Most frequently when we use the word “creative,” we reference the arts, admiring people who can sing, draw, paint, play an instrument, and make pottery – those who can create something new and beautiful. We tend to view people as either gifted creatively or not. But when researchers* speak of creativity and mourn the falling scores among the children in our country, what they refer to is the ability to assess a situation, generate brand new ideas to solve a problem and then combine those ideas into the best solution.
It isn’t about painting a picture; it is all about life, and it requires higher levels of thinking - problem solving, the ability to evaluate, analyze, infer, imagine, discriminate, compare, summarize, among other things. In order to understand why these skills are so highly valued and so critical to develop in our children, meet Ralph and Rhonda, Fritz and Emma.
Ralph is a young adult living at home. His father, Fritz, is a cabinet builder with an amazing array of power tools. One day Fritz dragged his tools out to his driveway to begin work on some custom cabinets he’d designed. He dashed to the store for sandpaper and wood screws, and just as he arrived there, the heavens opened and it started to pour. Immediately Fritz called Ralph and asked him to run outside and rescue the tools from the rain. Ralph ran outside and stood uncertainly as rain began to soak him and the tools. “What do you want me to do with them?” he asked. “Get them out of the rain!” yelled Dad. Silence. “Drag them into the garage!!” shouted his increasingly irate father. “Then get a rag and dry them off so they won’t rust!”
Rhonda is also a young adult living at home. She is very frustrated at still being “stuck at home” but can’t seem to unstick herself. Rhonda did not complete high school because she found the work tedious and boring so she skipped class frequently enough that she was invited to leave. She did not get a driver’s license because she found it nerve-wracking to practice driving with her mother, Emma. Her parents monitor her schedule minutely, do her banking, and make all her decisions because, they say, Rhonda makes terrible choices for herself. Finally Rhonda couldn’t stand it any longer, so she moved in with a young man who did not have a job. He did have a car which he used to take Rhonda to a minimum wage job she found and to the grocery store where they spent Rhonda’s wages on food for her to cook. Over time, Rhonda became unhappy and felt stuck, so she finally moved back home.
These true stories sound like extreme cases, don’t they? But I suspect Ralph and Rhonda are not unique. Both illustrate the critical need for teaching creative thinking skills to our children so they will grow up to be skilled at evaluating situations, imagining consequences for choices, predicting outcomes, creating solutions, making workable plans, and so much more.
Tips for developing those all-important creative thinking skills in our children
• Take the time to answer those incessant questions your young child asks, asking questions of your own that will encourage him to think through other options or that will encourage him to puzzle out the answer for himself. Use the words “What do YOU think?” frequently. Or “What would happen if you did this?”
• Encourage free play, role playing, playing in a group where intricate negotiations must occur in order to all play together. Let your child learn to work through those negotiations himself as you make yourselves available to talk through various approaches instead of you stepping in to fix the situation.
• In personal relationships, as problems arise, be available to talk with your child about the issues, but don’t automatically tell him what to do. Ask him to think through a variety of possible solutions and determine which might work the best instead of just going straight to the simplest solution: “Don’t play with her any more.”
• Let her make choices as early as you can. I’m not talking about parenting choices such as what foods she eats or what bedtime should be. For example, ask her where she feels she will be able to concentrate better to do her work: kitchen table or couch or on the rug. Let her choose with the criteria being her increased ability to focus, and ask her to evaluate whether or not her choice resulted in the desired outcome. If it didn’t, ask her where she thinks she can go to focus better.
• Teach him very early to manage money. This practice is a great way to teach many important life skills. Let him do chores over and above his family participation in keeping home running smoothly, so that he can earn money and begin to save. Again you will state objectives and show him that his choices along the way will either get him closer to his goals or will prevent him from reaching them. Rather than just buying him a new bike when he wants it, let him save for one. Talk to him about the option of buying a used bike first. Talk about the pros and cons.
• Include your children as you make decisions for the family so they will learn in real life situations how good choices are made. What are the factors that influence your choices? Invite them to participate in discussions that are normally considered too advanced for a young child to understand.
• Engage your children in discussions about TV shows, music lyrics, or books they read. Ask them questions such as “Do you think that could happen in real life?” “What do you think you would feel like if that happened to you?” When my children were growing up, the TV was on in moderation, but we talked about every point in the show. Did my kids enjoy this? NO! I heard “OH MOM, can’t we just want the show?” more times than I care to recall. But my belief was that they should not passively absorb information from any source without developing the skills that would enable them to correctly evaluate what they heard.
