Ways to ignite creativity
Susan Anable, education director at the Dayton Art Institute, and Arlene Branick, an educator at the DAI’s Experiencenter, offer several ways parents can help children exercise their creative sides during the summer:
Take your children (any age) to the museum and follow their lead. What interests them? Go at their pace and discover art together. Limit your visit. You’ll enjoy it more by looking at only a few objects.
Provide inexpensive and simple materials with which your child can work. Paper, pencils and crayons can provide hours of creative exploration. And you would be surprised how creative a child can be with the objects in your recycling bin and junk drawer.
Provide plenty of opportunities for creative thinking. For example, allow your child to participate in problem-solving, ask them what they think, encourage and model creativity.
Remember that less is usually more. A few key items can actually promote creativity. For example, letting kids create their own “hideout” or “club house” from a large cardboard box as opposed to buying one requires collaboration, innovation and problem-solving on the part of the children.
Here are some local museums that offer creative programming for kids throughout the summer months:
The Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, 2600 DeWeese Parkway, Dayton; www.boonshoftmuseum.org; (937) 275-7431.
The Dayton Art Institute Experiencenter, 456 Belmonte Park North, Dayton; www.daytonartinstitute.org; (937) 223-5277.
The K12 Gallery for Young People, 510 E. Third St., Dayton; www.k12gallery.org; (937) 461-5149.
The National Museum of the United States Air Force, 1100 Spaatz St., Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Fairborn; www.nationalmuseum.af.mil; call (937) 255-4646, (937) 255-4652 or (937) 255-4666 or email nationalmuseum.education@wpafb.af.mil.
The dog-day afternoons of Ohio summer are filled with children eager for new things to do — and their parents scrambling for ideas to keep them busy.
The giddy energy that marked the end of the school year has waned and, not surprisingly, general ennui has set in, challenging the most ingenious of parents and caregivers to come up with ways to keep their charges entertained.
How about tapping into the wellspring of creativity that children naturally possess? It might be the best way to minimize the so-called summer slide, during which kids lose some of their academic skills during vacation months, and help muffle the often-heard complaint: “I’m bored.”
“I think that children have a bottomless well of creative potential — they want to learn and make and do,” said Margaret Peot, the author of “Inkblot: Drip, Splat and Squish Your Way to Creativity.”
“What we can do as parents to make it easy for them is have art and building materials at hand, easily accessible. And if we ourselves are happily engaged in making things, they will see that and imitate it.”
Margaret Peot’s parents, Hans and Kathleen Peot of New Carlisle, instilled in their daughter a sense of adventure, inspiring her to become a writer, printmaker and painter.
“I made things with them. I cooked next to my mother, and worked outside with my father,” said Peot, who was born in Dayton and attended Miami University.
“When I wanted to make dollhouse furniture, my father set up an electric jigsaw and showed me how to use it. My mother taught me to crochet and sew. When I wanted to make something, if it was possible, they showed me how or we got books from the library.”
It’s an imaginative approach to child rearing that Peot’s applies to her own son, Sam, 9.
“I got a rolling plastic drawer system for my son’s room, and filled it with art-making stuff — construction paper, crayons, wooden doodads and pipe cleaners,” said Peot, who lives in New York City with Sam and her husband, Daniel. “We call it the Tower of Power.”
Get artsy
Museums and art galleries are natural venues that will stoke the imaginations of children.
The Dayton Art Institute’s Experiencenter is geared toward young minds, and its “Trash? Look Again” exhibit features art made from found objects and recycled materials.
The exhibit also contains hands-on activities that allow visitors to explore art and its relationship to conserving the earth’s resources.
The Art Place for Young Learners, also located in the Experiencenter, is a learning space for 3- to 6-year-olds that supports the growth and development of young minds through creative play and problem-solving activities.
In addition, the DAI offers weeklong summer art camps for prekindergarteners through ninth-graders. Costs range from $80 to $145 for members and $100 to $165 for nonmembers.
Scientific minds
At the Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, the Summer Discovery Camps, which offer more than 20 electives, are designed to nurture creativity, teamwork and kids’ interest in science. Susan Pion, vice president of education and exhibit initiatives, said that museum has had near-record attendance for its classes this summer. “Our focus is educational, and the children love the hands-on experience,” she said.
The half-day camps cost $85 for nonmembers and $80 for members. The full-day camps cost $149 for nonmembers and $139 for members.
If your child is crazy about airplanes, then definitely make the National Museum of the United States Air Force a launching pad for summer learning. In addition to displays of more than 360 aircraft and missles, the museum offers aerospace-themed camps during the summer.
During the “High Flying Adventure!” camp from 9 a.m. to noon Aug. 1-5, children who have finished second through third grades will examine flight through a series of aviation-oriented books and a variety of hands-on activities. Cost is $35 per camper.
Bring the art class home
And you can always take a cue from Peot’s book to help your child create a masterpiece at home and tap into his or her right, or creative, intuitive brain.
In her book, which was released this spring, Peot shows readers how to create traditional single-fold and multi-fold ink blots. She then encourages artists to embellish their works with line and colored pencils, creating inkblot planets, landscapes, butterflies, spaceships and other images.
In Peot’s mind, inkblots are tools for overcoming creative blocks, inspiring ideas and opening new avenues to creative expression.
And, historically, some of the greatest creative spirits in the world have found inspiration in abstract patterns.
Leonado da Vinci saw landscapes and battles in the swirl of marble walls, according to Peot, and novelist Victor Hugo splashed wine and coffee on paper and discovered castles and monsters in the splatters.. Who knows what tableaux your child will discover this summer?
Contact this writer at (937) 225-0671 or rmcmacken@daytondailynews.com.
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