One writer shares her discovery of organic ways to foster creativity in her home

When Bassi Gruen reached out to ask if I’d be interested in doing a piece on fostering creativity in children, my initial reaction was that she had the wrong writer. While my children are undeniably creative, it doesn’t have much to do with me.

When my kids were younger, my work load lighter, and my schedule freer, we did plenty of creative activities. We went to museums, created huge forts in our living room on rainy days, made small cities out of moving boxes, and did loads of arts and crafts.

These days, life has gotten very busy (with good things!), and the tolerance I have for disarray has significantly decreased. While I’m certainly a creative type, I’m also thoroughly type A. I’ve come to associate arts and crafts with clutter and mess, requiring more supervision than I prefer to supply.

Still, even though chaotic creativity can make me feel overwhelmed, we have ample arts and crafts supplies in our house, numerous musical instruments, and an overfull costume box which is in use year-round. My children are regularly signed up for extracurricular activities and participate in art programs through their school.

So, yes, my kids are creative. But it’s happening haphazardly, rather than as part of a thought-out plan.

I started wondering: Was being creative by accident good enough? That led to more questions: What does it mean to be creative? How can anyone (not just creative types) foster creativity in their children? Why should anyone even bother? Did I mention how messy it can be?