Cynthhia MacGregor
Do you do everything you can to help your child exercise his or her "creativity muscles"? Of course, there are no such actual muscles as these, but, just as with real muscles, creativity needs to be exercised frequently in order to be strong and healthy.
Perhaps you think your child won't need to be creative because your aspirations for him are outside the traditionally creative fields. You don't think you're raising a future artist or writer; your child is going to be a business executive, a politician, a doctor, or a scientist.
But wait! Don't you think some fair amount of creativity is needed in those fields too?! The business executive looking for new ways to motivate his or her workers, new products to market to the public (or new strategies for marketing existing products), or ways to save money without cutting corners will need a healthy dose of creativity to accomplish her goals. The politician who wishes to rise to the top needs to think "outside the box" in his dealings with both his constituents and his fellow politicians... and that, too, calls for creative thinking. The doctor who thinks up new and workable ways to motivate her patients to lose weight, quit smoking, and live healthily, and the scientist whose inventions cure a disease, propel humankind to Mars and beyond, or result in an indestructible synthetic fabric has used a great deal of creativity to arrive at his felicitous results.
Betcha they all were creative as children... whether that creativity took the form of writing stories, acting in plays, drawing pictures of phenomenal creatures never seen in real life by the human eye, or playing some sort of make-believe games.
Make-believe games are a good creativity exercise. I'm not putting the knock on non-violent electronic games or old-fashioned boxed games, which certainly have their place, but... talk about boxed games... when's the last time you gave your child a box to play with? No, not the size of box that a boxed game comes in. I'm thinking more like... refrigerator-sized. Or if not quite that large, at least a carton large enough that he can fit himself inside it. Only his imagination will limit what that box can become: a house, a spaceship, a fort, a schoolhouse, a race car, a dump truck, a submarine?
Such imaginative play as that definitely classifies as "creative." Anything that prompts your child to use her imagination is a boon to stretching her "creativity muscles." But of course, playing "pretend" games is not the only way to exercise your child's creativity. How about writing stories?
If your child is too young to literally write the stories - that is, he doesn't yet write, or perhaps is in first grade and needs help spelling anything much beyond "C-A-T" and "D-O-G" - he can always dictate his story to you (or record it on an inexpensive tape recorder, which you likely may have around the house). You can even make his storytelling a bedtime activity: Some nights, instead of your reading a story to him, ask him to tell a story to you for a change. Even if you don't write down his creations, his simply telling them aloud to you is valuable as a creativity exercise (not to mention its value as a settle-down activity at bedtime). And oral storytelling has a rich history in American tradition. Many of the famous American tall tales - the legends of Mike Fink, Paul Bunyan, and Pecos Bill, for example - were passed from storyteller to listener for a long time before they were captured in print.
Which brings me to the thought that, if your child asks, "What should I make up a story about?" you could offer the suggestion that he invent a tall tale. If he's already familiar with one of the legendary tall tale heroes, he can spin a yarn about one of them. If not - or even if he is - he can invent his own hero. Or he can be the hero, inventing a whopper of a tale about the time he climbed a tree taller than Jack's beanstalk and, up above a puffy cloud, he found... what?
If tall tales aren't among your child's interest in stories, and she can't think of an original plot to write a story about, suggest that she spin a story about a character she's already familiar with. If you've read Peter Pan to her, maybe she'd like to dream up another adventure the Lost Boys had in Never-Neverland before they returned to England and the Darling household. Or what about Cinderella? We know she and the prince "lived happily ever after," but surely there's more to the story than that! How about a story that features the offspring of one of your child's favorite characters - again, Cinderella comes to mind as an example. Did she and Prince Charming have kids? What were their names? What sort of adventures did they have? But children of the characters she knows aren't the only possible stars for a sequel. What happened to the three little pigs after they eliminated the wolf from their lives? And when Mary Poppins left the Banks household, whose doorstep did she land on next? If your child can't create a story out of whole cloth, surely she can write some sort of sequel to a story she's already familiar with.
But of course, storytelling isn't the only form of writing. How about suggesting that your child put on a play? Or a puppet show? Even if she merely tells a familiar tale in her own words, putting on her version of Beauty and the Beast or Goldilocks and the Three Bears, she'll be using those "creativity muscles" to do so.
And if he simply isn't a writer, or an actor, he can illustrate a story. Suggest that he draw his own illustrations for a story he knows well.
If he's old enough for poetry, ask him to write a limerick or simply some doggerel verse. Or song lyrics. Is he a bit older and musically inclined? Maybe he can write a simple tune... or both the words and the music for a song.
Then there are slogans: Ask her to write a slogan for a bumpersticker or a "button" (of the sort you pin on and wear). It could promote a cause or a class president candidate, or it could be just for fun.
Do you have a budding inventor on your hands? Suggest that she think of some great helpful device. Never mind if it isn't practical or feasible. At this stage, you're not trying to get her to invent something legitimately patentable, just to exercise her creativity muscles. Or, on a slightly less ambitious note, get her to design clothing ("tween"-age girls love this one!) or even design a house!
And speaking of designing houses, how about asking him to draw picture of his dream house? Tell him it doesn't have to be something that could really be built. The sky's the limit. If his dream house has a brook running right through the middle of it, so he can go fishing on rainy days without leaving the house and getting wet in the rain, or it has a retractable roof so he can sunbathe in the attic, why not? That's creative!
Here's another idea for creativity of a type other than writing: Suggest that your child devise a new game. (Kids have been doing that since half-past forever.) It could be a new board game, a new type of race (relay race, sack race, three-legged race, potato race, and... ?), a new ball game, or some other type of game entirely.
Or ask him to imagine a whole new animal, one that's never been seen before. What will it look like? (He can describe it in words, draw a picture of it, or both.) What does this animal eat? What sound does it make? Where does it live? (In the deepest jungle? Under the Arctic ice? On Mars? Underground? Deep in a vast, hidden cave?) What is he going to name this animal? What else can he tell you about it?
There are many ways to stretch your child's "creativity muscles," but as I said earlier, creativity needs to be exercised or, like any real muscle, it's in danger of atrophying. Your child will be more successful in most any career - and be a more interesting person in his social life, too - if he's creative. So guide him into exercising his creativity regularly. The rewards are manifold... and the exercises are so much fun!
Author of over 50 published books (and still going strong), Cynthia MacGregor writes on many subjects, but the majority of her books are aimed either at parents or at kids. Some of her books tackle "difficult" topics, such as two books written for kids that explain divorce and one that deals with stepfamilies, one for little kids that explains death, and another for little kids that explain's Mom's new pregnancy. But she also writes on happier subjects, as in The "I Love You" Book, and with a sense of humor when it's called for, as in What Do You Know About Manners? A former New Yorker, Cynthia has lived in South Florida since 1984
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