This flower activity nurtures child creative development by helping you identify your child’s interests. You can then create an action plan of how to invest time and creativity to support and provide opportunity for effective communication with your child/ren. Do not set goals that are unachievable due to guilt!
Parent and child can do this together or a parent can do it on their own. Use the flower template (or copy it) then use arts, crafts, pictures etc. to identify your child’s interests and enthusiasms.
Middle of Flower
Write down what your child enjoys or what they like to do in their spare time.
Petals
Think about how you as a parent can invest time with your children by joining in or being interested in what they like and making the most of time spent together. In each petal, write an idea of how you can achieve this. For example if the child has written baking as an interest, in each petal think of the times you have available to you such as bathtime, the ten minutes before bed, or any short period of time during the day. The petals are about breaking down expectations into manageable, bite-size pieces. In one petal you could write to make an effort to talk about what they like to eat, make, their favourite recipe book etc (15 minutes). In another could be written to google recipes with the child and find one that is doable to make (20 minutes). In another you could write a list of the ingredients needed to bake (keep it simple!), and in another find a time to actually make it.
Leaves
The leaves are for actions for parents: what needs to change, if anything? This could be something as simple as being aware of your own expectations, being patient with your child and not expecting too much, and if there is a time when it’s not working that it’s ok; try again another time. You may want to write about being more aware of your own anxieties, such as the child making a mess in messy play, and then learning not to project these onto your child. Maybe it could be learning to accept that being a ‘good enough’ parent is enough!
Breaking it down in this way can really help when you’re trying to be interested in a subject that may hold no interest for you at all. It’s amazing what children will come up with when they are given a platform to share, and they also really enjoy and get a boost from teaching you something new. The time limits help to keep it real and manageable.
Download and print the flower below
Enjoyed reading about child creative development? Find more resources for parents and children here.
