Great Toys and Gifts that Promote Creativity and Imagination

If you are looking for birthday, Hannukkah or Christmas gifts, toys that promote creativity are a great choice. According to a creativity test called the Torrance Test, creativity is in decline among American children. There are probably several factors that are causing this creativity decline. More time in front of TV and computer screens is one possible cause.

Toys and crafts that promote creativity may help make your child a more creative child. They will also improve motor skills and help your child learn how to follow instructions. They can help get your child away from screens and encourage them to use their imaginations. The following is a list of some great arts and crafts gifts for a child who loves to create.

Drawing is an excellent way to promote creativity and improve motor skills. If your child can't write yet, drawing is a great way to get them ready for writing. Some great drawing toys are:

Magna Doodle - you can get large and small size Magna Doodles, which use an attached magnetic drawing pen. The larger Magna Doodles come with shape stamps as well.

Aqua Doodle - you can get different kinds of Aqua Doodles. Some are based on characters like Thomas the Tank Engine and the Disney Princesses. Simply fill the pen with water. The water brings out the colors in the picture. Aqua Doodle kits sometimes come with blank sheets that kids can use to draw their own pictures.

Alex Toys Draw like A Pro - this is a great learn to draw toy. It uses a projector with 124 slides. Simply turn on the projector, insert a slide and then trace it onto paper.

Easel - easels are great for drawing and painting. Most come with a dry erase board on one side and a chalk board on the other. To paint, simply tape a blank sheet to the dry erase side. If you don't have a lot of space you can get smaller table top easels.

Peg Boards are a great way to promote creativity and improve motor skills. Kids can build designs by putting small beads onto a peg board. The designs called be fused together with an iron. A container of beads, some boards and special ironing paper are required.

Sticky Mosaics don't promote creativity but they can be a lot of fun for creative and artistic children. These toys use stickers that correlate to either a number or shape on board. You can get a lot of different themes, such as fairies, pirates and pets. I prefer the Orb Factory brand to the Alex brand because they use foam stickers rather than regular stickers. The finished picture looks a lot nicer.

Weaving kits are promote creativity and require kids to pay attention to detail. Kids will have fun creating patterns and things like purses and pot holders.

Beading and Jewelry kits make building necklaces and bracelets fun. They are also good for motor skills because kids have to put small beads onto strings.

Stamping kits are great art toys.You can get lots of different themes.

IlluStory lets kids write and illustrate their own book.Kids can also design the cover and create an author bio. The kit includes a postage paid envelope to send the completed book back to the company. It is then made into a professionally produced hardcover book and returned to your child. It will make your child feel like a real author.

Alex Pop Stick Art allows kids to make giraffe, catepillar, peacock, flowers, chicken and cow puppets. This will help kids learn how to follow directions as they put the various puppets together.

Alex Sticky Foam Scenes also help kids learn how to follow instructions to create their scenes.