Creativity

Summertime is a great time for children.  Most kids love the freedom of summer.  Even if they are involved in structured activities, the freedom from the school year schedule is bliss.  They often have the freedom to explore and foster their creativity during the many lazy days of the summer.

There is a conversation in many families, classrooms, school districts, around the nation, and in higher education about the gap in creativity found in students in the United States.  Children come to school like sponges, with creative thinking, and the ability to embrace and develop new ideas.  The thinking on the national forum is that our current system of schooling eliminates creativity as early as kindergarten, yet, when students graduate college and attempt to enter the workforce, creativity is a highly valued and required skill.  

Creativity may be defined many ways.  Summer may be a good time for parents and educators to research creativity in order to educate themselves about it, and determine how to nurture creativity in children.  

A few online resources are listed herein.  This is a very brief list of resources given as a place to start.  An Internet search will produce a plethora of books, articles, and other resources on the topic.  

I hope you enjoy the summer with your gifted children.  Embrace their uniqueness and foster creativity through the lazy days of summer.

• High Achiever, Gifted Learner, Creative Thinker
  
• Creatively Gifted Students are not like Other Gifted Students (Free PDF book to download)
• Creativity and Gifted Children, University of Connecticut
• Creatively Gifted at Hoagies Gifted
  
• Center for the Education & Study of Gifted, Talented, Creative Learners, University of Colorado