Creation Station: Encouraging Creative Play

I love learning.  About everything.  Really!  Reading, watching videos, learning, and sharing my learning is one of my favorite hobbies.  Somewhere along the lines of my own journey, a love for learning was instilled in me and has stuck.  My hope is that my children grow up in an environment in which creativity, play, and a love for learning are all embraced.  

My four-year-old and three-year-old are full of life, energetic, and so excited to learn.  To embrace this and to encourage them to continue to grow and build this excitement, we dedicate a part of our day every day to "Creation Station".  

Some days Creation Station is an organized craft.  Other days, we're making music, treasure chests, or painting with pudding.  On this day, I gave the kids a bunch of pieces of paper and told them to create a picture.  C chose to create a rocket ship with fire that he wanted to send to one of his friends.  B-nut decided that cutting was much more fun and she decided to try to glue pieces of her cut paper to her face.  But, that's all in being creative and a toddler :)

Other days, we spend time outside creating obstacle courses.  This was so much fun!  The kids had a blast doing the obstacle course probably 20 times, and by the time nap time hit, the kids were ready for some rest.  Mom win!  To set it up, we drew some x's on the ground to jump to, drew a squiggle line to follow, built a balance beam and a jump over obstacle using some buckets and boards we found in the shed, and added our scooter.  It was a fun, easy, and exciting way to get outside and play!

So I encourage you today- allow your kids to get creative.  After all, creativity is what we need in order to find the cures for diseases, invent the newest gadgets, and create solutions to world problems.  Too much structure and direction can stifle that creative brain that each child is born with, limiting their potential and shaping them to be something different than who they were designed to be.  Let's focus on embracing the beauty of creativity and allowing our children to play!