[07:38, 12/9/2017] Ashimoloye: Introduction

There is nothing more satisfying and fulfilling for children than to be able to
express themselves openly and without judgment. When they have the privilege, they
showcase some unusual traits that worth encouraging or magnifying in them. In the
process, children exhibit potentials in them. Though in our last week's lecture,
distinction has been made between talent and creativity. it has been established
the every child has one talent or the other, that is one thing they are good at but
not all children are creative. However, every child can be taught to be creative.
Craig(2011),stated that creativity is an approach to life and set of learnable
skills.
[07:42, 12/9/2017] Ashimoloye: Generally, creativity is the ability to think in
unusual ways, and the freest form of self-expression ( Datta, 2012, Hemenway,
2017). The extents to which the creativity of a child can be sustained however
depend on a lot of factors which includes the childs immediate environment such as
home and the school. This will be the focus of our lecture this week.

The lecture shall be considered under the following sub- headings:

i. Why must creativity be promoted in children?
ii. Things to look out for in a Creative Child
iii. The Place of Home in Promoting Creativity in Children
iv. The Place of School in Promoting Creativity in Children
v. Conclusion
[07:48, 12/9/2017] Ashimoloye: The home is the primary contact of the child and it
influences the way and pattern the child thinks or reasons. Children are naturally
inquisitive, they desire to know more, ask one and thousand questions but in most
cases, the home is not there to answer the child's questions that would give room
for the child to discover new world or ground hence creativity is hampered in the
child. The ideal situation is that the family members ought to discover a childs
creative abilities, but sometimes due to their inadequate time spent with children
most often than not, the discovery is usually made in schools. But whether at home
or school, what is important is that it should be discovered before it fused out of
the childrens life. The following characteristics as submitted by Owen (2017) are
to be looked out for to discover a creative child. Some of these characteristics
have been pointed out in our last week lecture but we need to reiterate them so
that children may be helped appropriately in this century that calls for
innovation, new ideas. They include:
1. Ability to make unusual associations or connections between seemingly unrelated
or remote ideas. This is the view of Job(1996) that creativity is just connecting
things through series of experiences to bring out new ideas and innovation. The
view is further emphasized by Cooper (2016) that connections fuel creativity.
Popova (2017) further stated
' in order for us to truly create and contribute to the world,
we have to be able to connect countless dots, to cross-pollinate
ideas
from a wealth of disciplines, to combine and recombine these pieces
and build new castles.
She presented it (creativity) as 'LEGO analogy', and said the dots of knowledge we
have is like LEGO building blocks and the more of these building blocks we have,
and the more diverse their shapes and colors, the more interesting our castles will
become.
2. Ability to rearrange elements of thought to create new ideas or products.
3. Ability to provide a large number of ideas or solutions to problems.
4. Display intellectual playfulness, fantasize, imagine, and daydream.
5. Are often concerned with adapting, improving, or modifying existing ideas,
thoughts or products or the ideas or products of others.
6. Have a keen or unusual sense of humor and see humor others do not see.
7. Do not fear being different, but may still be emotionally hurt by non-
acceptance. Often the importance of an idea outweighs that of peer acceptance.
8. Ask many questions at an early age this trend generally continues past early
childhood into adulthood. These are the kids that surprise others with their
wonderings.
9. Frequently challenge teachers, textbook authors, and those in authority or
experts.
10. Sometimes come up with unexpected, futuristic, bizarre, even silly answers
or solutions.
11. Are sometimes resented by peers because of crazy or unusual ideas and their
forcefulness and passion in presenting them or for pushing their ideas on others.
12. In the context of cooperative efforts or groupings, highly creative students
may get along or work better with younger or older students, or with adults.
13. When completing special or unusual projects or assignments, often show a rare
capacity for originality, intense concentration, commitment to completion, and
persistence. In essence may be perceived as working hard to achieve personal goals.
14. Show obsession with completing varied projects, or exhibit unusual persistence
in completing tasks. It is this obsessive need to complete a task that is so
important in differentiating folks with good ideas from those who are truly
creative.
