Living with a creative child

When my youngest daughter was little, she was watching a nature show when she exclaimed with utter joy that there were glows-in-the-dark monkeys! The rest of the family took a moment before realizing what they were seeing. David Attenborough was filming in the jungle at night using a special night vision camera that made the monkeys glow green. We laughed at it for a while, but then it became such a lovely idea that there might be monkeys in the jungle somewhere on Earth that glow in the dark. The possibility was quite real as there are other brilliant creatures on the planet. We kept to this idea while discussing the benefits of being able to glow in the dark, hide in trees, and scare parrots. Although it didn’t make sense, fostering this level of creative thinking is a great skill to learn. If we want to encourage creativity in children, we must work with their imagination and ideas to see if they can develop the ideas. You could consider if the monkeys can be seen during the day, how do they shine? Is it due to something they eat? The process of brainstorming is a fun activity, and it doesn’t matter that you’re not going anywhere.

When my son amuses us with these little mental challenges, his mind amazes me: he sees the world from a very different point of view than the rest of us; And she keeps us on our toes But there is a but … He rarely sleeps before 10 at night despite being under 9 years old. She never stops. There is always something you are working on or trying to create, draw and sketch, write novels (yes) and poetry, bake and paint, then you can choose some flowers to display, ask how to make a fabric collage … and I’m not kidding when I say that all of this could have taken place before 8.30 on a Saturday morning.

My son has an insatiable need to create. You have the desire to be in the PROCESS at all times and in more than one PROJECT. At the moment there is the photography project – we take walks in the local countryside and photograph the change of season – currently the beautiful change from summer to fall. The walk then acquires a new life of PROJECT; She is frustrated at not being able to get the image right and her “creative temptation” takes over. We have swings of self-loathing, glory, depression, enjoyment, and then others. The other ‘one the go’ project at the moment is a series of books that she is writing, illustrating and getting ‘published’ by her grandmother with proper binding and covers. She is very proud of this work and often criticizes herself on the indicators of improvement.

These things are projects that you tend to fully work on. But her spirit is creative, and that’s where it becomes a challenge to be an effective parent. You need time to ‘reflect’, and this is a moment of complete inactivity where you will simply stare into space or stare at a television screen (or other screen) for quite some time, sometimes a couple of hours, before jumping in and scatter. the house with paint, or chalk, paper and a camera, or whatever the project requires.

Another characteristic of this creative spirit is that he can be in a totally different train of thought than all of us: he gets frustrated because we do not know what he needs or what he is talking about. His thought processes have been buzzing for hours and he needs some answers right away, and when we’re digging through our imaginations and brains to find an answer, he gets very upset and mad at us.

When I was little, I realized that it was a very different spirit, my other two children were equally artistic and enjoyed the same things, but the little one went further. She NEEDS so much physical stimulation when she was little that bedtime was more like an hour in a barn to calm her down. I attended classes at JABADEO and with the INPP to learn about the developmental movement game, and I applied it to her. She loved it and I learned how much I could help her explore her natural state by spinning, rolling and bouncing; I watched her until she was simply satiated and then she was able to calm down.

Similarly, you now need a lot of information to stay on track. She has such varied methods of expressing this need that we keep her filled with paper and notebooks, pens and paints, a permanent art station in the garage, and a white wall in the room that is her ‘canvas’; you are allowed to do whatever you want. on that wall posters or doodles or stickers. With the confines of the one white wall, you can go exploring in your own space and lightly contain your exuberance for art at home!

I have two other children, both bright, intelligent and artistic, but they never needed this intense input that my youngest son needs. I have worked for more than 25 years in teaching and, in particular, in the practice of the first years; I’ve seen some other kids with this same drive, they are also the ones who get another title, usually ADHD or Asperger’s. I don’t think it’s a mere coincidence that they are so creative; They think in different ways, but instead of suspecting those differences, by looking at her from a creative point of view, I can see how she is working through a journey – on a non-prescribed path – to an undisclosed end. It’s no wonder I sometimes think we’re all from another planet!

Dealing with a child whose creative spirit is so prolific can be an exercise in constant failure to adequately support him. I have spoken with other parents who also find this aspect of their children’s development challenging. By indulging in this creativity, your child establishes himself, satisfying his need to see what else he can accomplish. Parents should remember to pause a bit, step back, and wait before judging the strange things their child might be doing. I was worried about a kid in my preschool who was constantly painting scraps of paper orange. The other practitioners thought that he was far below his level of development, but he continued like this for 3 days. Piece after piece of orange painted A4 paper – at the end of the session on the third day he brought them all to me – he wanted to tear them into long strips – I let him do this and I helped – when we finished he put them all together and used glue to make a bonfire in the display wall. It was November 4! You never know what your project will be.

When my son is being suffocated, he is angry, subdued, frustrated, awake, tearful, and generally miserable. When we cannot give her the total freedom to unleash her creativity, she is a different girl. This is not indulgence as long as we do not give in to your every whim. She often wants to make up a poem just before bed or make a short film in the early morning. Most children want a little more time and should treat it the same way. She has learned to deal with this worry on her own and now has some strategies to avoid her frustration, write her plans, mind maps before bed, post sticky notes or create mood boards. These little tricks help her stay focused on her project but work with the rest of the family.

She is a total joy, sometimes she is a total crazy. Asks the most fabulously bizarre questions and creates the most fabulous books and poems, movies and photos. She said that when she grew up she wanted to be a teacher or a butterfly. Great way to think about career options!