A further area in which children develop is the realm of creativity and imagination. It is difficult to put into concrete terms exactly what imagination and creativity are: perhaps it is best to see them as a means of expressing ideas and impulses, thoughts and feelings.
People’s lives are enriched through creativity, whatever form their inventiveness takes. Children’s lives certainly are enhanced through their interaction with arts and crafts, music, movement, drama and so on.
Through creativity children can communicate their understanding of the world they are still trying to make sense of, particularly before they can read and write. The expression of their ideas through imaginative play, arts and crafts, using different media, can tell you a great deal about what’s going on inside their heads though, of course, their creative endeavours will depend upon their level of skills.
Learning Through Creativity
When they are engaged in creative activities children are learning many things as well as how to express themselves. To begin with, they are learning to concentrate. They are learning to work on one project and do it to the very best of their ability, sticking at it until completion. They are also learning to think and are developing their thinking skills, because they’re looking for different ways to get to the end they wish to achieve. They are learning to visualise something and then work out a way of achieving it.
Of course, in working at the skills they need to use, whatever their chosen project is, they are also developing their concepts of colour, shape, space, number, pattern etc so that working on any creative project in itself reinforces other learning.
The Key to Creativity
The real key to creativity is to get started and to have fun, to get the children to understand that there is no ‘right?way and no ‘wrong’ way, that creativity is a completely free area for them to explore.
Rainy afternoons, when they can’t play outside and they’re bored with the things they have inside, are excellent times for being creative together.
The Value of Creating
The process of doing creative things holds the real value of the activity, rather than the standard of the finished product. Particularly when you are doing creative things together, the sharing that takes place during that process is invaluable to both of you. You both learn about capabilities and thought processes by talking about what you’re doing, and the children are extending their skills while they’re taking part in the process.
Remember, creative activity needs to be fun – there’s nothing more stifling to the creative urge than being told you are making a mess of something. The mess, or the result, is not the important titling, the means by which you go about getting to that result is the paramount purpose of the activity.