Fostering creativity in your children demands a lot of creativity on your part.
When I taught kindergarten, I was amazed at how many children were already critical of their creative abilities. We live in a culture where only the best is good enough. It’s easy to see why children are inclined to give up before they start on a creative project.
I think both children and adults tend to think people are born talented. We lose sight of the fact that for centuries; people enjoyed creating products for what they were rather than to compare them to what is considered the best.
· In today’s society, only first place equals success.
· Often children equate being able to finish a project quickly with being good at it. Speed becomes the measure of success.
Therefore, we are dealing with quite a challenge in keeping our children enthusiastic and willing to take the risk of learning new creative skills (defined as innovation in the workplace).
We need to find ways to emphasize the joy of doing a creative activity to help them see that improving skills in any creative endeavor is a life long process worthy of the time and effort. Is there a new activity you can learn with your child? As you learn, talk about your creative thinking aloud and cast all fear of failure aside. By mistakes people have made, new inventions and services come to fruition every day.
Happy learning and growing…
December 30, 2008
In managing solid waste, the preferred order of handling it is to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Marilyn Brackney has reused materials since the beginning of her career as an artist and educator. While working as a public school teacher, she often resorted to using solid waste as art materials when she had no money to buy conventional supplies. She launched her art/reuse Web site, The Imagination Factory, in 1996, and since then, millions of people have visited, looking for inexpensive art ideas or ways to encourage kids to reduce, reuse, and recycle.
Children’s Web Site Encourages Creative Reuse
If you were to search for the word imagination on Google, it’s likely that The Imagination Factory will be linked near the top of the millions of entries. Listed by the American Library Association as one of the best online resources for kids, the award winning site shows visitors how to make art using materials most people throw away. Some of the activities include drawing, painting, sculpture, collage, paper mache, marbling, and crafts.
A Trash Matcher links visitors with appropriate art activities that use the solid waste they have available, and a feature called the Badge Matcher allows Brownies, Girl Scouts and their leaders to quickly locate projects that help satisfy badge requirements. Visitors also learn how reusing materials can help save energy, natural resources, and landfill space. Trashasaurus Rex, a giant dinosaur made of everything from used toothpaste tubes to odd gloves serves as the site’s mascot.
Just introduced is a “Members Only” section, which includes twenty, new art/reuse activities, and a quarterly newsletter that provides ideas for saving money and Mother Earth. Members also have access to The Green Gallery, a showcase of art and fine crafts created by professional artists who reuse and recycle materials. Artwork featured includes assemblage, collage, dollmaking, fiber arts, furniture, jewelry, marbling, metalwork, mosaics, sculpture, and weaving.
Online for twelve years, The Imagination Factory was created by artist and teacher, Marilyn Brackney. A longtime advocate of reuse, she’s encouraged children to create art from solid waste since the first Earth Day celebration in 1970. She thinks teaching kids to reuse materials is a fun and entertaining way to foster environmental responsibility.
Brackney says, “I’m pleased to see that adults are starting to reuse and recycle, but I focus my attention on children, because they will more easily adopt these habits and incorporate them into their lifestyles. Kids are the ones who will make a difference in helping to save the environment.” The Imagination Factory is located at http://www.kid-at-art.com/.
Art is more than a pretty picture!
-Marilyn Brackney
The Imagination Factory
September 8, 2008
