Here’s the thing, children are pretty much already born creative. That being said, our little artists require a bit of guidance to channel all that creativity into something a bit more constructive. That’s exactly where you should step in! When it comes to creative development in toddlers, it all comes down to nurturing their already overactive imagination and promoting different skills that are important both for their physical and mental and social development.

This may sound a bit complicated right now, but you have no reason to worry. The truth is, there is nothing all that complicated regarding teaching creativity to kids because, as we have previously said, children are intrinsically creative!

All of that being said, in order to help you approach your toddler with some more specific ways in which you can awaken their inner artists, in this article, we are going to present you with 7 beneficial activities for achieving that.

Role-playing games

Children love tapping into their imagination and expressing it through different games. As experts on this topic over at Early Learning Children’s Academy explain, they also love this expression to be reciprocal. For example, when it comes to storytelling, let your kid engage in it with you, make it a team activity! Let them create different scenarios in their mind from which you two can build a story bottom-up. It will make the process way more engaging, fun, and exciting.

The same goes for playing with toys, whatever scenario your child may have created, challenging them to make the scenario even more intricate by asking about the characters they have invented, the locations, scenarios, and similar.

From blobs of paint to animals

This is an extremely simple, yet really fun and creative engaging activity, and all that you’ll need are papers and some paints. All you have to do is to fold the sheet of paper into half and then unfold it, ask your preschooler to put some blobs of paint on one half of the paper, and then fold the other half of the paper over the blobs while the paint is still wet.

After your little artist has gently smoothed the paper over the paint with his tiny hands, it’s time to unfold the paper. What do they see? Well, let your child’s imagination run free, and encourage them to make out which animal he has formed.

The Art of tearing and piecing together

Not all of them, but many kids adore tearing papers, and you can actually turn that into a fun, creative activity. Gather some newspapers, coloured papers, and similar, and ask your toddler to tear them. After that, guide them to glue them together in whatever pattern they might find interesting.

Sponge virtuoso

You need to cut sponges into different simple shapes such as circles, hearts, stars, and similar for this activity. After you’re done with that, let your aspiring little artist dip the sponges into different colours, and all that’s left is to dab away on a sheet of paper until a masterpiece is created!

This simple activity is not only fun, but it will also teach your kiddo shape recognition, as well as along, giving them the means to showcase their creativity.

The power of reasoning

Encourage your kid to support their preferences by presenting them with different choices in a tournament-like scenario, asking them to rate different things regarding subjects that they like. For instance, present them with different deserts, or animals, or superheroes – and ask them to rate all of them from best to worst.  Ask them why they have chosen what they have, for reasoning is quite important and will help them gain a better toolset for expressing themselves.

This is not only useful for this little mind-game, but all sorts of creative outlets, and socialization as well.

Unleash the play-dough

Play-dough never gets old – it’s extremely fun and helps your kiddo build pretty much anything they set their minds to. That being said, play-dough is extremely easy to prepare at home, and yet it’s a super fun activity that is going to boost your little champ’s creativity. After they are done moulding the dough, make sure to help them paint and decorate the creation.

Utilise everyday objects!

Sometimes, you don’t even need any additional equipment. In fact, utilising everyday objects like an old newspaper, empty plastic bottles, cardboard boxes, and similar will help your kid notice versatility and potential all around them, and that the whole world can be their playground.

For example, you can go outside, collect leaves of different shapes, and then come home and dip them in paint, letting your toddler create their impressions.

In the end, helping your kiddo tap into their creative side really isn’t all that difficult. All that it takes is a little bit of guidance and providing them the means to express themselves, and everything else is going to come naturally. At the end of the day, there’s one more important aspect for creativity – be sure to let your toddler guide you as well, the probability is high that you will be amazed by the level of creativity that they possess!