Fostering creativity in children

The best way to foster creativity in children is through story-telling. One can get two benefits from narrating stories to children. The first thing is your child enjoys it and the other thing you will find is, it will keep you free from stress. In this busy, commercial world, parents are often forced to teach their children that A is for Administration and B is for Business. At the same time, they teach their children that C is for creativity.

While narrating a story to your child, not only does the child learn, but you will be surprised to note that you will also be learning a lot from them. A few years ago when I was telling my niece the story about the grandma, I told her that the grandma was wearing her glasses. The next week when I taught her how to write the letter B she said to me, "Auntie, doesn't it look like the grandma's glasses." Only after she said that did I realize that the letter "B" if written upside down does indeed look like glasses. I also learnt from her that SWIMS if read upside down spells out the same word. Step into the idea of story-telling and you will find even more fascinating ideas.

Story-telling is one of the best tools to bring out the creativity in our children. Stories, be they ancient or modern, for the majority of children are meant for amusement. Some fables not only amuse, but also instruct and edify. If the children are enjoying their school holidays, allow them to do so. Never frown at them and say, better the school be open seven days a week. Instead, make their holiday more enjoyable. Start telling them a story. Be enthusiastic while telling the story. Your enthusiasm will make the child even happier and will make them more imaginative. If your child seems down, tell him stories about great people. Sometimes your child might not be listening to you. At such times you can call some of their friends and make them all sit in a circle and start telling them a story.

Never be negligent about story-telling. Never say I don't know any stories. The best story-teller for a child is his or her own parents. They love the stories told by their parents more than those told by someone else. Spend half of the time that you would normally spend in a mall in a library. Read some of the interesting story books, take a note of what you have read and then you can narrate the tales to your child.

Story-telling is, in fact, also economical and fits everyone's budget. As Wordsworth said, "The child is the father of the man". It is up to us to bring out the qualities of the child and help him achieve more.

UMA RAMAKRISHNAN

Jakarta