The Creativity Institute
Educational Toys and Creativity in Children

Keeping creative on the road

2006-06-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

Our friend Gavin had an idea that was truly inspired for the family beach vacation. He brought canvases, paintbrushes and paint for every member of the family. He asked everyone to paint anything they wanted by the end of the vacation. Even the smallest member of the family got to participate. Mom created a special beach scene just right for the baby's tiny footprints. Everyone painted, and everyone had a great time. Best of all, when they got home, Gaving hung all the canvases together on one wall, creating a work of art to inspire and preserve great memories.

- Gwynn, The Creativity Institute

Getting children ready for their first day of school.

2006-06-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

Leaving their comfortable routine of home and taking that first big step away from the nest can be a big, and often traumatic, event for a new kindergartner. While some children begin showing signs of an interest in school in advance of the big day, it's not necessarily always the case with all preschoolers. There are, however, ways you can prepare your children to help them transition into the exciting and wonderful experience that awaits them. As many of their difficulties will often to relate to socializing with other children, you can help ready your child through such activities as playing board games. One of the standard dynamics of most board games is having to take turns. Getting a child used to this concept can make their integration into groups a lot easier.

Another suggestion we've found for parents is to involve children in activities that encourage the use of their imaginations, such as playing with building blocks, modeling dough or art supplies. This helps children not only become more creative but also helps them to understand the consequences of their actions.

- The Creativity Institute

Is it right, wrong or creative?

2006-06-11T22:41:00.001-07:00

I read a story about a first grader whose teacher gave her a rectangular sheet of paper and told her to "cut it the long way." The child cut it diagonally, which is the longest cut you can make on a sheet of paper. Unfortunately, it wasn't what the teacher had in mind and her teacher told her she was wrong.

This is not an uncommon occurrence in childrearing, both in school and other childcare situations. Teachers who prize creative responses and original thinking by children can make a world of difference in their lives. Valuing creativity and nurturing it from infancy can have tremendous benefits.

- Sid, The Creativity Institute

Bookmarks that make memories

2006-06-11T22:19:00.000-07:00

When my children were little, I was always trying to find stolen moments to read. My girls knew reading was (and still is) one of my most favorite and cherished activities. They also knew I was always misplacing bookmarks. One day they presented me with a handful of delightfully colorful bookmarks they had painstakingly created themselves with old paper samples and crayons. Needless to say, I've never lost any of these bookmarks. I consider them treasured heirlooms.
The point of this bit of sentimentality is that bookmarks make thoughtful gifts your children can make for family members, Godparents, teachers or anyone. Put clear packing tape or clear contact paper on both sides of the art, and the bookmarks are instantly laminated. Punch a hole in the lamination and add ribbons or tassels for a fancier look. You can even make them into ornaments or key rings.

- Gwynn, The Creativity Institute

Playing with blocks can be good for children with ADHD

2006-06-11T22:14:00.000-07:00

Toys for children with ADHD should be simple and encourage the use of their imaginations, and one of the most basic toys is blocks. Block play can be great for many ages. From simple stack-up and knock-over fun to imaginative building. Blocks teach problem-solving skills, because a child discovers how stacking and matching can produce different results. They can also become components of pretend play, because a child can fantasize what the structures are. There are also big foam blocks that are almost "life size" and let children create their own fantasy playhouses. These lightweight blocks are so versatile, they can be climbed on or tunneled under. Magnetic block and construction sets have pieces that connect in more ways than can conventional plastic snap-together blocks and allow even more imaginative opportunities. And don't forget the versatility of the classic wooden building blocks.
Blocks, like many traditional toys, have other educational advantages for a child with ADHD. The number of positive outcomes is limitless, so children can continue playing until they've reached a level of personal satisfaction.

- The Creativity Institute

The toy piano goes to college

2006-06-11T16:51:00.000-07:00

In 1948, experimental American composer John Cage, featured the toy piano as the central musical instrument in his Suite for Toy Piano. Last November, David Claman, an assistant professor at Massachusetts' College of Holy Cross, began a project called the "Extensible Toy Piano Festival." Part of the project was to digitally sample the sounds of the toy piano and post them on the college website to make them available to musicians and composers for experimentation and entry into the festival's composition competition. While the mechanism of a toy piano has a simple mechanism of hammers hitting steel rods instead of strings, some toy pianos, such as the Schoenhut toy piano, are tuned very well across their three-octave range. Toy pianos may be a child's toy, but many a serious musician started on one.

- The Creativity Institute

Big names started with little blocks

2006-06-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

Children's building blocks provide an opportunity to experiment with form and flow and many aspects of architecture and structural engineering - at very early ages. A child can test his imagination to the limits of the stacking and arranging that the blocks will allow. Frank Lloyd Wright was one famous architect who commented that he satisfied his early interest in building structures by playing with Frobel blocks. Frobel blocks are the wooden building blocks of uniform scale relationships developed by Friedrich Frobel in the 1830s for children to learn the elements of geometric form, mathematics and creative design. "The maple-wood blocks... are in my fingers to this day," said Frank Lloyd Wright, attesting to the influence of the Froebel blocks on his work.

Frank Gehry is another world-renowned architect talks about playing with wooden building blocks that his grandmother salvaged from a lumberyard. Gehry created such architectural masterpieces as the Guggenheim Bilbao, Vitra Museum in Germany, The Walt Disney Concert Hall, and others.
Different types of blocks, whether wooden, interlocking, large or small, all have different properties and give a child a different set of variables with which to create and solve challenges. Give them a set and watch how long blocks can keep them occupied.
- The Creativity Institute

Finding scripts to stage your own puppet shows - Part 1

2006-06-11T16:19:00.000-07:00

Too often after you've assembled your puppets, a puppet stage and a troupe of little actors, the missing ingredient is the script. While there are a few sources of scripts written specifically for the puppet theater, there's a wealth of other resource materials to create your own puppet show scripts - some ready to perform, some easy to adapt.
Since comedy is a great form of entertainment for children, one place to find source material for puppet shows is in existing comedy routines. Classic comedy routine scripts and pre-recorded comedy soundtracks are available in libraries, bookstores and throughout the Internet. The Web is full of comedy routines already in script form. The Creativity Institute website offers links to several of these classic collections, as part of our mission to help bring out the creative potential in children. Plus, we are constantly researching and updating these resources. Simply find something that suits your puppet theater cast in level of sophistication and in the number of parts, and you're ready to go.

- The Creativity Institute

Playthings are all around the house

2006-06-11T00:30:00.000-07:00

Stuck at home with bored kids? Sit them down at the drawing table for a round of Kitchen Kreatives! Give them plastic measuring cups, spoons and other unbreakable items with interesting shapes. Make sure they have lots of paper, colors and pencils. Show them some paintings by Picasso, Miro and other masters of the abstract, and ask them to create something wild using the kitchen utensil shapes.

- The Creativity Institute

The Creativity InstituteEducational Toys and Creativity in Children