• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

A Quiet Simple Life with Sallie Borrink

Simple Living, Homeschooling, Faith, Homemaking, & Books

  • New? Start Here
  • Blog
  • Free: The Simple Life Library
  • A Full Year Shopping Pass
  • The Shop
    • Digital Products Terms of Use
    • View Your Orders
    • Go To Your Downloads
    • Lost Password Help
  • Forums
    • Log In or Sign Up
  • Search
  • New? Start Here
  • Blog
  • Free: The Simple Life Library
  • A Full Year Shopping Pass
  • The Shop
    • Digital Products Terms of Use
    • View Your Orders
    • Go To Your Downloads
    • Lost Password Help
  • Forums
    • Log In or Sign Up
  • Search
  • Simple Living
    • My Favorite Simple Living Books
  • Homeschooling
    • Editable Homeschool Planners (2021-2022)
    • 10 Days of Homeschool Encouragement {Free Printables}
    • 100 Resources for Getting Started with Home Education
    • The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling a Right Brained Child
  • Christian Faith
  • Homemaking
    • The Prudent & Prepared Homemaker
    • Sallie’s Favorite Comfort Food Recipes
  • Gracious Christian Parenting
    • Parenting & Enjoying Your Only Child
    • Parenting & Enjoying Your Highly Sensitive & Spirited Child
    • Parenting & Enjoying Your High Need Baby or Child
  • Gifted & 2e
    • Raising Gifted Children in the Christian Faith
    • 100 Gifted/2e Children Resources
    • 100 Resources for Parenting a 2e Child
  • Learning With Themes
  • Free Printables
    • Free Learning Printables & Worksheets
    • Free Homemaking Printables
    • Free Holiday Printables
    • Digital Products Terms of Use
  • Holidays
  • Books
    • My Reading Tickler List
  • Christian Devotionals
    • Morning Hope
    • Eventide Blessing
    • Streams in the Desert
  • Home-Based Business
  • Gen X
  • Newsletter Archive
  • Support This Site
  • Contact Me
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimers & Affiliates
  • Simple Living
    • My Favorite Simple Living Books
  • Homeschooling
    • Editable Homeschool Planners (2021-2022)
    • 10 Days of Homeschool Encouragement {Free Printables}
    • 100 Resources for Getting Started with Home Education
    • The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling a Right Brained Child
  • Christian Faith
  • Homemaking
    • The Prudent & Prepared Homemaker
    • Sallie’s Favorite Comfort Food Recipes
  • Gracious Christian Parenting
    • Parenting & Enjoying Your Only Child
    • Parenting & Enjoying Your Highly Sensitive & Spirited Child
    • Parenting & Enjoying Your High Need Baby or Child
  • Gifted & 2e
    • Raising Gifted Children in the Christian Faith
    • 100 Gifted/2e Children Resources
    • 100 Resources for Parenting a 2e Child
  • Learning With Themes
  • Free Printables
    • Free Learning Printables & Worksheets
    • Free Homemaking Printables
    • Free Holiday Printables
    • Digital Products Terms of Use
  • Holidays
  • Books
    • My Reading Tickler List
  • Christian Devotionals
    • Morning Hope
    • Eventide Blessing
    • Streams in the Desert
  • Home-Based Business
  • Gen X
  • Newsletter Archive
  • Support This Site

Must-Haves for Homeschooling a Creative Girl

You are here: Home /Homeschooling /Homeschooling a Highly Creative Child / Must-Haves for Homeschooling a Creative Girl

September 25, 2013//  by Sallie//  3 Comments

Post may contain affiliate links to materials I recommend. Read my full disclosure statement.

Support A Quiet Simple Life By Sharing
  •  
  • 253
  •  
  •  
  •  
    253
    Shares

My husband and I are blessed with a creative little girl. She has more imagination in her pinky than I have in my entire body. She lives in a world of possibilities where her stuffed animals are her real friends and she’s never met a plot she didn’t want to recreate!

So how do you home educate a creative girl?  Creatively, of course!

It really has taken some work on my part to figure out how to effectively homeschool Caroline. Her approach to life, learning style, and interests are significantly different from my own. So I study her and try to understand what makes her tick. And then I go from there.

A big part of trying to homeschool her effectively has to involve honoring the creativity that God has given to her and finding ways to make it work for us as homeschoolers rather than seeing it as something extra when there is extra time.

