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How to help your child cultivate creativity – Metro US

How to help your child cultivate creativity

20 years ago Julia Cameron wrote “The Artist’s Way” that has become a go-to program for artists of all skills. Now she has written “The Artist’s Way for Parents” as a help to her own daughter, who recently had her first child, and all other parents that wish to put their children on a creative path toward the future. Julia Cameron’s new book, “The Artist’s Way for Parents,” comes just as her own daughter recently had a child. Credit: Mark Kornbluth

Author Julia Cameron says creativity is just as much a part of us as blood and bones. She describes the skill as a part of our spiritual DNA: a part that children need to develop to be fully rounded individuals.

Cameron just wrote “The Artist’s Way for Parents,” 20 years after she penned “The Artist’s Way,” as a way to help her own daughter, who recently had her first child, and other parents who wish to put their children on a creative path.

“Creativity is living our life to the fullest,” she explains. “It is expanding our selves in the direction of our gifts. When we do that, we get a sense of happiness and satisfaction.”

As a parent, it can be hard to find one’s place in the child’s creative processes and to figure out in what direction to push them. But according to Cameron, it’s not about being Picasso or Jimi Hendrix.

“Children are naturally creative, and their gifts can be anything,” she says. “We need to stop thinking in terms of the future and start thinking about what makes them happy now. When we do that, we can help them become more confident in their creativity.”

But how to do that? And what if you wouldn’t even categorize yourself as much of a creative person? In her book, Cameron takes the reader through the art of creative cultivation step-by-step.

“The book is about ways we become more creative so we can help our children to become more creative. Just go for it and try,” she appeals.

Cameron gave us three tips for parents looking to cultivate creativity:

• Write longhand morning pages where you vent, muse, strategize and dream. They siphon off negativity as they provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand.

• Go on a once-weekly creative expedition that you plan, look forward to and take together with your child. It doesn’t have to be large, but it does need to be festive.

• Together, highlight your favorite moments of the day as a bedtime ritual. It forges happy memories.