Raising Creative Kids

Amazing book and it goes beyond my expectation. I really found my self in the book and i notice that i am so creative person in many aspects of live. thank you

Recommended by principal at a Discovery charter. Haven't finished it but like it so far.

This book is a must read for all parents raising kids of any age today.Whether your child is "artistic" or not, this book is intended to help parents inspire, foster and nurture the myriad traits and personality benefits that come from learning how to be creative, think creatively and see the world creatively.In today's schools, art and critical thinking and all of those other wonderful classes that used to round out the purely academic and textbook based subjects, are sorely missing. The school system has become a rote methodology of teaching kids to behave like robots: comprehend, memorize, recite and test well. But this book points out that in our technological future, all activities that are menial and rote will be easily and efficiently automated so that the creative out of the box thinker will be the one who is truly in demand.So if kids are not learning to be creative anymore in school, who is responsible for imparting these crucial skill sets to them?This is where Raising Creative Kids comes in. Dr. Dan Peters and Dr. Susan Daniels are two professionals with years of experience in the psychological setting with youth of all ages. In this book, they not only explain the neurological and scientific facts behind creativity but also go over the individual personality traits that should be considered when trying to motivate your child's creative potential. These are things such as imagination, daydreaming, risk-taking, perception, open mindedness and curiosity.The book then goes even further to give concrete examples of processes and activities that you can engage your children in to exercise and grow their creative muscles. All of the exercises are interesting and fun and really make you think about and understand why the concepts all work. As a parent, I feel like I can learn just as much from doing these exercises as I can also instill in my daughter.There's a special section on the teenage years, which we all know as a time when our children suddenly turn into aliens that was very enlightening to read.And finally there's information on parenting and how a parent's building up of things like trust, support and protection makes a huge difference in how successful a child is at just plain life in general.Finally the book ends with chapters on teaching your child to utilize all of this information and newfound skill to prosper in the world and look ahead towards their own future.While reading this, I was saddened about the fact that kids aren't getting a lot of this information in schools like I did when I was younger but I was happily reminded that as a parent, I am armed with a tool now that I can use to serve the same purpose

Susan Daniels and Dan Peters of Summit Center are well-known in the world of gifted psychology. Daniels is co-editor of the wonderful compilation of essays, Living With Intensity: Understanding the Sensitivity, Excitability, and the Emotional Development of Gifted Children, Adolescents, and Adults, which tackled the joys and pitfalls of raising, educating, and being intense, gifted people.In this new book, Daniels and Peters move over slightly to feature thoughts on parenting, educating, and nurturing creative kids, a group with a large overlap into the world of intensity. The authors show that understanding and raising highly creative children can be just as much a challenge as raising intense children.Raising Creative Kids opens by making sure the readers are "on the same page" regarding what creativity is and who has it. The answer, of course, is that everyone can have it, but that our society, especially in our numbers-obsessed schools, works hard to squelch creativity in the name of order and quantifiable learning. Daniels and Peters argue that in this time it is especially important to recognize creativity, whether it expresses itself as award-winning visual art or, perhaps more often, as incessant talking at inappropriate times, inability to focus on rote learning, lack of organizational and scheduling skills, and other hallmarks of the creative soul.Much of the book centers on defining creativity and offers suggestions on nurturing it. But in the last three chapters, the authors get to the heart of the question: how to parent creative kids, how to teach them organizational skills, and how to prepare them for a successful life in the 21st century.This part of the book focuses on solving the problems that arise from the "dark side" of the creative personality. Creative kids may be difficult to parent, given that their tendency is to explore rather than follow rules. They often have trouble at school because the creative mind can sometimes coincide with slower development of executive function--the part of the brain that governs decision-making and prioritization. And being highly creative doesn't necessarily lead to being able to develop that creativity into what the authors call "Big C" creativity--moving from unfocused creativity to focused, purposeful creativity.This book succeeds in digesting a lot of information from studies and technical journals into a clear, helpful guide for parenting creative kids. Daniels and Peters offer advice on nurturing vs. permissive parenting, teaching organizational skills, and encouraging children to keep developing their creativity in a world that often seems to promote following rules and getting the "right" answer over all else.