31st of March 2020
Brainstorming for kids
We woke up early today because we were both anxious to continue our Lego building saga. We managed to complete only two Lego sets. It was a calm and quiet day we all enjoyed (not that we don’t like active days, but we can all agree that balance is the key to everything).
In the evening we tried to come up with a new DIY game, so we did a bit of brainstorming. Well, we didn’t manage to invent a new DIY game, but we end up with something far better. Our daughter was fascinated by the brainstorming concept itself. That happened because for her, brainstorming actually meant a fun and creative game of ideas with no winners or losers. Brainstorming develops kids’ creativity and imagination, it increases their courage and their self esteem without the fear of criticism (there are no wrong answers here), focuses their attention on the topic and organizes their thinking process.
How does brainstorming for kids work?
First of all, I had to explain to my daughter how brainstorming works. To do this, II chose to use three main brainstorming techniques instead of the classical free writing. These are: listing, concept mapping (or mind mapping) and sketching. These three techniques are all very effective when trying to teach little children how to brainstorm.
Listing
This is the basic form of brainstorming. All you have to do is write down lists of words or phrases under a particular topic.
Our list was something like this:
- Pirates
- Dice
- Pawns
- Colors
- Large
- Fighting
- Boats
- Birds
- Jail
- Punishments
- Treasures
- Sea, etc.
Concept mapping or mind mapping
Concept or mind mapping offers you the possibility to visualize your ideas in relation to each other. Mind maps expand children’s logical, verbal, visual, and intrapersonal intelligence. All you have to do is take a blank piece of paper and write (inside a border) the words that link to your main word, then connect them with your main word using a line. Our daughter knows how to write with capital letters, but she preferred to use pictograms instead of words for the mind map.
Sketching
Sketching means putting your ideas on paper in the form of a rough drawing. That’s exactly what we did for this brainstorming technique. It’s a lot of fun!
There are also brainstorming games and brainstorming books which help kids understand the brainstorming process. Although we don’t have one, I think they are useful for teaching your kids how brainstorming works and its importance in various contexts.
Have fun brainstorming and stay safe!
