Blog - Page 8 of 11 - DadsforCreativity

‘No Lucas, this Lego doesn’t go here’: Am I Lord Business from the Lego Movie?

by Matthew Worwood July 28, 2015

written by Matthew Worwood

Am I in danger of becoming Lord Business from the Lego Movie? Anyone seen this film? SPOILER ALERT – Based on the Lego sets, this story follows the character of Emmet, an ordinary Lego mini-figure, who has been prophesized to save the world from the evil, and I mean really evil, Lord Business – ruler of the land, and enforcer of rules that prohibit anyone from deviating from their instructions. It’s not rocket science to realize that this film is all about creativity, and how we as adult, perhaps without realizing, can hinder the imagination and creative thinking that manifests when children free play.

As this awesome film progresses we eventually morph into the real world, and quickly discover that the story we’ve seen unfold on the screen is actually a child’s imaginative play with his fathers Lego sets. Obviously the Dad is upset to see his models broken and the pieces used to make other creations that do not align to his model town, and do not really resemble anything ‘normal’. He says ‘that’s not right… this doesn’t belong here’… and I must now make a confession – I used very similar words over the weekend when my nephews invaded my house and broke one of my airplanes engines to secure parts they ‘apparently needed’ for their own model. This is where Lord Business popped his ugly head – I took back the piece and said ‘that’s not right… it doesn’t go here’. Seriously! How many times as parents have we uttered these words? Ok there are some items that have a home (I’m hearing my wife in my head right now telling me the correct shelf for the cheese) but our children, when engaged in free play, should be allowed to use any toy they want, and build anything they desire, in any way that they think works.

The plane’s wheels was also removed, as well as the engine.

We’re obviously not discouraging sharing, and certainly do not condone the deliberate destruction of someone else’s creation in order to secure something for your own, but this type of free play should be about deviating from the instructions, mixing toys, and building on the imagination and there are some obvious takeaways from this observation in regard to cultivating creative thinking:

It’s interesting to see how my nephews had very little interest in playing with my ‘correctly’ modeled airplane and instead preferred something that they had built own, suggesting that there is something about ‘their creation’ over someone else’s, that supersedes the ‘order’.
This incident expands beyond Lego. I’ve regularly seen Lucas mix different toys as part of free play and often quote Lord Business, ‘Lucas if you’ve finished with one toy, put it back before getting another toy‘. I sometimes miss the fact that he’s using both toys in conjunction with his overall game (and this is why we see Lightening McQueen invade the world of Thomas the Tank Engine, who has just run over my favorite Lego figure).
Interference from adults, or even structured aspects of the adult world are not wanted during this type of Free Play.
Buying brand new Lego box sets is a waste of money. Instead, purchasing second-hand Legos via eBay is the better option, and certainly better bang for your buck – just be sure to ash them.
And obviously us Dads will continue to buy our really cool box sets, but evidently there is a need to buy two of everything so that our children can have one of their own to brake and misuse. (Mommy please click on this link – hint hint!).

If you liked this article you might want to check out Finding your Child’s Creative Characteristics.

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We believe the first stage in counteracting the imbalance of creativity verses content, starts at home. Help us share the word on Facebook and Twitter.

Anyone who shares or contributes content via the comments below* will receive a FREE download to Creativity in Education: Exploring the Imbalance.

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July 28, 2015 3 comments

Introducing young children to Computer Science: 3 question interview with Professor Jeremy Sarachan

by Matthew Worwood July 23, 2015

written by Matthew Worwood

In June I was at the New Media Consortium Summer Conference, meeting great educators from around the world. During the Idea Lab (my favorite event of the conference), I stumbled across a strange table that had a banana (or at least I think it was a banana), attached to a wire that plugged into a computer. Yes – I knew what it was – the Makey Makey Kit, which is one of the more popular Electronic Invention Kits, which are proving to be a great way to introducing young children to computer science, by connecting everyday objects to simple programs. Jeremy Sarachan, who among other things has studied the use of ‘cool’ tech in education, shared his experience using these types of kits with middle school students, and I asked him to offer some advice to parents who might want to explore this device with their children outside the classroom.

