Hi all, 

We all know that creativity is extremely important. How to support your child's creativity? Here are five tips: 

1. Make sure that your kids have unstructured free time every day. The time that you think they are doing nothing and just goofing around? It actually helps them recharge and become more creative! I am also a big advocate for kids to be bored once in a while. According to the Child Mind Institute, boredom can foster creativity and original thinking, if we teach kids how to manage their boredom and turn it into something fun!   
2. Spend more time in mother nature. Touch a pebble. Listen to a tree. Gaze at a star. Watch a hummingbird feeding on flowers. Nature is a source of inspiration. Danish researchers discovered that spending time in nature encourages flexible thinking and enhances curiosity. We all know that nature can help reduce stress and improve mental health; and that nature can boost energy levels and increase brain function. Researchers from the University of Michigan found that students’ memories improved once they spent time in nature.
3. Let them explore topics that they are interested in, be it sports, science, music, food, or art. “What about gaming? The only thing that my child is interested in is video games!” Instead of seeing video games as something to avoid, we may actually learn more about our kids by exploring the video games they are playing. Does your child love Minecraft? Then maybe your child is also interested in architecture. Stardew Valley? They are interested in gardening for sure. We can help them select quality video games, make an agreement, and encourage them to learn about animation, coding and programming, and then write and design their own video games. Video games can also teach children about story structure/plot/dialogues. For budding writers, that's another bonus. 
4. Read, read, read. Let their imagination run wild as they travel to another space or time on the wings of the books. I’ll give a free online parenting workshop on “Guide to Raising Passionate Readers and Writers in the Digital Age.” You may read a description of my past workshop at San Jose public library here. We will send out an update about this year’s workshop soon. Please stay tuned! 
5.  Just do it! Kids get more creative by being creative! This summer, we invite your kids to join our camp to unleash their creative power. Make a comic book and submit to a comic book contest. Create and publish a YouTube Channel or a podcast on a topic that they are interested in. Make a stop-motion animation (with clay) or a short movie with a smartphone and present it at a Youth Film Festival. Write a piece of Science Fiction or Future fiction, and get published on Kindle. Research an AAPI hero or a STEM topic, create and publish an E-book. Visit art museums around the world, and explore how we can use visual art as an inspiration for our creative work!  More classes to come!

April is National Poetry Month! We’ll launch the NextGen Edu Poetry contest. We invite your child (Grades 3-12) to submit 1 original poem to us by 11:59PM PST, 4/30/2022. Winners will be announced at the end of May. Free to enter. 

May the creative force be with you! 

Jiang Pu, Ph.D.

Founder of NextGen Education