Children enter this world as a "blank slate" from their parents' perspective. Everyday life experiences have a major impact on their growth. Hundreds of studies prove a child's first five years are critical in their development. Anyone who has watched a two-year-old play with blocks or Legos knows what creating something looks like. Children love building things that soon get large or taking a structure apart and reorganizing the pieces into something new. Legos are no longer just for young children. They are advertised for older children, teenagers, and adults. The new sets available are intricate enough for the whole family to get on the floor or around a table and create an entire city or maybe a new solar system. Lego Clubs in schools lead to local, state, and national competitions.

Artists begin creating when quite young and continue their development into adulthood. Exposure to different media allows children to practice with all sorts of objects in their world. Parents or grandparents can assemble an Art Bag with items from around the house—such as colored paper, age-appropriate scissors, glue sticks, tape, buttons, colored pencils, crayons, empty paper towel rolls, ribbon, aluminum foil, and cardboard. Renoir and Picasso had to start somewhere. Why not at your kitchen table? I know a woman in our community who makes beautiful "Yard Art" from discarded plastic tops of various sizes and colors. The designs are lovely in the yard and recycle items that don't need to go into our city landfills.

Cooking is a way to teach children creativity. Most adults learned to cook from a parent or grandparent who took the time to put them in a chair next to the kitchen counter. There they learned to read a recipe, gather and mix ingredients, safely use a stove, and proudly serve their creation to the family. It takes patience, but cooking fosters self-sufficiency and is a skill they will use for the rest of their lives.

Gardening can be done with children of all ages. In the spring, they can have fun cleaning and weeding flowerbeds and preparing vegetable gardens. Give them their own small, inexpensive tools to keep in a special place in the garage after a "day's work." Let each child be responsible for a small section of the flowerbed or garden. Like adults, children like to see results. You might have the child make a simple graph for checking their plants each week on the same day and measuring any growth and whether it has had rain that week. If you don't have a yard, you could plant your favorite flower or a tomato plant in a flowerpot on your patio or next to your front door. Imagine the sense of accomplishment when the family eats the first vegetables out of their own garden.  

It is time to get busy creating in your own way. Provide opportunities for children and teenagers to make choices and follow their creative instincts. The world will be a better place!