What do you consider the value of introducing electronic or computer science starter kits (like Makey Makey) to young children?

For some kids, their highest level of creativity emerges in using these tools. Digital technologies often require kids to incorporate other skills—drawing, crafts, and writing—and so they find connections between various techniques. Technological tools [like Makey Makey] also appeals to kids by bringing together both artistic and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) skills and hopefully, will encourage adults to stop placing these skills/experiences at two ends of a spectrum, instead allowing kids to see how the various topics they are studying (including content from other disciplines) can be brought together. It also allows them to communicate their ideas and feelings in new ways, and gives them an outlet for expression.

Many parents might find electronics or computer science type activities intimidating, what advice can you offer to those with little knowledge in this area, but who want to introduce their children to these subjects?

Three things to consider.

One, some kits are really quite easy–like the Makey Makey, and this provides parents an opportunity to get over some of their fears of technology.

Second, one needs to trust their kids and allow them to experiment, and more importantly, let them lead the way in exploring and finding new technologies. Parents will often know less than their kids, and that’s okay. I had tried to introduce my daughter to block programming with both Scratch and Mindstorms and it didn’t take hold (and I didn’t push it). She found Blocksworld, and entirely taught herself–one day, she just showed me the coding she had done–I hadn’t even known she was doing it.

Three, if neither one or two works, multiple opportunities exist in many communities–perhaps at a local science museum or college–where your child can explore new technologies with other kids —and then let them teach you!

What type of starter activities do you recommend to parents who have recently purchased an electronics starter kit like Makey Makey?

Scratch is an old standard now. Its block programming format has been adapted in countless other software interfaces. For work on the screen, Blocksworld and Minecraft are great. Blocksworld allows for block programming; Minecraft for 3-D building, although there are now multiple books and online learning opportunities for kids to learn about coding mods (modifications to the Minecraft world–from adding new tools to changing the weather and beyond). App Inventor (and online Android app creation site) is another easy and free opportunity for preteens and beyond. For building in the real world, the Hummingbird Robotics Kit offers a more flexible and easier interface than the standard Arduino systems and (although I’ve yet to order a kit), Little Bits is an up-and-coming option.

If you’re interested in technology check out another 3 Question Interview, with award winning educator Jonathan Nalder who shared 3 mobile apps for Creativity.

FREE FILM for parents and educators

We believe the first stage in counteracting the imbalance of creativity verses content, starts at home. Help us share the word on Facebook and Twitter.

Anyone who shares or contributes content via the comments below* will receive a FREE download to Creativity in Education: Exploring the Imbalance.

If you choose to comment via social media be sure to sure to include reference to @dads4creativityor share from our Facebook page. We’ll follow up with details via a private message.

July 23, 2015 0 comment

Matthew Worwood

Prototyping a Sailboat: Introducing DESIGN-BASED thinking to young children

by Matthew Worwood July 20, 2015

written by Matthew Worwood

“Few people think about it or are aware of it. But there is nothing made by human beings that does not involve a design decision somewhere.” —Bill Moggridge

This weekend’s sailboat activity was a disaster! Daddy’s boat sunk as spectacularly as Henry VIII’s Mary Rose, and now lies at the bottom of the deep blue swimming pool.

The Saturday hadn’t started off too badly. Following up on my article on introducing design based thinking to young children, we decided to make a sailboat. Now Lucas from the very start become fixated on making sure Brother Dadu (one of four toy giraffes) could fit safely into the boat, and this seemed to factor into nearly every design decision we made.

Daddy: Which one will be the best for a sailboat?

Lucas: This one (pointing to the large milk carton)

Daddy: Why this one?

Lucas: Because I like it

As this activity was designed to introduce some of the concepts of prototyping, I encouraged Lucas to offer a little more of an explanation for his decision.

