 or 3 year old toddler asks a question, resist the temptation to provide a direct answer. In many cases, your child has already developed their own theory so reply with an open-ended question, such as “What do you think is the best way?” or “Why do you think that happened?” His or her answer may be right on target or be a theory based on some combination of their past experience Keep in mind that the logic of children may wander way off course but this is to be appreciated and enjoyed as it provides you a wonderful window into their thinking process as they develop the cognitive skill of cause and effect.

Encourage Creative Thinking. When you have time during the day, show your child an everyday object and ask how this could be used in different ways. For example, a cup can be used to drink milk, hold pennies, or be even act as a flower pot!  This activity encourages your child to apply creative thinking to common objects and events in their daily lives.

Read Stories. Dr. Seuss’ Cat-in-the-Hat series is one of the most beloved children’s stories of all time.  Who else but Dr. Seuss can make “green eggs and ham” sound like a delicious breakfast? The idea of Green Eggs and Ham expanded into a sixty page story teaches your child how to think-outside-the box and make connections to one central idea.

Engage in Dramatic Play. Dramatic play provides an opportunity for your child to take internalized thoughts and act them out in social situations. For dramatic play between parents and children, ask your child to tell you a story and then act it out among family members Expect that your child will take the director’s role and change the scenario as s/he watches their ideas come to life. Act out all new versions so your child can see how their different ideas play-out in the “real-world.”

Make some music.  All children love to make music with unusual items! For example, place some pennies in a empty soda can for home-made castanets. Alternatively,  turn over some Tupperware for a fun drum set. Have the whole family join each with each member playing a different instrument.”

Engage in art-based activities. Art activities are the classic means to develop creativity in children. The activity needs to focus on the process, not the product. Encourage your child to combine material in unique ways. The following are some ideas for children of different ages:

• Provide a two year old with pre-cut shapes such as squares, rectangles, and triangles made out of multi-colored construction paper which they can the glue together an a large piece of cardboard.
• Provide a three-year old with a mound of play dough which they may shape and offer some raisins, cheerios, marshmallows, and jellybeans to stick into it.
• Provide a four-year old with different color ribbon from which they may create flags or banners.
• Give a five year old a collection of pre-cute magazine picture and have him glue the pictures together into a montage.

Each of these activities focuses on the process of creating, rather than the materials used to create. This is an important distinction because what a child learns about their abilities while exploring and engaging in creative activity is an invaluable learning tool.

Photo Credit, girl drawing.  Photo Credit kids playing music.

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I’m completing a online wellness challenge through my school’s health insurance.  Overall, I’m logging in my time exercising each day and weight each week, but each week there is also some other challenge.  One week it was to eat up to 9 servings of fruits and veggies, the next it was to keep a food journal and this week it is to stretch for at least 15 minutes each day.

Now, you may already know that I am a big fan of teachers taking care of themselves so that they can do the best job they can.  Usually my message is to feed your own creative side – get inspired, so you can be inspiring!  But I also believe this to be true with health.

While there are many things you can do on your own: join a gym, do an exercise video, go for a run, join a support/weight loss group; there’s one venue that’s right in front of you every day – your classroom!

One of my favorite things to do with my class is to move our bodies.  We do things like jumping jacks, slow motion “high knees”, shoulder rolls and stretching.   You may be able to imagine their surprise near the beginning of the year, when I first ask them to, “Stand up and put your chairs in.”  Our little, crowded room becomes a make-shift gym.  We do things that are as quiet as possible, (we work in a modified open concept school), and don’t take up a lot of space.  The kids usually love it!

This past week, during my own challenge to stretch for 15 minutes, I made the same challenge to my students.  In class, we are able to get 5-10 minutes done, usually in increments of 3-5 minutes throughout the day, and then the students write in their planner what time is remaining for them to do at home.

So far, about 90% of the class claims to be keeping up with the challenge.  I think it’s great!  My hope is to continue with these challenges that show the importance of exercise and health and start to build a feeling of independent responsibility to stay healthy and take care of our bodies.

In essence, our class has become a mini workout group.  It’s good for the kids and it’s good for me too!

