Do you want your child to become the next Hemmingway, Picasso or Annie Lebovitz? Whether or not artistic fame is in your child’s future, encouraging creativity is easy, fun, and has lasting benefits for kids.

Creativity happens when children go beyond fixed games and start making up their own rules. Coloring “inside the lines” is a thing of the past. Encouraging children to create an art or craft with their own hands or voices is the best way to develop creative thinking skills and confidence…so start thinking outside the toy box!

Creative play involves much more than art projects. In fact, most play is creative by nature, because it involves innovation, experimentation, and discovery. Play is the brain’s way of exercising itself during development. Children explore by using all their senses and budding motor and language skills and the discoveries they make motivate and stimulate every circuit in their rapidly growing brains.

Creative play begins to develop as infants investigate all features of the world around them. A set of keys may not seem like creative inspiration to us, but to a baby all the new shapes, textures and sounds are a great source for innovation.

As children grow from curious infants to active toddlers, perhaps the greatest benefit of creative play is to their emotional development. It helps build confidence in their decision-making; allows them to express their feelings; and permits the special joy of making something out of nothing.

Here are a few simple steps you can take to encourage and nurture your child’s creativity:

• Set up the kitchen table with an art supply they haven’t seen in a while, like a set of paints and large sheets of paper. Keep it simple by limiting the art supplies to just one medium type (like paint, markers or modeling clay). Too many choices are distracting and can hamper the creative process.
• Give them a goal, like creating a birthday card for Grandpa or a gift for their teacher. With VTech’s new KidiArt Studio, they can create e-cards using photos and wacky digital effects. While creativity is open-ended, sometimes children need a little inspiration to get started.
• Take it outside—nature is the perfect muse. These little explorers will find inspiration in collecting pebbles, wildflowers, or colorful fall leaves. In the winter, bundle them up and build snow sculptures together.
• Building toys of any size—from small plastic blocks to large cardboard boxes – provide endless opportunities for creativity. On rainy days, try pulling out a bunch of blankets and pillows and suggest they make a fort in the living room. And don’t forget: boredom is often the best way to promote creativity in children. With nothing else to entertain them, children are expert at finding projects that engage, stimulate, and ultimately satisfy their important creative impulses – sometimes they just need a little push from mom and dad!