Encouraging Creativity in Preschoolers Through Art and Play
Ever noticed that kids keep coming up with new questions every day? They come up with questions that are ‘out of the box’. There is curiosity to explore their surroundings and confidence to speak their thoughts and ideas freely. With the right guidance in encouraging creativity in preschoolers, a child can achieve amazing things.
Creativity is a trait that everyone is born with but only some turn out to be creative or come up with unique ideas and solutions. Creativity is at its peak at a young age, as the child grows it starts declining if not nurtured. That is why polishing this trait is important from a young age. The right nurturing of creative abilities helps the child become creative, see things from different perspectives, discover, invent, solve problems, and come up with creative solutions.
Creativity is an important skill that helps in all walks of life. Before we dive into ways of encouraging creativity in preschoolers, let’s see why creativity is important for a child’s overall development.
How does creativity impact child development?
Creativity in preschoolers doesn’t only make them artistic. It is also important for their overall development. By participating in arts, music, and games, children start developing skills important for their social, physical, and mental growth.
Mental Growth
Playing with toys is one sweet memory of every kid. These toys are used as a props to stimulate the growth of a child’s brain. Similarly, art activities are a medium to exercise and train your brain to think critically and explore new ideas and concepts. Through these fun activities, the child gets a deep understanding of concepts like measurement, shapes, size, physical properties, and problem-solving. This builds a strong foundation for these concepts while being equally fun.
Divergent Thinking
Divergent thinking is the ability to think of different unique solutions to problems. Hands-on art activities for kids help to channel the nature of curiosity, inquiry, and reflection of children in skills development. Many games like playing puzzles require children to think in a different direction and take different approaches to solving problems. This prepares the child for a world that demands innovation, flexibility, and adaptability.
Social Skills
Some art activities like group art projects or play require children to collaborate, negotiate, and adjust according to their peers. Through such activities, the kid comes out of his comfort zone and gets comfortable with the people around him. This also teaches them about different perspectives and values and how to work collaboratively with their fellow kids. Such kids won’t face problems making strong relationships with people around them.
Soft Skills
Creativity nurtures some vital skills the kid might need to survive in the world. These soft skills include verbal skills through tongue-twisting activities, patience when making a clay toy, how to deal with feelings when a painting doesn’t turn out to be how you thought, attention span, hand-eye coordination while drawing, etc. These valuable skills learned at the right time will take them to places.
How to encourage creative activities for preschoolers?
Create a Creative Space
There should be a designated space where children can their creativity flow. This space can be a drawing room, dancing room, playing room, etc. Many play schools provide such dedicated space for activities where kids are allowed to explore, create, and make mistakes.
Don’t be afraid of the mess
Creativity can be messy and so can the ideas. Don’t restrict your child and let them make the mess and the mistakes. Something great things comes out of chaos. While painting you can give them washable colors, a dedicated table, and easily cleanable stuff. But remember that creating something creative is more important than creating a mess.
Be supportive, not critical
Art is imperfect and imperfection is always beautiful. Don’t force your child to strive for perfection instead just let them create whatever they want and reflect their ideas freely without judgment. This also fosters self-confidence in them. Always appreciate and give positive feedback to keep them encouraged.
Let them explore the outdoors
The child needs to explore the environment outside. There’s no better teacher than nature itself. There are infinite things to explore and discover. Nature provides endless inspiration for creativity. Encourage them to collect different leaves, and flowers observe animals and different textures, and express all that through their art.
Give them options and let them make their own choice
Give your child enough freedom to choose their choice of art. It can be anything from painting, arts and crafts, dancing, acting, etc. Giving options empowers them to explore their passions and develop a sense of individuality.
Encouraging creativity in preschoolers is important for their overall development. These creative activities help kids develop skills that will serve them throughout their lives. As the best preschool in Gurgaon, Beansporuts provides an exploratory and engaging environment where the kids can express themselves artistically, explore their imaginations, and come up with creative ideas. With the right environment, guidance, and encouragement your kid can grow into a confident individual.