by Ryan Chadwick Candle, shelf, license, tornado.  Believe it or not, a bunch of random words like these could have a huge impact on your child's future.  More on that later.  Creative thinking.  It is difficult to define, near impossible to measure, yet it is possibly the most important asset your kids can have.

Sometimes when I talk about making our kids more creative thinkers it conjures up images of artists struggling in poverty for their passion.  I associate creative thinking with innovative go-getters who can solve any problem they face and take advantage of every possibility that comes their way.

I am passionate and excited about creativity and fostering creative thinking in as many people as I can.  I strongly believe that creative thinking is going to become one of the most valuable assets in our society and will play a key role in overcoming many of the problems future generations will face.  Luckily it is something you can develop.

There are many ways in which you can encourage and develop creative thinking.  Today we'll look at a few to get you started.

One of the best things you can do is to encourage your kids to be curious.  Engage in discussions with your kids on various topics (recent experiences, things they like, major events) and ask probing questions.

Here is a basic outline of questions to get you started:

•    What worked or was good or enjoyable?
•    Why was it so?
•    What didn't work or was not good or enjoyable?
•    Why was it so?
•    What are three things we could change to make it better?
•    What do we mean by better in this particular case?

We tend to see the world through a narrow field of view (e.g. we only see the positive aspects of things we like and only the negative aspects of things we dislike etc). Discussions like this will encourage your kids to see the world in vivid detail and to appreciate that we can always create alternatives.  There are always possibilities and it is fun to explore them.

The next thing you can do is play creativity building games.

These are awesome as they are simple,  quick and fun.  You can use them to fill in time in a variety of situations such as:

•    in the car
•    waiting for an appointment
•    looking for something to do on a rainy day
•    etc

Let's look at an example.  You'll remember those four words at the beginning of the article (Candle, shelf, license, tornado if you've forgotten).

In how many different ways can you pick the odd word out?

You could say that tornado is the odd word out as it is the only one not man made.  Or you could say that license is the odd one out as it is the only one that implies achievement. Etc. As you can see, there are no incorrect answers and many, many correct answers.  The more creative you are the more you can find.

Another game might be to use the words as inspiration.  For each word use it to complete the following sentence:

Life is like a <insert word here> <insert reason here>.

Eg.  You may say that life is like a shelf.  If you take on too much you'll collapse.

This game is good as you can substitute life for any other topic such as school, your favourite sport etc. It can be a fun way to learn to look at things from many angles.

You can find more examples of these games at the following website (http://creativitygames.net). A new game is added weekly.  You will also find a random word generator there which is useful for creating sets of words to play with.  If you are not near a computer at the time you can easily make up your own sets of words based on what you can see around you.

It is never too late to improve your creativity, it is a lot of fun and it will lead to unlimited possibilities.  Encourage your kids to be curious,  pair that with the desire to explore and the confidence to make mistakes and learn from them and they will be well on their way to a bright, creative future.

About the Author

Ryan Chadwick is a Creativity Consultant and is passionate about bringing out the creative ability of as many people as he can.  He is the founder of CreativityGames.net, a resource providing games, challenges and resources to encourage everyone to be more creative.  It is based on his experience teaching at University of Technology, Sydney and working in the Department of Eduction and Training NSW.  Ryan is happy to answer any queries you may have regarding your kids creativity and can be contacted at ryan@creativitygames.net

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