Parenting Skills: Nurture Creativity

Spiritual Parenting Thought for the Month (SM)

Brought to you by Mimi Doe

February, 2007

V9 #2

NURTURE YOUR CHILD'S CREATIVITY

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- Welcome From Mimi

- Reignite the Spark of Creativity

- 10 Ways to Nurture Creativity

- Supported Dreams Manifest Miracles

- Our Deepest Fear

- What's New

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February greetings to you all!

I was chatting with a wonderful high school English teacher a few weeks ago. She shared with me that the brightest students she teaches are those who seem to have a natural thirst for learning. These students, she said, were obviously allowed to flourish as youngsters, rather than force fed on rote learning.

I recalled my studies years ago at Harvard Graduate School of Education. I was fascinated with what a child brought to the world, cognitively, and how we could nourish and nurture that natural inquisitiveness rather than dull it and disengage them from their true open selves. I believed then, and with years of working with kids and their parents believe even more now, that this natural state is their creative, spiritual, organic self. THIS is what we as parents need to feed and love and allow to flourish.

It is my hope that all the work I do and all the materials I offer you will help in your quest to raise soulful, creative, bright kids who remain true to their inner selves. Think of me when, your child’s high school history teacher says, “Congratulations, you have obviously allowed your son/daughter to develop a true love of learning, and he/she is a bright, kind, wonderful human being.”

Blessings and light from my heart to yours,

Mimi Doe

p.s.s. Go to the bottom of the page for information on receiving the upcoming film, Conversations with God. I can’t wait to receive my copy next week!!

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REIGNITE THE SPARK OF CREATIVITY

I met my dear friend Emily at a coffee-shop/bakery yesterday here in our little New England town. Emily has had two-year-old Astrid living with her for a few months but I had not seen her since she arrived from Honduras. Astrid has a spine problem and will be operated on tomorrow at Shriner’s Hospital. When she arrived she was a withdrawn, dull-eyed, little girl who would sit silently for hours, seemingly disengaged from the world.

When I saw Astrid yesterday, she was a vivacious toddler engaging everyone sitting around us in the children’s area of the bakery. She used a napkin as her cloth to clean the little table, and set up an imaginary shop of her own. She used books as guests sitting in the chairs and waited on them, pouring “coffee” from a water bottle and jabbering away to her invisible guests in Spanish. Her creative spark had been reignited by two months of love, nurturing, and the freedom to play.

Many adults have lost this enchantment this open creative vein and search everywhere for happiness, peace or fulfillment. Countless hours are spent in therapists' offices in an attempt to find that magic, the spirituality, the creative spark that was lost somewhere in the past. But magic exists right now within your child. By inviting her to see magic in the ordinary, you strengthen her connection to her creative self so that it lives forever in her life. When she reaches adulthood, your child will have no need to search outside of herself for "something to make her happy." She will have access to free thinking, and her sense of wonder will translate into a love of learning.

Our society, with its emphasis on the material, can deaden the natural enthusiasm our children have for the ordinary. High-tech toys, computers, and other devices can dull imagination and creativity. The thirty-second sound and stimulation bites on television, with fast moving pictures and bright colors, seduce our children and us. When we overwhelm our kids with plastic, battery operated devices, video games, and inappropriate television programming; we squelch their natural creative spirit.

Try to keep things simple and allow your children to be in charge of the magic in their own way.

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“It takes courage to grow up and turn out to be who you really are.”

-- e.e. cummings

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10 WAYS TO NURTURE CREATIVITY

Here are some simple ways to nurture creativity and wonder in your children so they can grow up to be who they were meant to be: creative, resilient, possibility seekers.

1. Provide an environment that encourages your children to explore and play without interruptions. Schedule it on your calendar, if need be. Then, get out of the way - rather than organizing or hovering over your child, allow your child to set the pace rather than organizing or hovering.

2. Listen, observe, and make note of what your child finds interesting. Then, provide materials to feed those interests, making sure to release any expectations of finished results. Rather than purchasing plastic toys with limited use, buy wooden blocks, simple art materials, used musical instruments, funky dress-up clothes from the local Goodwill. My children’s favorite plaything was a huge refrigerator box I’d recycle every 6 months or so. It received far more play hours than the fancy dollhouse passed down from a neighbor.

3. Accept unusual ideas from your child by letting go of judgment and staying open to his naive wisdom. Just for today try out the crazy suggestions for how to better frost that cake. Allow your kids to be in charge of setting the table. They choose the evening’s centerpiece design. Anything goes! Use creative problem-solving when everyday dilemmas come up rather than your word as the final verdict. “You guys decide what ingredients go on the pizza tonight by the time the bubbles are all down the drain.”

5. Start an ongoing family story. Write an opening line and leave the paper in a central place for others to add to as they are moved. Or play the “what if” game. “What if you were given 2 days to do anything you wanted to do….” Next time you are stuck in traffic play our family’s favorite game of Car Stories. Watch the cars that go past and pick one to tell a story about. “This car is heading to New York City. The two kids in the back are lucky enough to be missing school because their grandparents, driving the car, are taking them to the Museum of Natural History because the grandfather worked there and he can take them behind the displays. The boy loves elephants….”

