Fostering Creativity

Benjamin D. Esham / Wikimedia Commons

Sometimes I think we worry about things for nothing.  Then there are the other times when we think about things that should be important, that we might actually be able to change.

The latest thing I didn't think we had to worry about, Creativity.  Being creative used to be an inherent thing for our children.  Give them a box, a ball and a stick and you've got any game you can imagine.  When we were little (are you feeling the 'up hill both ways' coming on?!) we spent hours and hours wandering our front and backyard.  We could turn anything into a game.

One of our favorites when we were under 5 was to collect moss and skip stones, build forts out of tree leaves.  In CA our best games were rolling down the cul-de-sac on our wagon, often trying to throw or catch a ball while rolling.

We had LOTS of free time.  Time in which the only things we had to entertain ourselves was ourselves.  No soccer practice, no ballet, no extra classes or violin lessons.  Just ourselves and our brains to figure things out.

Now, it seems like we need a whole college to figure things out.  Don't get me wrong, I love Lego's.  I believe that Lego's can play an important role in fostering creativity, and giving kids an opportunity to do whatever it is they want to.  But a whole foundation dedicated to it?

I thought that kids already had Legos in the classroom?  What happened to fun time?  Free time?  Etc. Do you think we have a creativity crisis?