Why Creative Play is Important for Children

‍Did you know, nurturing your child’s creative play and imagination is key to their development?

Engaging in creative activities within art, music, and movement provide your child with opportunities to explore interests and express themselves. This post shares some Fennies favourite activities that you can recreate at home, which are not only important for development but lots of fun!

Art

Creating art allows children to explore their imagination and practice a wide range of skills that are not only useful throughout life but crucial for learning. For example, elements of problem-solving, communication, and physical development are all in full swing whilst they paint, colour, stick and splatter. These are all essential as their natural interests can flow into educational, social and cultural aspects of your child’s life.

Activity: Vegetable Painting

Use a variety of coloured paints and switch traditional paintbrushes for fruits and vegetables! Slice the vegetable in half and dip into the paint. Print the paint onto the paper and experiment with different pressure and colours to create wonderful patterns.

What you’ll need
A variety of vegetables (the more shapes and sizes the better)
Paper for printing
Lots of colourful paints

Remember it’s the process of creative play that’s important not the final result. Your child experimenting with different patterns, materials and tools, is a fundamental component of developing little personalities and exploring identity.  

It’s great for them to explore and create art with other children to help boost their self-esteem and communication so this is also a great activity to do in a group of friends.  

“There is opportunity for the development of communication skills and vocabulary as they learn to describe their creations and listen to others. This provides a great boost in self-esteem as they take pride in their masterpieces.” Rageena Tahir, Fennies Head of Education Tweet

At Fennies, children are provided with many opportunities to engage in expressive arts and design throughout their day. We offer focused art sessions and daily arts and crafts activities inspired by world-famous artists such as Wassily Kandinsky and Eva Rothschild. Your child is encouraged to ignite their creative spirit and our practitioner’s effective interactions develop their confidence through every one of their creations.

Music

Music is such an important part of life. Children’s instinctive first response when they hear songs is to move, dance, and sing-along. Music can have a soothing effect on children and is a great mood regulator and motivator!  

A 2018 study at the National Institutes of Health Kennedy Centre Workshop on Music and the Brain highlighted findings that early exposure to music promotes language development, improves attention span, and other cognitive functions. These are crucial skills that can lead to your child’s educational success.

Academic achievement isn’t the only benefit of incorporating music into your child’s everyday life. Music contributes to their communication and language skills, improves memory, and develops vocabulary by introducing new words and their meaning.  

Activity: Musical Painting

Whilst your child is painting or drawing, play music in the background. Encourage them to paint in time with the beat and observe how this affects their creations.  

Tip: Elevate this activity by asking what emotions the colours on the page could represent.

What you’ll need:
Paper or card
Coloured paint or pens
Paintbrush (if using paint)

Movement

Movement has many benefits on children’s minds and bodies, whether it be playing their favourite sport to an everyday walk around the block. But the benefits of movement go far beyond this and plays a key role in their developmental skills.  

Encouraging movement in different ways builds upon your child’s fine and gross motor skills that implement core strength, balance, and coordination as well as self-confidence, team-building skills, and learning how to follow instructions.  

Activity: Movement Sensory Bottles

Sensory play is a fun way to enhance your child’s development whilst having fun! Fill an empty water bottle with your filling of choice. Once securing the lid encourage your child to shake away and explore the sounds they can hear.

What you’ll need:
An empty water bottle
Your filling of choice (we recommend dried pasta, rice or beads but get creative!)

Music brings people together and for children, this is no different. It gives them an opportunity to express their feelings with their peers therefore laying important groundwork for important social bonds.  

At Fennies, each room is specially designed to facilitate movement and adventurous play. From the very first steps in baby rooms which feature soft furnishings as children begin to explore the world through their senses, to preschool rooms which give children the space to invent ways of independently taking on tasks.  

“Children are natural explorers and can have vivid imaginations. Even before they develop their vocabulary to articulate feelings, they are expressing themselves through sounds, movements and creations.” Rageena Tahir, Head of Education Tweet