WiseTip: AL-INI-M0818-P01A

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Approaches to Learning

Promoting Initiative

Follow your child’s lead when your child initiates play activities.

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Jeffrey, B., & Craft, A. (2004). Teaching creatively and teaching for creativity: Distinctions and relationships. Educational Studies, 30, 77-87.
Prentice, R. (2000). Creativity: a reaffirmation of its place in early childhood education, Curriculum Journal, 11, 2, 145–58.

WHY IT MATTERS

Follow your child's lead in activities and conversations.

Head Start. (2015). Head Start Early Learning Outcomes Framework: Ages birth to five. Retrieved from https://eclkc.ohs.acf.hhs.gov/hslc/hs/sr/approach/pdf/ohsframework.pdf

Ask open-ended questions and keep rich conversations going. Acknowledge, learn about, and build on the child's interests. For creativity and initiative to flourish, it is necessary for learners to be happy and actively involved in the process of their own learning.

Prentice, R. (2000). Creativity: a reaffirmation of its place in early childhood education, Curriculum Journal, 11, 2, 145–58.

When children control the investigation of knowledge, they have the opportunity and authority to be innovative.

Jeffrey, B., & Craft, A. (2004). Teaching creatively and teaching for creativity: Distinctions and relationships. Educational Studies, 30, 77-87.