The First Must-Haves Aren’t Things

The first few must-haves for effectively homeschooling a creative girl aren’t things. They are actually character traits the parents must have or make the effort to develop. I’ve learned that a large part of effectively educating a creative girl has to do with me and my attitude.

Patience

This is a must. Creative girls are romantic, dreamy, and often get lost in their own world. They don’t hear you the first time. Or sometimes the second time. I’ve learned to be patient.

A Willingness to Adapt

I’ve learned that sometimes it is just easier to adapt to Caroline’s natural bent than try to make her bend in a different direction. My preferences for how something should be done are not laws of nature and God. They are my preferences and that is all. Her preferences are just as important. I’ve learned to adapt.

A Willingness to Play

Honestly, this has been one of the harder things for me to learn to do. I’m not naturally inclined to imaginative play. I wasn’t that way as a child and so I’m certainly not that way as an adult. I’ve had to learn to make an effort to enter into the creative, imaginative world of my daughter and enjoy it for her sake.

Learning to Live with Mess

Creative girls make messes. I mean messes of epic proportions. In the frenzy to find that perfect item for whatever current imaginative thing is developing, the creative girl can leave a trail of semi-destruction. She’s so focused she doesn’t even think about the mess developing around her. I’ve learned to reach a compromise. I live with the mess for a time so as not to disrupt her creative flow. Then we clean up so there is room for more creativity to come.

Sense of Humor

Creative girls are often also funny girls. But that isn’t necessarily what I mean here. This has more to do with the previous four things I listed. If you are a serious mom and tend toward being task-oriented (like me), you have to learn to have a sense of humor in the difficult times when your daughter’s creativity is running in direct opposition to your taskiness. (Yes, I made that word up.) I’m famous for saying “Laugh or cry” and having a creative child will give you plenty of opportunities to make that choice.

Must-Have Items

You might think that some of these don’t seem like typical things you would see on a homeschool list. And you would be right. For our family of three creative people (each in our own way), education is about much more than books, paper and pencils.  Our educational approach involves many different aspects, especially including play since our daughter is still young (second grade).

So here is my list of must haves that have been tremendous positives with our creative daughter over the past four years or so!

Craft Cabinet

We have a craft cabinet that I keep well stocked with all kinds of materials (see my list). From time to time we take Caroline to Hobby Lobby or Michael’s and give her a certain amount of money to spend on new craft materials. Keeping an eye on the crafts sales on Amazon is another good way to add to a craft stash.

Must-Haves for Homeschooling a Creative Girl

Easel

We purchased an easel with all the easel supplies for Christmas when Caroline was three. It has been a tremendous purchase and one that every creative child should have. It offers so much – painting with a brush, finger painting, drawing, white board, chalk board, etc. It’s just a great learning tool.

Dress Up Clothes

Dress up clothes are an indispensable part of life for a creative little girl. My parents bought Caroline a dress up trunk from Costco when she was three. It was full of fancy dresses and other accessories. I regularly added to it by picking up clearance jewelry, fancy scarves and such whenever I came across them. The dresses that dragged on the floor when she first got them now come up to her knees and she still wears them.

Tinker Toys

Tinker Toys might seem like a strange item to have on a list for creative girls, but this has been one of the most used toys in our home over the past five years. We purchased three large round containers of pink and purple Tinker Toys from Toys R Us for Caroline over a period of a couple of years.

We started off with one and it simply wasn’t enough for all the ideas Caroline and David had. We added another one and they were still running out of the pieces they needed for their massive creations. We bought one more and now they can create pretty much anything Caroline comes up with. They’ve built houses (with a bed sheet roof) and horses and cars and helicopters and playground sets for the stuffed animals. (As a bonus, it’s part math and part science every time she uses them!)

Puppet Materials

It started with a puppet kit we purchased while out of town. Over the years Caroline has added many other sock puppets she has created either on her own or with David’s help. The puppets make regular appearances during play time. This is one of those crafts with a long-lasting purpose that I appreciate. (I also just discovered this wood spoon puppet kit which made me realize we should get some wooden spoons and try these! Caroline would love this!) On my wish list for Caroline is a puppet theater.  Maybe some day!

A Few Closing Thoughts

Here are two simple things to keep in mind when homeschooling your creative girl.

Good Stories

Whether it is picture books, chapter books, or DVDs, it’s important to surround a creative girl with good stories. Wonderful stories are like highly nutritious food for a creative little girl!

Time

Creative girls need time. Lots of it. Their minds are full of creativity. Their imagination is a huge part of who God created them to be. In order to make the most of these precious gifts, they need time. Lots and lots of unstructured time. Creativity doesn’t function well in a rush. Imagination needs time to run its course. Give your creative little girl the gift of lots of time. She will be blessed because of it.

