imagination Archives - Minds On Music

3 Ways to Teach Creativity to Young Kids

How to teach creativity and nurture it often gets lumped into “the arts,” but creativity is about so much more than that. It has to do with asking the right questions, encouraging pretend play in different settings, providing starting points and watching (or nurturing vs leading) the problem-solving at work.

One of the best places to turn up the volume on creative learning is outside. We asked Co-Founder and Chief Learning Officer of Tinkergarten (now part of Highlights for Children) Meghan Fitzgerald, some of her team’s favorite go-tos when it comes to breaking down creativity into digestible, reachable, and teachable ideas for teachers and families. Here’s what she had to say.

Why Halloween Should Last 365 Days a Year

It’s Halloween! In many parts of the world, this means dressing up in costumes and pretending to be a cowboy, ninja, ballet dancer, or even a cowboy ninja ballet dancer. (Hey, it could happen!) While the stores—and Pinterest—overflow with costume options for children this time of year, truth be told, children love dressing up and pretending all year long. And they should! It’s good for them.

Pretend play develops imagination, creativity, social skills, and language

Imitation is the first stage of pretend play and begins as an infant when a baby mimics an adult’s facial expressions. As children grow and imitation evolves, pretend play becomes more imaginative. Children use pretend play to re-examine life experiences by adding or changing what actually happened. Pretend play lets children try out their ideas and solve problems as they create characters and “rules” in their imaginary world.
During pretend play activities, social interaction between children—and participating adults—is usually characterized by a heightened use of action and language, helping to develop children’s language and social skills. In addition, pretend play helps children learn the difference between reality and fantasy, and even experience emotional support from parents as they pretend along with kids.
So, don’t put up those Halloween costumes on November 1. Keep them out all year round. After all, you never know when you might need a cowboy ninja ballet dancer to come save the day.

Learn more about Kindermusik at www.Kindermusik.com.

Contributed by Lisa Camino Rowell, a freelance writer in the Atlanta area.

FOL Fridays: Imagination and Pretend Play

“Learning to imagine [is the] first step in stretching the human potential.” (Karen Miller, Ages and Stages, p. 65) The ability to pretend and imagine usually starts at around 18 months. From there, the developmental progression of pretend play generally moves from using one object to represent something else, to dressing up and/or pretending to be something else, to role-playing and interacting while in that role. Kindermusik classes help provide the kinds of experiences that provide the opportunity for imagination to blossom, but you will probably notice that your child engages most readily – and sometimes most humorously! – at home where your child is the most comfortable.

IDEA: Simple toys like blocks and stuffed animals, dress-up clothes from the thrift store, and even empty containers or cardboard tubes can inspire hours of pretend play. Organize these items into containers that are easily accessible to your child.

– Compiled by Theresa Case, M.Ed., whose Kindermusik program at Piano Central Studios in Greenville, South Carolina, is proudly among the top 1% of Kindermusik programs worldwide.