Creativity!

"You cannot teach creativity. All you can do is let it blossom, and it blossoms in PLAY!" - Kyung Hee Kim 

We recently borrowed the book "The Day the Crayons Quit!" from our local library and it became an instant favorite. In this book, each crayon from a crayon box writes a little note to their owner (a little boy named Duncan) about their thoughts and troubles. In the end, the boy decides to make all his crayons happy and creates a beautiful,colorful picture addressing each crayons' appeals. He gets an A for coloring and A+ for creativity!

After we read the book, Sid asked ," Mom, what is creativity?". "Creativity means thinking outside the box, presenting your ideas differently.", I replied. There was a puzzled look from the twins. "Just do differently", I stressed on my words wondering how else I could explain.

A few minutes later the kids were going about their business. Nidhi was practicing playing "Farmer in the Dell" rhyme on her xylophone and Sid was engrossed in drawing a picture. Then Nidhi started drawing and coloring.

Some time later Nidhi came running ,"Mom! Look at my creativity!" She shoved her drawing in front of me with excitement. Here is a snapshot of her picture.

I was blown away by her explanation. Here is how it went.

Nidhi's creativity

" These are color notes for rhyme 'Farmer in the Dell'. I wanted the notes to go down like stairs. But, there was not enough paper. So I wanted to make it like a circle. That's how the rhyme goes. The same notes in circle, right? So I drew them in circle but it became like a big D. These notes goes through the yellow door in circles. The yellow door is the big D's ear. The ear is our door for listening music. Big D is sad because the same music is circling in its ears and it never stops! I also added another ear, hands and legs for the D. This is my CREATIVITY!"

Looking at her excitement, Sid came showing his art. Here is his picture.

Sid' creativity

"Look at my creativity mom!". "Can you tell me about your creativity?", I asked. "My picture has two suns and one moon at the same time in a yellow sky! These are boats sailing on green ocean. One boat has a big green feather and a man is trying to stand on top of the feather! This is my CREATIVITY!", he explained.

At a later time after a visit to a nearby temple Sid was drawing sculptures of Gods he had seen earlier. "This is Lord Krishna with Hanuman (the monkey God). " , he explained. "That's creative.", I murmured. "No Mom, That is just my IMAGINATION.", was his response.

 I have never put too much thought about difference between creativity and imagination.I wonder if he really understands the difference between creativity and imagination.

 Be it creativity or imagination, this episode has taught me a couple of lessons.

1. Books are good sources of provocation for creative thinking and inquiry. Select books that can trigger such sparks in kids.

2. Let go of your instincts to teach them correctness or realism. That just kills original thinking.

Share your thoughts on how you encourage creativity and imagination in your young kids.

Encouraging Purposeful Writing at home

I have not blogged for a while now, because I was thinking that the kids were not interested in learning anything new. Suddenly it dawned on me. As Amelia Gambetti  says , "You have elephants crossing your room and yet you only see the ants", I have been blind to an important skill the twins are trying to acquire.

The twins are in sensitive period for language. A lot of effort is being spent by them to learn writing. 

So how to support this interest in learning this new skill? The simple answer would be to make it purposeful and meaningful.

I remember my childhood days of learning to write. I clearly remember the insistence on legible writing than creative writing. My mom carefully placed dots on a four ruled sheet to form an alphabet and I meticulously connected the dots to "draw" the alphabet. This repeated many times for many days. I remember thinking to myself "What am I achieving by just filling pages with abc?"
So I wanted them to enjoy writing with purpose. Here are few ways how we incorporate writing at home.

Name Writing

The twins' interest in writing evolved from learning to write their own names - a typical developmental activity for a 3 year old. They learned to write each other's name.

Sid's name writing practice

Labeling drawings

I started to encourage them label their pictures. I did it by modeling the writing. Whenever a drawing was brought to me and an explanation was given, I would label their pictures in front of them. Next they started to label their drawings. "Mom, I have drawn a sun. Can you spell it for me to write?"

Sid's Free hand drawing of World map labeled by me

"Trucks" - Drawing and labeling by Sid

Sun,Rug,House - picture and label by Nidhi

Book Making

Sid and Nidhi love books. They are always eager to make their own books. Though they are not yet ready to write stories, they enjoy the process of writing and illustrating their own books.

Our book writing setup

Sid working on his book with illustrations

Nidhi's book - "Mac can tag dog"

Greeting Card Making

We take opportunities to make our own greeting cards for our little friends. The twins enjoy making their own birthday cards. They draw, stamp, decorate and write birthday messages on card stock to personalize the cards.
Nidhi brings cards with her drawings addressed to Mom, dad, brother and sister from school most days.

Greeting card messages

Music Notes writing

If you are a follower of our Facebook page, you may be aware of Nidhi's interest in decoding musical notes of some simple rhymes. She figures out the notes when playing by ear and jots them down. She not only gets enough practice of writing the first few alphabets this way but also can appreciate the usefulness of written alphabet.

Nidhi's music notes

Apart from these writing practices, we also enjoy practicing letter formation in different ways.

Forming alphabets with craft sticks

Letter construction from Learning resources

Sid practicing on slate chalkboard

Of course, it is no fun if you don't practice writing the old fashioned way. What ways do you encourage purposeful writing for your preschoolers at home?

“All I need is a sheet of paper and something to write with, and then I can turn the world upside down.” – Friedrich Nietzsche