Since I wrote about helping your grandchildren develop creativity, I have been thinking quite a bit about it. Throughout the years when my children were growing up, I have watched how (in general) children’s opportunity to think creatively slowly wanes. Is it because parents or teachers squelch children’s creativity in an effort to help them mature and grow up? Is it because as children get into junior and senior high school they think creative activities aren’t cool? Whatever the reasons, there are several things that grandmothers can do to help their grandchildren develop creativity.

First, a little bit about creativity. Creativity is important because it allows scientists to make discoveries, inventors to develop new inventions, and parents to solve problems. Creativity isn’t just the ability to draw or paint a lovely picture. It is far more.

I used to teach a gifted and talented class at a local elementary school and was able to learn about creativity. Creativity is based on four things: originality, fluency, flexibility, and elaboration. Originality is the ability to think fresh or unusual ideas. Fluency is the ability to generate a large number of ideas or responses. Flexibility is the ability take a situation or problem and change the way it is perceived, approached, or dealt with. Elaboration is the ability to expand on one idea and make changes or add details.

So what does this have to do with grandmothers? Plenty. You can provide opportunities for your grandchildren to develop their creativity — and have fun in the process. And, if they enjoy the activities you do with them, you are strengthening your relationship and building a strong family unit (which is the ultimate purpose of this site) all the while you are helping them develop creativity.

I think that one of the most important things a grandmother can do is to praise those instances when she see creative thinking or creative problem solving. Verbal praise demonstrates to your grandchildren that you value creativity and that creativity is important. Another important thing you can do is to provide your grandchildren with a wide variety of activities in the four areas of creativity that I mentioned above.

So, let’s first talk about the element of originality. Have you played the game Scategories? That is an excellent example of an activity that encourages originality. (It could also fall under fluency.) Scategories would be a great game for a grandmother to stock in her game closet to play often with her grandchildren. There is a junior version for younger children and then the regular one for older players. As you play the game, praise your grandchildren for all of their original and creative ideas. (You might want to give that game to your grandchildren as a gift so you can play it with them when you visit their home.)

Here is a list of other activities that develops originality:

• Creature Creation. Have your grandchild select any two letters of the alphabet. Give them old magazines to go through and cut out seven or eight examples of these two letters in a variety of colors, sizes, and styles. Then, give them a sheet of paper and some glue. Have them create a creature from the letters that they have cut out of the magazines. They can use crayons or marking pens to add details such as facial features. You might want to suggest that they come up with a name for the creature. Hang their creation on your fridge or send it home with your grandchild so they can display it on their fridge.
• Door Design. Give your grandchild a piece of paper and crayons or marking pens. Have them select a door from a place of their choosing (such as a laboratory, a pizza place, a car repair business, a mansion, or clothing store). Then have them design a door that would be appropriate for the place that they chose.
• Disney Ride. Have your grandchild design a new ride for Disneyland and draw it on a piece of paper. Depending on your grandchild’s age, have him think about how to make the ride safe, how to make it visually appealing for a certain age, or how to make it fit in with a certain theme that is already in Disneyland.

Here is a list of ideas that helps to develop fluency:

• List as many creative ways to use gum other than chewing it. (An example could be to mend a hole in a tennis shoes.)
• Think of as many creative reasons for NOT cleaning their bedroom.
• List as many creative ways as you can think of to transport a tiger that is not in a cage from one zoo to another.

Here are ideas for activities that develop flexibility:

• Create a costume for Halloween with items found only in grandma’s home (or their own home).
• Think of as many ideas as possible for different ways to use a bucket.
• Come up with creative ideas of ways that a nine-year old could make money during the summer.

Here are ideas that help develop elaboration:

• Design a personalized phone (not a cell phone) for a rock star, a doctor, a chef, or a diesel mechanic.
• Think of ways to improve a playground in a city park.
• Select a TV ad that you don’t like and explain what you would do to improve it.

You could also play the ‘What If’ game. Give your grandchildren ‘what if ‘ situations and have them say what they would do. (You could even challenge them to give YOU situations!) Make them wild and wacky and challenging situations. You could do this while rocking a grandchild on your lap, as you ate lunch together, or were in the car while running errands. Here are some examples:

• What if you woke up one morning and your skin was blue with yellow polka dots?
• What if you opened your front door and there were cannibals in the yard?
• What if something that you ate made you grow a horse tail, have elephant ears, and speak in pig Latin. (You might have to explain what pig Latin is!)

I’m extending a challenge to all of my readers. See how creative you can be. See if you can come up with an original idea of an activity to do with your grandchildren. Or, see if you can take an activity and change it, improve it, make it more fun. See how many ideas for activities you can think of for a holiday that does not normally have lots of celebrations connected to it (like Ground Hog’s Day, Flag Day, or Veteran’s Day). Or take one activity that you have gotten from someone else on this web site and see how you can change it or add details to personalize it and make it fit your situation.

Then, please feel free to share your ideas and experiences here! I’d love to hear how creative your grandchildren are — and how creative YOU have been.

