Summer Creativity

I’m finding that if you allow kids to go out and play, on their own they will come up with the most original creative ideas. For example, I didn’t make a big deal about it, but silently declared an electronic free day. My girls played for hours – dancing, crafts, playing with toys that typically sit on the shelves, etc.

Kids are hard-wired to be creative. We feel like we have to always push a device in their hands to keep them busy. This doesn’t have to be the norm if we can cultivate the creativity!

Here are some activities that my children (and their cousins and friends) come up with over the past few months.

This is the girls playing Little House on the Prairie. My older daughter has been reading the books. Here is where the kitchen is located “in the game”.

My younger daughter was playing “shopping cart”, “baby stroller”, and “lawnmower” when we were at my grandmother’s house.

This was making a house/meal for the squirrels.

A flower dance!

And

The kids used sidewalk chalk to create a road system. They had parking places, a highway, a restaurant and they all traveled on their little chalk roads on their bikes and scooters. Literally HOURS of fun!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I know how handy an iPhone can be in a pinch, but I have found that kids can create amazing things with what ever ordinary things they can find. Makes me sometimes wish that I could be a kid, if only to remember what it’s like to dip my brain into make-believe-land again.