Five Ways To Help Kids Explore Their Creativity – Part 1

I have been assigned a great job in life – navigating three sons to adulthood. These wild, smelly rascals are now 14, 12 and 9 years old. Part of preparing them to go out into the world is teaching them how to explore the inventor in them. When each of them got to about year one, I began to  expose them to different items that would help them scratch their curious and creative itch.

Here are ten of the  hands-on things that have helped them to exercise that right  side of their brain.

Play-Doh – Age 1 and up

The squishiness of this old school dough has brought hours of fun. We have seen a wide range of masterpieces come out of this colorful medium. No matter how many times you open up the cans of play-doh, a colorful sculpture of dog doo-doo is rolled out, swirled and chuckled over (much to the frowns of my wife).

Lego  Bricks – Age 3 and up

Every kid should have a bucket full of Lego Bricks. I did not have the privilege of owning Legos as a kid. However, I did have a friend who owned Legos. Fortunately, I married a wonderfully geeky gal who brought over 5000 of these wonderful bricks to the team.  Needless to say, the boys had a good foundation of building blocks to start with. To this day, hours at a time are spent snapping Legos together in our house. My advice – put Duplos in your toddlers hands early in life and let them graduate to Legos as soon as you can.

Scissors, Paper, Glue – Age 3 and up

I know this sounds like caveman activity in our world full of electronics. However, kids need to experience the joy of cutting paper with scissors. They need to feel the sticky glue on their fingers and face. The free form expression of what is in their mind’s eye is cut loose by giving them a stack of magazines, construction paper, safety scissors, and a glue stick.  By doing this, you are setting yourself up for a lifetime of art to display in your office.

K’nex – Age 4 and up

K’nex are the modern day’s version of Tinker toys. When you put these assorted plastic sticks, and snap shapes in your kids hands you enter geometric heaven. Anything from a fishing pole to a pyramid to a truss bridge will emerge from the hands of your mini-me.

Magnetix – Age 5 and up

Everybody loves marble size steel balls and sticks with magnets in each end. Give your kid a set of Magnetix and watch their eyes light up.  You can make geometric shapes for days on end. And talk about letting your kids explore the world of structural trusses, this is the way. I keep a box of these little jewels on my desk at work just to get the creativity flowing.

Continued in Five Ways To Help Kids Explore Their Creativity – Part 2

Tags: brain play, construction paper, Creativity, glue stick, inventor, Kids, lego bricks, legos, masterpieces, play doh, safety scissors, sculpture, toddlers