Building Creative Thinking- Joy of Learning Process Over Correctness

We all are into a digital generation now, a generation that learns to use mobile before even playing with actual toys. Children seek guidance, and we, as parents, are further encouraging this kind of ecosystem by drowning ourselves in this web of digitization.

The pleasure of doing small activities with kids, playing little games together, spending time with our toddlers, responding to their innocent queries etc. is long forgotten. Our education system doesn’t help either. In fact it focuses more on getting the correct answers rather than enjoying the process.

The questions we need to ask ourselves from time to time is…

Having so much information overload from different sources, are we extinguishing the creative drive, an individual perspective of seeing things, amongst our kids?

OR

Are we even trying to build a conducive environment that sparks a child’s creativity?

It is an uphill task to inculcate an artistic bend of mind, but too easy to eradicate it completely. Thus, it is imperative to put in persistent efforts to shape our toddler’s distinct viewpoints.

We can start with small steps like:

Spend more ‘offline’ time with kids: Giving your time to someone is the best way to convey that you care. That you are there for them, and they hold a special place in your life.The feeling of being loved, being essential for someone, implants a sense of security in kids. It provides them with the strength to explore new things and walk an extra mile without being scared of failing.

Boost their inquisitiveness: Support their curiosity by calmly responding to their queries, no matter how irrelevant they may sound to you. Enhanced learning begins with asking questions.

Explore new things together: Take up new activities like dancing or painting or playing a particular sport or learning a new instrument together. This will help you to

- understand your kid’s interests better

- build a stronger bond

- open new channels of enhanced communication

Acknowledge the process irrespective of the outcome: We tend to appreciate our kid’s efforts only when the end result is a success. The ideal way to contour creative thinking is to pay more attention to the journey rather than the consequence. Acknowledge your kid’s efforts despite their failure.

Let them be thinkers and decision-makers: It is easy to tell the child what to do, but this approach will only assist you in raising a child who is good at following orders. Another way is to make them think and decide what they want to do and how they want to do it. They should develop an attitude of thinking their own solutions.

Our job as a parent should be NOT to turn them into a shadow of our expectations BUT to provide them a supportive atmosphere where they could flourish and develop their own personality.