Creativity Is a Journey at Story House Putney

The children at Story House Putney love to explore their creative expression through meaningful experiences that are fun, engaging, educational and nurture all aspects of their development. Creativity isn’t limited to artistic endeavours like art, music, craft, writing and drama, and it’s definitely not only about a physical outcome. We can be creative with anything that we do! 

 

Creativity can be defined as the journey through which we use and develop our imaginations, originality, productivity and problem-solving abilities. The same principle applies to creative expression in early childhood learning. Every child has creative potential and every child is capable of expressing that creativity. An interesting perspective on this topic came from the founder of the highly respected Reggio Emilia educational approach to schooling – Loris Malaguzzi, who said that creativity became more visible when adults were more attentive to the cognitive processes of children than they were to the result. Children need encouragement and support to develop their creativity (and by extension, to develop important life skills like self-confidence and relationship building) and the process of creative expression is beneficial to both the child and the educator. 

 

Creative expression provides opportunities for children to try out new ideas, develop their imaginations and problem-solving skills and see what happens as a result of their experimentation. It helps them work out what it is that they love doing best and it teaches them that their abilities and their contributions are highly valued. The creative experience can help young children to express their experiences and emotions through communicative avenues other than verbal. This can help develop self-confidence, communication skills and a sense of identity while helping children to cope with their feelings and also provides opportunities to celebrate a child’s uniqueness, which is an important element of developing a strong sense of self.

 

Creative activities enable children to experiment with thought process, actions and materials and can provide good opportunities for problem solving, collaboration and negotiation – all of which are key skills for life, as they grow older. At Story House Putney, creative learning is encouraged through extended projects which can either develop from children’s ideas and interests or introduced by educators so that the development of ideas, negotiations, conflicts, resolutions and progress can be seen and appreciated and we believe that creative expression equips children to be the best they can be.  

 

‘Our task, regarding creativity, is to help children climb their own mountains, as high as possible, No one can do more.’ -Loris Malaguzzi