Silkysteps early years forum - planning ideas for play - cypop 7 Explain why young children require extended and unhurried periods of time to develop their creativity

Children need time to assess, take in, understand and absorb what's on offer, exploring, discovering, touching, tasting, moving, listening and building in order for them to apply their very own unique ideas of design to a construction - which can range from the positioning of the smallest piece of ripped tissue paper to a full display board filled with an individual's creativity, the wearing of 3 superhero cloaks to a floor full of lined up bumper to bumper cars.

This page is a good read although aimed at school environments - creative children Robert Fisher

Source www. hoddereducation.co.uk/SiteImages/f3/f3966925-d0a6-4de8-ac77-6c10066e762d.pdf

Quote:

Why young children require extended and unhurried periods of time to develop their creativity

Like all of us, young children need thinking time.

It is all too easy to bombard young children with information or questions without giving them any time to consider their responses.

As young children’s enthusiasm for investigation and exploration develops, they often become absorbed and concentrate for long periods of time.

In addition, they may want to revisit an experience several times while they extend and consolidate their learning.

This requires the practitioner to be flexible in their approach to the allocation of time. This could be over the course of a day or a week, or even over an extended period, to allow young children to become involved in the long- term exploration of something which particularly interests them. (Thornton and Brunton, 2007)

Practitioners should offer young children adequate time and space to explore ideas within an enabling environment. You should stand back sufficiently to notice what intrigues, confuses and inspires the young children you are working with, so that any intervention occurs from a closer understanding of children’s creativity. (Craft, 2010; p. 34)

Belonging but separate
Children who become creative are able to develop their own ideas, and are not over- dependent on the ideas of others. They develop a strong sense of self. Children who are always being required to follow adult instructions and tasks cannot develop the control they need in order to be creative.

Creativity is about doing things in new ways, not like other people. Therefore, it is impossible to know in advance how a model or painting, dance or wooden block construction will look in the end.
Creativity means that adults need to give children opportunities to explore material and to play in free- flow, and not over- control and contain the child’s ideas. On the other hand, adults are very important as people who can support and encourage creativity.

This is further explored in the book Cultivating Creativity: Babies, Toddlers and Young Children. (Bruce, 2011)
Children who enjoy their own company value having some time for personal space. They mull over ideas and this leads to creative thinking. It is impossible to know quite how creative ideas arise, but having time for ideas to drift and simmer seems to help the creative process.

Hth xx