WHAT IS CREATIVITY?

Creativity is the ability to develop ideas and generate solutions. Naturally we all have the impulse to create or the need to experience and learn new things. Starting from early childhood we can identify the first symptoms of creativity.
Children are born with a great deal of curiosity and a need to discover the world around them, it is innate in them the ability to observe carefully, admire and be amazed, to enjoy small things. Children love to experiment, to try and try even if it means making mistakes, even if it demands repetition until they achieve their small (Not so small) triumphs...
We, adults are responsible of planning and organizing their days with activities, over-stimulation, hyper-connectivity and competitiveness, we begin (without realizing it) to isolate them from their creative abilities and to truncate their socio-emotional capacities. Why do we do it? It's usually because of laziness.... we do not want to leave our comfort zone, we do not want to leave our Tablet, phone, or favorite program, we do not want to be distracted from our routines or conversations, we do not want noise, clutter or having to clean more than we are used to ...  conclusion we do not want to play with them or let them be children, that’s why we want to keep them busy and distracted.
If we think with total honesty, The word “NO”  is the most common response that usually parents give to a child's request. We must be more creative and stop being lazy. (Sometimes is mental laziness, and other times physical laziness), our challenge is thinking twice before saying NO, ask ourselves Why do I want to answer NO? What would be the consequence of saying yes?, or how could we give a positive answer, even it demands some fine tuning and adjusting their request?
Creativity is preserved and nurtured at home, we as parents are the ones who must encourage creativity in our children. Many children do not develop their inventive skills because parents do not pay enough attention to their empowerment, because we restrict their ideas or do not allow them to make decisions. Because we prefer to distract them with a Tablet, a phone and TV rather than letting them explore their creative power. To develop creativity boredom, silence or contemplation are igniters. 
This is call for all of us parents to return to our childhood and try to revive our own creativity so we can encourage and boost our children’s creative skills: Question yourself  "If I was a five year old kid, what would I like to do? 
BENEFITS OF CREATIVITY FOR CHILDREN
1.    Encourages Critical Thinking
2.    Gives a better understanding of trying and failing
3.    Encourages Decision making, and empowers them to face challenges, and generate solutions
4.    Develops socio-emotional skills
5.    Encourages communication
6.    Develops Self-esteem:
7.    Boosts self-confidence
8.    Promotes expression and communication.
9.    Social awareness, recognize themselves and identify and communicate their emotions as well as empathize with others.
10.Be receptive to a wide variety of social relationships.
11.Build resilience
12.Encourages integrity.
TECHNIQUES TO PROMOTE THE CREATIVITY 
To ensure that children are encouraged to think on their own and to impulse their creative ideas:
1. It is essential to create a safe environment where trust and confidence gives children a space to express and communicate with freedom, where they can present their own ideas and opinions without fear.
2. Play is fundamental. Take time to play with your child. Through play, the imagination is stimulated and emotions flow. It is important to put yourself at their level, do nonsense, laugh and experiment together.
3. Work as a team with your child, raise common problems to generate solutions together.
4. Allow children to make mistakes. It is necessary for children to make mistakes and fail, it is valid to make mistakes, this will allow them to build new learning.
5. Encourage their interests and their curiosity

Children need to connect with nature!!!!
In our current society, and more frequently, childhood occurs in the urban environment. Undoubtedly, living in the city allows children to enjoy advantages such as education, medical services or recreational facilities. But the fact that children are indoors most of their time, is leading to a sedentary life, connection to technology and separation from the natural world are evidence of a drastic decrease of outdoor playing, This reality presents great disadvantages. Far from nature, children are losing stimuli such as contact with open spaces, the feeling of freedom and being able to move freely, of observing how nature works, how plants grow, how a storm is triggered..... in conclusion they are losing vital experiences that are fundamental for their learning.

Children need to be in contact with the world around them, to have an integral development. Today's children have access to plenty information about the environment and ecology, but mostly this knowledge comes from books or computers, not from their own experience. The reality is, that nothing can replace what a child learns while being in direct contact with nature. By connecting with their natural environment will boost their physical development, will enhance their intellectual, boost their emotional intelligence and encourage social awareness, it will definitely make them stronger, reduce stress and it will help them understand their environment and its importance.

It is essential to help our children reconnect with nature. Children feel spontaneously attracted to nature. Nature is an ideal space to stimulate their senses, to experiment, to make their own discoveries and learn to understand how the world works from their own personal experiences. Connection with nature awakes children's desire to learn and explore, their imagination is activated through experimentation and play, it also encourages their autonomy, creativity, and empathy, and motor skills are achieved by boosting coordination, balance and agility. When practicing outdoor games will improve their physical kills. In addition, understanding their natural world will make them feel interested in taking care of the environment .

Mindfulness can add to the quality of our lives in numerous ways, from nurturing a sense of inner peace to improving the quality of a workout, from enhancing self-confidence to facilitating deeper and more meaningful relationships with others.
In children specifically, mindfulness has been found to:

• mitigate the effects of bullying (Zhou, Liu, Niu, Sun, & Fan, 2016)
• enhance focus in children with ADHD (Zhang et al., 2016)
• reduce attention problems (Crescentini, Capurso, Furlan, & Fabbro, 2016).
• improving mental health and wellbeing
• improve social skills when well taught and practiced in children and adolescents.

It’s important for caregivers and educators to provide age-appropriate mindfulness practices for children.
Fostering mindfulness through small tools such as pictures, objects, food, simple movements, and music for preschoolers can help them develop an ability focus attention at a great level.