Building creativity together

Photo credit: Jessica Rockowitz

I have spent a while recently looking at strategies to help adults develop their (already in-built!) creativity. My favourite games book is “The Big Book of creativity games” by Robert Epstein. He wrote it to support creativity amongst business teams and is probably the basis for many team-building exercises across the globe.

It got me thinking about how some of these games could be adapted for families. I say ‘families’ because so many adults don’t think they are creative and focus only on developing a creative child – which yes, I know I am writing about in the blog and through emails, but it’s not the whole picture. In developing your family creativity, you can underpin the way that you all go about different tasks and you will begin to think creatively together.

It also means that you as the adult will begin to understand your own creative strengths, which can’t be a bad thing, can it?!

Here’s a simple game to get you started:

Capturing a daydream

How many times do we tell children off for daydreaming and not concentrating?! But it’s not a bad thing to do and has huge creative potential! Try this with your children, allowing them to understand that it’s ok to daydream now and they shouldn’t try to force a daydream – just let it appear.

Some children and adults will find this particularly difficult and it’s good to find out why. Maybe it’s the wrong place or the wrong time. Find out what works best so you are all able to relax and close your eyes (hoping that you don’t drop off! Lol!).

Set a timer so it doesn’t go on too long – maybe 2-3 mins to start – and once the timer has gone off you can do one of three things:

1. Discuss your daydream with each other. Where did you go? What did you see? What did you experience? What could you do with that daydream that would inspire some creativity?