Do you ever wonder if you're giving your children enough? Have you left gaps in their education?

The idea that we need to teach them everything they'll need to succeed can be scary!

Fortunately, the idea that you could teach "everything" is a myth. Let me explain...

I was 10 years old when American astronaut Neil Armstrong walked on the moon. It was definitely one of those "I remember exactly where I was" moments..."one step for a man, one giant step for mankind."

I remember my grandmother staring at the television screen in amazement. "Imagine!" she marveled. "When I was about your age, my father had to use a neighbor's crank telephone to call the doctor the night my baby sister was born. The doctor hitched his horse to a buggy and drove to our house to attend my mother...and I just watched a man land a rocket ship on the moon, talk to us, and send back wireless moving pictures!" She shook her head. "We've come a long way." And then she said, "I wonder what you will see in your lifetime? Likely things I can't even imagine."

Think how much the world has changed in your life thus far. By the time our children are adults, they will face challenges we haven't even thought of yet.

No, we can't teach them "everything," but we CAN teach our children how to learn and give them the tools for success.

One of the key factors determining success is the ability to think creatively and use higher-level thinking skills.

This level of thinking far surpass a "read the text--do the homework--take the test" way of learning.

How do we challenge children (or even ourselves) to do that? How can we encourage creativity? That's what this course will teach you!

We'll look at the levels of learning one by one, from the most basic to the most advanced so we can understand what happens at each level. We'll also learn how to use key words and activities to nudge children toward those upper levels of critical thinking.

Let's start by defining what we mean by creativity.

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary tells us that someone who is creative is "marked by the ability or power to create."

So creative people are people who create.

That's not very helpful, is it?

This dictionary goes on to say that creative people have "the ability to make new things or think new ideas" with the elaboration that this means "creating rather than imitating."

Hmmm...don't we all do that at times in one way or another?

Could it be that we're all "creative"?

Any frustrated parent will tell you that even babies have their own ideas about things. And when we find something we're particularly good at doing, most of us enjoy experimenting, coming up with our own designs, or adding our unique touch to give our creation a personal twist.

Why is that?

Every major world religion, philosophy, and worldview seeks to answer the question of how we got here and what our purpose is. Almost every religion throughout history has concluded that man was created by a creative god.

In the Biblical tradition man is created in the image of God; therefore, we might reason that we all have the potential...indeed, the desire...to be creative because God is creative.

If that's true--if a creative God created us to be creative, as He is--why do so many people say, "Oh, I'm not creative"?

Maybe we're just being humble, or maybe it's because our definition of creativity is too narrow.

According to another online dictionary, creativity is "the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create meaningful new ideas, forms, methods, interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or imagination."

I found that definition much more helpful!

Creativity is simply the ability to use old things in new ways or see traditional ideas from a new perspective.

By that definition, we can all be creative. We can all excel!