4 ways to kindle your child’s genius _ janet lansbury

27.1.2014 4 Ways To Kindle Your Childs Genius | Janet Lansbury

http://www.janetlansbury.com/2011/01/4-ways-to-kindle-your-childs-genius/ 1/11

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4 Ways To Kindle Your Childs Genius

Posted by janet on Jan 27th, 2011

Genius, commonly defined as extraordinary intellectual and creative power, is a term we probably wouldnt use to describe ourselves or our children. Wemay believe were smart or talented, but most of us dont think were all that extraordinary. Even if we are a person who has an exceptionally high

intelligence quotient, typically above 140, we dont typically imagine ourselves geniuses.

Far more exciting and productive is the definition of genius that educator Rick Ackerly subscribes to in an inspiring and informative book

I highly recommend, The Genius in Every Child: Encouraging Character, Curiosity, and Creativity in Children. His perception

of genius: a great science teacher I know called it the teacher within, and we all have it. According to James Hillman and Thomas

Moore, it goes by many names: soul, muse, calling, psyche, and destiny. It is the you that is becoming. It is our inner author and the

source of our authority in the world.

Recognizing genius as our childs unique essence leads us to approach parenting as an opportunity to discover, explore and encourage

this teacher within. The sparks are already there. Our job is to figure out how and when to stoke the flames, and when to let them be.

Mostly, its about letting them be.

We kindle genius by fostering our childs innate desire to explore and experience her world independently whenever possible. What

begins when an infant has the opportunity to choose to spend a few moments gazing peacefully at patterns of light on a wall, clouds in

the sky, or a crack in the ceiling later becomes a toddler discovering a unique use for a puzzle stacking the pieces instead of fitting

them no one interrupting to show him what he should be doing.

Here are more ways to encourage genius

Make boredom a friend, not an enemy.

Offering our children crafts, art projects and science kits, games and other activities, entertaining them with songs, books and outings

encourages creativity (and can be precious time together), but our children are most creative and expressive when they come up with

ideas all on their own. And although creative ideas sometimes come to us while were busy, they usually materialize in a relaxed, but not

always comfortable, bored state in between activities. If adult-initiated activities are too close together, or passive entertainment like

TV is always on hand to fill the void, children dont have enough blank time and brain space to hone their inventive powers.

Infant specialist Magda Gerber didnt believe it possible for babies to be bored unless they were conditioned to rely on entertainment

and stimulation. She believed that what parents perceive as boredom is usually tiredness or other discomfort (and Ive found this to be

the case with my own children) and should be responded to as such. She taught parents to provide a fertile ground for creativity by 1)

providing plenty of time for uninterrupted, independent play each day with simple, versatile, open-ended toys and materials; and 2)

turning off the TV, at least for the first few years.

Less is more creative thinking inside the box.



Are You Putting

The Kibosh OnCreativity?

Back To The

Sandbox

I Cant Part With

These Books

I recently had the pleasure of lunch with a highly creative couple, Lilly Bright and Evan Cole, RIE parents with a young toddler. The

conversation soon turned to one of my favorite subjects, children and play. Evan shared memories of a childhood mostly spent at his

fathers pharmacy occupying himself for hours with nothing but empty boxes. When I asked if he thought there was a link between his

rather minimalist, but highly imaginative childhood play experiences and his career choices, Evan (creator of two hugely successful home

design stores) admitted, I like making something out of nothing.

Im certainly not advocating doing away with toys. But our fascinating human tendency to create more and engage longer with less is

something to keep in mind. The water balloon babies my sisters spent hours imagining stories with in the neighbors pool; the games

like Shoes, one of many my sisters and I invented, which entailed struggling to be the first to find a matching pair of shoes among those

hidden in my mothers bedroom in the dark; the rolls of craft paper an artist acquaintance described entertaining herself with all day as a

child, not just creating paintings and drawings, but making hats, skirts and scarves These are all examples of genius at work.

Wait (the hardest part).

