7 easy ways to nurture your child’s creativity (even if you’re not crafty)

I hear it all the time “I’m the least crafty person I know but I don’t want to sign my kids up for art class just for them to be artistic. What are some easy ways to be creative at home?”

Why do some people think they’re not creative? Maybe they didn’t excel at drawing in school, but there are so many other ways to express creativity. Creativity grounds us and includes how we think, dress, decorate our home, sing, cook, host a dinner party, play and other ways in which we express our uniqueness. By that token, everyone is creative and there is no such thing as good or bad art and there are no mistakes in art.

In order to nurture creativity in ourselves and in our children, we must first remove all expectations, judgments or evaluations, and focus on the creative process rather than the final product.

If your creative juices are temporarily tapped, here are some ideas to get you started with everyday supplies:

• Have children make vegetable skewers and create a pattern with different coloured peppers and vegetables.
• Arrange food into a face or abstract art and aim for a colourful plate. Take a picture of the food art, print and display.
• Go on a family walk and collect natural elements of interest and arrange into a
  family sculpture.
• Have kids make name plates for their rooms with their name and symbols that are meaningful to them. Draw pictures or cut them out from magazines.
• Create a family graffiti wall by covering a wall or large corkboard with white paper.
  Add drawings, photos, magazine cutouts and favourite quotes.
• Gather whistles, spoons, pots and pans and other small items and jam together.
  Record your concert and play for others.
• Cut a hand-sized hole at one end of a shoe box and cover it with a cloth. Take turns placing an item in the box and trying to guess what it is by touch.

Originally published in ParentsCanada magazine, August/September 2013. Our expert Temmi Ungerman Sears is a registered art therapist with the American Art Therapy Association.