Fostering Creativity in Children

A friend of mine is working on a presentation for her preschool about fostering creativity in children and I told her I would look into the topic to see what I could find that might help her. I thought I was fairly knowledgeable about about creativity since creativity is a high priority in our house. But a little internet searching led me to a fabulous book that I never expected to find. The book is The Creative Family by Amanda Blake Soule and it brought back wonderful childhood memories of exploration, imagination and discovery. Remember staying outside all day long, making forts, playing games and watching the clouds? Reading this book reminded that creativity is not just art projects; it's walking in nature, making up stories, creating original gifts, and much, much more. This book provided so many simple ideas for our electronic obsessed children that I could hardly decide where to begin. I decided to set an example by doing something creative myself. The project I chose involves taking one of my children's drawings of her and her friend and embroidering it onto a piece of fabric. Then I'm going to sew it onto a t-shirt to send to her friend who lives 1500 miles away. Hopefully it will turn out as cute as I'm imagining. But really, that's not the idea. The idea is for my children to see me being creative and encouraging them to try a new creative outlet rather than sitting in front of a screen. I hope it works!