These are some of the skills that creative children may display and whenever they
are present, the onus lays on the home and the school to communicate and promote
the skills in them instead of castigating children, calling them all sorts of names
that may discourage the traits in them.
[07:55, 12/9/2017] Ashimoloye: THE ROLE OF THE HOME (PARENTS AND FAMILY MEMBERS) IN
DEVELOPING A CREATIVE CHILD
There are various ways by which home can promote creativity in children. Carter
(2008) has suggested some ways creativity can be developed or promoted in children
at home. These are as follows:
1. CREATION OF TIME FOR AND WITH CHILDREN: The most important resource that home
can give to children is time. The creation of time is in two ways if creativity
would be developed or promoted in children. First, parents need to create time for
and with their children to see them, hear them and to be with them. It is in this
process that they can take note of any unusual traits that children display at any
time. It is the availability of parents that children can have answers to the
numerous questions they have to ask. It is in creating time with children that
parents can listen to their children. Unfortunately, parents are not really
available for children today, lots of the responsibilities have been transferred to
school to bear the brunt or maids or house-helps have been saddled with what ought
to be their responsibility. In the light of this, the children learn some other
negative things instead. Second, the children need a lot of time for unstructured,
child-directed, imaginative play unencumbered by adult direction, and that does
not depend on a lot of commercial stuff. This implies that children's time should
not be overloaded with bookish with little or no breeding space for relaxation.
2. Space is also a resource that kids need. They needed space to play, to create
mess, to climb, to build, assemble and dismantle. Children engaging in such various
activities help them to think, create and recreate as well as solve problems in
their own way. Therefore, if parents do not want children to create messes all
around, it is advisable that children be given a specific place where they can make
a mess, like room for dress-up, a place in the garage for painting, or a corner in
your family room for Legos. Parents can also get gifts such as art supplies, cheap
cameras, costume components, building materials and some other old items that
children can play with and put them in easy-to-deal-with bins that your kids can
manage. Since drawing or arts is a means of expressing creativity, the walls of the
house may be covered with art and other evidence of creative expression and
children be given opportunity to draw, mould and paint. Parents should tell their
kids all about their favorite artists, musicians, and scientists. They should share
their passion for architecture or photography or any new things that can create
excitement in them. Parents should also embrace new technologies and show interest
in their use so that kids will grow to find change exciting, not over-whelming or
intimidating.
[07:55, 12/9/2017] Ashimoloye: 3. THE HOME ACTIVITIES SHOULD BE DONE IN A
CREATIVE ATMOSPHERE.
Cooking time, setting up of table for food, dinner time could be done in a creative
way with children. Allow children to play active role in the whole process of
giving suggestions, taking the lead in doing some the process but parents should
resist the urge to evaluate or condemn the ideas kids come up with. Parents should
brainstorm activities for the upcoming events, shopping list or to do list with
children, by encouraging the kids to come up with things they have never done
before, would give them opportunity not only to express themselves but build in
them self-confidence and self-esteem. Parents should not point out which ideas are
not possible, or decide which ideas are best. This implies that children should be
allowed to make mistakes and figure out the solutions to the mistakes made. The
focus of creative activities should be on process: generating (vs. evaluating) new
ideas. Celebrate innovation
and creativity.
[07:56, 12/9/2017] Ashimoloye: 4. ALLOW KIDS THE FREEDOM AND AUTONOMY TO EXPLORE
THEIR IDEAS AND DO WHAT THEY WANT.
Parents should not be so bossy or irritable. Reduce external constraintsmaking
them colour within the lines, so to speakcan reduce flexibility in thinking. Just
demonstrating how to put together a model reduced the creative ways at which
children can accomplish a task. Therefore, parents should avoid spoon feeding
children on every issue. They should be allowed to do things on their own and
figure out how things should be done.
[07:56, 12/9/2017] Ashimoloye: 5. ENCOURAGE CHILDREN TO READ FOR PLEASURE AND
PARTICIPATE IN THE ARTS. Limit TV and other screen time in order to make room for
creative activities like rehearsing a play, learning to draw, reading every book
written by a favorite author. Reading books that will propel childrens ability to
enter into adventures of others and recreate their own would be a good one to
promote creativity in children.