Daddy: Ok, but which one will be the best in the water? Remember our sailboat will be going into the water.

Lucas: I think this one because it’s the biggest.

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This is an example of how a toy giraffe sabotaged my perfectly thought out sailboat/prototyping activity. It was all about making sure that Brother Dadu, could fit in his boat, but sometimes it’s important that we go where our little ones take us, so I let him choose milk carton, and I selected a plastic bottle and said this was going to be Daddy’s boat. Interestingly, his observation this time was a little more on point.

Lucas: Yeah, but I think this one is not good because it might fall over.

After we cut out what will become the hull for each of the two boats, we turned out attention to material for the sail. We had a little more success at this part of the activity, as Lucas was assured Brother Dadu could fit into his milk carton, he was able to think a little more about making the sailboat actually work.

Daddy: What’s the best material for a sail?

Lucas: This one will blow the best because it’s made of paper and paper can blow away in the wind.

We made two different sails, Lucas called one the Lollypop Sail, and the other the Normal Sail. Daddy had to use the Lolly Pop Sail!

We used furniture pads to hold the masts in place, and at this point Lucas soon began to concern himself again with space for Brother Dadu. so we had to relocate the mast, which meant detaching the furniture pads, but Lucas was now starting to think like a designer, and in some ways was even thinking of the end user – his toy giraffe!

We tested our boats in a little paddling pool, but had to wait until the following morning to put them into the ocean (the swimming pool). , and during the night one of the sails had became a little loose.

Lucas: Daddy, the Lollypop sail is a little bit shaky.

But this wasn’t a major concern because it was in Daddy’s boat.

At the pool Lucas wasn’t interested in actually testing the sails, and only cared about placing Brother Dadu in his boat, which he did successfully, but eventually he fell into the water. At this point the rest of the activity was centered on making a really tight seat belt, but he didn’t fall in after this, and his sailboat was a success. Mine on the other hand, sunk within a few seconds of setting off from port.

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July 20, 2015 5 comments

3 Question Interview Matthew Worwood

Creativity for Everybody: 3 Question Interview with Creativity Expert, Kathryn Haydon

by Matthew Worwood July 16, 2015

written by Matthew Worwood

Everyone is creative! And as part of my travels on the subject I’ve met many innovative educators, and highly engaged parents, who actively look for ways to improve their practical skills in cultivating creativity. Kathryn Haydon, founder of Sparkitivity, works with families and educators to change the educational paradigm to one based on student strengths and creative thinking and is an author on the subject. I asked Kathryn to share some of the ways parents can better cultivate creativity at home. Be sure to comment on the article for a chance to receive a signed copy of a new book Kathryn co-authored, called Creativity for Everybody.

What do you consider to be some of the greatest myths about creativity?

MYTH: Creativity means arts and crafts, music, and theater.

REALITY: Creativity is problem solving that results in ideas that are unique and valuable. We use creative thinking in all facets of our lives (at work, parenting) and it is innate to everyone. It also can be practiced and improved, just like basketball or soccer or writing or cooking.

It is true that people express creativity in different degrees. You can think about it this way: Highly creative people are those who continuously practice creative characteristics, just like Michael Jordan continuously practiced basketball. Some people are more inclined than others to do these things, but we all are capable of curiosity, exploration, and new thinking.

What advice do you have for parents who want to cultivate creative thinking skills at home?

We begin to understand our own creativity identity when we have opportunities to discover and express our individual thinking, values, and motivations. Each of us, including children, need freedom for self-discovery. As parents we can give our children this freedom by releasing them from pressures to conform to pre-determined expectations, such as our own parental desires to raise a star athlete, musician, Ivy League grad, or successor in the family business.

It is exciting to view parenting as an adventure of child-discovery. In what ways might you become an observer of what makes your child light up? Make connections to known interests and motivations, and find different ways to explore them. Keep in mind that interests and motivations change, sometimes quickly, and that’s okay, too.

