Inventiveness is the ability to come up with new ideas and creative solutions. Encouraging inventiveness at home can increase your child’s creative thinking, improve problem-solving skills, and enhance self-confidence. Here are just some ways to create an inventive environment at home:
Encourage creative expression
Provide your child with opportunities to engage in creative activities such as arts and craft, music, drama, and dance. The best part about creative activities is that they don’t have to be elaborate! You can easily set up a percussion set using pots and pans — items that you can find in your own kitchen.
Creative expression helps children understand that they are special and that their individual ways of thinking and being are all valid!
Promote problem-solving
Have fun with inventiveness! Get your child to solve puzzles and riddles.
Activities like these encourage children to take on different perspectives when identifying and analysing a problem. They get to discover and determine new and creative ways of solving problems.
Develop an inventive mindset
Emphasise that inventiveness is a valuable skill to have. Let your child know that it’s okay to be different or have unusual ideas, and always remind your child that there is value in being unique.
Celebrate their successes — big and small — and encourage them to keep trying if things don’t work out at first. Perseverance breeds inventiveness! If one way doesn’t work, look for another solution! When a reporter asked Thomas Edison, “How did it feel to fail 1,000 times?” He replied, “I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.” An inventive mindset is crucial in building a foundation for inventiveness!
These are just some ways that parents can encourage inventiveness in their children! What other ways can you think of?
