Creative Connections

Creative thinkers play with metaphors and analogies. This means that they look at one thing as if it were another thing. They ask, “What else could this be like?” They make new connections between unrelated things. 

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Brainstorming: A Climate for Creative Growth

Try this the next time you have a rainy day and your child or classroom has free time. You can turn a rainy day into an amazing brainstorm!

Brainstorming is a technique for generating a free-flow of ideas to solve a problem within a short period of time. Brainstorming can be practiced by individuals or by a guided group of two or more.

Groups need a facilitator, whose role is to encourage participation, to embrace and record each idea, and to remind participants to defer judgment, however wild an idea may seem. 

Although brainstorming in a group may not always produce the best ideas, the sessions offer other valuable benefits. They boost confidence, warm up creative muscles, improve classroom spirit, and create a trusting social climate. Creative thought flourishes in positive psychological environments.

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Who Are The Creative Kids?

As the mom of two incredible kids, one special needs and one who was identified as “gifted,” and as a former teacher, I know that creative genius can arise out of any child anywhere. You cannot predict it by looking at typical classroom performance. My special needs daughter astonishes me with her ideas and handmade folk dolls as much as my gifted son does with his writing and acting abilities.

Many kids assumed to be “attention deficit” look like they're daydreaming, and maybe they are—in a good way! Your daydreamer could be laying the early foundations of a groundbreaking innovation he'll someday bring to fruition.

Dreamers’ Lib

The word, “daydream,” has negative connotations, such as apathetic, slow, and unmotivated. But the truth is almost always the opposite.

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