Mind blowing creativity - ideas for nurturing/feeding him?

[artisticq]

DS aged 5 has the most incredible creative ideas - he makes drawings with sound effects, 3D pictures, cameras with pictures which intricate foldings ... they're like a mix of engineering and art.

Apart from just leaving him be with his art and junk supplies, any suggestions for how I can feed this ... whatever it is?

Hopefully bump!

How cool!

Art galleries, design museums, science/engineering museums, science/engineering kits, themed holiday camps (eg art or science or both).

Going to the library regularly and let him pick books himself, may also help with inspiration. Talking with him about what he's making and why and how it works.

What @pjani said. Also, origami sounds like it might suit him.

He sounds great. Does his school nurture creativity? If not so much, you could try and find an art themed weekly activity session where he can mix with other like minded kids and be exposed to lots of other fun techniques.

Go BIG.

Get him to build structures from cardboard boxes, dowelling, cardboard tubes, string, damp builders' sand sculptures, flower beds from bricks, amateur dry walling (ie, stacking things).

Get him involved with flatpack furniture, so when you get a bedside cabinet or coffee table, he builds it with you only providing muscle.

His own tool kit - bet he'll be a fan of having his own ratchet spanner and socket set.

Him helping plan layouts of furniture, plumbing, wiring (start with junior electronics kits). Teach him how to draw a plan to scale, how to do an isometric projection, how to use online CAD.

This is lovely.

Animation springs to mind when you say he makes drawings with sound effects. There are various resources for teaching young kids that - books, online and courses. The same goes for making little films of his own, he could do storyboarding, filming etc.

Continue with giving lots of art supplies and time and encouragement by showing interest and talking about what he's made.

Showing him inspiring things would be brilliant, animations, structures, paintings, all of it, and see what gets him interested, then talk about that if he wants to. You never know what little thing will spark off an imagination.

It's a line to walk but try not to make him feel pressured to do really good stuff or be brilliant. The experimenting and process is the key. From what I understand, I think it's more helpful to say things like: "I can see you've put something blue on this bit, can you tell me about that" rather than, "you're a genius!".

When kids get a little older they sometimes go through a phase of losing that initial burst of creativity to conform more. Show him as much stuff as you can now 😀

These are great ideas! Thank you so much!

Do you have art-k where you live? Great classes my daughter's been going weekly for over six years!