Parenting is one of those games where you will never truly win with a bitter attitude. So, it is thus important to have a bit of a more laid-back approach to it and focus on all the positives in it. You know, like, introduce jokes and laughs into it.
At least this is what parents have been doing on X (formerly Twitter) this month (actually, many many months prior to it too)—sharing stories of the most or least random things their kids did, said or otherwise expressed themselves that made the internet laugh.
And do be sure to read on as we discuss creativity in children with mother, preschool teacher, and creator of Stuff Tiny Humans Say, Kristen Varley, BPHE, RECE further in the listicle.
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Much of the comedy that we keep seeing month after month can be easily attributed to the immense amounts of creativity kids have. It’s not just the idea that their lack of creative boundaries and experience allows them to think outside the box (any box, even multiple ones, really), but also because creativity is good for their development.
It is creativity that boosts the various degrees of development: problem solving, motor skills, encouraging curiosity and imagination.
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Creativity is what supports mental growth through various challenges, divergent thinking through activities involving inquiry and reflection, development of sensory perception, verbal, coordination and attention skills, social skills through activities that involve different perspectives and values and the understanding the needs of others. Oh, there’s more, but you probably get the point.
Besides the slew of developmental benefits, studies have shown that fostering creativity reduces stress levels by providing a distraction, which helps improve a children’s mood.
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Creativity has also been proven to have a positive correlation to emotional intelligence. And speaking of emotions, it’s both the cause and effect of happiness in kids. Heck, it even opens up opportunities to explore one’s own identity.
Considering all of this, you bet the parents who shared all these anecdotes did a totes good job at parenting. These are likely the kinds of parents who sparked and supported creativity by encouraging kids to experiment, to not be afraid of a mess, embracing their artistic outlets without judgment, share in their joy of discovery, and allow for long, uninterrupted play.
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Bored Panda got in touch with mother, preschool teacher, and the woman behind Stuff Tiny Humans Say, Kristen Varley, BPHE, RECE to learn more about creativity in children and how to best foster it.
Varley explains that the approach to encouraging tiny human creativity is boredom.
“Kids (or adults for that matter) don’t know how to be bored anymore. Advancements in technology have literally given us access to everything—anytime, anywhere—making the days of waiting gone, and the days of over-stimulation very much present. As adults, we wrestle to function when overstimulated, so how can we expect kids to explore creativity when everything is consistently quite literally at their fingertips?”
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So, once all of the excess distraction is removed, creativity can begin. And quite easily, really. Varley explains that it’s only a matter of finding a topic that the children are interested in, throwing down some open-ended materials and creating an environment that invites exploration. This in turn will empower creative magic to happen. Or at least provide great potential for it.
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When you hear a concept as simple as boredom, you’d think it would be easy. Well, as easy as parenting is in general, but it’s not without a way out!
“The biggest challenge in fostering creativity is simple: kids don’t like to be bored,” elaborates Varley. “My five-year-old literally rolls her eyes every time I say, ‘It’s good to be bored!’ following a complaint of boredom from her.”
“The best thing we can do as caregivers to support boredom and ultimately inspire creativity in our children is to model and become involved in the process ourselves. I get it, we’re a hardworking society with about a gazillion things on our plate, but if we want to foster creativity in our kids, we need to include ourselves in the process.”
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She continues: “Disconnect, ask open-ended questions, find what makes your kid tick, facilitate exploration and get creative. Together.”
“As caregivers, I think we sometimes get caught forcing our kids to do certain things. Whether it’s because we want to distract them or we feel like it’s a good learning opportunity, or maybe we even think that they’ll enjoy it, we sometimes teeter toward projects and activities with obvious beginning, middle and endings.”
“The problem with this approach is—while these activities can be done more independently—there tends to be a lack of genuine creativity. Creativity needs to happen organically. By providing our children with open-ended materials and guiding questions and prompts, they’ll naturally take the reins and suddenly you’ll find yourself in the middle of this awesome tangent inside your kid’s wild imagination.”
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Varley provides an example of her daughter having an uncontrollable love for Halloween. So, in turn, Varley threw some Amazon boxes on the floor and asked if she wanted to build a haunted house together. Yes, she did have stuff to do, but once the boxes hit the floor, the little girl’s eyes lit up. In a light bulb moment kind of way.
She immediately went for her craft drawer and started sketching plans. Varley described it as magic—minus the excessive amounts of blood in the blueprints. But it’s gotta be spooky, right? The daughter was so engrossed in it that she forgot technology even existed for several hours. And though that sounded like fun, the most exciting part was that the mom was there, beside her, listening to all her wacky ideas for the house.
“At the end of the day, our kids want to be with us,” added Varley. “The best part is, there are so many ways our kids can express their creativity—through art, dramatic play, physical activity, music—find something you can share together while still allowing your child to take the lead. You’ll be surprised with how much your child can do—and how much you can learn from them—just by being there.“
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And do you know what the best part is? If we apply the same principle to adults, it’s gonna work just as well. The key here is boredom.
Varley explains that adults too can be grossly overstimulated. It doesn’t help that nearly every adult these days has a backlog of stuff to do and it’s all stressful. It’s almost robotic in a sense. And while life can be stressful in its own right, it is up to us to choose an appropriate reaction to these stressors. Because we can control it.
“We feel guilty being bored. Somewhere along the way this notion of overworking became glorified and the idea of doing ‘nothing’ became taboo,” elaborated Varley. “Consequently, we’re not allowing ourselves to get bored. Like children, with everything right at our fingertips, reaching for our phones the moment we feel boredom creeping in has become a natural reflex. If we want to inspire creativity in ourselves, we need to learn how to embrace boredom again.”
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“At the end of the day, how we choose to experience life is ultimately how our children will experience their life as well. We only get to do this thing once, we may as well have fun along the way. Go for walks together. Sit in the same room. Explore. Play. Talk. Dance it out. Kids are so stinkin’ good at noticing life. Once we learn how to live and notice life again, creativity will come naturally for all of us,” concludes Varley.
So, make room for being bored. It’s good for ya! In the meantime, though, be sure to check out Stuff Tiny Humans Say on Instagram, Facebook, and X and why not read our article on it?
If you’re that bored, then you can also check out the best parenting posts from last month too, because the rabbit hole doesn’t have to end here. Oh, comments and upvotes are also appreciated!
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