• As an ongoing practice, present your children with problems to solve, not only during your free time, but also as you go through your school day. For example, if you are teaching the numbers to ten, adding and subtracting, instead of flashcards to memorize, let them figure out the various ways to make each number for themselves using counting chips and two bowls. You will state the problem (“How many number combinations will make 7?”), give them two bowls and 7 counters, and they will work out the answers for themselves.
• Play “what if” games. “What if we cut down a tree and you needed to stack the wood away from the house, but it also needed to be out of the rain. What would you make?”
• Avoid being a helicopter parent always hovering, always making the decisions, always telling your child every little thing – also avoid the opposite of not being there enough, not providing enough security. The best environment for positive growth for your children will be one that is very secure, but one that pushes the child out there a bit to explore. Parents who are sensitive and responsive to their child’s needs, but who expect them to get out there and fight some of their own battles. Provide a stable home, but encourage your child to be innovative and unique. Let him make mistakes, being there to dry his tears or provide comfort if he makes a choice that ended up a bit hard.
Another look at Ralph and Rhonda
What is so ironic about Ralph and Rhonda is that their parents are perfect examples of people who grew up learning to think and evaluate, to think in problem-solving ways, to think creatively and innovatively. When their children came along, in their great love for those children and out of a desire to make their lives perfect, Fritz and Emma hovered, helicoptered, micromanaged, made all choices for their children, dressed them, fed them, sheltered them from all hard knocks, screened their friends, cooked for them, washed their clothes and put them away, cleaned their rooms, did all the work in the house, protected them from bullies, talked for them, and even thought for them…in short, while they desired more than anything to be model parents to the children they adored, Fritz and Emma by their actions prevented Ralph and Rhonda from developing creative thinking skills that would have ensured fulfilling productive lives as young adults.
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Sarah Major, CEO of Child1st Publications, grew up on the mission field with her four siblings, all of whom her mother homeschooled. As an adult, Sarah has homeschooled a small group of children in collaboration with their parents, and has taught from preschool age to adult. Sarah has been the Title 1 director and program developer for grades K-7, an ESOL teacher, and a classroom teacher. As an undergraduate student, Sarah attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. and then received her M.Ed. from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. In 2006 Sarah resigned from fulltime teaching in order to devote more time to Child1st, publisher of the best-selling SnapWords™ stylized sight word cards. In her spare time Sarah enjoys gardening, cooking, pottery, quilting, and spending time with her family.
Child1st Publications, LLC
www.child1st.com
800-881-0912
PO Box 150226
Grand Rapids, MI 49515
It isn’t about painting a picture; it is all about life, and it requires higher levels of thinking - problem solving, the ability to evaluate, analyze, infer, imagine, discriminate, compare, summarize, among other things. In order to understand why these skills are so highly valued and so critical to develop in our children, meet Ralph and Rhonda, Fritz and Emma.
Ralph is a young adult living at home. His father, Fritz, is a cabinet builder with an amazing array of power tools. One day Fritz dragged his tools out to his driveway to begin work on some custom cabinets he’d designed. He dashed to the store for sandpaper and wood screws, and just as he arrived there, the heavens opened and it started to pour. Immediately Fritz called Ralph and asked him to run outside and rescue the tools from the rain. Ralph ran outside and stood uncertainly as rain began to soak him and the tools. “What do you want me to do with them?” he asked. “Get them out of the rain!” yelled Dad. Silence. “Drag them into the garage!!” shouted his increasingly irate father. “Then get a rag and dry them off so they won’t rust!”
Rhonda is also a young adult living at home. She is very frustrated at still being “stuck at home” but can’t seem to unstick herself. Rhonda did not complete high school because she found the work tedious and boring so she skipped class frequently enough that she was invited to leave. She did not get a driver’s license because she found it nerve-wracking to practice driving with her mother, Emma. Her parents monitor her schedule minutely, do her banking, and make all her decisions because, they say, Rhonda makes terrible choices for herself. Finally Rhonda couldn’t stand it any longer, so she moved in with a young man who did not have a job. He did have a car which he used to take Rhonda to a minimum wage job she found and to the grocery store where they spent Rhonda’s wages on food for her to cook. Over time, Rhonda became unhappy and felt stuck, so she finally moved back home.
These true stories sound like extreme cases, don’t they? But I suspect Ralph and Rhonda are not unique. Both illustrate the critical need for teaching creative thinking skills to our children so they will grow up to be skilled at evaluating situations, imagining consequences for choices, predicting outcomes, creating solutions, making workable plans, and so much more.