Where’s a great place to start?

Curiosity is a wonderful place to start. In our busy lives, it’s so tempting to live in the realm of factual inquiry and responses. But what if we ask questions differently to encourage original thinking, curiosity, and exploration?

“What if . . .?” questions are open-ended and call for higher-level thinking in the response. Another way to form open questions is to use the phrase, “What might be all of the ways . . . ?” The phraseology alone implies that there are many possible responses. We can have fun answering these with our children.

Even if you are about to encounter a battle, like room cleaning, you can employ open questions. A tense “Clean your room!” could change to “What might be all of the ways you can clean your room?” followed by a little humor in coming up with answers that diffuses the situation and involves a little humor.

Check out another 3 Question Interview, with award winning educator Jonathan Nalder.

Don’t forget to comment below for a chance to win a signed copy of Creativity for Everyone. You can also purchase the book on Amazon or www.sparkitivity.com/creativity-for-everybody.

Follow Kathryn on Twitter @sparkitivity and Facebook ttps://www.facebook.com/sparkitivity

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FREE FILM for parents and educators

We believe the first stage in counteracting the imbalance of creativity verses content, starts at home. Help us share the word on Facebook and Twitter.

Anyone who shares or contributes content via the comments below* will receive a FREE download to Creativity in Education: Exploring the Imbalance.

If you choose to comment via social media be sure to sure to include reference to @dads4creativityor share from our Facebook page. We’ll follow up with details via a private message.

July 16, 2015 6 comments

Matthew Worwood

Finding your child’s Element: Ways to identify their Creative characteristics

by Matthew Worwood July 13, 2015

written by Matthew Worwood

When do you consider your child to be in their Element? When it comes to cultivating creativity or nurturing a particular talent, finding your child’s Element might be a discovery worth making. Sir Ken Robinson, who become well known after making the statement that ‘school kills creativity’, describes it as a place where the things we love to do and the things we are good at come together. As parents we probably have a good idea of what our child likes to do (even if it changes regularly), and many of the skills that we recognize are probably common, and form part of regular development of most children. However, careful observation might reveal certain characteristics that are particularly dominate in your child, and might be worth greater attention as we start to think about our child’s future Element.

Already I’ve observed subtle differences between Lucas and Liam (4 years and 15 months respectfully), despite the fact that Liam is hitting similar milestones as his brother, his interest in solving problems is a lot more prominent, and he appears to quick to master the use of everyday objects.

Lucas liked to observe people and objects, and as he’s got older he began to mimic or make them as part of a fantasy type game. His imagination is one of the characteristics that is always prominent in his play and personality.

Liam likes to problem-solve and interact with objects independently. He seems to figure things out more quickly than Lucas, and appears a lot more interested in mastering the real world.

Start with simple observations of your child’s play and identify times when they work independently for a significant period of time. Next look deeper into these activities to see if they involve certain creative characteristics that form a pattern in your child’s play or personality. There’s certainly not a need to overthink this task, and it’s too early to think about talent, but the things you might identify could help decide on that choice of summer camp, weekend activity, or extra curricular class.

Remember as our children grow we must try and expose them to a variety of experiences in order to expand their interests and find new things they like to do, and perhaps might eventually be good at.

‘’Discoverying the Element is all about allowing yourself access to all of the ways in which you experience the world, and discovering where your own true strengths lie.”

As we build upon our understanding for our child’s interest, we might hope to cultivate skills that will help them to master a particular domain, but it should NEVER be forced, and should be conducted at the child’s pace. A love of music doesn’t necessarily mean rushing to musical lessons three times a week if this isn’t want they want. Instead, it’s about getting to know your child’s creative potential, and then ‘exploring’ that level of interest before investigating ways to nurture and develop it further.

Like all children, Lucas likes to draw, but careful observation shows that his drawings are merely an outlet to his story making, which incorporates real-life experiences, with a fantastical twist. The characters receive less attention, and it’s the world and it’s physical components that manifest on his page and form the backbone to his imaginative play.

