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As parents, we’re always on the lookout for new ways to nurture our kids’ creativity and seemingly limitless imagination. We’re here to tell you that kids’ dreams can be a big source of creativity you can harness to support your kids’ development – and that’s great news. Surprised? Read on.
From creative confidence to out-of-the-box thinking and problem-solving, the importance of creative play in children’s development has hit the spotlight big time. In 2024, the UN General Assembly even adopted the first annual International Day of Play, to help every child fulfil their potential. Basically, creativity in children is huge right now.
And with good reason. Having creative freedom – the freedom to imagine new things, to test out new ideas and try out new combinations – can help kids become resilient problem-solvers in life.
Thinking outside the box, creative problem-solving, and the ability to communicate creatively and effectively (what’s widely referred to as storytelling) are hugely in-demand skills for the future – and powerful qualities to help cultivate for your kids in the present.
Dreams have long been recognized as a gateway to the subconscious mind, where imagination thrives. Some of humanity’s greatest ideas and inventions have first been thought of in dreams, from the Periodic Table of Elements to Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein!
It gets even better when you consider that pretty much everybody dreams – which means that the creative power of dreams is accessible to everyone.
Including kids. Especially kids. And their parents!
Engaging in creative activities around dreams can boost imagination in children (and make them excited about bedtime, which is a big plus).
Here are some dream-based creative kids’ activities for kids you can do at home, starting today:
One effective way to inspire creativity in kids is by encouraging them to share their dreams. And kids love to talk about their dreams!
Talking about dreams is widely considered to be the best way to remember them. And remembering is the start of unlocking all that beautiful, creative dream storytelling.
So, you can start a new morning ritual – maybe over breakfast. Who had the wildest, weirdest, funniest dream last night? Let’s share and see! Now you’ve got a new source of play- and story-starters ready to go, first thing in the morning.
Grab that spare box full of LEGO® bricks you keep at home: they can be an awesome means to recreate the wild and fantastic characters and stories of kids’ dreams. For a bit of guidance, have a look through some of our recent LEGO DREAMZzz™ sets, which mash-up everyday logic with the very-much-not-everyday-logic of the magical, fantastical dream world.
As often happens in dreams, these sets are mashups of things kids love: animals, vehicles, dinosaurs, epic buildings... If kids can dream it, they can mash it up – and with LEGO bricks, they can literally build it.
Let’s crack out the art supplies and watch the imagination flow freely as kids paint and draw scenes from their nighttime adventures. Drawing and painting are powerful forms of creative storytelling and self-expression, so when you compound them with the no-holds-barred creativity of dreams, you’ve got yourself a winning formula.
Their finished drawing makes for an awesome building blueprint, too: time to take those LEGO bricks out again and build the dream in 3D. Now we’re firmly into creative play territory!
How about a sketch show? You can encourage your kids to act out their dreams through role-playing. You can always help them if they ask for props to replicate something from their dreams… but your main job may be to be an enthusiastic audience member in their performance.
(And you know what makes for truly awesome stage props? That’s right, LEGO bricks. They really do!)
Not just for all the budding little writers out there, but literally for everyone – including grown-ups! Encourage children to keep a dream journal next to their bed, where they can jot down their dreams as soon as they wake up. This practice not only helps them remember their dreams but also provides a source of inspiration for any future creative projects they might have.
With each of these activities, there is an open-ended possibility for kids to expand on the stories of their dreams. We always seem to be waking up right at the best moment in our dream, don’t we? It happens to kids too, so they’ll likely jump at the chance to continue playing out the dream once they’re awake.
And if a dream ended badly, then you can activate their storytelling skills by asking them to draw, write, build or play out alternative endings! Kids can even take inspiration from the creative ways Mateo and the gang battle against the evil Nightmare King in the LEGO DREAMZzz theme. Goodies versus baddies can be so much fun when kids feel in control.
Kids’ creativity is very tightly linked with their ability to imagine and fantasize. To nurture this, children need to explore different fictional universes, which work as creative canvases for them to develop their own imaginative stories.
The LEGO DREAMZzz theme is one such universe, and we created it that way on purpose. In fact, it’s the most-researched universe we’ve ever built.
We spent 3.5 years consulting with more than 30,000 kids and shoppers. A whopping two-thirds of kids told us how important dreams were to their creativity, which guided us to make this show about the limitless power of dreams.
Everything about the LEGO DREAMZzz theme is tailored to boost kids’ creativity: the mashups that make up the sets, the story-led building instructions that let kids choose which adventure to build from the get-go, the LEGO DREAMZzz hit show and its awesome characters and plot twists... always tapping into the power of playful problem-solving, giving kids the chance to solve creative missions by building in different ways.
In other words, the full creative power of dreams in action.
As for YOUR next adventure, we’ve created an entire LEGO DREAMZzz article, all about how you can help your child sleep better.
We’re also very excited to launch, from July 2023, a dedicated section of our website related entirely to Family activities. It’s good stuff, check it out.
