Dear all,

As parents, we know that many of our readers like to take the opportunity of Christmas to help our children learn about the importance of giving.

So we were excited by the ideas we found on this lovely website where you can create personalized Jigsaw Puzzles from your own photos .

On this site, you and the kids can upload your own pictures and design a photo jigsaw. For creative kids, you can even work with them to design a picture collage and turn that into a jigsaw. This idea makes a fantastic gift idea for grandparents and other relatives. And your children will enjoy putting a special effort in to create a truly unique gift!

Kids Crafts and Creativity

Making simple kids crafts is a wonderful experience for children to develop their creativity.

You can encourage your child and enrich the experience for him by talking with him about his creations. As a bonus, this will also expand his language skills and his confidence in expressing himself.

Rather than simply reacting with an automatic "That's very good," when your child shows you a drawing or a piece or art, try to engage your child in more meaningful conversation. Artist expression is a form of EMOTIONAL expression, and your child may want to talk about how he feels about his creation. Sometimes art can be an expression of frustration or anger, and this is a good and appropriate way to express difficult emotions, so if you give your child the opportunity to talk about his feelings in relation to his art, you will be cementing his confidence and your own relationship with him.

Happy parenting,

Cassie

Creativity and Problem Solving for Kids

Kids have such amazing imaginations, and an innate ability to think outside the box, that it's important to encourage these abilities - as all too often they are lost by the time a child grows up. Here are some ideas you can use to help your kids use their imagination to develop great problem solving skills:

1) Encourage them when they talk about their fantasies and make up stories - don't tell them they are being silly, instead get excited and ask questions. You can even encourage them to close their eyes and become aware of the fact that they can visualize things vividly inside.

2) Talk to your child about his different senses so that he becomes aware of what he already does with his imagination - creates pictures, sounds, feelings and even smells.

3) Play a game with your child where one of you chooses a simple every day object - the classic example is a paper-clip, but pretty much anything will do! - and then see who can think of the most possible uses for that object. This is a very powerful way of developing creativity and problem-solving, so play it with your child often!

Happy parenting,

Cassie

Daydreaming

In Cassie's blog yesterday she happened to mention daydreaming, which happens to be a subject near and dear to my heart, so thought I would elaborate a little more on this delicious topic.

How many times were we told as kids to stop day dreaming and get on with our school work or chores? Turns out our teachers and parents were doing us a great disservice and literally turning off our creativity. Day dreaming and visualizing are powerful tools and writers use them to bring their characters to life. I can attest to that because daydreaming is a huge part of my creative process. I can see the characters in my mind repeating the words I write for them and sometimes it is so real it is hard to believe that they don't really exist, outside of my mind that is.

So parents let your kids daydream encourage them to let their minds wander you will be amazed at what they can accomplish when they let their thoughts take flight and go to strange and wonderful places. Daydreaming will also help them with accomplishing their goals, so dream on dear children dream on.

Happy goal setting