How do I deal with a creative child?

[Mercy]

My dd is 6 and I'm finding it hard to channel her creativity.

I don't want to stifle it in any way but equally it can be annoying; it is constant and very messy!

I'd be grateful for any suggestions for new activities as well.

[spudmasher]

DD2 is the same. My house is forever covered in bits of paper, sellotape, paint etc.
I am training her to tidy up after herself and just enjoying watching her make all her lovely things.

DD2 just follows her own whims when creating...sometimes I will give her some new materials -willow withies went down well recently- but other than that I let her do what she wants. She gets lots of direction at school and just enjoys doing her own thing at home.

[Mercy]

Glad I'm not the only one spudmasher!

My dd also prefers to choose her own activities tbh. Unfortunately it gets out of hand sometimes; she has so much 'stuff' in her room and in the kitchen.

How old is your dd? Does she have a favourite activity?

[Bink]

What does she like doing? - or is it just everything?

My dd (who's 6 as well)'s favourite stash is just paper (origami paper specially good - nice crisp weight and lovely colours) scissors and sellotape. She makes Things - eg an entire theatre with a mother cat introducing her troupe of performing kittens - & I think the versatility of paper and sellotape means she feels no limits. (And no paint means not quite so much mess ... just little wisps of paper, which are easy to clear up.)

She loves Hama beads too - not messy at all.

[Mercy]

Wow, Bink, that's impressive!

dd really likes collage, cutting and colouring, making cards, modelling clay etc in preference to painting/drawing pictures. She is particularly keen on anything to do with colours; she has little collections of assorted pink objects, red objects etc.

But where I get a bit annoyed is when she thing such as painting the parsley plant in the garden a different colour because she prefers purple to green. Or rearranging the flowers in a vase to her own design, or cutting things out of magazines, catalogues etc before we've finshed with them.

She is always doing something!

[Bink]

I love the parsley plant picture ... !

A very simple thing we do, which both satisfies the colour-love and helps with tidying, is keep crayons in pots (there's a kind of retro yoghurt they sell at my work which comes in terracotta pots which I can't bear to throw away, so I use those) co-ordinated by colour. So we have a pot of blues, a pot of greens, a pot of pinks, purples & reds, one of yellows & oranges, one of browns, greys, black & white (plus silver & gold). It looks so pretty, you'd never guess it was all about desperately keeping a lid on chaos.

[spudmasher]

LOL Mercy! Your house sounds like mine!!
DD2 has covered her whole bedroom window with her wierd creations- paper animals, flowers, maps, lists etc. Hardly any light gets in there now and it looks awful from the outside but I just tell her how lovely all her things are!
She gets VERY upset if I move them and God help you if you break anything she has made!!

[hana]

does she have a space where she can access things herself without you having to get things out or down? Maybe give her her own cupboard in a corner somewhere that is just for her that she has to keep semi tidy?

[Mercy]

Great ideas hana and bink, thank you!

I'll have to wait until after half-term to re-organise things I think.

Spudmasher, yes I have to be careful about moving things or - shock horror - secretly disposing of various bits and pieces!

I agree it is lovely in many ways but it can be hard at times. She is drama queen personified tbh. I'm not sure whether dd has any particular talent but she is certainly very devoted her work!

[hana]

my 5 year old is very similar - we have lots of shoeboxes full of her little trinkets she has made, and collages and little notes, origami things - all sorts of treasures to her but junk to us. She does know we can't keep everything, but we've got some new cupboards downstairs and she was so thrilled at getting 2 shelves for her stuff, she had a fab time sorting things all out

[southeastastra]

aw cute! in the summer get a great big roll of paper and let her loose with the paints! (in the garden)

[SugaryBits]

Would you let her loose with chalks in the back garden? She could decorate the path/patio and it will all wash off in the rain!

[spudmasher]

Hana we have the shoeboxes too! She has to clear them out once in a while.

Don't forget good old playdough Mercy. We have just spent a very productive wet afternoon with some homemade stuff.

Now, where shall I store the blue pelican??

[janeite]

Might it be worth seeing if anywhere local to you does some sort of craft class? Mine have done cushion making, mask making etc in the holidays and dd2 now does an art class every weekend. She loves it and somebody else tidies up the mess!!

[harrisey]

My 7yo d1 is like this. I have found an old fashioned paintbox is good as the paint dries quicker and you dont end up with loads of pots etc ful of half dried paint.
Second the scissors/sellotape/paper route, and we kep old magazines etc in a box for her to cut up adn use (ds takes them out and draws eyes on all the cars a la lightning mcQuen!).

SHe has her own 'craftbox' with sequins, glitter, ribbons etc which I keep on a shelf in my wardrobe so I can ration it - quite dear! and keep small dd2's hands out of it.

Currently she liks making books - cuting out or drawing a picture, sticking it in folded paper (often several sheets) and lacing the pages together with ribbon and writing a story.

We have recently introduced cross stitch and she is learning to knit.

Have you tried channeling the creativity into music/dance etc - my dd is also musically very good and loves making up songs, she also does puppet shows for us and makes up little plays.

Nice to hear of other arty kids - dd has 2 framed pics up in our house and one in the school foyer which we are very proud of.