My boys love to build. Give them some blocks, rocks and erasers, you name it, plus some free time and they go to town. But when I ask them about what they’ve built — whether it be a pirate ship, a plane, or a “zombie house” (!) — they barely answer.
I’m there saying “Wow…cool. A pirate ship?” “Is that the captain of the ship?” But I get nothing back. On a good day, a reluctant “yup” or “I guess.” Even my 5-year-old does this; my 8-year-old is the worst.
One of my friends who thinks a lot about these things recently gave me the best tip when it comes to getting your kids to communicate about what they’ve created: rather than ask questions which will only get you a yes or a no, ask WHAT, WHY or HOW?
WHAT journey will the plane take? HOW fast does it go? WHY does the captain of the ship want a treasure? HOW will he get it?
Sound obvious? Maybe, but it’s so simple. And on a good day I get a nice peek into their sweet little brains, into how they think. Which is a special treat for a mom.
In the spirit of creativity, tell me below what your child loves to build or draw and you enter automatically to win this week’s Tegu Pocket Pouch!
My 10 yr old loves to deconstruct legos and create characters that look like what he imagines his book charaters look like. Last week we made a candy machine with legos together. He loves the mechanics and can’t wait to make more. His dream is owning his own vending machine.
My son loves to build football stadiums with his blocks.
Our 6 and 7 yr. old sons love to build Ninja towers and fortresses for their action figures. And the little artist in our family our 10 yr. old daughter loves to draw animals, she got a new book that teaches 3D drawing that’s really cool.
My little boys love building vehicles for their ninjas and aliens to ride on! When they draw it’s similar subject matter, with the addition of football action scenes. Lots of fun – I love seeing their imaginations at work!
My daughter has been very into rainbows lately. She draws and builds rainbow playgrounds, rainbow flowers, rainbow houses… I love that she changes up the order of the colors and still says it’s a rainbow!
They love to build robots with their blocks
My 4 year old daughter often builds dog houses out of yoga blocks for our dogs. (They are terriers and don’t like to be put inside these “dog houses” at all!)
My little one loves to build vehicles ~ big or small!
My daughter loves to color/paint/craft, whatever! She has her own table set up with all her craft supplies and she will sit there for hours cutting and gluing and coloring.
My son loves to draw super heroes. I love to watch how his imagination works and to hear him explain what he’s drawn.
my daughter loves building castles and drawing outdoor scenes with rainbows, flowers and butterflies
My son is all about vehicles. He’s always making airplanes, cars, heliports, garages..etc
It was really fun to read all of these comments about what your creative kids are doing! Suzanne, love that your daughter is so into birthday cakes, I doubt this is from not having a party! Also congrats to Aura on winning our Tegu toy set. My boys are like yours, totally into vehicles, planes, trains and automobiles! Thanks for commenting and we’ll be back next week with another creativity question and gift from Tegu. xo Melissa
I love blocks! My brothers and I were the kings and queen of forts when we were kids
My 2.5 yo is all about birthday cakes — building with blocks, coloring with crayons, chalk on the driveway — everything is a birthday cake. I fear it’s because we kind of skipped over her 2nd birthday celebration due to my mother’s passing…. nothing like a whole dumping of mother’s guilt…. Anyway…..
My daughter loves her crayons and will always ask to draw. She currently loves happy faces and flowers. She has just started to want to stack things. She would love the Tegu blocks.
My kids like to build roads and houses for their cars.