Dandelion Path

Time and Energy

Mar 19, 2008

"Housecleaning involves two things. It involves our time and our energy. What do our children crave most: our time and our energy. The American family has a problem when our floors and carpets receive more care and attention than our children.”

-- Brook Noel

Posted In: Parenting | Inspirational Quotes • Comments (0)

Encouraging Creativity

Feb 01, 2008

I’ve really been into famous quotes lately. They offer insight in bite-size pieces that are easy to remember and I just love that! Lately there have been several that have struck me so you’ll probably be seeing more of them on here in the near future.

Lately I’ve been pondering quotes about creativity and imagination. Here are a few that have impressed me:

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles the world.” ~Albert Einstein

“Thank goodness I was never sent to school; it would have rubbed off some of the originality.” ~Beatrix Potter

“Genius means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way.” ~William James

In thinking about these quotes I’ve wondered what can we as parents do to encourage our children to be creative? Here’s what I’ve come up with so far:
Let kids be their own personality.
Send kids outside to explore.
Allow them to make mistakes and even fail sometimes.
Don’t always entertain them.
Encourage playing and pretending.
Support them in their unique interests.
Don’t over-schedule them. Childhood should be spent in play and exploring not doing truckloads of extra-curricular activities.
Read to them! (Richard Scary books are great for encouraging imagination while building up the mind by rhyme)

Ok, now it’s your turn! I’m eager to hear your ideas! :)

Posted In: Parenting | Inspirational Quotes • Comments (1)