Tag: upbringing

Dr. Raouf Farag’s Tips for Fostering Creativity During Early Childhood Development

It is widely known that fostering creativity during early childhood development is absolutely imperative, so parents are frequently looking for additional strategies with the goal of further developing a child’s precocity to the greatest degree possible. So, in addition to providing access to some of the traditional resources designed for enhancing creativity, what else can be done?

dr raouf farag raising childrenAccording to Dr. Raouf Farag, one of the most important steps in fostering creativity is to ensure that there is more than enough unstructured time allotted each day in which children can direct the activity themselves. Without any externalstructure in place, children are free to act and explore their creativity in a more holistic way and are more likely to benefit in terms of their future creative development. However, since self-directed activity can sometimes lead to quite a mess, the New South Wales obstetrician suggests identifying a dedicated space in which there is greater freedom for creative or artistic exploration.

Another suggestion involves a greater focus on the creative process. Parents should understand that the process involved in creativity is far more important than evaluating its outcome. In fact, even an attempt to encourage creativity with some sort of external incentive can actually suppress creativity, so parents have to focus on creating the conditions for creative expression with the minimum amount of external interference.

When it comes to creative problem solving, it is similarly critical to allow kids to independently arrive at a solution through a process of their own design. Once solved, it is entirely appropriate to ask questions about how the child decided upon the particular process they used and to discuss if there are any alternative methods that could have been just as effective in achieving a similarly ideal solution. This strategy encourages children to think about the many possible solutions for problems of any kind just by accessing their creativity, allowing them to recognize the many different paths that can be taken to achieve a similar result.

The arts have long been recognized as especially critical is fostering creativity, so parents should continue to encourage children to participate in all of the various aspects of the arts and to give their children total freedom regarding the preferred means of participation. Additionally, parents have to set a good example in this regard, which can be accomplished by spending time reading literature, acting out scenes from a play or working on a canvas with oils or acrylics. This sort of example reinforces the value of the arts, and, particularly when done poorly, demonstrates that failure should not discourage future creative efforts in any way.

The Fragile Dreams of Children

Children are incredible with their dreams and imaginations. Did you know that the most powerful question in the world is asked daily by a 3 year old? That question is, “Why?” This is the question that truly provokes answer and searches for knowledge and reasoning. Children have dreams of doing big things and becoming someone important in life. We have all heard children say something like, “When I grow up, I’m going to be a firefighter,” or, “When I grow up, I want to be an astronaut at NASA!”  My child told me they wanted to be in charge of their own construction business like Ralph Slaske of Slaske Builders. Never once have we heard a child say, “When I’m all grown up, I want to work at a bank.”

What happens to our dreams as children? Where do they go? Where does the passion to reach for the sky and do the unbelievable go? For many of us, it could be our parents to blame for hitting us over the head over and over with their own realities. When someone doesn’t believe in themselves and fail to reach their dreams and potential, they have the tendency to bring others down with them and say things such as, “Don’t be silly. What makes you think you can do that?”

As parents, we want to see them succeed, but we also don’t want to teach them reality, that is, reality as WE believe it to be. Why can’t your child be an astronaut? It’s been done before and is still being done. Why can’t your child run their own business? Why can’t your child become the best doctor in the universe? We have to be careful not to crush that little glimmer of hope, but we do anyway and have the audacity to scold them when they aren’t living up to our expectations and then belittle them when their expectations of themselves is beyond those for ourselves and dreams are bigger than our dreams. Parents, we need to make up our mind what we want for our children.

Peter Lik Would Agree—Don’t Touch!

One of the many things I try to teach my children is do not touch what does not belong to you. I remember being taught this lesson and it has gotten me out of trouble many times when I was tempted to touch something. My mother was an old school woman and would carry a ruler in her purse just for that reason. Any time I got the urge to reach out and touch something in a store, my mother was quick to whip out the ruler and tag my fingers with it. Ouch!

In the same respect, I do my best to make sure my children know not to touch what isn’t theirs. This lesson in discipline has been shown to demotivate stealing in various young adults as well as preventing accidents such as dropping and breaking things. Could you imagine how upset I’d be if one of them had the nerve to touch any camera or equipment that belongs to a photographer like Peter Lik?