Our children are still young, with a variety of creative paths to pursue, but the personality and creative characteristics that might shape their creative journeys are starting to develop. Always be on the look out for what your child likes to do, and consider ways to nurture their practical skills in the media they use for their creative work. After all, had Steve Jobs and Bill Gates not had the opportunity to pursue their Elements and master their particular domain, our world might be a very different place.

Personally, I hope that Lucas will become a moviemaker at Disney and take Mommy and Daddy to the Oscars, and Liam will become a soccer player and give us VIP tickets to the directors box at Crystal Palace – who said Dads live their lives through their boys???

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We believe the first stage in counteracting the imbalance of creativity verses content, starts at home. Help us share the word on Facebook and Twitter.

Anyone who shares or contributes content via the comments below* will receive a FREE download to Creativity in Education: Exploring the Imbalance.

If you choose to comment via social media be sure to sure to include reference to @dads4creativityor share from our Facebook page. We’ll follow up with details via a private message.

July 13, 2015 3 comments

3 Question Interview Matthew Worwood

Dads for Creativity: 3 Question interview with LEGO ANIMATOR, Alex Kobbs (Stop-Motion Lego Movies)

by Matthew Worwood July 9, 2015

written by Matthew Worwood

Being a Dad comes with a genuine excuse to buy and play Legos, and I can’t wait to turn this into a moviemaking venture with my boys. Alex Kobbs is an animator and filmmaker, who has racked up millions (and I mean MILLIONS) of hits on YouTube for his stop motion Lego movies. Now it’s unlikely that the average parent will achieve the awesomeness of Alex’s work, which include an array of old-school filmmaking and practical effects, but with mobile devices like the iPhone and specific stop-motion apps available – there’s not really much stopping us having a go, and as Alex points out – we’ll likely engage a variety of creative thinking skills along the way.

How did you get into making videos with Lego?

Lego bricks have always seemed to be a part of my life (thanks to my parents) as I was attracted to the Trains, Space, and Pirate themes that reflected my natural childhood interests. I started animating Brickfilms when I was 12 years old after receiving the Lego Stephen Spielberg Movie Maker Set for my birthday.

This was a simple system that I could experiment with and learn the fundamentals of animation. At about the same time, Lego® started manufacturing their Star Wars branded line, and I was immediately hooked.

Where do your story ideas come from and how might parents generate ideas with their kids?

I think parents should go with whatever feels natural to both them and their child concerning story creation. As a kid, I loved to make things up in a spontaneous manner, and I’m not sure that structuring the stories in a storyboard-type way with my parents would have worked. Structure was already abundantly prevalent in school, and I used my animations and Lego bricks to escape that.

I have always had a vivid imagination, and had been acting out my own stories way before I had a digital camera. I can remember one particular instance when I created a story with my Lego bricks over the course of a 3 day period. I remember feeling very disappointed at the end of my imagined adventure because I could never re-tell or share the miniature drama I had brought to life on my bedroom floor. That realization led to my desire to capture the story to enjoy later, and filmmaking is the natural extension of that.

What advice can you offer parents who are looking to make Lego videos with their kids?

The first piece of advice I have for parents trying to create brickfilms with their kids is to allow them to experiment and fail. It’s so easy for us as adults to immediately see what the “right” or “correct” way to do something is because our brains have already developed and we’re drawing on a lifetime of experience. No one wants to see a child founder so our natural instinct is to help them…almost to the point of doing it for them. This may be helpful with other tasks like a golf swing, but creativity is somewhat random and needs room to be spontaneous. Simply forcing or telling the child how to accomplish a task doesn’t allow them to figure out all the nuances associated with that task. This inevitably leads to the “let me do it” line so often repeated by young children…

I think the best way to go about brickfilming with children is to animate along side them at first. So, the parent could animate their own car or character, while the child does their own thing in the same shot. The child will often try to imitate the parent instead of being told what to do. At the end, the comparison is often a sharp contrast and the child will want to replicate and surpass the parent’s efforts. Allowing the child to play “director” also puts them in a position of power and boosts their confidence.

