Kids love to make things. Everyone is born creative – if you feel like you don’t have a creative bone in your body, it’s not because you lack some inherent trait. It’s because your natural instinct to imagine was educated out of you by a school system that values standardized testing over creativity. That’s something you can help your kids avoid.

Creativity isn’t a mysterious trait only possessed by artists and entrepreneurs. It’s something that can be encouraged and cultivated, like any skill or body of knowledge. And business today is hungry for innovation. Businesses are looking for leaders who can think outside the box and come up with their industry’s next Big Idea. That takes creativity.

Signing up your kids for classes that foster creativity helps them continue to explore and nurture their imaginative side.

1 Photography

The technology in smartphones and tablets means that kids have more access to cameras than any time in the past. A photography class can give kids skills way beyond your average selfie. Photography classes teach kids about timing, focus, perspective, and framing. They may also learn how to use editing technology and bring their digital photos to new heights.

Photography is an outlet to share their creative perspective and refine their skills.

2 Video Game Coding Classes for Kids

Learning how to make a video game combines creativity with math and problem-solving skills. All creative endeavors come down to problem solving one way or another: how do you use the materials you have to create the effect you want? When it comes to making video games, the solutions lie in the coding language and what you can tell a computer to do.

You can find coding classes at Real Programming 4 Kids for a wide range of ages and ability levels. From age 7 up, coding courses for kids introduce the logic and language of coding. Intermediate and more advanced levels begin teaching kids the coding languages used by professional video game developers today.

Coding is a great way for students who are more mathematically inclined or interested in computers to exercise their imaginative muscles.

3 Painting and Drawing

Visual art requires specialized skills and learning how to use the tools of the medium: paint, brushes, pencils, charcoal. It takes discipline and patience to learn how to use your materials and transform it into the vision you see in your head on the page.

Painting and drawing starts with the imagination, but it becomes about the process of making something come to life.

Behind every creative pursuit is a valuable lesson. Not only are kids being taught skills that help them bring their projects to life, they’re also learning the patience and discipline it takes to master those skills.

An arts education is far more than time to play or imagine. PBS reports that kids who participate in the arts regularly (three hours a day at least three days in a week) are four times more likely to excel at academics and receive some kind of recognition for it.

Arts are an important part of childhood development from a young age to the teenage years. Sign your kids up for creative classes today. For the Silo, Mila Urosevic.