From Our Heads to Our Hearts to Our Hands: Encouraging A Maker Mindset
”There are no seven wonders of the world in the eyes of a child. There are seven million.”
Walt Streightiff
Children are naturally curious about the world we live in, and there are so many ways to inspire them to take innovative risks, think of new ideas, and create!
Encouraging kids to have a maker mindset is true play-based learning. It’s about making sure we give our children opportunities to have unstructured, creative time so that they can see materials and think, “What can I invent?” The unstructured experiences will allow them to make connections, be innovative, and have fun while taking risks.
How can we do this? How about trying one of these ideas?
Create Your Own At Home Personal Maker Space by finding a special spot in your home, gathering the right tools and materials, organizing it all, and adding some exciting inspiration. The space could be a corner or your child’s room or an entire basement/playroom. Look for craft store rolling desks and carts for easy organization and add tools such as scissors, masking tape, and a hot glue gun with an insulated nozzle for children at least six years old. For crafting materials, recyclables are perfect and you can even call your local recycling center to see if they will allow you to take cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, and more. Lots of times old appliances and toys are useful in a maker space because that can be disassembled and give kids lots of interesting parts. For inspiration, search the kid’s section here, at Maker Faire, this collection of projects at instructables, and this site. which is full of cost-friendly ideas perfect for at home maker spaces.
Try Kiwi Crate, which is a monthly subscription service that delivers materials and inspiration for projects for creative and curious kids, right to your door. Check out this DIY section for ideas organized by theme (nature, recipes, science, etc.) and by material (balloons, clay, glitter, googly eyes, etc.). Projects are rated for messiness factor, age range and estimated time. I blogged about my son’s experience with Kiwi Crates here on this blog post.
Build Your Own Kit to complete one or more of the fantastic projects here on this link, and then let your child think about what other creative possibilities there could be if they used the same or similar materials on an invention of their own.
Check Out PBS’ Design Squad Nation for awesome opportunities for kids to watch, design, build, participate in games, and share designs with the community.
Have a Movie-Inspired STEM Night by checking out this list of family movies and really cool maker projects to extend them. We want to try The Lego Movie ideas soon!
Try an Online Family Maker Camp like this one which provides inspiration, guidance and an opportunity to share what you do with others online. They have many projects that will help you get started and continue to develop new skills and a maker mindset. Also, Family Maker Camp will connect you with a community of makers of all ages who have a broad range of interests and skills. They will even introduce you to makers online and have them talk about their projects and their process.
Share one (or all) of the following Maker Mindset Encouraging Books with your kids and let them lead the way and decide what they want to create and how they want to go about it.
Be a Maker by Katey Howes
Dreaming Up by Christy Hale
One Plastic Bag by Miranda Paul
Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert
What Do You Do With An Idea? by Kobi Yamada
I Have an Idea by Herve Tullet
Guitar Genius by Kim Tomsic
Min Makes a Machine by Emily Arnold McCully
The Broken Bees’ Nest by Lydia Lukidis
Now Make This by Thomas Barnthaler
What do you think? Could you see yourself trying one or more of these ideas to encourage a maker mindset? What would you add to the list? I would love to hear your suggestions.
Thank you so much for visiting the blog today. I hope you found this post worthwhile. I truly appreciate your time and attention.
If you would like to connect further, please feel free to leave me a comment, message, or email and I will get back to you in a timely fashion.
Yours truly,
Jennifer
“Creativity embeds knowledge so that it can become practice. We move what we’re learning from our heads to our hearts through our hands. We are born makers, and creativity is the ultimate act of integration — it is how we fold our experiences into our being… The Asaro tribe of Indonesia and Papua New Guinea has a beautiful saying: “Knowledge is only a rumor until it lives in the muscle.”
Brene Brown