Tips for developing those all-important creative thinking skills in our children
• Take the time to answer those incessant questions your young child asks, asking questions of your own that will encourage him to think through other options or that will encourage him to puzzle out the answer for himself. Use the words “What do YOU think?” frequently. Or “What would happen if you did this?”
• Encourage free play, role playing, playing in a group where intricate negotiations must occur in order to all play together. Let your child learn to work through those negotiations himself as you make yourselves available to talk through various approaches instead of you stepping in to fix the situation.
• In personal relationships, as problems arise, be available to talk with your child about the issues, but don’t automatically tell him what to do. Ask him to think through a variety of possible solutions and determine which might work the best instead of just going straight to the simplest solution: “Don’t play with her any more.”
• Let her make choices as early as you can. I’m not talking about parenting choices such as what foods she eats or what bedtime should be. For example, ask her where she feels she will be able to concentrate better to do her work: kitchen table or couch or on the rug. Let her choose with the criteria being her increased ability to focus, and ask her to evaluate whether or not her choice resulted in the desired outcome. If it didn’t, ask her where she thinks she can go to focus better.
• Teach him very early to manage money. This practice is a great way to teach many important life skills. Let him do chores over and above his family participation in keeping home running smoothly, so that he can earn money and begin to save. Again you will state objectives and show him that his choices along the way will either get him closer to his goals or will prevent him from reaching them. Rather than just buying him a new bike when he wants it, let him save for one. Talk to him about the option of buying a used bike first. Talk about the pros and cons.
• Include your children as you make decisions for the family so they will learn in real life situations how good choices are made. What are the factors that influence your choices? Invite them to participate in discussions that are normally considered too advanced for a young child to understand.
• Engage your children in discussions about TV shows, music lyrics, or books they read. Ask them questions such as “Do you think that could happen in real life?” “What do you think you would feel like if that happened to you?” When my children were growing up, the TV was on in moderation, but we talked about every point in the show. Did my kids enjoy this? NO! I heard “OH MOM, can’t we just want the show?” more times than I care to recall. But my belief was that they should not passively absorb information from any source without developing the skills that would enable them to correctly evaluate what they heard.
• As an ongoing practice, present your children with problems to solve, not only during your free time, but also as you go through your school day. For example, if you are teaching the numbers to ten, adding and subtracting, instead of flashcards to memorize, let them figure out the various ways to make each number for themselves using counting chips and two bowls. You will state the problem (“How many number combinations will make 7?”), give them two bowls and 7 counters, and they will work out the answers for themselves.
• Play “what if” games. “What if we cut down a tree and you needed to stack the wood away from the house, but it also needed to be out of the rain. What would you make?”
• Avoid being a helicopter parent always hovering, always making the decisions, always telling your child every little thing – also avoid the opposite of not being there enough, not providing enough security. The best environment for positive growth for your children will be one that is very secure, but one that pushes the child out there a bit to explore. Parents who are sensitive and responsive to their child’s needs, but who expect them to get out there and fight some of their own battles. Provide a stable home, but encourage your child to be innovative and unique. Let him make mistakes, being there to dry his tears or provide comfort if he makes a choice that ended up a bit hard.
Another look at Ralph and Rhonda
What is so ironic about Ralph and Rhonda is that their parents are perfect examples of people who grew up learning to think and evaluate, to think in problem-solving ways, to think creatively and innovatively. When their children came along, in their great love for those children and out of a desire to make their lives perfect, Fritz and Emma hovered, helicoptered, micromanaged, made all choices for their children, dressed them, fed them, sheltered them from all hard knocks, screened their friends, cooked for them, washed their clothes and put them away, cleaned their rooms, did all the work in the house, protected them from bullies, talked for them, and even thought for them…in short, while they desired more than anything to be model parents to the children they adored, Fritz and Emma by their actions prevented Ralph and Rhonda from developing creative thinking skills that would have ensured fulfilling productive lives as young adults.
Sarah Major, CEO of Child1st Publications, grew up on the mission field with her four siblings, all of whom her mother homeschooled. As an adult, Sarah has homeschooled a small group of children in collaboration with their parents, and has taught from preschool age to adult. Sarah has been the Title 1 director and program developer for grades K-7, an ESOL teacher, and a classroom teacher. As an undergraduate student, Sarah attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Ill. and then received her M.Ed. from Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, MI. In 2006 Sarah resigned from fulltime teaching in order to devote more time to Child1st, publisher of the best-selling SnapWords™ stylized sight word cards. In her spare time Sarah enjoys gardening, cooking, pottery, quilting, and spending time with her family.
Child1st Publications, LLC
www.child1st.com
800-881-0912
PO Box 150226
Grand Rapids, MI 49515
