Good Times Being Creative

WHAT IS CREATIVITY?
Creativity means having the power or quality to express yourself in your own way. Children are naturally creative. They see the world through fresh, new eyes and then use what they see in original ways. One of the most rewarding parts of working with children is the chance to watch them create. They do it all the time, all by themselves. Caregivers need only encourage the natural creativity that exists.

Children display creativity in all parts of play, but especially in four main areas: art, language, music, and fantasy.

• Art is a way of expressing ideas and feelings in visual form. It includes children's use of crayons, paint, scissors, glue, play dough, and other craft materials.
• Language is the expression of ideas and feelings through words, either written or spoken. It includes the stories children tell and their creative "plays" and "pretend" games.
• Music is the expression of ideas and feelings using bodily movements. It includes dancing, singing, playing instruments, and using the body to make movements such as leaping like a frog or exploring how many ways to make a circle with the body.
• Fantasy is expressing ideas and feelings through pretend. It can include playing "make-believe", day-dreaming, talking with imaginary companions, and reading fantasy books.

WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO LEARN ABOUT CREATIVITY?
The most important function of creativity is self-expression. Self-expression allows children to express ideas and feelings about themselves and the world around them. Three-year-olds may not know how to say they are frustrated and depressed, but they can paint a picture using dark colors and bold, angry-looking strokes. Eight-year-olds may not feel like talking about moving to a new city, but they may write stories about other children who have moved. Self-expression is a way for children to show their needs to those around them.

Children's abilities to imagine and observe also are strengthened through self-expression. Asking children "What if..." questions helps develop their imaginations. "What if cats had ears like elephants?" "What if there was no gravity?" "What if plants could walk?" As children begin to ask "what if" questions, they not only observe the way the world actually is but also imagine how it might be. Often caregivers are tempted to say "But plants do not walk and never will!" instead of imagining with children what it would be like if they did. If you do this, you discourage creativity rather than encourage its growth. Allow yourself to wonder right along with the child. "If plants could walk, they would probably follow us to school just like dogs do!"

Creativity provides for intellectual growth. Children who mix red and yellow paint to make orange are growing intellectually. The scientists who trained astronauts to deal with weightlessness in space may have been the same children who asked, "What if there were no gravity?" when they were young. Many people feel that, as our world continues to change so quickly, we will need more and more creative people who can come up with new answers to "what if...?"

Creativity also allows children to explore the world. In fantasy, they can pretend to be police officers or ballet dancers. Through language, they can test their ideas about the world. In art, they can show the world as they see it. As children grow, they increase their knowledge of themselves and the world around them. Encouraging their creativity helps them in this process.

Encouragement also helps provide children with a sense of mastery and self-worth. The 2-year-olds who hop and croak feel pride in their abilities to be frogs. Seven-year-olds who think about weightlessness and come up with ideas gain respect for their own ability to think. They learn, "I am good at thinking. I know how to do it." This pride and respect for themselves is important because it is a base for all their later accomplishments.

Creative play often provides exercise for children, which in turn stimulates physical growth. For example, playing "Star Wars" or "Superman" requires lots of running, jumping, and climbing. Even stringing beads on a shoestring to make a necklace or weaving yarn to make a wall hanging requires muscle coordination.

Creative play also can help children grow socially. It gives them a chance to see the world from other children's perspectives through their stories, pictures, fantasy plays, or movements. The more understanding children gain of other points of view, the more respect they will learn for other people's rights, opinions, and feelings.

Creativity helps children feel good about themselves. You can encourage this feeling by responding positively to what they do. For example, you might say, "I like the way you used blue in your picture," or "That's a good way to pretend to be an elephant. I like the way you move your trunk." Remember, there are hundreds of ways to be creative. Each child will have an individual and unique style.

Another way you can encourage children to be creative is to talk things over rather than to give specific instructions or make a model when they ask for help. If you show a child how to draw a flower or a person, they will try to draw one just like yours. This can be frustrating because no matter how hard children try, their pictures will not be as "good" as yours because they do not have the muscle control or skill that you have. Chances are that children will compare the two pictures and not be happy with their own. They may even decide not to try. Be creative yourself and think of ways to encourage children's creativity.

Children's creativity reflects their feelings, emotions, and imagination. Children are not often as concerned with how things "really" are but with how they "think" they are.

When working with young children, it is important to remember that the process of creating is more important than the product. This means that children are more interested in painting, singing, or moving than they are in making a perfect picture or singing the right words to the song. Caregivers need to be sensitive to this. It is better to say "Tell me about your picture" (or song or about what you are doing) than it is to say "What is it?" Sometimes the child's final product may not be anything more than an expression of feelings.

As a caregiver, there are several things you can do to help control the use of television and encourage creativity in children.

