Advertising can be creative too

I work in advertising and it is not unusual for me to be working on campaigns at home with the kids around. But while I was working the other day my daughter Chloe announced that she had some great ideas for a campaign herself.

Apparently, she had started her own little ‘pop-up’ agency for the day with her sister and a friend and she wanted to share some of the ideas they had to sell - everything from coffee to cars.

There was a great campaign with Rapunzel for a hair care brand, something else with a monster for a snack product. And to be honest, they weren’t that bad (further proof that advertising is an industry for kids and people who don’t want to grow up).

It struck me then that sometimes we just say ‘why don’t you draw something?’ to our kids rather than explore other facets to creativity. I decided that it would be cool to teach them about ‘purposeful creativity’ - bringing ideas and images to bear for a reason, like selling and communicating rather than simply using creativity to express themselves.

They have fun and learn about the power of creativity to get results.

Activity: Get your kids to be an ad agency for the afternoon – give them products to advertise and see what they think is important, and funny!

Image via Pinterest

Composer corner

I have many memories of my sister as a child, sitting in our backyard, singing for hours and hours to her heart's content. Music is such a beautiful way for children to express themselves and there is also the possibility of it enhancing children’s learning (just think of the Mozart Effect). 

There are many ways to introduce music into your child’s world, one quick and easy way is to create instruments out of pots and pans. Maybe you can set up a corner where your child can create their own melodies. How about recording his/her songs or giving a concert for the family? Even the youngest child can compose music. 

However you go about it, music is a wonderful way to enrich children’s lives and if they’re like my sister can lead to an incredible talent.

Activity: Ask the music lover in your family to make up a song or a tune. Maybe his/her sibling can write some words to go with the notes or back them up on the pots and pans.

Image via Pinterest

Word play

Playing with the dictionary. That has to be the most boring family pastime imaginable, right?

Maybe not. Not if the game is played with creativity rather than 'elucidation' as the purpose.

We used to go through the dictionary to find the most obscure words we could find, then we would invent meanings for the word. Crazy, weird, funny and sometimes plausible meanings.

Best meaning wins, right or not.

Activity: Make fun of the dictionary.

Image via Pinterest

Draw your conversations

Have you ever played Pictionary, you know that game where you have to communicate a word with your team mate through drawings? Well, it is a personal favourite of mine. Every summer holidays I would badger my family to play with me. I loved it, and it turns out that communicating through drawings is a brilliant way to nurture your children's ability to express themselves. You don't, however, need the board game. All you need is some paper, all sorts of drawing materials and a little bit of imagination.

Activity: Take a large sheet of paper or other material to draw on, some pencils, markers, crayons or chalk and have a “conversation” with your child. The catch: You can’t talk or write words, you have to draw what you want to say. This might even turn into an ongoing visual dialogue or a pictorial story lasting several days. Ask everyone in the family to join in.

Image via pinterest

Creative bodies

My kids are not that interested in exercise. Matter of fact, I'm not that into it myself. So much exercise is boring, repetitive, hard work. Clearly it doesn't have to be that way. Being a bit creative with exercise makes it endless fun rather than endless pain.

To be honest, play is my favourite kind of creativity - I love the crazy games and challenges my kids will set me if I take the time to play at exercise with them.  The walk that turns into a fantasy adventure is my favourite. We ambush each other, we take each other prisoner, we attack forts and trap dangerous beasts. It's all in the mind, but while we are at it we exercise our heads off.

Activity: Take a crazy, themed adventure walk in the bush somewhere.

Image via ABAD Hotels

Gardening Fun

Having fun in the garden goes beyond digging in the ground. I remember getting home from school on many an occasion to find my mum up to her armpits in soil and lawn clippings. She loved, and still does spending time creating in her garden. To encourage me to get involved in the garden, mum made my own little corner where I could plant whatever my heart desired. I personalised this little patch, planted the strangest combinations of flowers, made a painted flag out of an old white sheet to brand my little patch. 'Emma’s Garden' – not the most original of names I confess. Regardless, it was hours of fun for me, and an opportunity to get really imaginative.

Activity: Create a small area in your garden purely for your kids to decorate and plan. 

Image via Pinterest

A more creative happy birthday

Kids birthday parties. We have to do them. And boy do they cost.

Image via Rockscissorpaper

Dance like no one is watching

I still have amazing memories of ballet class. At the end of the lesson our teacher would play a piece of beautiful music. We would leap and dance around, dance anyway we wanted. Anything was possible.

Along with improving children's physical and psychological wellbeing, creative dance for small children approaches many ways of learning. Dance uses rhythm, honing children's aural skills, and giving them a chance to approach conceptual ideas through their bodies. 

Activity idea: Turn the music up loud and dance like no one's watching.

Image via Flickr

Eat creatively

Creativity. It can be an activity for a rainy day or it can be a way of life. 

If you are serious about creativity and the richness it can bring, then bring creativity to every decision, including dinner. 
For me, creativity requires an openness to different. Different ideas, different experiences, different combinations, and yes, different meals.
Meal times provide endless opportunities for experimentation and exploration. Sadly most households rotate around no more than five core dishes. Hardly the foundations of an intrepid culinary explorer...

You don't have to be a master chef, you don't have to cook, you just have to expose kids to variety and to the unexpected. The more they do it, the more they crave it, and the more you have created an open minded, inquisitive little human.

Activity: add a different, new, interesting food to try every week. They don't have to eat it.  But they have to try.

Image via Open Ideo

India and her teddy fly through the sky

The very cute India and her teddy were so inspired by our 'What's in a box' blog from a few weeks ago that they decided to create their very own aeroplane from a cardboard box at home. India I can just imagine you up in the sky flying around with ted!

Special thanks to mum Sophie for sharing.

xx