This morning, Ayva and I went to San Francisco to attend a workshop sponsored by Stumbleupon and Young Audiences of Northern California. In the “Fostering Creativity” workshop led by a YANC Teaching Artist, the children discovered how to create prints from nature, and the parents learned dialogue for encouraging creativity beyond, “I like that”, and “Oh, that’s nice!”. It was a fun morning that was made even better because Christine from The Aums and her family was there! Here are our Saturday Sights, along with a few tips to help you foster creativity with your children. Also, check out StumbleUpon’s Parent Picks for more creative inspiration.
1. Ask open ended questions. “What does that feel like?”,”Why did you choose those colors?” Encourage your children to be descriptive when they are describing their work.
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| Making a relief picture with a leaf and crayon. |
2. Leave room for discovery. Your activities should be flexible. If your child is going in a different direction, you want to be able to roll with it!
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| Ayva decided to create a picture of our family playing in the leaves after she completed her leaf print. |
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| It’s the littlest Aumie! She was so focused with her drawing! |
3. Remember to be aware of perspective. Just because you see things one way, that doesn’t mean it’s the way that your child sees it. Don’t make assumptions about what they have created.
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| It was interesting to see how an art activity using found nature objects turned into Ayva asking science questions! |
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| Quite appropriate for a nature workshop! |
4. Whenever possible, use correct terminology to help your child build the vocabulary for creativity. Let them know that the crayons that they’re using are tools. Teach them that their rubbing their crayon on a piece of paper covering a leaf is called making a relief. Tell them the artistic truth.
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| The Aums and the Know It All Families |
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| Stumbleupon gave us these sweet little thyme seeds to plant. |
5. You can create boundaries without limiting their creativity. In our workshop, the Teaching Artist instructed the children to “put their crayons in the air” until it was time to color. You can foster creativity while teaching your children how to listen and follow instructions.
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| Blocks of different shapes and sizes is a fantastic way to foster creativity. |
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| Speaking of perspective…buttons! |
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