Help Your Child Create a Braincar

Have you or anyone you know ever created something strange?  As reported by weirdunivers.net,  Dutch artist Olaf Mooij created a vehicle called the Braincar.  This strange looking car has what looks like a giant brain on top of it and sports a video camera that captures video as he travels around during the day.  Olaf apparently uses the inside of the brain as a movie screen and projects the video captured during the day on the inside of the brain.

While this might all sound weird and have no purpose for many, I’m guessing that Olaf is a very creative person and may have been allowed to develop that creativity during his childhood.  Parents have the power to make or break a child’s ability to be creative.  It requires remaining calm and relaxed when the child comes up with preposterous ideas and to avoid attempting to keep them grounded out of fear.  It also requires minimizing entertainment electronics and creating plenty of time and space to dream and create.

When I was a child in the 60s, I would spend hours writing ghost stories on an old typewriter that I bought with money I earned on my newspaper delivery route.  When I first started creating these stories of fantasy, I remember being so excited to show my creations to my mother, grandparents, and my teachers.  Immediately, they would give me the “that’s nice BUT…” phrase and then follow that with all the things that were wrong with my story, such as the grammar, spelling, story structure, or even whether it could really happen or not.  With that continuous discouragement, I eventually stopped writing.  My adult caregivers meant well, but were concerned more about making sure I did it right that they killed my motivation to create.

Let your kids be creative.  Don’t worry about how it will turn out and stop controlling the outcome as a parent.  I can’t help but wonder what might have become of my ghost story writing when I was 10 if the adults in my life knew how to relax and just let me create.  Could I have become the next Stephen King?  What will you do now to foster creativity in your child?  Will you set limits on entertainment electronics so your child can create his or her braincar?

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