Raise Creative Child: Ideas to Spark Imagination

Kids Activities
mother and child making dough in the kitchen

Children are born curious, filled with a sense of wonder and an interest in absorbing the world around them. While they might have limited attention spans, the moment you prompt their imagination, they will most likely get up and let their sense of adventure lead them. 

But nurturing creativity in children doesn’t end with artistic expression. Creativity and innovation are important to developing technology, business, education, and other industries. Thus, inspiring creativity in children is cultivated through practice and formed habits. And these practices begin at home.

Wondering how to raise a creative child? We’ve listed art activities for kids you can easily organize at home that will spark their curiosity and engage their imagination.

Creative Activities for Kids to Do at Home

Studies indicate that bilinguals tend to outperform their monolingual peers in creative tasks, which is why it’s crucial to provide art activities for kids to boost out-of-the-box thinking, including having them learn a new language.

Honing your child’s creativity is essential to their overall social, cognitive, and language development. Aside from improving their fine motor skills, they’ll enjoy and appreciate creating something with their own hands.

Here are some creative things to do with kids that you can try at home:

Craft Your Own Holiday Gifts

Instead of buying gifts at the store, you can teach your kids to make something of their own that best represents them or their feelings towards the recipient. You can have them draw, paint, build a puppet or toy out of common household items, craft friendship bracelets, or even decorate the family’s holiday cards.

Complete a Family Project

An effective way to fuel your child’s imagination is by letting them participate in family projects such as assembling a kid’s table or a birdhouse or making DIY Christmas tree decorations. The secret of how to raise a creative child is to begin with activities that ground them, solidifying relationships with the rest of the family.

Encourage Them to Assemble Their Toys

If your kids love cars or buildable toys, you can get them a Lego kit, allowing them to assemble their toys. Not only will the experience inspire their creativity and problem-solving abilities, but it’ll also help them appreciate their belongings and the memories that come with them. 

Set Up an Indoor Playground

You can put up a mini jungle gym in their playroom or living room when your kids need to play indoors, such as during harsher weather. Indoor playgrounds can foster a creative environment and promote imaginative play at home.

Cook Meals With Your Kids

Cooking can be a fun activity for parents and children alike. It’s an effective way to introduce how meals are prepared in the kitchen. You can bake cookies and other desserts together or ask your child to help you arrange their lunchboxes, which allows them to come up with unique designs and patterns.

Make Paper Flowers

You can teach creative crafts for kids, like making flowers out of tissue paper. Though you also use art or crafting paper and crayons, you can repurpose many common household items for quick art projects with your children.

Sign Up For Art Classes

If you’ve noticed that your child has benefited from the activities you planned for them at home, you might want to consider enrolling them in art classes that can continue to develop their creativity and skills. Some classes and courses can be done together, such as pottery classes.

Listen to Music With Your Kids

Incorporating music into imaginative play can enhance your child’s verbal and non-verbal skills. Playing pop songs or your choice of music can allow you and your kid to bond. Music also helps develop memory, attention, concentration, and language skills. And if your child shows an affinity for music, you can discuss enrolling them in formal classes to learn instruments like the piano or guitar.

Take Photographs

Introducing your kid to photography at an early age is a great way to enhance their creativity. You can prompt them to play dress-up or take photos of meaningful things around the house, such as their favorite pet or most loved toys. Afterward, you can even put together a scrapbook to commemorate the experience.

Go on Mini Field Trips

Creative activities for kids include bringing them to stimulating environments, like museums, theme parks, and even to an outdoor playground. If you’ve chosen to plan a special trip, you can include your child in some of the decisions, such as which exhibits to see or what time you should have lunch, as this will instill a sense of responsibility in them.

Play Board Games

Language games like scrabble can help sharpen your child’s cognitive abilities and creative thinking skills. Other popular board games you can play together include Jenga, Cranium, and Monopoly Jr.

Engage Them in Reading and Storytelling Activities

Children enjoy listening to stories, especially before going to sleep. Aside from selecting books together and reading to them, you can encourage your kid to practice reading or telling their own stories. You can ask them about their day or describe new people they’ve recently encountered. You can even prompt them to create stories about their favorite toys.

Practice Clay Modeling

The art of clay modeling encourages multi-sensory development, improves coordination and motor skills, and can be a therapeutic activity. This creative activity, like building their own toys and crafting holiday cards, encourages children to make something out of nothing, allowing their imagination to move them.

Play Charades or Pictionary

Playing Charades or Pictionary will stimulate your child’s thinking and cognitive skills. These activities also help build their vocabulary, allowing your kid to express themselves better.

The Back-and-Forth Drawing Game

Creative activities for kids, like this one, also involve your participation. The back-and-forth drawing game entails completing a work of art together based on prompts you and your child come up with. All you have to do is take turns adding strokes or shapes to an image you’ll be creating together.

Let Them Paint With Their Fingers

The difference between regular painting and having your child paint with their fingers is the concept of allowing them to experiment while using their body to explore the possibilities around them. Instead of dipping a brush into the paint and mixing the colors with an instrument, they’ll be able to do so using their fingers, reveling in the sensations and forming connections with the craft.

Role Playing

Take your storytelling and reading activity up a notch through role-playing. You can ask your kids to dress up and act out scenes from their favorite stories or of their beloved characters. You can further challenge them to act out as characters they aren’t fond of to allow them to understand that character better.

Encourage Them to Solve Puzzles

Children love putting together jigsaw puzzles with fun themes and bright colors. Each puzzle can challenge their visual reasoning and spatial awareness.

Set Up a Puppet Show

Aside from playing with toys, children love interacting with hand puppets. For this activity, you can teach them to make puppets using a sock, yarn, and googly eyes. Afterward, ask them to introduce their puppets to their peers.

Teach Your Child a New Language

Learning a new or second language can go a long way toward developing your child’s creative thinking. Bilingual education benefits kids by encouraging openness and improving their memorization skills. Not only will your children better understand the world around them, but they will also be challenged to pick up on body language and other social cues that will make it easier for them to communicate.

How to Raise a Creative Child? Be There for Them.

Ever wondered what your children will be like when they grow up? Who knows? They could be the next Van Gogh or Picasso! But no matter what field they choose to study or pursue, it’s important that they feel your support. 

As their parent, you must be your child’s biggest supporter, especially during their developmental years. May it be arts or academics, you can help them reach their potential. Find more seasonal crafts through the Rayito de Sol blog.

November 30, 2023