Top 5 Ways To Enhance Your Child's Creativity This Summer With International Ivy at The Pingry School

With less than three months till the end of the school year, take a moment and consider the Top 5 Ways to Enhance Your Child’s Creativity This Summer and make it one to remember.

To learn more about International Ivy's Summer Enrichment Programs, attend their Open House this Sunday, April 7th at The Pingry School in Short Hills, NJ from Noon to 3:00PM.  

Often, we hear about research on how children regress academically during the summer time but little is spoken about the opportunity to advance the creativity and intellectual engagement of our children. T

Here are five tips for ensuring our children are growing their minds and spirits. 

1.Find Activities to Expand on Existing Areas of Interest.  During the summer, children simply have more time to take classes, build toys, research a subject, and practice a skill.  Use the summer time to sign up for activities which enable your child to explore current areas of interest.  Parents may need to exercise some creativity themselves.  For instance, if a child loves to play video games, then sign up for classes to learn how to create video games or if a child loves to build LEGOs, then sign up for classes to build robots which have motors and sensors and require programming.      

2.    Look for Depth and Breadth.  There are many summer camps which provide more breadth than depth.  Children are rushed from one activity to the next.  If a child is truly interested and engaged in learning about a certain topic, ensure there is a significant allotment of time given to topic each day (e.g. 2-3 hours).  Creativity often flourishes when there is time for the mind to meander and connect with other ideas and experiences.  When kids are given the time to focus, it stretches their attention spans. 

3. Sprinkle Something New into the Mix.  Many of our students enroll in our summer enrichment programs because they are very excited to learn about one or two specific subjects.  I often suggest to parents to add one or two subjects which the child may not have an initial interest in but may open a whole new world to them like “Acting for Film or Television” or “Detective Spy Lab”.  The learning disposition of the student in the summer is very different from the school year because there is no pressure to perform, to get a grade.  Their minds are wide open, especially when they are learning by doing and interacting with peers who share common interests. 

4. Find Multi-sensory Ways to Capture What is Learned.  The three steps of learning is to listen, repeat and teach.  When students share what they have learned, they are in essence teaching in their own unique way.  There are so many technologies now that allow parents and educators to capture our children’s expression of what they learn from videos and blogs to pictures and tweets.  Many children love to know their knowledge and accomplishments are captured for the world to see.  They get so excited that they spend more time thinking about what they have learned and would like to share.  At International Ivy, our students perform, write blogs and make videos and we post them on our YouTube channel and blog.                     

5. Take a Break and Engage with Others.  Some of the best inventions come from people with different ideas and experiences coming together and developing an idea.  For instance, Pfizer was founded by two cousins, one was a candy-maker and the other was a chemist.  They developed the first palatable medicine for intestinal worms in the mid-1850s.  We have seen fervent exchange of ideas and many friendships blossom during breaks when children with common interests have the opportunity to chat and interact. 

Lily Wong is currently is the Founder and Program Director of the International Ivy Summer Enrichment Programs.  Lily was previously Director of Worldwide Strategy and Innovation at Pfizer Inc. where she was responsible for driving greater creativity and innovation in the largest pharmaceutical company in the world. 

International Ivy Summer Enrichment Programs serves youths between the ages 5-16 by offering programs in robotics, video game design, computer programming, performing arts, humanities, science, business, brain training, magic and sports.  The spirit of International Ivy is to learn and explore while having fun.  Classes are highly interactive and kids select the classes they are interested in.  International Ivy’s ultimate goal is to help students find their passion.  For further information, visit the International Ivy Summer Enrichment Program website at www.iisummer.com.