Play and Grow Smart-er Tips

Nancy Pyne-Hapke, author of "Play and Grow Smart, A Guide Supporting Brain Development, Birth through Five," has been giving tips to aid your child's optimum skill development through proactive neuroscience-based activities. These ideas come from scholarly sources to personal interviews, from the internet to periodicals to books.
“CREATIVITY” involves imagination, ingenuity, invention/originality, creative thinking, dramatic/visual/musical arts.THE CRITICAL WINDOWS during which the circuits of the brain are being most heavily wired for Creativity is 1 – 4 years with lifelong expression. The more opportunity children have to experience healthy, positive and nurturing Creativity experiences during this critical period, the more efficiently their brains will work over the long run.
A FEW DEVELOPMENTAL LEARNING TOOLS (toys and other objects) for CREATIVITY: • blocks • dolls and stuffed animals • books • sandbox • water • costumes and props • play figures • child-sized dishes and tools • art materials • construction sets • music and instruments
Forms of creativity: ART (visual), LANGUAGE (written or spoken), MUSIC/MOVEMENT (bodily movement), FANTASY (pretending).Some general Creativity: LANGUAGE tidbits:
•• FROM ABOUT 5, Kindergartener is a good story teller, enjoying making books of his stories. He draws pictures to go along with his words, and he likes explaining the pictures he’s created. (Don’t say: “What’s that?” Do say: “Tell me about your picture.”)
•• ADD DRAMA to your daily reading sessions by using different voices for different characters. Ask her to tell the story and imitate your voice.•• ENCOURAGE INTEREST in jokes, nonsense and riddles by reading humorous stories, riddles and nonsense rhymes. Join him in jokes from school, books, TV and movies.
•• READ BOOKS which introduce beginning notions of teamwork, cooperation, communication and self-esteem to help develop empathy and understand social roles.
Next week – “Creativity: Music/Movement, Pt. 1”
?’s – email msmarm@roadrunner.com