Hello from Karen Whiting. It’s great to be here to chat again!

Some studies indicate that creativity has declined in America since the 1990s. Children show naturally creativity at young ages. Listen to children learning to talk. They often invent their own words and that’s innovative. However, adults temper that down with teaching the correct rules of speech and the proper words to use. Afterall, that helps us understand when they are saying.

Conformity suppresses creativity and innovation. As long as children look at the world with curiosity and explore what interests them, they will be creative. Whenever people need something that’s not handy, they tend to invent something to use. When we watch shows such as Shark, we realize there is a lot of innovation and that such shows motivate people to be creative.

The biggest inspiration for creativity and innovation is encouragement. When we praise children for creativity that fuels their creative souls. Benjamin West’s mother arrived home to see a huge mess surrounding her children and saw Benjamin had worked at painting. Instead of lamenting the mess, she gleefully shouted, “Oh, Benjamin, it’s Sally!” As an adult, he said her words launched his career. Words hold great power to foster a child’s imagination and future. 

Another component of inspiring creativity is allowing time and having supplies to nurture experiences that promote the imagination and inventiveness of children. Nature holds a great wealth of materials for exploring, inventing, and creativity. We can add supplies such as paints, paper, scissors, and brushes or building materials and glues. Filling a cabinet or a few buckets with tools and supplies plus scheduling time for creative fun allows children to develop their ingenuity. Think back to your own childhood and recall what helped you be creative? It might have simply been time to daydream and invent stories.

I recall many warm days playing in the mud and making mud pies. My mother even identified that play as one of my first activities I relished. I cooked with her and then transferred the experience into creating my own imaginary desserts and meals. I also recall one grandma giving me art supplies and using the paper and scissors to cut and invent objects. I folded and cut slits to put pieces together and hung them from trees. That grandma once told me, “The only limit to our imagination is our own mind.” My older children went from a box of scrap materials for creativity to a large double-doored cabinet. My youngest discovered an old wooden box in which to store treasures from nature that he could use to invent stories.

Prepare for summer fun with children by filling containers with supplies and setting aside time to just play, pretend, and create. Let it be a time to ask about the process and delve into why they made something, what they enjoyed, what sparked the idea

Add a few books of crafts and things to make to inspire new ideas, like my newest book The Super-Sized Book of Bible Craft Gifts. 100+ paper craft ideas let children add their own design and sparks the imagination. In the back, the STEAM lessons help them connect science, technology, engineering, and math to crafts to inspire innovation and see how art and analytical skills go together and become springboard for inventions.

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Blessings, Karen