Creatively yours,
Digi-Gram

I recently finished reading The World is Flat:A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century by Thomas L. Friedman. Now, to know me is to know that I do not particularly like history. However, my reading tastes are maturing (finally . . . it’s only taken half a century!) and I totally enjoyed this book. In fact, that was about all I could talk about for a week!

There was one section in Friedman’s book that was geared toward parents. If you stick with me, I’ll point out how Friedman’s comments can apply to grandmothers, too.

Friedman states that parents need to practice tough love. Back in the 1980s (or whenever tough love was first made popular), tough love was meant more as a way for parents to deal with children who were out of control behaviorally, who were using drugs or alcohol, or who were in other similar situations. Parents would take tough stands against their children’s behavior in an effort to stop enabling their children and to help their children deal with their out of control behaviors.

However, Friedman’s tough love is slightly different — yet no less tough. He calls on parents to turn off the TV. To put away the Game Boys. Shut off the iPods. (And I might add, unplug the Wii games.)

“We are a society of me, me, me,” states Friedman. If children want something , they want it now. They don’t want to have to wait for it. Youth and adults alike ‘just want to have fun.’ Instant gratification. If something isn’t fun, kids don’t want to do it. (Nor do their parents.)

Parents feel more obligated to enroll their children in gymnastics, or join a soccer team, or take voice lessons, or participate in a local children’s theater group rather than stressing priorities in education and doing well in school. Parents feel that if children are doing okay in school and if their children are enjoying school then their kids are getting a good education.

Friedman states that American homes are devoid of books and printed material. Parents do not help their children recognize that hard work is associated with an education and that doing well in school is a top priority. Parents don’t enable (or should I say allow) their children to suffer some short-run pain (studying instead of playing) for longer gain. Parents just plain don’t have high expectations for their children’s success in this new millennium.

Now, these claims are fairly generalized. I’m sure that there are parents out there who don’t pamper their children with whatever their children want. Parents who make their kids work. Parents who make their kids study — and study hard and study hard subjects.

In other areas of his book, Friedman explains how technology is being outsourced to other countries. Those other countries can produce items cheaper than it can be made in the U.S. However, the edge that the U.S. has over these other countries is that Americans are innovative. They think creatively. They come up with new ideas for technology, new ideas of things to make, new ways for doing things. That’s Friedman’s take on things.

So what does all this have to do with grandmothers, you ask? Several things. First, you can help to provide books and printed reading materials in your grandchildren’s home. Like many of my readers have suggested, give books to your grandchildren. For birthdays. For Christmas. For Ground Hog’s Day. Make sure your grandchildren have good quality reading material in their homes! Provide your grandchildren with a wide variety of subject matter to read (so they won’t be such an intellectual pygmy like me when it comes to history or political science or geography . . .).

When your grandchildren visit you, read, read, read, with them. And, in case you missed my point, read whenever possible with your grandchildren!! Make sure that you make it fun and not a drudgery. If you made it feel like school, your grandchildren would feel resentful and then things would backfire on your good intentions. Have a huge dollop of love generously sprinkled with tons of fun while reading with your grandchildren. (You might want to ask them what other things they are reading, express an interest in it, and have them share their thoughts on their reading.)

Another suggestion is to give your grandchildren puzzles. Create a grandma kit that contains puzzles of several varieties to take when you visit your grandchildren. Give them sudoku books. And, when they come for a visit, put puzzles together with them. These activities help develop spatial intelligence. Maybe you could create a puzzle together with your grandchildren by gluing a picture on a piece of cardboard and then cutting it into random shapes.

Give your grandchildren logic problems to solve. Problems similar to the story math problems we had in elementary school. You know the kind — if a train leaves New York City traveling 55 miles per hour and a train leaves Chicago traveling 75 miles per hour . . . Bleah! BORING!!! However, if you made it more pertinent to their life today, they would have more ‘buy in.’ They wouldn’t roll their eyes at you and groan. Instead, ask them how many songs they could buy in iTunes if you gave them $15 for their birthday? Or how many songs could fit on a 4 gig iPod shuffle if the average file size was 5.1 MB?

The Kid’s Game Page has lots of strategy games for kids to play. Of the games that I played, I only won the Rush Hour game. (Is that because I have the blessing of ‘playing’ that game twice a day, five days a week as I drive home?? Naw, I just didn’t spend that much time playing the other games!)

Be a discriminating video/computer game player with your grandchildren. Does the game Doom improve critical thinking skills? Not hardly. Avoid games with violence, blood, and killing. Instead, play computer games with your grandchildren such as Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego, The Oregon Trail, SimCity, or SimCoaster.

If our edge over the third world countries is our ability to be innovative and creative, find ways to encourage your grandchildren to be creative and to think — but make it fun. You are not their school teacher. You are not their mother. You are their loving grandmother — who just wants to have stimulating fun with her grandchildren as you help them develop their creativity.

Keep On Thinkin’!
Digi-Gram