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Developing creativity in your child
“Creativity is as important… as literacy and we should treat it with the same status” Sir Ken Robinson, 2006.
I began my teaching career naively thinking that I could bring my creative instincts into everything that I taught – across the board, no holes barred. I’d learnt a lot in my training about child-led learning and exploration and play, which is exactly what we try to achieve as children enter school. Does it continue? No.
How many 10-11 year olds do you know who get to explore their curriculum through play?
Let’s face it, by that age they are tied up in the endless round of testing and assessment that lead them to different secondary schools, so they can be ‘batched’ ready to learn at the appropriate level.
Creative learning is lost.
What can we do about it? Well, if we were to try to radically change the learning in schools, it would take years and our children would be adults (and then the schools would need changing again!). That is not to say some aspects do need changing, but that’s another story…
What we need to do is look at how we can support our own children at home to develop a creative outlook that will encourage a new perspective from our next generations. To allow time for problem solving and opportunity to try different things that might spark a talent or passion. It might mean that sometimes we need to get involved or at least understand what to do, and if you don’t consider yourself to be creative, then how on earth can you support your child?!
