Creativity is learned. It just needs to be practiced. What are some activities you can do with your children to encourage creative thinking? Last fall I worked with my daughter’s kindergarten class to practice divergent thinking and coming up with new and imaginative ideas. I presented them with an object – a stick. Then asked “What is this?” […]
Divergent thinking: a thought process or method used to generate creative ideas by exploring many possible solutions. Young kids do this naturally yet by the time they reach fourth grade creativity scores show a steep decline (source, source). So the question becomes: HOW do we harness children’s natural creative thinking abilities when they are young so that […]
What do you do when your child says ‘I’m bored’? If you’re like me you might say: “Go outside” or “Play with your sister/brother” or “Play with your [insert latest toy]” or my favourite “Go make something”! I’m a true believer that if you leave children to work through their feelings of boredom they come up […]
Have you heard of Makerspaces? They are certainly gaining momentum in schools and libraries around the world yet in my day to day interactions I’m finding the term ‘makerspace’ to be a relatively unknown concept. Doing my part to change that! Let’s take a moment to explore what Makerspaces are all about in this quick ‘Makerspace […]
My ‘Book of Ideas’! With all of the submissions of the Book of Ideas coming through I felt inspired to make a book of my own! I decided to let this book evolve organically and just start writing whatever came to mind – what I’m working through at the moment – and that happens to […]
The ‘Book of Ideas’ Project gives kids an outlet for their ideas, encourages new thinking and establishes a meaningful creative practice for kids. What exactly is a ‘Book of Ideas’? A ‘Book of Ideas’ is a way for children to express their interests, curiosities and explorations of any topic of their choosing using whatever materials […]
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I’ve been thinking a great deal about this blog and what it means to me. It started with a passion to explore ways to nurture creativity in children. As I’ve researched and explored this topic further, I’ve discovered that it’s about that and so much more. So many ideas race through my mind about what […]
A documentary inspired by the Newsweek article, The Creativity Crisis is in the works! A look at creativity in schools and “the imbalance that now exists between cultivating creativity and teaching the content that will be measured on the test.” Needless to say, I can’t wait to see this!