Do you use movement and exercise in your classroom?  Would you want to?  Please share!

~EMP

image from www.valdosta.edu/~kfrucker/

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Last night I felt like such a VIP!  I was one of only 300 people to attend the Google event in Philly at the Museum of Natural History during the ISTE conference.  Now 300 people may sound like a lot, but out of the nearly 11,000 people here at the conference, I’d say that’s pretty exclusive!    hehe… (Actually it’s because I signed up early and didn’t procrastinate this time!)

Regardless, anyone who was there, would have felt special because of the type of party they put on.  It’s not just about the fancy, way cool food that was passed around  (or the drinks!), but because of the little things – the creative things!

They set the scene right from the beginning.  After you checked in, you were given a blank name tag and are were told to decorate it.  Behind the check in station were high top tables filled with markers, stickers and stamps at our disposal, and adults (all educators) stood there excitedly designing their own badge.

After grabbing a drink from the open bar, we were free to roam the dinosaur bones and the preserved wild-life, but if you walked just a little further (before the butterfly sanctuary) you saw a display that acted like an open invitation to create – two large murals with the Google lettering and tables at each end covered with markers, stickers and lots of paints.  People gravitated to it and added their own “2 cents”  of color as they made designs in the letters or decorated around them or threw on some splashes of paint here and there.

At the heart of the event was the ever present rhythm coming from the DJ who kept spinning vinyl throughout.  There were a lot of heads bobbing as they walked from display to display and a few hands in the air as a small group shuffled through the dance floor.  Eventually, people started to dance and by about half way through, it was a full out dance party!  YAY!

Now these may seem like small things, but those are the ones that are the most effective.  I mean, how often do we get asked to design something like a name tag or create a community piece of art work?  When was the last time you went dancing or allowed yourself to get a little crazy moving to the music?  (Just the other day I was saying to one of my girlfriends that it is due time to go out dancin’!)

Point is that we need time to create in all forms; time to let loose and poke a few boxes (or a few fingers in the air to a pumpin’ rhythm.)

I hope you are able to do some creative things soon: small or large.  We owe it to our creative spirits!

~EMP

Want to get your creative juices flowing this summer?  Join us for the Teacher Art Retreat this summer!  Super Early Bird registration ends July1st.

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Ever sit with an object and tried to figure out all the things it could do?  What noises it could make…  How it could move…  What you could pick up with it…  Then you’ve experienced “poking a box.”

Ever take a camera and shoot a photo of the same thing multiple times?  What angle should you go with…  What setting will work…  What background would be best…  Then you’ve experienced “poking a box.”

Seth Godin’s new book “Poke the Box” is an inspirational plea to society to get creative and get moving.  If you are to change successfully or move ahead, you need to poke the box a little bit.

As I am reading this ebook on my Kindle, I can’t help but think of how this relates to creativity in education and in learning for our students.  Wouldn’t it be great to allow our students box poking time?

I’m thinking of when I introduce percussion instruments to my students as we gather together in a circle for our first experience in a drum circle.  I invite them to try out all the sounds their instrument makes and then share with the class.  This could be the beginning of box poking.

I’m thinking of science lessons where students are expected to conduct an experiment.  Often the experiment is prescribed for them already with a procedure.  What if I allowed students time to explore the materials they have and poke the box a little before designing their own?  Or even if they then did the prescribed experiment, it may mean more after giving them structured free time.

There is a magical element here of creativity in a framework, freedom in structure too.  You may have certain limits, but you are free to explore.

Free to play.  We learn so much when we play…

I guess that’s part of what I’m doing this summer myself with the Teacher Art Retreat…I’m poking the box and seeing what happens when I organize time for teachers to get together and create things, to explore materials and art forms, to play, and to poke a few boxes of their own.

~EMP

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The Flame has long been an image I hold dear. It is a symbol of creativity to me. Months ago I wrote a post about how I found that flame. It is called Feed Your Flame.  In it I describe how painting the image and ultimately dancing the image of a flame helped me to realize how we all have this inside of us – that creativity that is yearning to be fed.