Encouraging genius means trusting, which often means waiting instead of directing, helping or teaching talking a bored baby through

the few moments of griping she has before switching gears and finding something new to engage her interest; waiting while our toddlerrepeatedly attempts to climb up and down the porch step, allowing him to discover how to do it rather than showing him. Its waiting for

an older child to express an interest in tennis lessons before we sign her up. When we go ahead and make decisions for our children in

these situations, we risk taking their attention away from the guidance of an inner voice, and train them to be followers rather than

original thinkers.

As Magda Gerber advised, Be careful what you teach the child, you may interfere with what he is learning.

In child we trust.

As their interests and talents manifest themselves, our children need our whole-hearted support and encouragement to continue to followtheir inner guide, keep doing what they love. Our childrens dreams and aspirations may seem illogical, impractical or impossible, but to

encourage genius we must trust them anyway.

Like many children, my daughter wanted to hold her parents camera and take pictures. So, on a camping trip with my husband at age7, she asked and he said yes. Rather than photograph the people or beautiful scenery, she aimed her camera towards the ground and

photographed rocks in a small stream. These turned out to be the most interesting photos of the trip, and the beginning of an unflagginginterest in photography. A few years ago when she was 14, a friend took her photos to the owner of Diesel, A Bookstore who was

impressed enough to invite her to exhibit them on his walls. We had them printed on canvas, and several were sold (including the one

above) for hundreds of dollars each. We were flabbergasted.

Trust the genius in your kids. Theyre onto something.

(Leaf photo by char!lotte on Flickr. Photo of baby genius at work by Jude Keith Rose.)

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18 Responses to 4 Ways To Kindle Your Childs Genius

1. Suchada @ Mama Eve says:at

Another fantastic post, Janet! The advice youve given has helped me become a much more relaxed, peaceful parent who is able

to really enjoy her babies. Before I was so concerned about filling up their days with enriching activities (and also keeping themfrom fighting), and I just couldnt keep up.

Ive implemented a much simpler schedule with lots of open blocks for the kids to play independently, and we havent turned on

the TV in weeks. Its so liberating for me, and Ive seen a change in the boys as well: fewer meltdowns, more excitement aboutupcoming activities, and some serious creativity!

Reply

janet says:

at

Thanks, Suchada! And thats great news. I think many of us are under the impression that it is a parents job to entertain. Icertainly was orginally.

Reply

2. Karen Nemeth says:at

I love this post! It was so important to me as my kids were growing up that they should be comfortable with thinking and

dreaming time. I didnt want to hear them say Mom, theres nothing to do! in between activities. I always had plenty of ideas but their ideas were often better than mine so I had to resist the urge to think for them! I agree that starts with honoring thediscoverer in every baby.

Reply

janet says:

at

Karen, thanks! There are two things I realize when I try to give my children ideas: 1) Its hard for me to come up with themon cue. I need time and space, too, and 2) They say no to all of them anyway! So its pointless. I think they just like havingthe opportunity to reject me.:)

Reply

3. Sue Ann Chilcote says:at

Hi Janet,

Thank you for this post. Ive been reminded so often to sit back and observe during the care Im providing for a 3-month-old



baby. From the day she was born, there have been many, many times that Ive had to chain myself to my seat, as I SO wanted

her to look at me and interact with me, when what SHE was interested in, for example, was to gaze for long periods of time at theshelves along the wall. Those shelves have been a great source of fascination and joy for her; she sometimes looks at them forover 10 minutes at a stretch.

Im so grateful to have RIE training and to be able to catch myself when Im about to interrupt the little genius while she is findingher own interests, without any help from me. With the care of this baby, Ive become more aware of my own tendency (still) to

want MY agenda to prevail at timesunnecessarily.

When the baby finally looks my way, its truly because she wants to interact at that moment, after shes finished (for now) herstudy of shelves and all the shadows, angles, objects, and probably more than I could ever get out of looking at shelves. Ive longago taken shelves for granted. She keeps reminding me about all the wonder there is in the simple things of life.

