Children and Creativity
I said, "What?"
My husband said, "Paul, do you get mad because you can't see your forehead?"
Paul said, "No. It was just something I was thinking about," and he went on eating his lunch like this was a normal, everyday conversation.
What I love about this story is it shows how much creativity a child has. Who ever would have thought about trying to look at their foreheads? Kids can say the darndest things, but I'm telling you that those who continue to think creatively are going to be the most successful. And those of us who support them are going to be right beside them.
We make it a point to encourage our kids to think creatively as much as possible. My husband is an engineer and an inventor, so he works with them to develop the right side of their brain. I am intuitive and a writer, so I work with them to develop the left side of their brain. Hopefully, our kids will become fluent in using both sides of their brain as they grow older.
Our kids are eight- and ten-years-old. Here are a few examples of what we do to work with their brain development (as well as their personal development):
· My husband will ask them to calculate how old they are in seconds (minutes, hours, days, etc). The three of them walk through the process together and come up with an answer in about 15 minutes.
· He'll ask them, "Where and how do you think this product is made?" That product could be anything from a can of soda to a household product to a toy. It also creates some great discussion on how it can be improved.
· At night, I will read to them from the English version of the "Tao Te Ching" (Eastern philosophy, spiritual) and then we will discuss it. For instance, we discussed this line: "The Master (of the Tao) observes the world but trusts his inner vision." They understood it more than I thought they would.
· I teach the children to meditate. It has been very helpful in helping them to find peace when they need it, but also to find answers to questions that are hard to answer.
Since we do this every day, these are just a few exercises we have our children do. Not only are we working on skill development, but we are also spending time together having meaningful conversation. (We also spend lots of time having silly conversation.) In the meantime, we are still trying to figure out how many people get mad because they can't see their foreheads.
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Keywords: 15 minutes, brain development, creativity, eastern philosophy, engineer, everyday conversation, forehead, foreheads, household product, inventor, lull, lunch, out of the blue, personal development, soda, tao, tao te ching.
