Food for Creative Thought

What is creative family life? It describes a home that is a sanctuary from the modern chaos around us. How do we keep our children protected from the violence on television and video games ? This is the dilemma of concerned parents these days. Playing board or card games together, working on hobbies, storytelling, playing music, or just talking used to be the normal agenda for family evenings in simpler times. Our challenge is to accept technology intelligently, not to fall into the trap of letting it replace real family time or actual parenting.

The brain of a developing child is complex, yet across our popular culture many parents put more care and concern into how they feed and train their animals than how they nourish, train and develop tender and impressionable young minds.

It seems to be common knowledge that even a puppy's early experiences will stamp a behavior or response into their psyche. But this concept is widely ignored in rearing human children these days. One historical and literary example that comes to mind is from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Farmer Boy where Almonzo was not even to go near the young colt while his father was training him. The development of that colt's understanding of human interaction was so important to Almonzo's father that the young Almonzo, inexperienced in how to treat the animal, had to wait until he had earned the right to even go near it and participate in the colt's trainin g. Exposure is training when it comes to the very young.

AD/HD is one controversial condition that has been blamed on watching too much television by some, but other studies prove that it is likely a genetic trait. Either way, too much "screen time" can't be good for any child given that one of the needs of the AD/HD child is for an orderly, quiet, structured, environment with plenty of patient adult interaction and consequences for misbehavior. Sounds like a prescription for everyone, really.

The antonym for the word "creative" would be "destructive." So would it stand to reason that we cannot be standing still long in this creative ---destructive continuum? If we are not moving forward and being creative and purposeful with our time, which is the stuff of life, are we then destroying something that God put in us to develop and not squander?

What do you think? How do you encourage creativity and good behavior in your family? What is your favorite way of keeping peace and harmony in your home? How do you develop an appetite in your children for "real" life vs. "virtual" life?