Do your children get bored easily? Are they not performing too well in school? Do you often find yourself wondering what you can do to keep them occupied and creative? Worry no more! As always, we found a solution.
Encouraging your child’s creativity could be quite a task. But with Shirley Brice Heath’s ideas, not anymore. This Stanford University professor recommends families can create a harmonious balance in their children’s lives when they make provisions for the arts. Check out the ideas she recommends you to incorporate into your home life:
1) When you read to your children, be dramatic. Act out stories with props and costumes. Encourage them to create their own stories to act out for you. Sounds fun, doesn’t it?
2) You could also save old Halloween costumes for dress-up fun. Add to the collection with clothing you no longer need: hats, scarves, purses, shoes, and use them to recreate your own stories! Watch your kids have a hearty laugh!
3) Put together an “art studio” in your home. Stock it with a variety of tools and materials: crayons, markers, finger paints, scissors, pastels, watercolors, brushes, glues, papers of various sizes and textures, intriguing found objects, leftovers from your own home improvement, boxes and containers of all sizes. Interesting, right?
4) Expand your musical repertoire at home and in the car. Venture into unknown musical territory so that you and the children can hear something out of your usual fare. This can be easily expanded by turning to different radio stations and by checking out cassettes and CDs from the public library — all for free!
5) While the music is playing at home, dance together! Teach your children traditional dances you know or improvise with them. Body movement is fun and good exercise.
6) Sing together. Teach the kids your favorite songs. Many of them allow for verses that can be made up, such as “Down by the Bay,” which can have an endless and hilarious number of rhymes added to it. Try it!
7) Look for arts programs after school, on weekends, and during vacations. Many community park and recreation departments offer these. Summer camps based on the arts are a good departure from the typical competitive sports camps.
8) Create a scrapbook together. Put photos, memorabilia, drawings, and captions together creatively. In doing so, you will not only have a shared experience but a memory that will last for many years (if you use acid-free paper)!
9) The most important ingredient in the recipe is your interest. Be there to appreciate and encourage during every step of the creative process.
10) Send your kids over to our Chelsea School of Performing Arts, where we make sure we bring out their most creative selves!