fostering creativity in everyday life

Fostering creativity in everyday life

Creativity in education

Creativity is not a rare asset at all, when children are given the space to explore. And yet people find it to be very rare indeed. I regularly hear parents lament that their children “don’t know know how to play”. And of course, this is key to creativity – children playing. But creativity is an enormous part of learning, thinking, processing and realising. We are so keen for our children to ‘succeed’ in their education. And yet the cost of ‘fostering creativity’ is more mess and noise, and more resource, than we care for.

In last week’s blog I talked about the focus of school’s curriculum being based on IQ (analytical) intelligence, and the cost this has to the creativity and pragmatism of the world population over the last 50 years:

https://thereisnoshouldbe.com/what-should-i-teach-my-homeschool-children/

Celebrating creativity and neurodiversity

Today I wanted to take a brief moment to celebrate creativity in children’s lives. Time and space is so precious for children to grow up in. And all the more for children with neurodiversity – often group environments are not where children with neurodiversity can flourish creatively. These are often the places where that creative egg is in its shell, waiting for a quiet or open environment to begin to poke its head out.

Creativity versus ‘the race’

When children spend so much of their time in organised, adult led activities, and then kept quiet at home with a series of devices, it’s hard to see where children can get comfortable with the openness, and limitlessness of creativity. Creativity, when we’re not accustomed to it can actually be very uncomfortable. Creativity and growth seem to be very interlinked. And we all know how uncomfortable growth can be. It can highlight our limitations. It can seem pointless. When all the ideas are around us, available at the click of a button, it can seem tiresome.

But creativity isn’t competitive, it isn’t a race. Creativity can’t be grabbed, won, or manipulated. Creativity is exploring, entering the unknown, and very often it happens outside the race. Creativity happens when we step out of the grind. We need to be willing to come last.

Creativity as an adult

Fostering creativity as an adult – we know the importance of creativity, though it seems to the world that survival is sticking with ‘the race’. It’s a bit like exercise. When I’m out of practise, going for a run can be filled with so much impatience – I find myself thinking “there are so many things that I could be doing, or not doing, just now”. The lethargy of the work ahead feels irritating. But when I’ve taught myself to get into the rhythm of it, I crave it. Creativity is like that.

Making space, getting past the ‘well what am I trying to achieve here’, can be a bit of a drag. But creativity isn’t about achieving. It isn’t even accomplishing. It is more like, deeper understanding. It’s something like, peace of mind, and growth.

Some adults are creative all life long. But most, I think, have to work at fostering creativity to keep it turning.

Creativity as a child

However, fostering creativity for our children is nothing like that. They are growing. Creativity is in their very being. Every day they’ve grown a bit more. Children run around and explore. They notice things. They ask questions. They make messes. They are inspired by what they see around them. Children are competitive too, but maybe they’re not sold out to it yet. There’s room.

Why is creativity so rare?

Why is creativity so rare now then? I’ve heard it said so many times. But I don’t think it is rare. It’s just that room must be made. Time must be allocated to just giving space to breathe and boredom embraced. We’re winning if our children have time to be bored! They might fight, with us or with one another, but these negotiations are part of growing. And forgiveness requires a certain level of imagination, or creative thinking. It is a lot of supervising but I can’t say how much I enjoy watching children play. I absolutely love it. So much character and imagination come into playing.

Watching my children play

Watching my children jump across rivers, or navigate stepping stones. Balancing, and overcoming fears, building up to a big jump or launching on a swing all build character – character, imagination and creativity.

Letting children craft out of raw materials – cardboard boxes, card, scissors, glue and tape can make an endless array of creations. Typical models like swords, shields, boats and cars are all fashioned every week, and slightly more off the wall ideas – a model cheese grater out of card to replace the play-doh ‘cheese grater’ was made today…

But for all this to be possible the children need down time, every day they need to be exercising their sense of self, their sense of discovery.

What does fostering creativity look like?

I’ve already talked about outdoor time, taking hikes, playing in the forest, exploring the rivers. And I’ve mentioned crafting. But fostering can be so simple. It can be fostered in the everyday, in any situation with that extra moment. By the river I can drag the children along and ‘get the dogs walked’, or we can allow room to sit and watch the heron. I can find a bank to sit on while the children climb on a fallen tree. (Today that lasted all of 2 minutes as a welly full of icy water put an end to that moment of chai!)

Indoor creativity

It can be indoors with time curled up with a book. Time creating in the kitchen can be creative. Playing an instrument can be creative. I think there is a need for a certain level of self discovery in these tasks to tap into fostering creativity. Learning a series of notes for example can be dangerously analytical. Once the notes are learned, going that step further and trying it out like this or that, or coming up with a different timbre, or imagining what the music might be saying, or a conversation, or an image or emotion that the music might evoke. Or allowing the music to sink deep and intercede or minister to the soul – these are all making that space needed for growth and creativity to flourish.

Creativity in education

The important thing I think, is that children should not be dragged through their analytical learning to the maximum capacity possible. Pushing learning to the max so that the child is averse to thinking about it, or becomes averse to learning, puts a big block in way of creative thinking. Or there can be no desire to venture further autonomously, and of their own imaginative accord. Children need room to wonder and hope to learn. Then they can pursue their own thought processes by visualisation and creative thinking. This stage can’t be spoon fed. We have to be willing to let them learn slower.

Adult led activities

There can creativity for children in adult led activities. Some children thrive in these environments and find room to expand their thinking and imaginations. Some children find their creativity around adult led activities by exploring different patterns of behaviour, and this can be difficult for others in the class not to be sucked into. Some children struggle to tap into their imagination in any setting.

Provided with entertainment at their fingertips children can find it difficult to squeeze through the narrow wardrobe of boredom to find the land of Narnia. I find it interesting to think what these children would have done before the age of screen related entertainment. Perhaps they would have explored different opportunities of utility, and discovered areas of interest, and imagined new endeavours for themselves and their community.

Creative groups for ASD

Then there are the children that cannot think openly in these adult led activities, nor perhaps in group environments, nor even while doing their analysis based learning. I can certainly admit to this – I do all my thinking in retrospect. Being surrounded by people and expectation I usually find myself in panic stations mode – an entirely reactive state. It is a state where I am trying to say what I think is the most acceptable thing to say. All of my actual thinking, of people, or situations, or what is being taught, is done immediately afterwards. It is for these children that down time, space, room to be, is most important, for full understanding, or for the opportunity for creativity. Otherwise they cannot find a window into fostering creativity, or processing navigating relationships.

https://www.anadventurouseducation.com/2021/10/27/finding-balance-in-your-homeschool-life/

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