Guides for parents · Ideas and creativity
How to nurture your kid's ideas
Kids are idea machines. A dragon who runs a bakery, a game where the floor is lava, a club with a secret handshake. The way grown-ups respond in the first ten seconds decides whether the next idea gets shared.
1. Answer with "yes, and"
Borrowed from improv: accept the idea, then add to it. Kid: "What if our cat could fly?" You: "Yes, and where would she fly first?" You haven't judged it, fixed it or explained physics. You've made it bigger, and you've shown that ideas are welcome here.
2. Ask questions instead of giving answers
Good questions grow an idea without taking it over:
- "What happens next?"
- "Who else is in it?"
- "What's the hardest part for them?"
- "What would make it funnier, scarier, or sillier?"
Resist the urge to improve it yourself. The point is that it stays theirs.
3. Let boredom do its job
"I'm bored" is often the moment just before an idea. Instead of filling every gap, offer a starting point and step back: a box of odds and ends, a blank sheet of paper, or one of our idea games.
4. Collect ideas, quantity first
Keep an idea jar, a notebook or a list on the fridge. When an idea comes up, write it down, no matter how wild. Lots of ideas lead to good ideas; judging too early stops the flow. Once a month, read the collection together and pick one to make.
5. Mix things that don't belong together
Most new ideas are two old ones combined. A pirate who is afraid of water. A race between snails on skateboards. Ask your kid to pick two random things and put them together.
6. Help them finish something small
Ideas grow confidence when they become something real: a comic, a cardboard robot, a song, a game. Keep projects small enough to finish in a sitting or two. A finished small thing beats a giant plan that never happens.
By age
3 to 5: play pretend, tell stories together, and write down what they say. 6 to 8: make comics, invent board game rules, build with whatever's around. 9 to 12: plan bigger projects, test them on friends, and keep improving them.
Where games fit
Designing a game asks for every part of ideation at once: a character, a world, a problem and a goal. That's why we built our builder around kids' ideas first. Read how to help your kid invent a game for a step-by-step start.