Discover the other items iHN bloggers consider must haves

 


Support A Quiet Simple Life By Sharing
  •  
  • 253
  •  
  •  
  •  
    253
    Shares
  •  
    253
    Shares
  •  
  • 253
  •  
  •  

Category: Gifted/2e Homeschooling, Homeschooling a Highly Creative Child, Right Brained Learners

About Sallie

Sallie Schaaf Borrink is a wife, mother, homebody, and autodidact. She's a published author, former teacher, and former campus ministry staff member. Sallie owns a home-based graphic design and web design business with her husband (DavidandSallie.com). She hasn't achieved her dream of being a professor at a small conservative college in a small town, but hope springs eternal.

Please Support This Advertising-Free Site

A Quiet Simple Life is an advertising-free website that is funded by sales from my shop, affiliate sales, and reader financial support. If you value the content I produce and would like to see it reach more people, please consider actively supporting my work today.

The Simple Life Library - Free!

Receive this free PDF collection today and encouraging emails in the days ahead.

Check your inbox (or spam folder) to confirm your subscription and receive The Simple Life Library.

More Posts You May Enjoy:

Our Family’s Positive Experience with Minecraft

Relaxed Homeschooling in Middle School 2

Relaxed Homeschooling in Middle School

Homeschooling a Child with Language-Based Learning Disabilities (LBLD)

The Worries Every Homeschool Mom Has and Why You Can Stop Worrying 2

The Worries Every Homeschool Mom Has (and Why You Can Stop Worrying)

The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling a Right-Brained Child 2

The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling a Right-Brained Child

How a Homeschooled Dreamer Does Preschool Math 2

How a Homeschooled Dreamer Does Preschool Math

From Chaos to Computer Science – Homeschooling a Very ADHD Son

Daily Life and Priorities in a Creative Family 2

Daily Life and Priorities in a Creative Family

Homeschool Curriculum for a Right-brained, Spirited Child 2

Homeschool Curriculum for a Right Brained, Spirited Child

Our First Year of Homeschooling – A Look Back at the Ups and Downs of Kindergarten 2

Our First Year of Homeschooling – A Look Back at the Ups and Downs of Kindergarten

Creating an Arts and Crafts Cabinet 2

Creating a Homeschool Arts and Craft Cabinet

Why I Embraced Twaddle for My Creative, Right Brained Child 2

Why I Embraced “Twaddle” for My Creative, Right-Brained Child

Previous Post: «Homeschooling, Homework and Excessive Expectations on Children Today 2 Homeschooling, Homework, and Excessive Expectations on Children Today
Next Post: Potato: A Tale from the Great Depression – Learning from The Great Depression »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Heather

    September 26, 2013 at 10:58 am

    Great list! We have a creative girl too. Our messes are mostly in the form of fabric and yarn!

    Reply
  2. Paula

    September 26, 2013 at 1:36 pm

    Loved this! My creative girl is 17 and I am so thankful for all the years she got to spend crafting and making messes. I remember when she was 12 and I was wishing she would just pick one hobby. She loved embroidery, candle making, soap making, stamp collecting, making miniatures, crocheting, baking etc! She is thriving at our local community college and loves majoring in graphic design. Her room is filled with books and there’s always a creative mess in there.

    Reply
  3. Ticia

    October 6, 2013 at 10:51 pm

    Oh my yes soooo many crafts need to go into crafting. I agree.

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




 

Thank you for your comment. I read and appreciate each one even if I am unable to respond.

Primary Sidebar

Welcome! I’m Sallie and I encourage women to create a life of peace, understanding, joy, beauty, and faith. I am unapologetically conservative both theologically and politically. I value liberty and freedom to live quiet and simple lives. Please start here. ♥

The Simple Life Library - Free!

Receive this free PDF collection today and encouraging emails in the days ahead.

Check your inbox (or spam folder) to confirm your subscription and receive The Simple Life Library.

