If you’re looking for ways to spark creativity in your kids, check out our latest Guest Geek post by Art Director Pat Redding Scanlon from Elementiad.com, who has created a list of seven ways to encourage your kids to be creative.

Top Tips to Encourage Your Kids to Be Creative! 

1. Make it easy

Keeping a Montessori-style storage of art supplies in plain sight allows kids to be creative literally whenever inspiration strikes. Keep it easy and don’t overthink it. 

2. Keep chalk by the front door

In my house, we have a whole chalkboard wall for writing and drawing on, but the concept started by keeping chalk by the door making it easy for my kid to draw on the sidewalk. Grab, go create. You can find packs of sidewalk chalk at most dollar stores, and they wash off easily with a hose or when it rains.

3. Embrace the weird 

The first lesson of encouraging kids to explore art is to support a kid’s curiosity. Yeah, there are some crazy Youtube clips out there of people making every possible thing you could imagine —- kids find AND like the strangest things on or offline. Support their pursuit of things that are new and different. 

4. Easy storage 

Keeping supplies in easy access without them being all over the place and doing something fun with the storage. We used vintage suitcases to store supplies. One for felt, one for fur, one for fabric, you get the idea. Unzip and go! 

5. Make the space and they will come

Kids need space and do parents. I created an art table for both myself and my daughter. A space to zone out, listen to music, and create. Who doesn’t need space like that? Kids AND adults both can benefit from a dedicated art space. 

6. Don’t get caught up in the cost 

From a young age, kids can turn the mundane into the magical. A bucket and a shovel at the beach become a castle and some powerful magic. Encourage that side of them creatively. Bookcases can become dollhouses. Old curtains can become clothes or tapestries. Reuse and recycle CREATIVELY. 

7. Remember it’s ok to make a mess

Creativity is a process. Sometimes things work. Sometimes they don’t. Encouraging kids to make art gives you the opportunity to teach them that cleaning up is part of the creative process. It’s good training for making art and well the rest of life! 

You can see more about Pat REDDING Scanlon and her work https://www.instagram.com/puttiredding including her role as Art Director for www.elementiad.com