Here are some of the many ways in which you can encourage your child’s creativity this summer.

Creativity Outdoors 

While the British Isles may not guarantee blue skies throughout the summer, now is the time to get out and about and make use of your local amenities. The outdoors can provide your children with opportunities for creativity that may not be possible during other seasons, so how about:

• Nature Collages – go out and collect bits and bobs for a pretty picture or collage. Create a woodland scene out of sticks, leaves and grass or a bird portrait from feathers and twigs. The possibilities are endless

• Rock Painting – have a trek and collect a number of rocks that catch your eye, then give them a wash and paint them. The different shapes offer lots of scope for designs. The finished pieces make sweet ornaments for the home or garden

• Make a Wildlife Patch – dedicate some time to looking after nature, and encourage compassion for our environment. If you have a garden allocate a special place and plant some sweet flowers for the bees and butterflies, or a little wooden box with some food and water for animals passing by. If not, find a quiet place in your local area, perhaps in a park or on a hedgerow, and look after it – remove litter or leave some seeds for birds

• Build a Den – be careful not to trespass or annoy neighbours, but outdoor dens are a must for summer activities. Whether you stick to long branches and make a simple wigwam or bring sheets and tarp from home, there is lots of fun to be had, and lots of den ideas to play around with

Creativity Indoors

A great way to help grow your children’s creativity at home is to encourage them to make or do something for the house that everybody can enjoy. It can also teach them some pretty nifty skills for later on in life, so why not try:

• Sewing or Cross-Stitching – being able to do simple repairs to clothing and textiles is a dying art, so teach some basic stitching techniques. Try small projects like a simple little beanbag toy filled with rice or a cross-stitched greeting card

• Tie Dyeing – simple and endless fun, tie-dye some plain bed sheets or t-shirts to be enjoyed again and again. There are lots of different patterns to experiment with, and finally unravelling the dyed product is something like magic!

• Decorate Crockery – try upcycling. Buy some plain plates, bowls, tumblers from a charity shop and paint them.

• Indoor Den – dens are not just for the outdoors. Again, this can present a healthy challenge to children if you lack room. See what can be made out of a small space. Sheets and blankets, divider screens and clothes horses are among the tools.

Encouraging creativity is a significant step towards independence. Giving your children the tools to think outside of the box and come up with inventive ways to amuse themselves is important to character development. It also  enables you to enjoy new activities together in the meantime.

You might also like: Summer Holiday Challenges 

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By Charlotte Baldwin, Operations Manager at IQ Cards

IQ Cards are a fundraising company that provide schools and establishments with the necessary tools to fundraise via selling high-quality and unique gifts designed by pupils. As part of the established on-demand print and digital solutions provider The IQ Digital House, ensures that all requirements and products are produced to the highest standards, delivered on time and at great value prices. Several of the IQ cards team are mothers and PTA members themselves appreciating and understanding school protocols extremely well. They are the preferred supplier for PTA UK. For more information please visit: http://www.iqcards.co.uk/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/iQCards

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I love how children learn through messy play. It helps them develop their creativity and imagination with a wide variety of objects, textures and materials. If I’m honest, I also love them doing the messiest of messy play somewhere other than our house.

Marble Painting

This particular week there was water play with various floats, coloured shaving foam piles to squidge hands into and make patterns with and a model farm complete with hay and construction toys. They played with it all. However, the thing that really captured them was the painting with marbles.

It was referred to as ‘marbling’. However, it wasn’t the marbling I’d done as a kid where you put inks onto water, which has washing up liquid in it, and then put a piece of paper on top to get a print. This was literally dunking and coating marbles in a choice of two paint colours, using a spoon to drop them into a tray lined with coloured sugar paper, and then rolling them around the tray. The girls did a picture each independently, a joint one where they took it in turns at doing a layer and a joint one where they both did everything at the same time. They were fascinated by how different each one looked. They were especially fascinated by how they got lots of different greens from just their blue and yellow paints.

A really simple, but great activity; and one that I actually will try at home.

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