Access Everything in My Shop for a Year

Categories

Popular Today in Homeschooling

  • Classical Conversations Negatives and Why We Didn't JoinClassical Conversations Negatives and Why We…
  • Why I Homeschool in the Afternoon and Not the MorningWhy I Homeschool in the Afternoon and Not…
  • Relaxed Homeschooling Curriculum for a Creative Gifted ChildRelaxed Homeschooling Curriculum for a…
  • How We Ended Up Relaxed Homeschoolers and What It Looks LikeHow We Ended Up Relaxed Homeschoolers and…
  • Homeschooling Curriculum for Gifted/2e Visual-Spatial LearnersHomeschooling Curriculum for Gifted/2e…
  • Middle School Chemistry for Relaxed HomeschoolersMiddle School Chemistry for Relaxed Homeschoolers
  • Why We're Relaxed Homeschoolers (and Not Unschoolers)Why We’re Relaxed Homeschoolers (and…
  • Relaxed Homeschooling in Seventh GradeRelaxed Homeschooling in Seventh Grade
  • WriteShop for Homeschool Writing and Gifted/2e LearnersWriteShop for Homeschool Writing and…
  • Relaxed Homeschooling Math in Early ElementaryRelaxed Homeschooling Math in Early Elementary
  • A Sample Kindergarten Homeschool Schedule for a Creative, Dreamer ChildA Sample Kindergarten Homeschool Schedule…
  • Sticker Dolly Dressing - Sticker Books as Learning ToolsSticker Dolly Dressing – Sticker Books…

Our History Timeline

Recent Comments – Join a Discussion

  • Sallie on Teachers Pay Teachers and Equity Funding
  • Sallie on Teachers Pay Teachers and Equity Funding
  • Sallie on Teachers Pay Teachers and Equity Funding
  • Debbie on Teachers Pay Teachers and Equity Funding
  • Sallie on I Removed My Products From Teachers Pay Teachers Due To Their Anti-Racist Agenda
  • Sallie on I Removed My Products From Teachers Pay Teachers Due To Their Anti-Racist Agenda
  • Sallie on I Removed My Products From Teachers Pay Teachers Due To Their Anti-Racist Agenda
  • Sallie on I Removed My Products From Teachers Pay Teachers Due To Their Anti-Racist Agenda
  • Sallie on Simple Living This Week No. 64

Popular Pages This Week

  • ForumsForums
  • Copywork Printables in Print & CursiveCopywork Printables in Print & Cursive
  • The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling a Right Brained ChildThe Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling a Right…
  • 100 Resources for Parenting a 2e Child100 Resources for Parenting a 2e Child
  • Parenting & Enjoying Your High Need Baby or ChildParenting & Enjoying Your High Need…
  • Parenting & Enjoying Your Highly Sensitive & Spirited ChildParenting & Enjoying Your Highly…
  • A Full Year Shopping PassA Full Year Shopping Pass
  • Parenting & Enjoying Your Only ChildParenting & Enjoying Your Only Child
  • My Favorite Simple Living BooksMy Favorite Simple Living Books
  • My Reading Tickler ListMy Reading Tickler List

Tags

10 Days of Homeschool Encouragement (10)Animal Stories (15)Asynchronous Development in Gifted/2e Children (12)Beauty (10)Books for Girls (17)Caroline's Art (10)Celebrating Christmas (27)Clutter (19)Contentment (17)Decorating the Home (9)Dyscalculia (11)Dysgraphia (18)Fall/Autumn Themed Activities & Books (20)Farm Themed Activities & Books (14)First Grade (39)Fourth Grade (15)Free Word Searches for Kids (16)Gifted Adults (10)Highly Sensitive Children & Adults (12)History Learning Activities & Books (34)Home Organization (12)Homeschool Organization & Supplies (12)Home Themed Activities & Books (10)Hymns (25)Introverts (11)Joy (15)Kindergarten (24)Laura Ingalls Wilder & Little House Books (15)Learning Websites (9)Living in Difficult Times (20)Making Choices (17)Margin (11)My Homeschool Journal (12)Online Homeschool Classes (13)Prayer (17)Quitting Facebook & Social Media (12)Reading Learning Activities (11)Recipes - Breakfast & Brunch (12)Recipes - Desserts and Treats (11)Recipes - Main Dish (17)Science Learning Activities (14)Second Grade (41)Stuffed Animals (10)Third Grade (31)Twice-Exceptional (2e) (26)

Thank you for supporting my work which helps support our family. ♥

One Time Donation - Stripe

Stripe Donation
Processing ...

 

One Time Donation - PayPal


Monthly Supporter - PayPal

  • Contact Me
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclaimers & Affiliates

Site Footer

© 2005-2020 Sallie Borrink, All Rights Reserved · Website by David & Sallie Borrink
Sallie Borrink theme, running on the Genesis Framework on WordPress · Hosting on InMotion Hosting.