6. Emphasize process rather than product. Put on music, spread out lots of paper, and ask your child to paint the music. Encourage her to focus on the movement of the brush, the swirl of color -- not the final picture.

7. Did you give up sketching years ago with the excuse that you just didn’t have the time? Haul out your charcoal pencils and pack up a bag with sketch pads and a picnic lunch. Find a setting in nature that calls to you, and join your child in drawing what you see, snacking on treats, and being creative together.

8. Shake up each day with something new. Try a new fruit from the grocery store or listen to a different radio station. Drive a different route home from school or eat dinner in a room other than the kitchen. You might just designate a notebook as the holder of the unusual and jot down what new experience you encountered.

9. Even the youngest child can compose music. Ask the music lover in your family to make up a song on the keyboard or piano. Maybe his brother can write some words to go with the notes.

10. Turn OFF the television and turn your largest doorway into a proscenium arch. You’ve now got a stage for your child’s performances. Hang two sheets on a tension rod and you’ve got instant "entrance” possibilities. Or find an old tape recorder and encourage your kids to make up their own radio shows. This was my favorite pastime as a kid, and I spent hours taking the listener through my house on a tour or interviewing celebrity guests – my siblings.

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Exuberance is the experience of things as ever new, and ever renewed in God's ever-beginning Creation. The world is always amazing and fresh to the religious heart, the heart of the fool certainly, which knows that every day is the first day of Creation.

-- Bishop Seraphim Sigrist in Theology of Wonder

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SUPPORTED DREAMS MANIFEST MIRACLES

My friend's son Ethan has dreamed, at least since he was old enough to talk, of being a firefighter. He's never entertained any other idea. Now 17 years old, Ethan volunteers at his hometown fire department, has passed advanced first aid and CPR exams, and can't wait to graduate from high school and take firefighter entrance tests.

For many years, Ethan's parents have known exactly how to support his dream. When I visited them a while ago, Ethan showed me the book his mom gave him for Christmas. It was a firsthand account of the World Trade Center apocalypse, written by a New York City firefighter.

In my experience, Ethan is the exception. He's been very clear about his dream from an early age. Many teens take far longer to understand and articulate their dreams.

However, a dream lies inside the heart of every child. When by daughter Elizabeth was quite young, she shared some wisdom with me: "God has a lot of wishes for this world. I think that each time a baby is born, God puts one of those wishes into that baby's heart." Similarly, author and speaker Jean Houston says, "We all have the extraordinary coded within us, waiting to be released." What could be more extraordinary than the divine spark of our deepest desires?

As spiritual parents, our job is to help our children nurture their dreams and uncover that sacred desire. Each individual -- child, teen, or adult -- is a unique unit of human potential, a drop in the human ocean that is Spirit expressing in this world.

Fred Buechner, called the finest religious writer in America by The New York Times, says, "The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world's deep hunger meet." As we encourage our children to embrace the deepest desires of their hearts, we get out of the way as they develop into exactly who they're meant to be -- with God's help.

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The word enthusiasm is derived from the roots en — in or within — and theos — God. It means having God within or being one with God.

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Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.

--Nelson Mandela

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~*~WHAT'S NEW~*~

Visit our New Soulful Baby Boutique

Safe, natural, beautiful products for your baby!

Dimple Dolls

These soft, natural, safe little babies are cozy in their blankets and baskets. I love these for all kids from babies to teens. No kidding, tuck one in the pocket of even the most sophisticated 16 year old girl and watch her melt.

Send Your Nurturing Products for Review to:

SpiritualParenting.com
c/o Mimi Doe
109 Baker Ave.
Concord, MA 01742

We are happy to send your product to our SpiritualParenting team and designated mom experts for their review.

SOULFUL MOVIES

If you sign up for the amazing Spiritual Cinema Circle in February you will receive free, the film CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD which is adapted from the books by Neale Donald Walsch that inspired and changed the lives of millions worldwide.

CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD tells the true story of Walsch who, at his lowest point in life, asks God some very hard questions. Based on the internationally acclaimed book series that has sold over 7 million copies and been translated into 34 languages, CONVERSATIONS WITH GOD is now a major feature film.

Members of The Spiritual Cinema Circle will receive the film as part of the February 2007 DVD which also includes three outstanding short films. For a limited time, new subscribers to The Circle can receive a free trial membership (they pay a minimal shipping fee) by visiting: Spiritual Cinema.

"This movie is a marvelous illustration of how a life can transform from something so seemingly hopeless to something miraculously good."
Marianne Williamson

"An incredibly emotional journey."
Deepak Chopra

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If you're as tired of the commercial movies available as I am you'll be thrilled to hear of a new alternative: Spiritual Cinema Circle.

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Spiritual Parenting Thought for the Month (SM) is written and produced by Mimi Doe and Karen Adolphson. If you have any stories to share, questions or comments, please send them to: Editor@SpiritualParenting.com. We'd love to hear from you!

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Mimi Doe, Author of:
"Nurturing Your Teenager's Soul"
"Busy But Balanced"
"10 Principles for Spiritual Parenting"
"Drawing Angels Near"
PO Box 157 Concord MA 01742
http://www.SpiritualParenting.com