Allow for your child to make simple choices, such as what to eat for dinner or where to go on a weekend. This encourages them to think independently, exercising an important aspect of creativity.
Encourage independence from caregivers and media. A child that is constantly entertained by others or the television will struggle to find things to do on their own without access to media.
Provide items in your child's environment to stimulate their imagination. Drawing supplies, blocks, books, and random craft supplies can all contribute to elaborate dramatic play schemes.
Brainstorm different uses for items with your child. For example, a cardboard tube can be a telescope, tower, or person. Validate all of your child's ideas, praising him or her for such an impressive imagination.
Ask your child open-ended questions to stretch their understanding and help them to postulate ideas. Ask your child "what if" questions. "What if people could fly?" "What if people lived in space?" "What if dolphins walked on land?" Involve your child in figuring out ways to make an improvement upon something. "How can we clean up the living room faster?" "How could we get water to the flowers without spilling any?" "What could we do to make the ball bounce higher?" Being read a book is an excellent opportunity for a child to exercise their creativity. Ask your child what could happen next, or how a character feels (and why).
Play with your child. Work together to establish dramatic play scenarios, using substitute items for props when needed. Pretend play allows for children to imagine life from a different perspective, an important building block of creativity.
Be prepared for "messy play." While it may seem that your child is playing in the mud simply to make more work for you, in fact there is a great deal that is learned by playing with such things. When they are finished playing, make it a rule that they have to help clean up. If faced with the choice of getting messy then cleaning it up and not getting messy at all, almost all children will choose the former option.
Engage in story telling. Start a story and take turns building upon it. Follow your child's lead in what the mood of the story should be. Expect most stories to be more on the silly, impossible side. Since this is just a story, no idea is too far-fetched.
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