Want to boost creativity in kids? Turn to nature.
It is well-known that many of the world’s best artists and writers have been inspired by the natural world. After all, nature is a wealth of patterns, life forms, and seasons – so beautiful and complex that even a single snowflake contains its own unique pattern. It makes sense then that scientists have discovered that the kind of thinking we do in nature is something they call “soft fascination,” an effortless attention that opens our minds and allows our creativity to thrive.
Knowing that we literally think differently when we’re outside is especially helpful when it comes to helping kids learn and grow. When kids are feeling unfocused, restless, or distracted, sometimes all it takes is a walk in nature to nourish their creativity and help them focus again. If you want to take this exercise a step further, have kids use the activity sheet below from In the Palm of Your Hand, written by Jennifer Raudenbush and illustrated by Isabella Conti, to trace the palm of their hand and then draw the parts of nature that inspire them the most inside it. Soon they will find that nature isn’t just all of the amazing plants and animals that exist outside us, but the moods and feelings that live inside us, too. Experiencing that deep feeling of connection to the world is the first step toward living a fulfilling and creative life.
So put creativity back into the palm of kids’ hands today!
Watch Isabella Conti Illustrate In the Palm of My Hand
by Jennifer Raudenbush
On an ambling walk, a child discovers they hold the promise of larger worlds—forests and meadows—in the palm of their hand. An acorn becomes a tree within a woodland wonderland. A grain of sand becomes a sandcastle in a kingdom of imagination. By exploring nature’s tiniest details, they learn even small things, including them, contain infinite potential.