Creativity Soars, But Sometimes It Hops

In my childhood I found the flat sidewalks of Chicago made hopscotch a fun option for kids with nothing to do. The classic game of active amusement could become a neighborhood tournament through creative innovation back then. Kids at play often reveal astonishing creative talents.

Hopping With Holly

Holly, a friend from those days, told me about the summer she stayed with her aunt and had no place to play. But she befriended the girl who lived next door.

They found some chalk and drew a hopscotch course on the sidewalk. They played every day, and invented new hopscotch courses with twists and turns and challenging passages. Soon other kids were joining in.

By midsummer Holly and her friend had organized daily hopscotch contests and even gave out award certificates they made themselves. 

With a stick of chalk and a lot of creativity Holly and her friend turned that summer into something special.

Click to read more ...

Guide Your Kids Down the Creative Rapids

There’s a magical mind chemistry known as “Creative Flow,” where we feel in sync with our task, and fully focused on our goal. The term was coined by psychologist and author, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi at the University of Chicago.

“Flow” describes a particular state of heightened  consciousness. As Prof. Csikszentmihlyi describes it, creative people are at their peak when they experience a sense of “unified flowing from one moment to the next, in which we feel in control of our actions, and in which there is little distinction between self and environment; between stimulus and response; or between past, present, and future.”

Flowing On All Fours

We are most likely to get into flow when our environment has four essential factors. The principles of flow hold true for kids, as well. Provide these factors for your kids, and you may be amazed.

Click to read more ...

Advice from Outside the Box

To live successfully—both personally and professionally—you must identify problems and think of ways to solve them. And if your first attempts don’t work, you need the ability to formulate Plan B, C, D, and Q. You must figure out ways around roadblocks, come up with quick fixes for little emergencies, and design effective strategies for tackling serious problems. Creative thinkers are best equipped to navigate the challenges of life. 

Here are some of my favorite anecdotes featuring creative problem solvers. These lighthearted examples are from everyday life, but their “outside the box” approach

Click to read more ...

Knowledge is Power but Dreamers Shape the World

Stop and look around at any given moment and you see what startling advances we enjoy. To be surrounded by such accomplishments we must think to ourselves how much people must need to know to be able to create so many marvelous things. And, yes, it’s true that knowledge is the building block upon which great achievements are made. But it takes something else, as well.

Knowledge is the foundation of achievement, but the formula doesn’t add up without one essential ingredient: creative thinking. Creativity blossoms in fields of knowledge. Knowledge + Creative Thinking = Achievement.

Creative thinking is rarely addressed in school, yet it is the number one factor that distinguishes our great achievers from the ordinary in every field. Combined with knowledge, creativity works wonders.

Click to read more ...

Creative Genius: It Takes Both Sides

What is Creativity? Creativity is about problem solving in a new way. It is using skills to generate ideas and bring about something unique and valuable. Although the creative process involves imagination and self expression, it must be purposeful in reaching “outside the box” to solve a problem, meet a need, or accomplish a goal.

Although some children are innately more creatively inclined, all kids can learn creative thinking skills and get in the habit of using them for problem solving in life, work, and play.

Divergent And Convergent Thinking

We often hear the terms “right brain” and “left brain” thinking. This refers to the two hemispheres of the brain, each of which dominate different thought processes. In reality, both hemispheres need to work together for us to do anything meaningful.

Click to read more ...

Creative Connections

Creative thinkers play with metaphors and analogies. This means that they look at one thing as if it were another thing. They ask, “What else could this be like?” They make new connections between unrelated things. 

Click to read more ...

Brainstorming: A Climate for Creative Growth

Try this the next time you have a rainy day and your child or classroom has free time. You can turn a rainy day into an amazing brainstorm!

Brainstorming is a technique for generating a free-flow of ideas to solve a problem within a short period of time. Brainstorming can be practiced by individuals or by a guided group of two or more.

Groups need a facilitator, whose role is to encourage participation, to embrace and record each idea, and to remind participants to defer judgment, however wild an idea may seem. 

Although brainstorming in a group may not always produce the best ideas, the sessions offer other valuable benefits. They boost confidence, warm up creative muscles, improve classroom spirit, and create a trusting social climate. Creative thought flourishes in positive psychological environments.

Click to read more ...

Who Are The Creative Kids?

As the mom of two incredible kids, one special needs and one who was identified as “gifted,” and as a former teacher, I know that creative genius can arise out of any child anywhere. You cannot predict it by looking at typical classroom performance. My special needs daughter astonishes me with her ideas and handmade folk dolls as much as my gifted son does with his writing and acting abilities.

Many kids assumed to be “attention deficit” look like they're daydreaming, and maybe they are—in a good way! Your daydreamer could be laying the early foundations of a groundbreaking innovation he'll someday bring to fruition.

Dreamers’ Lib

The word, “daydream,” has negative connotations, such as apathetic, slow, and unmotivated. But the truth is almost always the opposite.

Click to read more ...