Reply

janet says:

at

Sue Ann, wow! Thank you for sharing this insight. I still feel the push-pull you describe when observing babies of all ages.Its a challenge to let go of worries or agendas and trust a baby to communicate what they need and when, but a worthyone (as you are noticing!)

Reply

4. Loren says:at

I love this post! Sitting in RIE class just watching my son and his friends play, I saw that genius in each of the children. I

incorporate this into my teaching as well. Let them discover, give them time to learn I think this is applicable to kids of all ages.Thank you Janet!

Reply

5. Dawn says:at

A friend shared this TED talk this morning on divergent thinking in young children. It was a wonderful divergence in my morningroutine.

http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_changing_education_paradigms.html

Reply

6. Dawn says:at

Our four-year olds vacation photos are awesome. She takes them at her eye level and of things of importance, the drawers nextto the bed, her stuffed animals on the turned down sheets, and the obligatory shot of the toilet.

Reply

janet says:at

Sounds like genius to me!

Reply

7. Angela says:at

I love this post. I do daycare and it really makes me think about our day and how it is spent. Sometimes its ok to have some lets



create time and not always a set craft or activity. Thanks for your information and well written post.

Angelahttp://www.daycareheadquarters.com

Reply

8. Rick Ackerly says:at

Janet, I love your recent post to the effect; when you are considering an enrichment outing for your child, ask yourself who youare doing it for. Often the value of a activity has more to do with the motivation behind it that the actual activity itself. The limbic

systems need to be aligned (I just made that up; I wonder if there is any scientific basis for alignment of limbic systems. Hmmmmsounds like possible PhD thesis) Anyway, I have anecdotatl data that limbic system alignment is crucial.)

Reply

janet says:at

I believe your hunch is right on and I encourage the thesis Go for it, Rick!

Reply

9. Aunt Annie's Childcare says:

at

Janet, I endorse every piece of advice in this post, but I find Ricks teachers definition of genius a little troubling.

While I can understand that using the word genius might help attract ambitious parents to read your excellent advice (eg theBaby Einstein crowd who really do need to hear this), I guess as one of those people who actually does have that above-140 IQ,Im aware that being tagged a genius (using the original meaning) is a very mixed blessing. I wonder whether acquiring that wordfor another purpose implicitly understates the many down-sides of actually having that sort of IQ.

Being a genius is a form of special need; we would never use other special need labels out of context, and so I think we should be

careful of using this one too.

Which is not to understate the absolute value of what you say! Im just uncomfortable with the misuse of the label.

Reply

10. Mariel @ The Learning Basket says:at

Thank you for another wonderful post! Your writing has really inspired my parenting style. My 4-year old daughter has beenfascinated with ballet since she was three but I have not enrolled her yet to ballet classes. I really feel that the magic of ballet, in

her imagination, will be taken away by formal classes. Right now, I just buy her books on ballet, we dance to classical music, wepretend were on stage (with a lamp as our spotlight), we tie ribbons around her ankles, etc. Were having a great time but Imalso wondering if shes missing out on anything (except recital make-up which I dont like at all) by not taking ballet classes.

Reply

janet says:at

Mariel, I love what you are doing! I totally agree about protecting the magic for your daughter. She is not missing out,

quite the opposite, in fact. When you do finally deem her ready (Id say to wait until at least 5 or 6 years old) she will haveso much joy and creativity to bring to her dancing. These passions are far more likely to disappear with lessons than theyare without them

Reply



Dianne says:at

Wow! That sounds fantastic for you both. What a wonderfully open, free way to develop your childs interest. Plenty of

time for formal classes! Thanks for inspiring me!

Reply

11. Dianne says:at

I love what you have written here. I also (as a teacher/facilitator) feel that the best learning is done when the child initiates it. By allmeans supply a wide variety of open-ended resources and thoughts on what resources could be but if it is the childs idea theygain so much more from it. I also love what you have written about the genius in each child. To me, the genus of the child is thethinker within and when children verbalise and materialise that thinking and those ideas, those are some of the most fantasticmoments for the child and the adult! Thanks for inspiring me today!

Reply

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