Children naturally have short attention spans and it is common for them to complain of boredom. Watching television or playing on ipads or tablets is a common way children distract and if not carefully regulated, they can spend excessive amounts of time on the screen leading to vision and learning problems.
There are various other ways children can spend their time which in the end can be more productive as compared to watching television or rather staying idle and complaining of boredom.
Creative Thinking Among Children
It is a common misconception among many parents that creative thinking in children is an intrinsic trait that one is naturally born with or rather is found among certain people who have unusual talents.
However, this isn’t the case. Creative thinking can be nurtured in any child.
Creativity has various benefits among children and this includes development of cognitive skills in the child, problem solving, communication, development of literacy skills, physical dexterity and exertion and making interpretations.
Expressing Emotions
In addition, creative expression further assists the child to express their emotions and work through them to not only gain relief but understand them.
For example, if your child is experiencing anger, you can ask them to draw a picture portraying what they feel. Alternatively, you can play varied genres of music and ask your child how the music makes them feel.
Social Development
Creative thinking significantly leads to the development of the child’s social ability. Participation in various creative activities such as dancing, singing or theatre trains the child in the importance of paying attention and secondly teaches the child to understand social rules such as co-operation.
Physical Development
When a child works with art materials such as paint, crayons, play dough and paint brushes, it improves their fine motor skills. Other activities such as mural painting, dancing, building complex objects such as Lego and theatre improve their gross motor skills.
Language Development
When children engage in creative play, they are able to improve their vocabulary by learning new words. There are various ways parents and guardians can improve language expression in children and this includes conversing with the child especially with regards to the emotions they are experiencing or playing different kinds of music and trying to find out how it makes them feel.
Cognitive Development
Children develop their cognitive skills such as cognitive learning and their attention span when they participate in creative activities. This is because at that point in time, their imagination is occupied and it further encourages them to think outside the box and come up with new ideas. This way, they are able to learn how to explore and be in a position to solve problems.
Simple activities like playing with dough can help a child learn basic mathematical skills such as concepts of less and more. The same can be said of learning about classification and grouping, cause and effect and the physical properties of objects. One of the best ways children can learn these concepts is through play and painting.
Creative Development for Kids at Hive
At Hive Creative Studios we recognise the importance of developing the kind of creative thinking that will lead to real talent and skill giving kids the ability to proud of themselves and to contribute in meaningful ways to the community around them.
If you have children in the under 5 yr old age group, check out our premium creative development program: Bee-School where your child can participate in a 3 or 6 hour session (drop off) in a variety of creative programs like dance, song, instrument play, art, drama and languages.
If you have children over 5, check out our after school programs in drama, piano, singing, art and combo classes.
Or join a holiday workshop to get some creative inspiration for your holidays!
We do our very best to provide a relaxed and creative environment for children to learn grow and have fun. Visit our website to enrol or get more information on holiday workshops.