Part 1 of this post talked about how creative thinking can inspire large-scale change. But innovative thinking doesn’t need to be grand in order to be important and useful.
In fact, chances are, you’re already using your creative chops to solve problems every day.
How to get a picky child to eat vegetables? Now there’s a common challenge. You may have modified recipes to sneak in butternut squash or kale—or designed a rewards program for the dinner table that appeals to some aspect of your child’s character. Yes, this counts!
What about a last-minute carpool driver cancelation? You might find yourself rearranging logistics like a Rubik’s Cube to make sure everyone still gets where they need to go on time and eats a reasonably healthy dinner. That requires imagining alternative solutions to a problem.
In fact, parents find themselves in all kinds of situations that require flexible, quick thinking—like these fun examples of parental ingenuity.
Kids, of course, are naturally creative, especially if they have to deal with challenges—and have time in which to think, daydream and play around. If you know children who have built a fort, invented a secret language, or created a rock band out of oatmeal cans and sticks from the yard, you’ve seen that creativity in action.
In some cases, kids have even ended up inventing things—like Braille—that do end up changing lives.
It all comes out of observing what’s around us and then asking questions. What exists right now? What problems do I see? How could I change things?
The postcard challenge
To celebrate our love of creativity, Noggin Builders decided to have a little extra fun with our direct-marketing efforts this year. So we put out a challenge: Take the postcard we’ve mailed you and make it into something. Anything you want. Using other materials is also allowed.
We’ve asked builders to bring their creations into our Dundee Road location, and we’ve been amazed at the variety of ideas and execution that can be cooked up by different brains contemplating a single, flat postcard. And by the way, everyone who brings in a design gets a small prize, and will be entered into a monthly drawing for a larger prize, too.
If your kids would like to take the challenge—and haven’t received a postcard in the mail—stop by to get one, and while you’re there, take a look at our gallery.
