QUESTION: How can I help my children be creative?

ANSWER: Put a potted plant in good soil and in the right kind of sunlight and it will really thrive. Put the same plant in rocks and hide it in the closet and watch what happens.

In “How To Raise A More Creative Child,” authors Larry and Marge Belliston share that while developing their book they got together with several friends to talk about creativity. After they’d discussed ideas for a while, they decided to list all the creative things they’d done while growing up. Collectively, they came up with 100 ideas, all different. The surprise was that 92 of those ideas came from just two people. What made the difference? Environment. Both of those people had had a stimulating environment while they were growing up.

The setting or situation in which a child lives and plays can promote creativity or kill it. Here are some things that we can do to keep the atmosphere open and comfortable for our children:

1. Keep tools available for your child to work with creatively. At your work bench keep a separate set of tools for your daughter or son. Show your children a variety of kitchen utensils and how to use them.

2. Keep materials for creativity available: fasteners, glue, scissors, paper, wheels, popsicle sticks, rubber bands, crayons, paints, chalk. Give children play dough (homemade is great) to model different objects from their imagination. Give your kids toothpicks or twigs and white glue and encourage them to create. The results will be towers, wigwams, houses, bridges, trucks and people.

3. Let your children make tents over furniture with blankets. These become playhouses, school rooms, dog houses and camp tents.

4. Teach kids how to play charades. For small children act out words that describe familiar objects around the house. Teenagers can take on the challenge of books, movies and song titles. (I’ll never forget trying to act out Encyclopedia Britannica, Volume 3; now it would be Google, which might be easier.)

5. Be very intentional about using TV. TV is a passive, not a creative tool. Listen to stories and dramatic programs on tape or the radio. Read out loud to your children. Listening causes your child to participate mentally: It creates images in the mind.

6. Enjoy the less than perfect; in fact, appreciate the attempts and experiences that are much less than perfect. Was it fun? Was it interesting? Was it challenging? If it was, it was worth doing.

If you would like to talk with a parenting specialist about the challenges in child raising, call the toll-free Parent WarmLine at 1-888-584-2204/Línea de Apoyo at 877-434-9528. For free emergency child care call Crisis Nursery at 1-877-434-9599. Check out www.familiesandcommunities.org and the PRC Specialty Library (105 First Street S.E., Austin)