What Is Creative Play And Why Is It Important
For children to learn they need to play and have fun, and play is the best way of learning. If, in addition, we combine creativity and imagination, it is the perfect combination for a good development in children. As a parent, you need to know what creative play is and why it is important.
It is your obligation to offer creative play opportunities to your children because, in this way, you will be helping them in their development. They will grow up happy knowing that learning is not boring, but rather the opposite.
Creative play in childhood
Creative play gives children the opportunity to have fun and develop their minds correctly. During creative play, youngsters acquire skills that are essential for academic learning and social development.
The importance of this type of game
Mother Nature has designed the game as a way to grow and mature. Baby animals are naturally playful; in this sense, children also enjoy play activities. Understanding the value of this is to give value to playful activities and encourage creative play as a routine form of your child’s development.
The active part of being creative is very important for child development from a very young age. Creativity is about experimenting, inventing, designing and trying new things while having fun.
Parents can motivate children to have new experiences while they are in a safe environment and, in this way, to develop in a holistic way through all kinds of play activities.
Types of creative play
Creative play is under many different umbrellas ; crosses borders in all areas of child development. When you realize what it means to encourage creative play, you begin to see the opportunities that surround you every day.
Once you start to think creatively, you will find that there are many areas in which activity takes place. Key areas of child development can always be improved through creative play. Begins to think and associate creative ideas in these aspects: physical, emotional, social and cognitive.
Children’s creative minds are awakened through sensory development through touch, taste, hearing, smell, and seeing the world around them. Providing opportunities for children to enhance their creativity is a critical part of parenting. Play experiences are possible and simple in all situations.
Examples of creative play activities
So now that you know the theory behind creative play, what about practice? The how, where, with whom, what and when of creative play. A great deal of creative play happens naturally. However, you can create a fun and creative environment for your child.
Next, we are going to give you some examples so that you can create those creative play areas for your children and that you all enjoy together as a family. Don’t lose any detail so your creativity can take its course too!
Outdoor spaces
You can encourage creative outdoor play by promoting physical creativity by climbing, crawling, running, jumping… Unleash any gross motor skills you can imagine!
You can create an obstacle course with chairs, poufs, wooden boards, plastic cones … The garden is also a good place for your children to work with plants and see the force of nature.
Gardening is great for connecting with nature. The pots can be decorated and even created fairy gardens if you have space in your garden. If not, the balconies and kitchens can house plants to make them your family mini-garden.
In the kitchen
In the kitchen you can be very creative! You can make cookies as a family and decorate them, make cupcakes … Children love to touch, taste, smell and create delicious food. In addition to working on creativity in the kitchen, they will feel great satisfaction in being able to taste what they have cooked themselves with your help.
Older children benefit from being able to weigh and measure and learn to prepare light lunches or salads. The kitchen can be a hotbed of creativity. You just have to give them the right tools and help them through the process.
The bedroom or playroom
If you are lucky enough to have a special playroom, then that’s a bonus, but with some easy ideas to design and put away, the room can be a little center of creativity. The puzzles , building blocks and LEGO are good investments for creative play. Have a mat on the floor as a space for the game and a storage place to store the pieces later.
Dressing up is also a great idea because kids have a great time, lose some of their inhibitions, and can let all of their creativity run wild.
Also, never underestimate the value of the books. Creativity through imagination is a vital part of expanding the mind. A cozy corner with a pouf and some books is a special place to go at any time of the day.
These are just a few ideas to enhance creative play in children. Of course there are many more, such as going on excursions, enjoying nature, doing creative writing… You just have to think about what your children like and enjoy together.
