Exercises to stimulate children's creativity

The creativity it is that original and innovative capacity that does not arise from a mathematical or logical deduction. It's that "quality" spark. In children between 6 to 8 years, it is something that can be educated and taught, regardless of whether our children have this gift or not.

Like intelligence, creativity is a good shared among people: we all possess it to some degree. It is not a gift that is available only to some geniuses or privileged. Maybe we have a small artist at home, but in any case, if from an early age we get used to looking for a certain originality, to strive to not settle for typical solutions, there is no doubt that we will be providing great help for the future. We will be providing them with an intellectual tool that will help them see challenges where others see only problems.

Open proposals to stimulate creativity

The exercises to stimulate children's creativity they are often based on proposals of an open nature, that is, they require multiple responses. The children are asked to think many things: "What can an umbrella be for?" The answers can be many and varied; some rare, others original. It can be said that it is the first step to develop the creativity that needs to be stimulated. The second? Responses that amaze us for the accuracy of their relationship.

To enhance the creativity of children, parents must accept divergent responses and curious questions, assessing originality, stimulating critical awareness, etc., admitting their new ideas without trying to impose always ours. Solving problems in many different ways, avoiding rigidity in the future, facilitating productive thinking as opposed to reproductive or repetitive thinking.

There are children who may find it boring to devote themselves to tasks that are too systematic, perfectly organized beforehand, and which instead enjoy when through creativity they perform other tasks that they can manage at will. Sometimes, they need some motivation, which can be achieved through competition with other siblings or partners.

Features of creative children

- Verbal fluency, by which ideas and associations are quickly expressed.
- Flexibility so as not to become obsessed with a single procedure, path or point of view; There are many perspectives.
- Originality, that astonishes by the novelty of the proposed thing, the same that by its degree of success or subtlety.
- Special sensitivity, there is always a possibility of improvement; no artist "ends" a work, but at some point he is forced to abandon it.

1. Choose colors. Color the same drawing in four different ways. We will leave you a lot of initiative to choose the colors, to paint whatever you want, etc., but we will be a little bit above so that they paint them very different from each other. Then, we will make you reflect so that you choose the one you like most of the four, surrounding it with a circle. It is important that our son take the initiative and not follow what we say to him.

2. Fulfill the rule. Write as many words as possible that comply with the rules we give you: that start with "a", as a friend; that end with "s", like scissors, etc. It is a very suitable game to create competition between several brothers or partners. For the stimulation of creative thinking, both the quantity of answers and the quality of these matters.

3. Combine phrases.Make sentences as different as possible, using at least two words that we give them. For example, with "car" and "traffic light", they can do: "The car stopped at the traffic light", "The car was green and the red traffic light", etc. Celebrate all the occurrences of the child, however rare they may be. The exercises of open answers (without a certain solution) favor the development of children's imagination.

4. Imagination to power. Indicate what the things we show you can be used for, but separating from the most common use. That I invented for what other things I could use it. We can also exercise ourselves by presenting rare objects. For example, a pen is used to write, but also to direct an orchestra. We will let imagination and creativity fly.

5. Ingenious answers The child should answer these questions keeping in mind that it is important to give many different and sometimes rare solutions. For example: "If something is burned in school, how or with what would you extinguish the fire?" "If they send you to go for the newspaper, and you can not find it, what can you do?" "With what materials can a building be manufactured?"

6. To disguise themselves they touch.To develop your creativity, nothing better than costumes.We can organize a game at home between siblings or with friends, in which the boys have to dress up as they find it more at hand (nothing spectacular or special is needed). Afterwards, we will make a pass of models and we will punctuate their ideas. Sometimes a simple handkerchief is more suitable than a pile of clothes ... If you have trouble thinking about a character, we can propose it to you.

7. High as ... This is another exercise of open answers in which it is interesting that the child tries to give several correct solutions every time. It consists of putting the examples that the enunciating asks for. So: "Stop like ..."; "Elegant as ..."; etc. It does not matter how rare the comparisons are. The important thing is that of many answers, do not settle for two or three.

8. Game of metaphors. We are going to become, for a time, little poets of the highest level. It is about playing metaphors, one step more than the previous comparison because the "how" is eliminated. We will give the real term (airplane, donkey, etc.) and he will have to tell us another definition that is related. They may say "metal bird" or any other. If it's too complicated, let's make the effort and create the metaphors: the kids will have to say which one they like the most and why.

Beatriz Bengoechea.Psychologist and family counselor