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Encouraging your child's creativity

Creative arts become interesting and exciting activities when they stimulate thinking and encourage creativity.

1. Keep your child supplied with sheets of paper, crayons, finger paints, modeling clay, burlap, paste, marking pens, scraps of cloth, Styrofoam, yarn, scraps of wood and watercolors. Provide work space for the child and encourage the creation of works of art.
   
2. Proudly display your child's best creations on the wall, door, or bulletin board. Give frequent opportunities for the expression of artistic ability"making Valentine's and greeting cards. Encourage help with holiday decorations.
   
3. Encourage musical activity in the home or on family trips. Family songs are fun for everyone. Let your child make up songs.
   
4. Let the child be a music maker as well as a listener. A toy piano, drum, tonette, tuned bells, or mouth organ can help teach the rudiments of rhythm and tone.
   
5. As soon as your child is old enough to operate a tape or compact disc player, purchase one along with some children's recordings. Tapes and CD players are now so simple that even very young children can operate them.
   
6. If your child plays an instrument, help budget practice time and make uninterrupted practice time available. Listen to those tunes the child thinks are good. Encourage your child to perform. Genuine praise does wonders.
   
7. Allow your child to observe forms of art in nature and his/her surroundings. Observation and experimentation open up the doors to confidence. Be positive about the child's attempts and encourage development of interests. Help your child to really ''see'' the subtle variations in nature. Point out differences in intensity of colors.
   
8. To encourage creative writing, jot down the stories your children tell or the songs they made up. Show them to the child later. Suggest they be illustrated and "published" for grandparents or other relatives at Christmas or birthdays.
   
9. Be subtle in helping your child learn. Keep things light-hearted and fun, never grim or tense. Make learning fun, for both of you. And, remember, listen to your child. Don't stifle curiosity. Don't brush off questions. After a while you won't be asked.

REMEMBER! Listen with interest, encourage and ask questions, be generous with praise, enthusiasm and sympathy. You can bridge the gap between home and school and make learning fun for both you and your child.