Luckily, due to the democratization of the new technology, there is almost no downside to allowing a child to make as many films as they want!

Alex’s stop motion work can be found on his YouTube channel, www.youtube.com/kooberz. And a tour of the studio that all Dads will want can be seen in the short documentary below.

Alex had a lot more advice to offer in his interview – check out the full interview here.

If you liked this article, check out another DadsforCreativity 3 Question Interview with award winning educator Jonathan Nalder or see ‘Interactive Storytelling with Legos‘.

FREE FILM for parents and educators

We believe the first stage in counteracting the imbalance of creativity verses content, starts at home. Help us share the word on Facebook and Twitter.

Anyone who shares or contributes content via the comments below* will receive a FREE download to Creativity in Education: Exploring the Imbalance.

If you choose to comment via social media be sure to sure to include reference to @dads4creativityor share from our Facebook page. We’ll follow up with details via a private message.

July 9, 2015 3 comments

Matthew Worwood

4 Activities to introduce young children to prototyping

by Matthew Worwood July 5, 2015

written by Matthew Worwood

Have you ever noticed your child create an object with a piece of paper or cardboard? How about the look on their face when they finally get the object to look or cooperate in the way they envisioned? This is your child starting to prototype ideas, and it’s certainly a process that we as parents must celebrate and encourage to promote creativity at home.

A prototype is an early sample of a product that is used to test a new concept or idea. Its process is one of the fundamental principals of design-based thinking, and engages a variety of creative thinking skills along the way. As adults we might lack the creative confidence to bring our ideas to fruition, but as parents we are lucky enough to have our little bundles of joy to help lead the way.

To get started on a design-based activity, I suggest observing any elements of prototyping that already exist in your child’s play. For example, my four year old enjoys prototyping objects that he’s seen on television, like the Tricorder type device in Disney’s Miles of Tomorrow Land, or Princess Sophia’s emulate.

Designs usually become more elaborate after he’s figured out the process, and he will usually expand beyond his original idea.

I noticed that paper, crayons, scissors and glue, usually featured highly in his process, and decided that it would be best to incorporate these elements into our activity. Now any parent looking to introduce the concepts of prototyping to a young child should do so subtly, and avoid forcing any unwanted structure to their play. Instead we should encourage the child to observe each design, and then facilitate questions on how to make improvements. Once the activity is finished we can investigate which design was the best – but keep the focus on the iterations that were made throughout the process (how did we improve this design the second time around). From my first experience I would suggest no more than two to three prototypes, and it’s essential that problems are kept ill-defined – in other words, avoid following instructions and any ‘this is the correct way’ approach to the activity (this quickly defeats the objective of introducing young children to prototyping). If you want to expand the activity in a classroom environment (or with older kids) you might want to snap a few pictures along the way and challenge the child to reflect on the process and create a set of instructions afterwards.

Below is a list of products that I think make for fun design-based activities that can introduce prototyping to young children. Try and avoid the ones that you already know, so that you can increase the opportunity to fail*.

4 Activities to introduce young children to prototyping

Thaumatrope (see video below) – an old fashioned device that demonstrates the theory of Persistence of Vision. Simple to make, and you only need card, crayons, scissors and elastic bands.
Kite (can you design a flying kite beyond the triangular one?) – If you’re a fan of Mary Poppins, be sure you listen to ‘Lets Go Fly a Kite’ as you make.
Sailboat (take a drinks carton and go from there) – Introduce concept of wind power at the same time. This would certainly require water to test each prototype, but has certainly peeked my curiosity.
Paper Plane (which design flies the furtherest?) – Lots of different prototyping opportunities. Might allow for more detailed/advanced tweaking.

* NO PICTURES – JUST GET MAKING. It kind of limits the opportunity to prototype if you look up how to make them. Enjoy the process of discovering from failing!

