The ben­e­fits of cre­ativ­i­ty for kids seem end­less. Cre­ativ­i­ty improves your child’s self-esteem, moti­va­tion, prob­lem-solv­ing skills, abil­i­ty to deal with dif­fi­cult feel­ings, view of the world, chances of future suc­cess, and more. Thank­ful­ly chil­dren are born with strong imag­i­na­tions and a nat­ur­al instinct for cre­ativ­i­ty. That cre­ativ­i­ty wanes, how­ev­er, as they grow old­er and we expose them to more con­ven­tion­al, struc­tured, and stan­dard­ized ways of living. 

Unsure where to start encour­ag­ing your child’s cre­ativ­i­ty? We com­piled this list of 10 tips to help inspire your child’s cre­ativ­i­ty and keep it a pri­or­i­ty in your home. Read on and then reach out to us on Face­book, Twit­ter, or Insta­gram to share how you spark cre­ativ­i­ty in your own home.

Introduce Your Child to a Variety of Creative Activities

You nev­er know what will appeal to your child. Encour­age your child to try singing, danc­ing, telling sto­ries, draw­ing, and play­ing dress up help nur­ture their imag­i­na­tion and cre­ativ­i­ty. If you need some ideas, Dr. Priscil­la J S Sel­varaj of Par­ent Cir­cle lists fun and cre­ative activ­i­ties you can do with your for kids like cat­walk, cloud kalei­do­scope, pup­petry, role-play, and more.

Don't Force Your Child to Do an Activity

Embrace what your child shows inter­est in rather than push­ing them toward some­thing they don’t want to try. For exam­ple, if your child enjoys col­or­ing, prompt them to try sim­i­lar activ­i­ties like draw­ing or paint­ing. If your child isn’t inter­est­ed in play­ing music, forc­ing them will like­ly only make them stressed and less inter­est­ed in the activity.

Encourage Your Child to Ask Questions

This is where a dig­i­tal assis­tant, like Alexa, could come in handy, as we know how it’s dif­fi­cult to keep up once the flood­gates open. If your child isn’t nat­u­ral­ly inclined to ask, turn the tables and ask them! ​“Why is the grass green?” ​“What makes a car move?” They might amaze you with their imag­i­na­tive answers as they think about the world around them.

Nurture Your Child's Problem-solving Skills

Demon­strate that there’s more than one way to use an item or solve a prob­lem. For exam­ple, a pen­cil isn’t just for draw­ing and writ­ing. A pen­cil can make a great drum­stick or a hole punch or a pole for a mini fort. This teach­es your child to con­sid­er dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives and look at every­day items in new ways.

Give Them Time to Be Bored

These days there are so many ways to keep your chil­dren busy. Between pre-school, chores, screen time, extracur­ric­u­lars, and more, there’s lit­tle down­time. That down­time is crit­i­cal, though, as it push­es chil­dren to think of new ways to enter­tain them­selves. More than boost­ing cre­ativ­i­ty, bore­dom makes chil­dren more moti­vat­ed, inter­est­ing, and psy­cho­log­i­cal­ly sound, accord­ing to Mark Oliv­er of Moth​er​.ly.

Dedicate Space in Your Home to Creativity

This doesn’t need to be a full room. A cor­ner or a desk or chest filled with play items works just as well. Abby of Abbyn­ture rec­om­mends fill­ing the area with things your child would use for imag­i­na­tive play like old clothes, con­struc­tion paper and crayons or oth­er artis­tic sup­plies, build­ing blocks, and more.

Schedule Time For Creativity

Reg­u­lar, ded­i­cat­ed inter­vals of cre­ative play help your child devel­op motor skills, con­cen­tra­tion, and com­mu­ni­ca­tion. They also make sure cre­ative play is a pri­or­i­ty in your family’s hec­tic life.

Make Sure All Screen Time Benefits Your Child

Choose kids apps like Jel­lies that com­mit to edu­cat­ing and inspir­ing your child’s imag­i­na­tion. For exam­ple, you’ll find lots of cre­ative kids videos in Jel­lies like arts and crafts, danc­ing, draw­ing, amaz­ing art, and bal­loon ani­mals. What’s more, Jel­lies’ edu­ca­tion­al, explo­ration top­ics take your child across the world, into space, and under the sea. There’s a lot to see, learn, and do.

Give Your Child the Freedom to Make Mistakes

Jacque­line of Deep Roots at Home says that par­ents should cel­e­brate cre­ativ­i­ty and talk to their chil­dren about their ideas and feel­ings instead of point­ing out errors. When you focus on cor­rect­ing mis­takes, play becomes more about per­fec­tion­ism than explo­ration and imag­i­na­tion. Do it too much and you might make your chil­dren afraid to try new things and express themselves.

Be Creative Yourself!

Show your child you val­ue cre­ativ­i­ty by exam­ple. Start a new cre­ative activ­i­ty at home like cook­ing, sculpt­ing, or paint­ing. Sur­round your­self and your fam­i­ly with cre­ative things by hang­ing art around the house, stock­ing your shelves with sto­ry­books, and tak­ing your child to plays and musi­cal shows. The more you demon­strate cre­ativ­i­ty in your own life, the more impor­tant it will seem to your child.