Why Play? part 2

Over the years,  as a mother and nurturer, I have noticed that one of the greatest benefits of letting children be children, is that it awakens the creativity that lies within them. 

By definition, creativity is ‘the ability to transcend traditional ideas, and to create meaningful new ones, using  new methods and interpretations’. In short it is originality. 

But this got me wondering - "Does creativity need nurturing or is it best left to its own devices?, Is it not just natural and should therefore be left to emerge of its own accord?" The trouble is that as is common knowledge and a well known fact - anything left to itself can and will eventually decay. It’s a natural law and creativity is no exception to this law. Creativity whether in adults of children needs to be fed and cared if is to thrive rather than survive and eventually decay for want of "growth fodder" and nurturing. 

So while childrens' creative abilities may vary, each child still needs a secure and conducive environment that will allow them to flourish, grow and shine. This can be achieved by free, quiet, and unhurried time, all children need to know that they are valued and accepted just as they are, at every age and every stage of their lives. This confidence and security will set the stage for their personal growth - but this does not mean that they have to be perfect. Children don’t have to be ‘perfect’ to be acceptable. After all even we as adults are not perfect, and being just as human as our children are - why should we expect them to be? The expectations of perfection are a great source of stress for children, inhibit creativity and are akin to pouring water over a wood fire. In my experience both in growing up and raising my own kids, taking away the pressure and stress that comes from being too pushy from children’s lives helps to facilitate growth and creativity. 

In my previous post I explored how play is essential and necessary for any and every child's creativity. Have you ever given a very young child a boxed toy and after taking it out of the box, they put the toy aside and play with the box?! When my eldest son was a little younger he could create toys from the strangest of objects: from amusing himself by finding a dozen uses for wooden spoons, a bucket of pegs, and a whole lot of other ‘non play items’. The wooden spoon could move from being a puppet to being a microphone, then a drumstick before being turned into a guitar. Creativity relies more on the imagination of the person rather than what is in their hands. Therefore, there really is no need to break the bank when it comes to getting toys for kids. Kids toys should be used only as aids to enhance play not to substitute originality and imagination that is allowed to flow freely. 

Nowadays, there is such a wide range of toys to choose from and so many of them claim to have educational benefits for the child. I personally have found the more traditional, mechanical toys to be very good for creative play on many different levels. To start with, they do not have pre-programmed responses which tend to undermine a child’s own imagination. They encourage children to come up with their own characters and give them their own voice and personality.This means that the child becomes the creator or director of the play at hand. Real creativity does not need fancy technology or expensive gadgets. Needless to say most of the ‘character’ type toys and different electronic gadgets are fun but there is always a new one around the corner just waiting to be unleashed and of course the biggest profits are raked in, not through the educational benefit by the children but by the corporate world. A lot of brands are named after geniuses such as Mozart and Einstein who ironically never had all these gadgets available to them. What they used and developed was that ‘creativity’ that cannot be bought and does not come in a box.  They got the chance to come up with their own characters, think up their own games, learn using the world around them and get to wonder about things. Age appropriate puzzles are another of my favorites  and definitely good for problem solving as well as improving attention span. I have noticed that construction kits stir up the imagination and leave them with endless possibilities of original creations outside of the design that comes on the manual. 

 Take your children to the parks if you do not have a garden to let them play freely in a safe environment and let them explore and enjoy the outdoors which helps to awaken wonderment of the beauty around them. 

As I conclude, I cannot help but reflect on the fact that once upon a time play was the ‘default leisure setting’ for children. Let us do our best to preserve it for our children and generations to come. How have you helped to preserve this childhood treasure of learning through play in your own home or for the kids in your world? Here’s to all you wonderful parents, uncles, aunties, grandmas and grandpas for giving the children in your world time and room to grow - and above all ... to be as creative as they can be . Till the next time... thanks for reading.