Want to help prepare your child for a satisfying future? Support him to tap into his creative side! That’s right, pull out the paint brush, sewing needle, guitar, clay, fabric, pipe cleaners. . . . Exercising the right brain will do wonders for maximizing brain flexibility and adaptability. Plus creating art with your kids is fun and also very “connecting.” And it is perfect for those lazy days at the end of summer that hover toward boring.

When I look back on my education, art is what I remember most fondly: the teepees, the catacombs, a bull-fighting ring, and the life-size, papier-mache lady sitting with a cup of tea. My high school art class was where I could be me, where I could explore and experiment without judgment.

Today, in many schools, the arts and creativity are relegated to the bottom of the education hierarchy–the first to go with budget or time crunches–with math, science, and literacy on top. Of course, these are important. The problem is that all these subjects utilize the left brain, leaving the right brain and the rest of the body in the dust.

Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson, author of Out of Our Minds: Learning to Be Creative (2011), says, “schools are killing our kids’ creativity.”

Sir Ken Robinson champions radical rethinking of our school systems to cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence. And he has good reason. Our world is rapidly changing, and companies must adapt fast with new products and services. IBM surveyed 3,000 CEOs about challenges facing today’s businesses. Promoting creativity topped the survey as the major priority for CEOs.

Who knows exactly what skills your kindergartner will need in 25 years? All we know for sure is, he/she will need to be creative and rapidly adaptable to thrive–at home, at school, and in the workplace. You can make a difference by making creativity a priority in your family, so your child practices accessing the right brain as often as the left. We must educate our children’s whole being for the future they face.

My favorite “Sir Ken” story is of a fidgety, “underperforming” eight-year-old. When Gillian visited a physician on the recommendation of administrators who planned to move her to Special Education classes, the physician asked to talk privately to her mom, turned on the radio, and left Gillian alone. Peeking in the room, the physician and her mom saw Gillian dancing. The physician prescribed, “Send her to dancing school,” and the rest is history. The girl, Gillian Lynne, went on to dance professionally and choreograph world-renowned musicals such as Phantom of the Opera and Cats. Today, this same girl would probably be put on Ritalin and told to “stuff” her desire to move.

One of the best ways to practice and strengthen our “innovative, creative muscle” is to spend time doing art. Being flexible and “going with the flow” is the only way art works. In The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections, Amanda Blake Soule not only shares many wonderful projects, but she also showcases the power of family art: Creativity in your everyday home life can be the gravitational field that pulls your family inward and closer. Think how fun and connecting a family drawing time would be or a family puppet show or a family hoe-down with everyone playing musical instruments, singing, and dancing! Creative living and the arts also can connect us to others, locally and globally. Riverdale teacher Debbie Gorenstein’s third graders participate in the Zimbabwean Artist Project, writing and illustrating stories in the African tradition. Their art is hung in a gallery side-by-side with illustrated stories from Zimbabwean women who sell their artwork as a major source of income.

Some of my favorite project ideas from The Creative Family include:

• Banging Wall: Hang a clothesline and hang pots from it. Give each child a wooden spoon.
• Homemade Book: Kids write and illustrate a story on 8 ½” x 11” paper folded in half. Poke two holes in seam and tie with dental floss. Make a cardboard cover with contact paper. Glue first and last page to hold book in place.
• Fairy Furniture: Go for a walk, gather natural items, and, with a glue gun, make chairs, beds, houses, forts…
• Making pants or shorts for your kids from Dad’s old shirts is “connecting” every day they wear them.
• Gather fabric of all sizes, textures, and colors. Your kids will invent with it for years to come.

I actually was inspired by Soule’s suggestions and just took my first process painting class. This art method was invented by Michele Cassou, author of Kids Play: Igniting Children’s Creativity, as a way of unblocking the creative potential. The basic tenants of the method are to remove judgment, be in the moment, and be unattached to the outcome. No one comments on anyone’s painting (like yoga or meditation or stream-of-consciousness writing), allowing each of us to tap into our own deeper, intuitive knowing.

So I pretended I was six years old, got a fat paintbrush, picked a color, and started brushing away without a plan or a critic. It was fun and rewarding. The big lesson for parents here is to find an artistic outlet to practice being free and creative, and for removing the critics and the rules that get in our children’s way of doing ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. It is in this place of freedom that we and our children can feel fully alive and let our imaginations soar.

With admiration for all you do,

Dr. Kathy

P.S. My art coach, Kris Bally, will share the process painting method with Portland parents this fall. Check out our Portland Happenings for dates and times. Or, find a process painting class in your community.