The great joy of creative play is that it can originate with the simplest of sources.
Recently, my six year old son and I purchased little colored notepads from Staples, scissors, and a glue stick, and started making little paper animals. My partner, Saliha got into the game as well. We folded the paper in half, cut out shapes and then glued and folded them to make things like the little green frog you see below.
Parents agonize over the amount of time their kids spend watching TV or playing video games. This is understandable. It is natural to distrust the impact of these mostly passive forms of consumption. If kids are passive consumers of media for an afternoon, they grow restless and dissatisfied. Any parent can tell you that. But when children create games, stories or in this case, paper animals, they become active creators instead of passive consumers. Â And this creation component is the key to learning, growth and a fulfilling life (or afternoon.)
This seems relatively simple, but it functions at a much deeper level than may be first evident. Some of the most wonderful experiences I have with my son occur when we are playing with very simple toys made from very simple household stuff. In these cases, we have to visualize and make things ourselves. They are not pre-manufactured for us. We make things out of paper. Or sticks in the yard. Or pieces of a scrap wood. Or, for lack of a better word, junk. This is one reason I love sandboxes so much. They are perfect for making entire worlds. Just grab leaves and sticks and suddenly, you’re building castles with green flags waving high over the battlements.
When you take something utterly simple, like a piece of paper, or sand, or sticks and make something that fully qualifies as a toy, you drive home a very important lesson. That we, as human beings, have the capacity to make something from nothing: to create a story where there was none before. Once you set that idea in motion for a child (or a parent), the results are hugely empowering. It frees everyone from the Toys-R-Us trap of more action figures and more batteries and more, more, more, and places you instead in a space where you feel like you have created a moment that is utterly one of a kind.
Why does this matter? Because as human beings, we self-actualize when we are in a creative space. We define ourselves to ourselves when we express our creative side. We self identify as creative beings. And it is this awareness of our innate power of creation that goes on to define our relationship to the world (passive or active), our capacity to think freely, our willingness to create new solutions, and ultimately our impact as adults.
Don’t get me wrong. Consumption is fun. I’ve watched a lot of Phineus and Ferb. I’ve eaten breakfast biscuits at McDonalds. My son and I have consumed with the best of them. But it’s the act of being a creator with my son that allows me to watch cartoons with him as well. Comfortable in the knowledge that we can and do create our own stories, too. That we shift from passive consumers to the active creators. And we do it all the time.
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We will be creating a book of paper animal patterns (Titled Paper Animal Power) to help parents jump start their paper animal play. Look for it soon on the iPad and online.
