Hello, dear conscious parent 💟!

You want your child to be “creative”.
Schools and colleges claim to teach “creative thinking”.
Executive jobs are taken by “innovative” leaders.

And yet, studies show us that most children lose their inborn creativity by the time they are seven years old. Creativity has been a topic in psychological and education research for many decades. Here are few scientific facts about creativity in children:

• The environment (parents, teachers, media, peers, culture etc.) and the child shape each other.
• Learning and teaching emerge through social interactions (not in isolation).
• Creativity is a process on a continuum (not an outcome).
• The child must be willing to take risks. (This is possible only if the child feels 100% safe emotionally and psychologically).
• Culture acts as a natural filter from which the child learns what’s “creative” and what’s not.

As conscious parents, this is how we can help our children cultivate their inborn creativity:

1. Create a safe environment in which “mistakes” are OK and embraced as learning.
2. Model to your child how you experiment and fail with different things, and how that’s OK with you.
3. Stay open to learning new ways of doing things without judging as “good/bad/right/wrong”.
4. Don’t label or praise your child being “good” or “smart”. Praise them for their effort instead.
5. Get comfortable with ‘down time’ or “doing nothing” time for your child. Join them in “doing nothing”.
6. Pay attention not to over-schedule your child’s life or over-stimulate them with activities that you choose for them.
7. Spend more time in nature than watching screens of any kind ( think 80-20 rule).
8. Befriend a “messy house”. Think of your house as a laboratory of ideas. Creativity doesn’t come on demand,  “after everything is nice and neat.”

Let me know which idea you like the most and are ready to adopt in your life.