Children are naturally creative with vivid imaginations and a desire to ask questions, investigate and explore. This creativity needs to be nurtured and encouraged because it is the essence of success. Creative people are wanted in all walks of life. They are the ones that invent and come up with new systems and ideas. The ones that think 'out of the box'.
Creative people are never bored and neither are creative children !
Well before a child is able to write they will be 'telling stories'. Sometimes the delivery will be verbal. At other times visual and you may be presented with, often unrecognisable, scribble but it is so important for self esteem that children feel you are listening and interested!
There are lots of ways you can encourage these bursts of creativity, far too many to go into detail here but I have suggested a few.
- Preschool children will enjoy using toys and puppets to act out a story.
- Try to use something that has sparked an interest, however strange. For example a pebble on the beach . Ask questions like, 'where do you think it came from? How did it get here? Why is it that shape? ' If you Join in this game adding some of your own funny suggestions you will find your child will be encouraged to think of even better ones!
- Another way is to play the 'Why?' game. A game over breakfast with the family is fun and gets the brain cells going! I used to do this as a starter with classes at school. At first the answers are a bit boring but then as kids get the idea and encouragement it's amazing what they come out with! The nice thing with this is that it's fun for all ages and so makes a good family or party game. Some starters:
Why is the fridge empty? 'Because we have eaten all the food'. BORING!
'Because a monster came during the night and ate up all the food' MUCH BETTER!
'It's not really empty. It's just that we can't see the food because it's invisible because ....................' A GREAT STORY STARTER!
Just because a child can't write doesn't mean a story can't be recorded. They can be encouraged to tell the story in pictures and the pictures can then be made into a book they can share with the family and visitors. Picture books are great for language development too as they encourage the child to use language to express their ideas.
Technology shouldn't be ignored! Let them record a story onto a mobile or iPad.
Older children will also enjoy using toys to tell a story. They can then video and edit the story on the iPad. Exactly how I make the JUMBLES videos!
But THE most important way to expand a child's imagination and to improve their vocabulary is to read books together. Children remember their childhood books for ever. The more stories they read the more characters and plots and images and vocabulary are absorbed to be drawn upon when they write their own stories.
It's also important that they see you enjoying books because then they will appreciate that a love of reading lasts a lifetime.
The story featured below is one of four we wrote at Jumble House during a month of story writing workshops on my channel JUMBLE FUN. ( I say WE WROTE because, as you will see, the authors are the different JUMBLE toys!)
This series of writing workshops was designed for children around the age of seven to nine.
Topics covered included characterisation, development of plots, choosing good beginnings and endings, illustrations and even sharing and publishing stories. There is a 'challenge' at the end of every workshop designed to motivate children to 'have a go' !
The workshops are still available on the channel and you will find the link to the playlist below.