1. Talk to the parents about their rules for television viewing and program selection. Always follow these rules.
2. Do not use the television as a substitute caregiver. You are the caregiver, and need to spend time with the child. Children usually will not miss television if they have other fun things to do. Use the ideas in this book for alternatives. Remember, most children would rather play with another child or an adult than watch television.
3. If children are watching television, watch with them. Encourage them to think and talk with you by asking questions or making comments on what is happening. Play "What if..." and imagine different endings or happenings during the show. Discuss the creative parts of the program; the writing, acting, and making of the show. If you do not know a lot about these, you can find information in the children's section of your public library. Ask the children's librarian for help.

AGES AND STAGES
INFANTS
Infants (birth to 18 months) learn to grasp, sit-up, crawl, and walk. Older babies learn to talk and express themselves using one or two word sentences. Activities for this stage of development should encourage creativity. You, as a caregiver, can build on what infants do by offering them a variety of safe materials to play with. For example, when infants use a pan as a drum and hit it with their hands, offer them other things to hit the pan with, like wooden spoons. Or offer them other drums like plastic bowls or empty boxes. For more on safe toys for infants, see *Good Times with Toys*.

How you can help

1. Hang a colorful mobile over the crib, or place pictures where babies can focus on them.
2. Play sound games with infants. Repeat the sounds babies make back to them. Make up nonsense words or rhyming words when talking to infants.
3. Sing to babies. Play a variety of music around them. By 7 or 8 months, even infants "dance" to music. You can encourage this dancing by taking the infant's hands and moving with the music.
4. Encourage babies' safe and creative use of household materials. For example, give them margarine tubs, empty boxes, or large empty spools - any safe materials that are handy around the house - and let them experiment. Show excitement and interest in what they do.

TODDLERS
Toddlers (18 months to 4 years) have growing hand control and coordination. They should be given opportunities to draw with paint, crayons, and chalk. Toddlers will need to be supervised in these activities to understand the right place for drawing. Young toddlers, especially, often use walls, sheets, floors, tables, and other surfaces for drawing, if not given guidance.

For most toddlers, this is a scribbling stage in art and a picture rarely looks like a recognizable object. Using muscles and discovering how things feel is what counts. Toddlers enjoy art experiences such as play dough, clay, shaving cream painting, cornstarch and water, and finger painting. Recipes and directions for these are in the Learn by Doing section.

Later, toddlers are ready for experiences with scissors and glue. Toddlers need careful supervision until they learn the rules for using these materials.

Toddlers have a growing vocabulary and can tell short stories. They also can make-up simple stories about pictures you show them. Encourage the toddler to talk to you and tell you about their experiences.

Toddlers can do much with creative movements. They are learning the names of their body parts and enjoy activities that use these, such as touching toes, eyes, or elbows. Toddlers can do simple creative movements like imitating animals. They enjoy dancing and, like infants, should be exposed to all kinds of music. Toddlers also enjoy making their own music with simple instruments like bells and sticks.

The fantasy play of toddlers comes naturally. They still are learning what is real and what is pretend. Fantasy play, pretending to be the mother or doctor, is how young children learn about the world. It also helps children feel powerful and in control. In make-believe, children are the ones who get to do the ordering instead of being ordered.

How you can help:

1. Check your local library for books without words such as *Do You Want To Be My Friend?* by Eric Carle. Your librarian can suggest others. Because they are only pictures, let the child tell the story to you.
   Read *Good Times with Stories and Poems* for more ideas on using books creatively with young children.
2. Take pictures from magazines and mount them on a piece of paper. Ask the child to tell you about it, then write down what they say. Later you can read these stories back to the child.
3. Play a variation of "Twister" with toddlers. Make up such directions as "Put your elbow on yellow." "Put your little finger on green." "Put your ear on blue."
4. Provide art materials for the child using suggestions and recipes from the Learn by Doing section. Always check with the child's parent ahead of time to make sure it is all right. Protect the work area during messy activities by putting newspaper on table and floor. Protect the child's clothes with a bib or smock. A used adult shirt with the sleeves cut off works well. Remember toddlers need careful supervision during art activities. Always clean-up afterwards.
5. A good place for a toddler to do finger painting is in the bathtub. The toddler can paint the bathtub (and themselves) as much as they want and then bathtub and toddler can be washed off. Remember to check with parents before trying this kind of activity.
6. Encourage creative movement in toddlers by pretending you all are: kites blowing in the wind; a kitten with a sore paw; a balloon blowing up and popping; a jet airplane taking off; eating an ice cream cone. Make up ideas of your own. Be creative.
7. Encourage toddlers in their fantasy play. Read *Good Times with Toys* for ideas and guidelines on how to do this.

Reprinted with permission from the National Network for Child Care - NNCC. Lagoni, L. S., Martin, D. H., Maslin-Cole, C., Cook, A., MacIsaac, K., Parrill, G., Bigner, J., Coker, E., & Sheie, S. (1989). Good times being creative. In *Good times with child care* (pp. 239-253). Fort Collins, CO: Colorado State University Cooperative Extension.