Much of the comedy that we keep seeing month after month can be easily attributed to the immense amounts of creativity kids have. It’s not just the idea that their lack of creative boundaries and experience allows them to think outside the box (any box, even multiple ones, really), but also because creativity is good for their development.
It is creativity that boosts the various degrees of development: problem solving, motor skills, encouraging curiosity and imagination.
Creativity is what supports mental growth through various challenges, divergent thinking through activities involving inquiry and reflection, development of sensory perception, verbal, coordination and attention skills, social skills through activities that involve different perspectives and values and understanding the needs of others. Oh, there’s more, but you probably get the point.
Besides the slew of developmental benefits, studies have shown that fostering creativity reduces stress levels by providing a distraction, which helps improve a child’s mood.
Creativity has also been proven to have a positive correlation to emotional intelligence. And speaking of emotions, it’s both the cause and effect of happiness in kids. Heck, it even opens up opportunities to explore one’s own identity.
Considering all of this, you bet the parents who shared all these anecdotes did a totes good job at parenting. These are likely the kind of parents who sparked and supported creativity by encouraging their kids to experiment, to not be afraid of a mess, embracing their artistic outlets without judgment, share in their joy of discovery, and allow for long, uninterrupted play.
Bored Panda got in touch with mother, preschool teacher, and the woman behind Stuff Tiny Humans Say, Kristen Varley, BPHE, RECE to learn more about creativity in children and how to best foster it.
Varley explains that the approach to encouraging tiny human creativity is boredom.
“Kids (or adults for that matter) don’t know how to be bored anymore. Advancements in technology have literally given us access to everything—anytime, anywhere—making the days of waiting gone, and the days of over-stimulation very much present. As adults, we wrestle to function when overstimulated, so how can we expect kids to explore creativity when everything is consistently quite literally at their fingertips?”
So, once all of the excess distraction is removed, creativity can begin. And quite easily, really. Varley explains that it’s only a matter of finding a topic that the children are interested in, throwing down some open-ended materials and creating an environment that invites exploration. This in turn will empower creative magic to happen. Or at least provide great potential for it.
When you hear a concept as simple as boredom, you’d think it would be easy. Well, as easy as parenting is in general, but it’s not without a way out!
“The biggest challenge in fostering creativity is simple: kids don’t like to be bored,” elaborates Varley. “My five-year-old literally rolls her eyes every time I say, ‘It’s good to be bored!’ following a complaint of boredom from her.”
“The best thing we can do as caregivers to support boredom and ultimately inspire creativity in our children is to model and become involved in the process ourselves. I get it, we’re a hardworking society with about a gazillion things on our plate, but if we want to foster creativity in our kids, we need to include ourselves in the process.”
