In and Out of the Box
One of the best parts of spending time with children is getting responses I don’t expect. Before reading a book about snowmen, I asked, “Can anyone tell me how to make a snowman?” Many hands shot up but one child jumped right out of her chair and started rolling imaginary snowballs, piling them up, putting in coal eyes, a carrot nose, and drawing a happy smile.
She sat down and then jumped up again, “Oh, I forgot the butts!” And then she popped three “butts” down the front of the snowman. Buttons, of course.
We all admired her snowman (good readers can see things others can’t) and then I asked, “Can we add anything else to our snowman to make him more interesting?” I expected to hear a scarf, a hat, sticks for arms, or mittens. Hands shot up. The first answer was, “A tiara!” Followed by a necklace, sunglasses, and heels.
Creativity is not restricted to fiction. After reading a book about bees with my second-grade students, I asked, “Where else might we find information about bees?” I expected the library, an encyclopedia, or the internet. One cutie raised her hands and said, “Well, you could get a comfortable lawn chair and a nice cold glass of lemonade and go sit out in the garden.” Others reminded her to wear her sunglasses and hat.
One cold March day, my class decided to write poems about spring. I expected poems about flowers, kites, or birds. One young man wrote, “Run, spring, run! Run, run, run. Run fast to me!” I could only agree.
Writing similes and metaphors raised the creativity level to high. While mine were limited to “as quick as a wink, and “as happy as a lark,” my students’ ranged from “as fast as my brother eating my ice cream,” to “as happy as a second-grader on a snow day.” Two of my favorites were: “As gray as the shimmer on a dolphin’s fins,” and “Snow, like clouds telling secrets.” After hearing that last one, I had to sit down.
Even little children are creative. Preschoolers create entire worlds while playing. Stuffed animals have extensive back-stories in the mind of a child. Toy planes fly around the world.
My three-year grandson sitting in an empty box told me that he was off to sail around the world. I said, “Bon Voyage!” and explained, “That’s how you say goodbye in French.”
He waved and shouted, “Binky bonk! That’s goodbye in my language.”
Psychologist and youth development expert Marilyn Price-Mitchell writes that parents and teachers foster creativity “when they encourage children to express themselves through unstructured play, writing, poetry, magic, acting, photography, art, digital media, etc. When adults notice and praise youth for thinking outside the box and taking risks, the imaginations of young people blossom.”
Inside or outside of the box, children always surprise us when we encourage and praise them. Spend time with children. Listen for unexpected responses. Get ready to smile.