The flame became an image I kept going back to: a collection of swirling red lines, always changing, always growing…  And so when it became my turn to express my journey not just in words on a paper but more deeply through an art form, I danced with my own flame (a red veil) and together we showed the story of how my flame had been fed through the arts.

Our choice, of course is to feed our flame or not.

Yesterday, after school, I took my son into our school’s music room.  I was supposed to be meeting with someone, but at the last minute, our meeting was postponed.  My five-year-old son Zach, however, asked if we could still go and play for a little while.  I couldn’t resist his cute little smile, so I said, “Sure, but only for 10 minutes.”

When we walked into the room, Zach lit up!  He loves the music room and I allow him to use certain instruments (with the music teacher’s permission, of course).  He has, after all been trained in the proper use of instruments.    He immediately grabbed some mallets and started making music on the xylophone.

I stood for a moment, wondering to myself, “What can I get done in 10 minutes while I’m here?”  I thought about turning on the room’s computer and surfing, taking out my date book and flipping, calling someone and chatting, taking out some papers and correcting… but then I saw the piano: wide open, keys exposed, sheet music out, bench pushed back, calling me to it and I sat down.

At a turtle’s pace I played what was in front of me.  Slowly it came back and those 10 minutes sped by.  Another song – another 5 minutes.   Let me flip through this book – another 5 minutes.  I was having fun.  Then I looked at the time.  It was definitely time to go.

As we left the room, making sure all was back in place, I looked over at the piano and realized that its being open and ready is how it remains “back in place.”  At home, my piano is closed, sheet music is closed, bench is pushed in.  That needs to change!

For a short time, I allowed myself to feed my flame again. And it felt good!  Every so often I need that reminder.  Don’t you?

~EMP

This summer I am excited to be organizing a Teacher ART Retreat built to feed teachers’ flames.  Save these dates: August 15-17, 2011.  More information will be coming next week!

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Today,  Renée Peña joins us as a guest blogger sharing her expertise in the importance of play.  She has some great suggestions of how to incorporate play into our daily lives with children.  So, please read, enjoy and share your suggestions too!   You can follow Renée on Twitter @enrichingkids. ~EMP

Someone once said: “Play is the beginning of knowledge.” Recently, I hosted a Twitter Party on the importance of play. My reason for hosting the party was to start a conversation on why play is important in our lives.  As we tweeted we were all in agreement that play is an important life skill.  It helps us with our problem solving and language development.

As a preschool teacher and owner of an enriching babysitting service, Creative Sitters, I have seen many parents who are concerned about their children, worried that their lives were being over scheduled.  They fear that their child is missing out on their childhood but feared even more that their child would be behind academically. Understandably so as the National Standards are higher and based on test results that decide your child’s future, thanks to tracking.

So then what is parent, teacher, and child to do about the importance of play in our chaotic lives?  Try to integrate it in our daily lives as my sitters do with the children they sit for.  But how in our busy lives do we integrate it into our daily routine?  I would like you to consider the following list:

1. Schedule playtime in your calendar and make it a point to follow through. The first thing, as they always say is being aware.

2. Make homework time fun and interactive by making the lesson come alive for your child.

3. Take a walk and turn it into a I spy or treasure hunt (everyone loves making a silly pirate accent.)

4. Create your own art gallery out of everyday objects.

5. Make up your own language with your child.

6.  Use your camera to take pictures of what you view as interesting along your journey to school with your child.  And later create a slide show to show the rest of the family.

7. Tell a story with your child. You can start it and the child can finish the ending of the story. This can be done through pictures as well as words.

8. Make shopping a joy by creating a fantasy world. For example, tell your child that you are getting ready for a ball and have to shop for everyone in the kingdom.  “So what meals shall we chose for the ball?”

9. If your child is old enough, have them join you in the kitchen as your sous chef.  Cooking is a great version of play and has such a yummy result.

10. Laugh at mistakes, use them as a learning tool of play to solve the issue at hand.

Looking forward to reading your comments and hearing your suggestions too.

Happy Playtime, Everyone!

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