Daily Creativity: Nurturing the Artists Within – Memory

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Developing memory Today’s Daily Creativity (see below re info on Daily Creativity) topic is MEMORY! Memory is just as important to a creative mind, as imagination is. Well.. maybe not just as important. But very important too. Afterall, from memory we recall shapes and colours, things we have seen, like landscapes, animals and patterns. We recall stories, smells and sounds.

And these memories can all feed into the mood and feeling of a piece of art. You may want to draw or paint something “from memory”, so seeing and remember things are very important.

Some memories may be wistful, whilst others are concrete. The wistful ones can be hard to grasp and frustrating when you want to recall them.

And like other skills and techniques, memory can be practised!

So. This week, we played simple card games. Do this with a colourful pack of cards, or a memory game (make your own Olympics Memory) or play this with a tea-towel and hide objects/small toys underneath (a classic toddler activity). Use a pack of ordinary cards with older children. We happened to have a pack of colourful Eric Carle cards.

The idea is simple:

  • Lay out the cards.
  • Look at each picture.
  • Turn them over.
  • Then recite what your saw.
  •  Better still: where you saw each image!
  • Done.
  • Play over and over again.

Red Ted loved it. And we will be playing this on our travels.

If you are new to my Daily Creativity, a quick summary of what it is all about! Daily Creativity is all about ART and creativeness and aligns with Kids Get Arty challenges.  As Red Ted Art is very craft orientated and therefor “product drive”, I decided it would be nice to explore more open ended activities that give my children an “arty toolset” to allow them to be creative on their own. After all, we all need to learn how to cut things (for collages) and how to mix colours and how to print, how to use brushes, sponges etc. Daily Creativity is about discovering and exploring and nurturing that artist within. Many activities here will be simple, that you can squeeze into your normal day here and there, others require some setting up! The idea is that you do these activities again and again and not “just once”. Giving your child the chance to discover, explore, learn and practice. No “outcome” other than doing, is expected!