Creative Child Development

How to inspire, nurture, and support your child’s creativity

Tim offers child-approved methods to help you develop your child’s natural-born creativity

I am blessed to have grown up with a great teacher in my dad, professional artist Bill Chambers. I have yet to meet a teacher as good as he was. Dad found the perfect balance of meeting my insatiable (at times!) desire to learn and challenging me to do things well. It can be a tricky task, as kids are eager to do, but not always eager to do it well.  I have kids of my own, and I know that it takes a little bit of pre-thought to motivate and not discourage. I’ll share a few things here that I’ve learned that may help parents see their kids’ creativity and excitement flourish.

First, provide your kids with the resources (materials) to grow.

Just like plants need ample and good soil to grow, kids need plenty of good material to grow. I don’t mean that they need everything out there, but that what you do provide them doesn’t hinder their desire to express and create, and isn’t costly to do so.  You can buy 500 sheets of copy paper for a few bucks, and if you look for coupons (my wife finds 50%-off coupons for local art/craft stores) or shop online (I use dickblick.com), you can pick up quality materials for cheap. Other than paper, provide a good-quality set of colored pencils (at least 36 colors), quality pencil sharpener (I like the Alvin Brass Bullet), a variety of sketching pencils (#2H, HB, 3B, & 6B),and a kneaded eraser.  You can also purchase paints (watercolor or acrylic) along with a suitable paper (watercolor or acrylic paper). These materials will give your child plenty to work with.

Secondly, encourage your child by praising him or her when she does take the time to create something.

One of the most difficult things for older students to overcome is set-in-stone conceptions. I’ve seen plenty of students in workshops that just can’t (or won’t) shift their thinking from “that’s the way I’ve always done it” to taking in a new approach. I encourage my kids and students to try a different way of doing something (e.g. “can you shade using dots this time instead of lines?”). It’s important to verbally praise children (and adults, for that matter) when they do step outside their comfort zone.  Conversely, avoid letting a criticism, no matter how well-intended, slip out of your mouth before you point out what your child has done well.

Thirdly,  teach by example.

For whatever reason, many kids have a difficult time heeding instruction. Perhaps it’s because they are being told what to do often (“go brush your teeth!”, “clean up your bedroom!”, etc…).  My kids seem me painting as my profession, and even then are not always so keen on me telling them to try something new with their art. I did find a trick, though, that seems to work without exception: instead of telling them, I show them. For example, if my child is coloring, and tends to shade in a haphazard manner, I may sit next to her, grab a sheet of paper, and being a simple drawing of my own, focusing on shading more deliberately. Kids watch what you’re doing as they work on their own work, and she’ll see the thought and care I put into my shading and think “Hmm…I think I want to try that!”  The key, though, is to keep your drawing simple and something your child could accomplish; otherwise they’ll chalk up your nicer-looking drawing as you simply being better (and older) than them.

That’s it for now. Check back for future posts on teaching techniques for your children’s art.

Tim