One day here at our Family Communications' office, we received a large envelope containing eleven pages of music paper and a letter which said, "Enclosed please find an opera, no less, written by a six-year-old viewer who was inspired by your programs." And there it was, a little boy's opera about an owl and a tiger and a king and an archeologist who discover that what others thought was a monster was really just a blinking flashlight caught in a tunnel.

An opera by a six year old! Of course, his mother had written the words and the notes on the music paper for him, and the characters are ones he knows from visits on our program, but the opera is his. He had seen our Neighborhood operas and had heard talk about an opera as "a story for which you sing the words instead of saying them." He wanted to make one -- and someone encouraged him to try!

Most children don't write operas, nevertheless, every child is born with a unique endowment which gives him or her an opportunity to make something inherently different from everybody else in the world. You see it when you watch children play. No two mud pies are the same. Block buildings have infinite variety. Paintings and dances take on their creators' touches, and later hairstyles, jewelry and language. When you see it all happening, you know that something from inside is being shared with the rest of the world.

No matter how children choose to express themselves, they can know, as we do, the pleasure of creating something unique from inside ourselves. Each person has something no one else has or will ever have. Encouraging children to discover their uniqueness and helping them develop its expression can be one of the greatest delights of parenthood.

Helpful Hints to Encourage Creativity:

For "There's-nothing-to-do" times:

• Offer crayons, paper, and "throw-aways", like paper towel tubes and popsicle sticks, and say, "What can you make from these things?"
• Talk about ways that you need to be creative in your everyday life -- planning meals, running errands, substituting ingredients in recipes, etc. Creativity isn't just for artists!
• Stimulate creative thinking by asking questions, like "What if everything was purple? What if you were a giant?"
• Create stories with your child by offering a "story-starter," like "Once upon a time, a mother went shopping, what do you think she was going to buy?"

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