fbpx
Imagination gives rise to creativity.

Top 10 Bulletproof Ways to Increase a Child’s Imagination

Creativity, child imagination, and design thinking are becoming increasingly relevant in this information age!

These skills are essential to thrive in this competitive and complex world. Besides, they also support the development of a promising and creative personality. As parents, we must nurture our child’s imagination. Because this helps in inculcating new-age skill sets in the child. And these qualities also help children to develop much-needed problem solving abilities.

Here’s a look at some easy ways to boost your child imagination:

1. Storytelling

Stories are timeless, and so are the emotional connections built after a good storytelling session. Use the power of stories to nurture your child’s imagination. But makes sure you give the child an opportunity to be an active participant. Tell a good story, and let the child add on to the tale. Make it more fun by using appealing ideas like a glass jar chit box with clues that the child can use to make a story. It is also a great idea to keep these stories open-ended to promote divergent thinking.  

Do you know that you can shape up your child’s mind through stories?

Well, here’s an interesting finding by researchers and psychologists.

As per BBC, stories have the power to transport us into the world of the character. This helps us to take up the perspective of the character, which in turn improves our ability to empathize with others.

2. Hands-on activities

Helping your child with imagination does not necessarily need expensive supplies or materials. You can trigger creativity in your kid by encouraging unique ideas and forms of expression. Let your child experiment with colors, scraps, foil paper, ribbons, and even tissue papers or slime. Allow the child to make use of the supplies. And set him/her free to be creative as they can. Promote out-of-the-box thinking, and discard the idea of going the conventional ways. Break free of common ideas. And do not forget to reinforce good attempts to strengthen creative thinking.

3. Creative art for child imagination

Art projects, play and imagination-rich education are some great ways to increase child’s imagination. Other than this, these activities also help kids to draw their own conclusions. Let the child explore his/her creative side, and enjoy the creations of your little genius. Encourage expression using novel ideas. So grass can be of any color except green, or a chick can be creatively spotted. Painting, drawings, and sketches make your kid happy, relaxed, and imaginative. So get the child engaged in these activities. And help him/her to develop creativity that can further deepen the child’s interest in futuristic STEM subjects.

4. Fun while parenting

We all know the importance of the fun element in boosting creativity. Discover your child’s creative side through some fun activities/games. For example, throw a volley of random questions to unlock a creative mind. For instance, ask the child what a hairpin, a bucket, a frying pan can be other than what it’s meant to be. Fun activities and free expression are the best for helping your child with imagination. So discover the creative side of your child and boost the creative potential.

5. Imaginative play

Moving on to the ways to increase child’s imagination, psychologists and studies have highlighted the advantages of imaginative play. Create imaginary situations for your kid for the joy of situational involvement. This will help the child to look at situations from a broader perspective. At the same time, the child will derive pleasure through these imaginative play scenarios.

6. Fantasy play

Similar to imaginative play, fantasy play can help you immensely to boost your child’s imagination. Create family fun moments by pretending to enter a forest, giving reactions to different animals, or living in a castle that’s about to be invaded. If you are puzzled about how to boost your child’s imagination, use some make-belief scenarios through fantasy play. This will familiarize the child with new scenarios and concepts, and spark your child’s imagination through imaginary settings and characters. Do not forget to supplement your child’s learning by focusing on co-curricular activities for holistic development. 

7. Outdoor activities and recreation

It is a proven fact that outdoor activities nurture cognitive skills and create numerous opportunities for experiential learning. Help your child to learn these skills through family outings. Nature walks, balloon games, blow bubbles, skating, ice-skating, and paragliding, etc. are captivating for kids. Choose the most suitable activity (keeping the child’s safety in mind) and spend some quality time at an outside location. Your kid will have loads to explore and discover around. And needless to state, this will boost the child’s cognitive skills in the most productive manner.

8. Reading

One of the most effective ways to increase child’s imagination is through reading. We already know that books are great to spark imagination and curiosity. But it is also a great head start for a child’s language development (Source- UNICEF).

Pick some great books (age-appropriate) and create a world of imagination and magic in no time. Ask the child to predict the upcoming scenarios. And you can also let the child create a similar story of events after the reading session.

9. Role-plays

Another way of helping your child with imagination is through role-plays. These are ideal to promote creative thinking. In addition, these role-plays also help kids to learn essential life skills. Your kid can be an astronaut, a doctor, a firefighter, or a teacher. This endless list of roles can be super entertaining. At the same time, it will acquaint the child with the responsibilities and challenges of these professionals. These opportunities will make the child more imaginative. Because the child will have to look for creative solutions for the given problems/scenarios from an adult’s life.

10. Unstructured play

The magic of imagination does not limit to any location. Look for random opportunities to nurture your child’s creativity and imagination. And trust us, this can transform even the dullest moments of the day into fun-filled happy memories. Bidding good-bye to office can be a time to sip an imaginary energy drink (to charge up). And when you get back from work, you can gift the child an imaginary pet out of your pocket. All these imaginary characters can be clubbed at the weekend to create a story. So isn’t this a super fun and interesting way of increasing your child’s imagination?

CONCLUDING THOUGHTS

Hope this write-up apprised you with some effective ways to increase child’s imagination. Here, we conclude this article with the brilliant finding of Lev Vygotsky (Russian psychologist), creative activity makes us future-oriented and helps in altering our own present!

You can make use of these activities to improve your child’s imagination abilities. These, mixed along with some productive indoor, and outdoor activities can also encourage creativity in children. Let the child socialize with kids of his/her age, and encourage physical activities in local parks, apartment grounds and even while at home.

Children are inquisitive by nature. However, some children need more opportunities to discover their imaginative side. To spark their curiosity, you can start with some basic strategies like games and role-plays. Also, it is better to go by the child’s preferred learning style.

Let’s help our kids to be creative individuals so that they are fully capable to create a golden future!

Happy parenting!

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Scroll to Top