If you liked this article you might want to read ‘The Role of Trail and Error in Creativity’

This weekend I started off with the Thumatroupe, which I plan to share in another article, but the video below shows our four prototypes.

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We believe the first stage in counteracting the imbalance of creativity verses content, starts at home. Help us share the word on Facebook and Twitter.

Anyone who shares or contributes content via the comments below* will receive a FREE download to Creativity in Education: Exploring the Imbalance.

If you choose to comment via social media be sure to sure to include reference to @dads4creativityor share from our Facebook page. We’ll follow up with details via a private message.

July 5, 2015 3 comments

3 Question Interview Matthew Worwood

3 Mobile Apps for Creativity: Interview with award winning educator Jonathan Nalder

by Matthew Worwood June 30, 2015

written by Matthew Worwood

A few weeks ago I was at the New Media Consortium Summer Conference, meeting great educators from around the world. During a dinner conversation we landed on the subject of Lego and I was lucky enough to make the connection with a fellow Dad from Down Under (Australia). Jonathan Nalder is an award-winning educator who has presented around the world with organizations like Learning Without Frontiers, 21^st Century Learning, Apple, and Ulearn. Much of his current work centers on mobile technology, and I figured he’d make the perfect Dad to connect with on the subject of mobile apps and creativity.

We’ve received requests on what mobile apps are best for young children? What are your three mobile apps for creativity at home or in the classroom?

Minecraft – is far and away one of the most popular apps for 4-10 year olds – because it lets them use their imagination and challenges them to constantly problem solve. Only caution is to manage access to the ‘survival mode’ for younger children as it introduces gameplay elements such as dying, zombies and other such elements.

MyPlayhome – is now a series of apps that allow kids to act out home, shopping and school/ kindy environments. A great one for them to experiment with different situations and to explore the interactive rooms on offer.

PuppetPals – a super simple app for creating animated videos that records a child’s voice and on-screen movements of puppet characters (which can include their own face) to introduce them to digital storytelling.

As a Dad and educator, what type of things can parents do to nurture creative thinking skills at home? Any do or don’ts, which they should consider?

Best thing is to create an environment where it is not only ok to fail, but where failure is just an opportunity to learn. Kids tend to think this way anyway, but as parents we often forget how crucial this phase is and inadvertently communicate different messages about failure such as avoiding taking risks.

What are some of the natural creative characteristics that you’ve experienced with your children*? And in what ways have you attempted to nurture/celebrate these skills?

My children seem to have no fear – they honestly still think they can do almost anything and this can be very inspiring if you spend enough time with them doing projects and making – it really rubs off.

If you’d like to learn more about visit http://JNXYZ.education or download the App here.

As for me, I started to play MineCraft with Lucas this weekend. After one session he already appears comfortable with the controls, but as a four year old he needed some guidance to make his Icy Palace, which is still under construction in the image below (clearly the Frozen obsession is alive and kicking).

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We believe the first stage in counteracting the imbalance of creativity verses content, starts at home. Help us share the word on Facebook and Twitter.

Anyone who shares or contributes content via the comments below* will receive a FREE download to Creativity in Education: Exploring the Imbalance.

If you choose to comment via social media be sure to sure to include reference to @dads4creativity or share from our Facebook page. We’ll follow up with details via a private message.

June 30, 2015 5 comments

Matthew Worwood

Doing a long drive this summer? 5 Creative Thinking games for the car

by Matthew Worwood June 29, 2015

written by Matthew Worwood

I write a lot about the scholar E. Paul Torrance, nicknamed the father of creativity. One of his greatest accomplishments was the identification of a creativity skill set that was used to teach and test for creativity.

The Torrance Tests of Creativity include simple questions that measure creativity skills, for example the ability to produce and consider many alternatives – basically coming up with lots of new ideas. Evidence suggests that the more ideas we can generate, the more likely we are to move past the obvious ones and produce ideas that can be considered creative, or lead to creative outcomes. I try to avoid anything too heavy on this blog, but this is one of the skills that I’ve seen lacking in many high school students.

