Welcome to Keeping Creativity Alive! A place created to support and inspire parents, caregivers and educators to cultivate and grow creative capacities in children and in ourselves. Why? Two reasons:
1) We are living in times of massive change ~ the future is uncertain. The 21st century calls for individuals who are capable of problem solving, generating new ideas, and who possess qualities such as resilience, flexibility and embracing ambiguity.
2) When we are tapping into our creative potential we are following our intrinsic motivation (what we are internally driven to do) which leads to personal fulfilment, joy and living our lives with meaning and purpose.
BE AWARE. BE INSPIRED. BE CREATIVE.
A big part of keeping creativity alive is being aware, being inspired and being creative. Be aware of ways in which you can support creativity in your child (and be careful to not unintentionally suppress it). What makes a person creative and what makes a person think they are not? How is creativity nurtured? What role do parents play in establishing attitudes and skills for nurturing children’s creativity? What are all the ways to cultivate creativity in our children and in ourselves?
These are questions that will be explored on this website to uncover a deeper understanding of the nature and nurturing of creativity. Check back often as new information will be added to the blog regularly.
What does it mean to ‘be creative’?
We will break down the higher order thinking skills required for creative problem solving and you will explore ways to inspire creative thinking both in yourself and in the children in your life. Yes, creative thinking skills CAN be developed.
These qualities can be nurtured in children in the early years, from birth to age six. In fact, I believe the early years are crucially important years for establishing a creative mindset.
It is well documented in the literature that parents play a critical role in establishing a strong foundation for children’s growth and development (Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2010). Nurturing creative growth as part of early childhood development can and should be a priority for parents, not only to prepare their children for the 21st century economy but also to enable them to live life to their fullest potential (Millar, 2002).
What will I find here?
What you can expect to find at Keeping Creativity Alive is guidance, resources, support and inspiration for ways in which you can nurture creativity in yourself and in the children in your life. You will find ideas for ways to encourage an attitude for creativity, activities to practice creative thinking skills starting with young children, creative problem solving tools for families and much more!
I hope that you will join our community by commenting to blog posts and following us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest.
PHILOSOPHY
THERE’S NO SUCH THING AS A
NON-CREATIVE PERSON.”
~ Julia Cameron
I believe we are all born creative.
The foundation of my philosophy is my strongly held belief that we are all born creative. Research with babies reveals “we are born with the ability to discover the secrets of the universe and of our own minds, and with the drive to explore and experiment until we do” (Gopnik, Meltzoff & Kuhl’s, 1999).
I believe attitude is key to creativity.
I believe attitude is the drive to all other factors that impact creativity. I believe mindset is the key to creativity. Mindset provides the ability to overcome perceptual barriers. Dweck’s (2006) research on mindset reveals how our beliefs, especially beliefs about ourselves, largely inform and guide our lives.
I believe vision is a requirement of creativity.
“True creativity is impossible without some measure of passion” (Amabile, 2007). Vision and passion are inextricably tied when it comes to pursuing a motivation to create something new. Keeping vision in mind sets intention, which is said to be the “seed of creative thinking” (Michalko, 2011).
I believe creativity can be nurtured and developed through deliberate practice.
One of the biggest misconceptions about creativity is that one needs to reach the level of ‘genius’ such as da Vinci, Einstein or Mozart to be creative. “The truth is creativity is not just for geniuses” (Millar, 2001). Creativity is a skill that can be developed through deliberate practice.
I believe creativity requires some measure of passion.
Passion fuels desire which fuels vision which is a requirement for creativity. Amabile (1989) explains “the desire to do something because you find it deeply satisfying and personally challenging inspires the highest levels of creativity, whether it’s in the arts, sciences, or business” (p. 63).
I believe our early interactions with babies and children influence their attitude and creative expression.
This component of my philosophy is where the heart of inspiration to study creativity lies. I believe parents play a significant role in shaping children’s values, morals and attitudes and I believe these attitudes impact a child’s relationship with creativity.
CULTIVATING CURIOSITY, IMAGINATION, AND CREATIVE CONFIDENCE
Get FREE tips to cultivate creativity in your life.
I’m passionate about supporting creative growth.
My vision is to teach, inspire and support parents, caregivers and teachers around the world to nurture creativity in young children and in themselves.
I want to elevate the importance of creativity in the minds of parents. I want anyone who is parenting or teaching to understand the impact their interactions have on a child’s creative development.
My Creativity Story:
From a young age I wanted to be an artist. I drew. I painted. I created things and I spent my childhood living artfully. Creativity (although I called it ‘art’) was my passion. I followed my artistic vision by completing a Fine Art Degree followed by a Post-Graduate Certificate in Interactive Multimedia that led to a successful career in Interactive Marketing for one of Canada’s largest advertising agencies.
Over the span of my career in digital marketing my view of what it meant to be creative shifted. I went from thinking about creativity as visual design (and the arts in the traditional sense) to creativity as ideas – conceptualizing ideas, designing immersive online experiences and collaborating with creative team members.
In 2007, I attended my first Creative Problem Solving Institute Conference (CPSI) and it was at that time I was introduced to the study of creativity as a discipline – creativity as problem solving.
Attending that conference marked a significant turning point in my creative path. Learning the Creative Problem Solving (CPS) process opened my eyes to deliberate creativity and a world full of possibilities.
Then came a life-changing event: the birth of my first child.
How might she grow to be someone who felt creative? What could I do to nurture her creative potential?
I became more conscious of my interactions with my daughter and how they might encourage or interfere with her ability to explore and problem solve. My curiosity grew deeper as I considered the following:
How is creativity developed? How is it nurtured?
My observations in playgrounds, libraries and play dates raised more questions such as: What is the affect of parents’ attitudes in relation to a child’s creative development?
This led me to pursue a Masters in Creativity at the International Center for Studies in Creativity (ICSC) where I deepened my understanding yet again of what it means to be creative.
Over the last decade I have been engaged in the work of examining what it means to be creative and how we can learn to be more creative. I am convinced that parents play a critical role in establishing creative attitudes in children right from the start. My work is continually shifting and evolving. I am also discovering that identifying with our personal creativity is the key to creating possibilities of creative growth in those around us.
Thank you for reading! I welcome you in joining me on this journey of discovering ways we can inspire creativity in the little people around us while nurturing our own creativity!
I look forward to learning more about you. Please comment and join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram!
BE AWARE OF CREATIVE MOMENTS.
OBSERVE, CELEBRATE AND BE CREATIVE.
CHECK OUT OUR CREATIVE MOMENTS.