Encourage Creativity In Your Kids
*This post has been sponsored by Mixbook. As always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” -Maya Angelou
I am so grateful to have grown up in a creative home. While I’m sure my parents noticed creativity in me from an early age, I also know that they made it a priority for me too. I did dance lessons, art lessons and music lessons most of my childhood and now, looking back, realize those had a big impact on my confidence, skills and creativity.
June is only four, and Sunny not even 18 months, but I still make it a priority to find ways for them to be creative even at a young age! We paint, color, draw, make music, play in the garden and go on nature scavenger hunts, just to name a few things. Recently though, June has been very into photography (probably because she sees me do it all day), and will ask for my phone so she can take a photo of something she’s set up — usually her stuffed animals all in a row.
Thanks to the wonderful people at Mixbook, I decided to let June help out with a project for her very own room using Mixbook’s canvas prints. Take a few minutes to watch the video where we surprised her by making a little photo studio in our dining room to take photos of her favorite stuffed animals, and then printed them for her room!
T.J. picked up two pieces of white poster board which we used as our little “photo studio background.” I asked June to set up her animals on the paper, and then with a little of my help on the camera setting side, she took photos with my phone and my big camera. She was so excited about it and took like 100 photos in 14 minutes.
I picked my four favorite images and made them into custom canvas prints. When they arrived in the mail June couldn’t believe those were the very same images she’d taken on my camera the week before!
I decided to hang them in the corner of her room near her little kitchen, down on her level so she could see them easily. After I’d hung them up, I asked June to stand in the corner for a photo and play with her kitchen. After swirling around for a few seconds, opening and closing doors, and slamming the microwave shut, she struck THIS POSE — to which I said, “Are you acting like me in the kitchen? Is that what I look like?”, and she said “YEP.” I just about died laughing. Apparently I move really quickly in the kitchen! (But of course I do June, because you’re always yelling about how hungry you are!!! )
I hope you’ll find ways to encourage creativity in your kids. Whether that’s painting, color, music, photography — anything! And then if you can, document it using any of Mixbook’s wonderful home decor products. (Like, how cute would it be to get one of your kids paintings turned into a giant canvas for your living room!!)