So as well as a fully charged iPad, you might want to check out some of the creative thinking games listed below. All can be played in the car, and most have been specifically designed to encourage players to produce and consider many alternatives.

How many alternative uses for a bucket? (you could repeat this game with other everyday objects like a bath, brick, or car tire).

The Cloud Game is probably better when stuck in traffic, but it’s basically a challenge to see how many things we can see in the shape of a cloud.

Imagine if we could suddenly fly. How many problems would exist if this scenario suddenly occurred. Another similar type game is to imagine if there were no cars or buses, how many alternative ways could we get to school?

List 15 things that are commonly red or contain red.

And yes you’ve got it – ‘I Spy’. The objective of this game is ‘originality’. Players must come up with ideas that are not obvious and less likely to be guessed by the opposing player.

Two other games that might be a challenge to play in the car but still promote this important creative thinking skill (or characteristic).

30 Circles: Print or draw out a sheet that contains 30 empty circles. Turn as many circles as you can into recognizable drawings in three minutes.

Trace a picture of a child-friendly object such as a truck, house, or animal. Come up with as many labels for the picture as possible.

If you’d like to learn a little more about ‘Fluency’ and ‘Originality’ check out an extract from my documentary ‘Creativity in Education: Exploring the Imbalance’. This scene references a proposed Creativity Crisis in education and how these two skills diminish as we children reach 5^th and 6^th grade.

FREE FILM for parents and educators

You can also view the entire film for free by simply commenting on one of our articles. Anyone who shares or contributes content via the comments below* will receive a FREE download to Creativity in Education: Exploring the Imbalance.

If you choose to comment via social media be sure to sure to include reference to @dads4creativityor share from our Facebook page. We’ll follow up with details via a private message.

Featured Image: (CC BY-NC 2.0)

June 29, 2015 6 comments

Matthew Worwood

Capturing Curiosity: The baby pictures that make me smile

by Matthew Worwood June 25, 2015

written by Matthew Worwood

One morning I was asked to name the one skill or characteristic that I would want my students to master upon graduation. I remember wanting to come up with something different than creativity, and so I started to think about a skill or characteristic that I felt best provoked skills in creative thinking. There were certainly a few ideas that I tossed around in my head, but the one characteristic that I’ve grown to appreciate in all children and students is curiosity. I consider this characteristics to be one of our greatest assets when it comes to producing creative outcomes and believe its something that comes with our natural survive instincts (though I’m sure we’ve all heard the saying ‘curiosity killed the cat’). As young children this characteristics is in abundance, and while it can be entertaining (and sometimes creative), it sometimes gets us into trouble or is a cause of worry and anxiety. Check out the acts of curiosity below and see how many you recognize.

Here Lucas tried to crawl down one of our air vents before getting stuck. I decided to grab the camera before pulling him out.

Lucas trying to crawl down one of the air vents. I don’t know where he thought he was going?

Like his brother, Liam would get stuck in the most usual positions. A few seconds later he started to cry.

Water is one of those worrying situations that we'd prefer to discourage. Here we found Lucas in a bucket of water.

Water is one of those worrying situations that we’d prefer to discourage even though it has it’s funny moments.

Yeah – just annoying. Everyday for a month!

Yeah, this one is Daddy exploring his curiosity. I wanted to see the world through Liam’s eyes.

FREE FILM for parents and educators

We believe the first stage in counteracting the imbalance of creativity verses content, starts at home. Help us share the word on Facebook and Twitter.

Anyone who shares or contributes content* will receive a FREE download to Creativity in Education: Exploring the Imbalance.

Unfortunately, we’re not super sophisticated (or perhaps lack creativity) so in order for us to know that you’ve shared content we need you to tweet to @dads4creativity or share from ourFacebook page. We’ll follow up with details via a private message.

June 25, 2015 0 comment

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