People have an idea about whether they are creative or not. Some people have been trained in it, but that is a small number compared to those who have had creativity trained out of them. Don’t jump to the conclusion that you or your children aren’t creative. There are many aspects of creativity that you are doing well in. In those places that could use some improvement, we have good news. Creativity can be learned and practiced. As we discuss the many facets of creativity in this blog, I hope you find many ways to incorporate more creativity into your home.
What does creativity look like? Many people would say that it looks like a mess. As an art teacher for many years, I understand what kinds of experiences bring on this point of view, but is that a reason to avoid creative assignments? Let’s look a moment into your child’s future. If she wants to make something that people want to have, if he owns a business, if she teaches children that learn in a style different from her own, if he lives in a competitive world, they need creative solutions. Creativity is not something that just happens in the arts; rather it is a needed component of doing business in any field, including motherhood. Creativity is something we all do. We make personal choices based on facts and feelings. You probably chose your spouse in this way, or at the very least, your clothing. Let’s look at these two components of creative thinking.
- Facts come from outside sources. The more one knows about a topic, such as art, and the more skilled in using the materials, the more equipped one is to come up with creative solutions. When given a new material, such as clay, children must play with it before they make something out of it. The squishing, poking, pushing, and rolling of the clay add to their knowledge about this material and form their thinking when they begin to create an object or form. Whether a biochemist, a carpenter, or an artist, those who immerse themselves in the facts and manual skills surrounding a single topic are best able to think creatively when working with their subject. Art, is one of the best subjects for training creativity because the tools are simple and children can jump into art and be successful very quickly. Still, some instruction and guidance is very helpful. If you know the subject, you will share this knowledge with your children. If you do not know the subject, or it is not easy to teach it at your child’s age level, you will find a good guide or curriculum that teaches the body of knowledge surrounding art. ARTistic Pursuits is designed for this purpose, with children’s abilities and comprehension taken into consideration at each age level.
- Feelings, also called intuition, flow from within. Often, when in a creative act, one does not question or think through the results, but engages in forward motion guided by his feelings. The more these feelings are directed by facts, knowledge, and skills, as described in the first point, the better the results. A mature artists will flow smoothly from freely creating based on his instincts to stepping back to evaluate based on the facts acquired through his base of knowledge. When children are fully engaged and unafraid, they enter into making choices by intuition quite easily. I once watched a young girl, Ya Mei, engage in this highly creative process when given an assignment to draw an animal using soft pastels. She outlined an animal as expected, then leaning far over her paper, began to fill in. She was so engaged at mixing the colors that she did not notice for a time that the side of her hand wiped out the outlines. Her picture had turned into a pool of mixed (messy) colors. She continued in this exploratory mode until the end of class when she quickly drew new outlines of two animals over the beautiful colors. The process was intuitive and it was successful. She learned so much during this hour of exploration. How can you encourage your children to use intuition? Point out where rules are helpful and where they are not. For instance, forming letters correctly is helpful in handwriting, while intuition is more helpful when inventing a story. When designing a doghouse, fanciful features are best imagined through intuition, while building the dog house requires following the conventions of a ruler. In art, following direction for the proper way to use the tools is helpful. Intuition comes into play as decisions are made on the paper surface. Where will objects be placed? What objects will be included? What size will each object be drawn? What colors will I use? These decisions are intuitive in nature and where individual tastes come into play. Intuitive decision making is creativity. For parents that like control and order, allowing children to use their intuition when creating can be difficult. It requires setting aside one’s own expectations and goals. It’s up to you. Decide where the rules will be followed and where children are free to follow their intuition. Communicate those goals clearly to your children.
Like any good trait worth acquiring, take it slow. Try one new idea for implementing creativity into your home until it becomes a natural function of how your family works. This may take a day, a week, or a month of focused effort, but once an idea becomes a habit, you and your children will reap the enormous benefits of being creative individuals throughout your lifetimes.
Brenda Ellis is author and illustrator of the ARTistic Pursuits art program for children, which has become a staple in the homeschool community for 20 years. Her combined experience as a homeschool mom and classroom art teacher of twenty years has been used to help families get a great art education at home. You can contact Brenda by email at: alltheanswers@artisticpursuits.com