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“Where did he come up with that?” Kids often amaze us
with their imaginative ideas, and we should give
ourselves a pat on the back for playing a role in this
development. Innovative thinking is essential for
success in school and in life, and it’s our job as
parents to nurture our kids’ innate desire to be
creative. Inventive play fosters original thinking, an
asset when children are confronted with new
situations. By providing activities that use their
creativity and imaginations, we are giving our
children an important tool to deal with life down the road.

Give them ideas. 
Children come up with things to do on their own, but
we also need to provide them with new ideas of
interesting activities. Think back to what you did as
a kid. Did you write a diary, create elaborate puppet
shows, or sing and dance for relatives? Share ideas
from your own childhood experiences. Offer creative
writing ideas like writing an episode for a favorite
television show or writing a new ending to a favorite
story. Craft projects offer another outlet for
inspiring imaginations. Craft kits, especially those
from Curiosity Kits and ALEX, offer a wide variety of
unusual and fun projects. They’ve brought us a long
way from the sock puppets of our youth. These
manufacturers offer ideas and supplies to make such
things as scrapbooks, powerballs, soaps, candy, sun
catchers, dolls, planes, dinosaurs, jewelry treasures,
and lots of decorative items. Kids can gather ideas
from the instructions, and then give the projects
their own unique touches.

Keep ideas fresh.
Pick up any parenting magazine and you’ll find lots of
ideas to get those creative juices flowing in your
kids. Search the web and check out craft stores. Keep
a journal or file for magazine clippings and ideas as
you find them. Stockpile so that you’ll know how to
answer the whiny “I’m bored” call from your kids.

Give them freedom.
Once you’ve given your kids some suggestions and
supplies, step back and see which they choose and
where they go with them. This unstructured play time
gives kids an opportunity to stretch their creative
muscles. Watch as they incorporate your ideas and
branch out on their own.

Set an example.
Chances are, if you are a creative person, your child
will be too. You display creativity in your everyday
activities like when you reason with a disgruntled
child, change lyrics to songs, and maybe even do some
interpretive dancing to entertain a toddler. Your
children see your silliness and it rubs off on them.
You surely use creativity to juggle your and your
family’s schedules. It’s a great idea to point out to
your kids how you use creativity in your daily life.

As parents, we always try to do the very best for our
kids and provide opportunities that will help them
mature into intelligent, capable adults. Nurturing
their creative spirits helps them along this road.
With their well-developed imaginations, maybe they’ll
turn it into a yellow brick, pink polka-dotted road
with sparkles!

Susan Stump is the mother of two children and the
owner of ChildCrafter, Co. - Craft Kits and
Subscriptions that Inspire a Child’s Imagination. This
work-at-home-mom offers a great selection of creative
craft kits from ALEX, Quincrafts, and Curiosity Kits
from her catalog and website http://www.childcrafter.com.

Sometimes you have to see something to believe it. 
Like angels. 
Unfortunately, angels are adept at not being seen, 
yet many people believe in them.

I saw an angel at work last year. No, I did not see the halo. 
Or the feathered wings. Or a flowing white gown dancing in the wind. 
But there was no mistaking the unique handiwork. 

When Little Lady was just one-and-a-half years old, we were visiting friends in another town. Sunday morning, we accompanied them to their church, which is surrounded by a great semi-circle hallway. You cannot enter the church itself except through one of the four or five doorways from the hallway.

We entered the building, heading right down the hallway straight for the nursery to leave our Little Lady with strangers for the first time ever. 
Note that we had not yet entered the actual church. 
The caretaker handed us a number and told us that if our child got too restless, we would see that number projected on the screen at the front of the church.

We headed into the church through a door at the far side. 
We sat down in a pew, anticipating to see the number within five minutes.

The number never showed up. After an hour, I snuck up to the door of the toddler area and saw her gleefully running around. That in itself might qualify as the work of angels, but the real miracle was yet to come.

At the end of the service, we went to retrieve Little Lady. 
As we led her out of the toddler area, 
SHE took over and started pulling my wife by the hand. 

She lead my wife down the hallway with great determination, dragging her through the throng of almost 1000 people milling about in the hallway, all the way to the far side of the church where we had entered before to reach our pew. 
This was no small feat, and it took ten minutes to get through the crowd, 
but she was persistent. 

When we had fought our way two-thirds around the church, she pulled my wife into the church from the hallway through the very door we had entered earlier – after we had left her off at the nursery. 

I stood in amazement as I watched her go several pews down and turn right into the very pew where we had been seated. She had never seen us go there.
 She had never been inside the church before. How did she know?

OK, so this was not the parting of the Red Sea and nobody's life was saved. 
But could it be anything other than the work of angels?

This story was adapted from A Daily Dose of Happiness

David Leonhardt publishes The Happy Guy humor column. 
He is author of Climb Your Stairway to Heaven and 
The Get Happy Workbook. He also runs a Liquid Vitamins Store.

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