What IS Creative To You

Being creative seems to be a great way to not only have fun but to reach out and want more out of life as well. Skills of creativity can also help encourage others as well as make one want to do more for their himself as well. Creativity can help in areas of

• problem solving
• communication
• stress relief
• brain function

“The brain can be developed just as a set of muscles.” ~Thomas Edison

It has long been believed that creativity was something you were born with and inherited from your family. Since that time the belief that parents can help strengthen children's creative abilities has long been stressed. Some things that parents can do to help children build upon their creativity are to

• provide unstructured playtime allowing children to create their own activity
• Keep blank paper, crayons, markers, glue stick and other simple supplies on hand
• Get out in nature, visit the park, or simply outside 

Even in every day life we can help our children to be creative in what they do. Allowing them to make some mistakes can help them learn from them. Remind them that everyone makes mistakes and if they were put in the same spot what would they do differently?? 

Remember that messes happen. Simply enter my grand-kids area of the home and you will find legos, slime, arts and crafts , and lots of other things that are easy to make a mess with. Allowing them to make a mess will help build their creativity, having them help or to do the cleanup after they are done will also build responsibility. 

Sometimes when things do not turn out just like we want them to emotions can show. Our children do the same thing. The next time that they create something even if it is not as well as they can do offer them a bit of praise. Allow them to feel special as well by offering them applause when they do something they have been working hard on to get done and finally complete it