​Just as with all content learning, everyone learn best with hands-on experiences. Social and emotional learning is no different.

Make decisions. Feel confident in your ability to choose. There are no rules for creative expression so paint the clouds green and the sun purple. It's your creation and your decision!

The process is more important than the result. The process of building a toy box for all your pet's toys is more important than what you actually make. What you learn and discover about yourself is vital to your development.

We're sure your adults will support the creative process by appreciating and offering support for your efforts.  Independence and control are important components in the creative process. This is especially true when you have anxiety!

Start with activities that are based on your interests and ideas.
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• Building games- Building (puzzles, blocks, legos, furniture, clothing, forts, Minecraft, etc) games have many mental challenges like measurement, equality, balance, shape, spatial relationships and physical properties.

 

• Characters-One of the strongest benefits of characters is the way it helps social development. Characters help you experiment with and understand social roles. Through acting out, creating, or just simply watching and observing characters, you learn to take others' needs into account, and appreciate different values and perspectives.

 

• Artistic activities- The four major art forms--music, visual arts, dance, and theater—have unique ways of engaging individuals and developing many social-emotional skills. While each art form has its own characteristics, elements, and mediums, they all share the ability to promote such skills as self-expression, empathy, collaboration, and resilience, to name a few.

 

• Physical activities- Play is open-ended, free-form and children have the freedom to try out new ideas as well as build on and experiment with the old. Go outside! The benefits of nature are endless. Because nature is ever changing, it provides countless opportunities for discovery, creativity, and problem solving. The natural world inspires us to think, question, make suppositions, and develop creative minds. 

 

• Collaborative activities- Working with someone on any of these things allows for a different creative experience. When you work as a team, the process will require working together and finding ways to complete the project that you might not create on your own. Sometimes this is much better! ​

Creativity isn't just for developing skills you need to be a creative problem solver or just to manage anxiety or just for self expression.

It's all of those things, but it's also a great way to Find Your Spark. 

You might not remember being a toddler and refusing to eat things (your adult sure does). Maybe you still don't like to try new foods. 

Being creative in the kitchen is a huge part of finding foods you didn't know you love.

Being creative and trying new things is a great way to Find Your Spark. The thing that gets you out of bed or gives you butterflies because you're so excited to just do it.

Varieties of Experience

Look for multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and other community experiences. The more varied experiences you have in your life, the wider the range of creative expression. The more personal experiences you have with people and situations outside of their own environment, the more material they can draw on to incorporate in their play. Our challenge is to try not to be intimidated by the variety and diversity of artistic expression.

Creative play is when you use familiar materials in a new or unusual way, and when you engage in role-playing and imaginative play. Nothing reinforces the creative spirit and nourishes a your soul more than large blocks of time to engage in spontaneous, self-directed play throughout the day.