The Importance of Creativity for Children

Through the eyes of a child, the world is full of possibilities. You can be a pirate, sailing to undiscovered worlds. You can be a doctor, caring for your stuffed bunny with only one good eye. You can be a master builder creating spaceships, forts, and whole cities all with the click of a block.

We need creativity and imaginative thinking present in our children’s lives because it builds creative and divergent thinking skills, develops physical dexterity, and teaches comprise and negotiation tactics.  CNN.com published an article discussing with educational psychologist Kyung Hee Kim creativity scores in 300,000 American K-12 students saying, “Creativity scores have significantly decreased since 1990. […] Creativity scores for kindergarten through third-graders decreased the most and those from the fourth through sixth grade decreased by the next largest amount”.

In addition to free-play and exploring the outdoors, you and your child can expand your creativity through the J.O.Y. Journal. The journal is designed to have the child discover values such as self-love, resilience and confidence through various prompts in which they can respond through writing, artistic methods, verbally sharing their ideas, or any other way that child wants to express themselves.  Prompts like Tune in to You has the child design and create their own song or in Making an Impact in the Community the child explores ways to help their community, action items they can accomplish beyond the book.

An article published by the National Association for Gifted Children in 2017 says, “Creative thinkers are more able to suspend judgment about people and circumstances and avoid gender stereotyping. They have high degrees of autonomy and demonstrate self-discipline in matters regarding work. They are able to delay gratification, tolerate ambiguity, and demonstrate high levels of self-control”.

When we learn to be creative as children, we are building a solid foundation of compassion, determination, and productivity that will lasts into adulthood.

Grow, Give, Love, Live,

The Mother-Daughter Duo

P.S. If you enjoyed this and want more great information check out 4 Creative Ways to Teach Your Child About Self-Love!  

Citation:

Miranda, Carolina A. “Why We Need to Let Kids Be Creative.” CNN, Cable News Network, 3 Jan. 2012, https://www.cnn.com/2012/01/03/living/let-kids-be-creative-p/index.html.

Morse, Karen. “Developing creative thinking skills through art.” National Association for Gifted Children, 16 June 2017, https://www.nagc.org/blog/developing-creative-thinking-skills-through-art-0.