About

Enriching children’s lives with play, creativity, arts, and imagination

 Who are we?

We are a duo of music educators with many years of experience teaching PreK-middle school music emphasizing creative engagement and deep learning. One of us works in music education at a university and has research expertise and the other currently works at a preK-8 school (working primarily with preK-5th grade). We are also soon-to-be parents.

We are excited to be a part of a larger community of people sharing ideas with one another and hope that this site can spark or further develop creative, artistic, expressive, and imaginative possibilities for babies, infants, toddlers, young people, and their caregivers!

Why start this site?

While looking for information and resources online to prepare for a new addition to our family we were inspired by the numerous blogs and sites dedicated to helping people be the best parents they could be. While we found many sites that share creative activities, we found it curious that few focused on the arts or incorporated related research. In particular, we found a gap in resources for caregivers interested in fostering children’s musical creativity and exploration. We also felt that the public should have access to research and information that is often locked behind the “paywalls” of academic journals or in expensive research-focused books.

We figured we could combine research with practical applications to inform parents, caregivers, and diverse types of educators (in homes, schools, or other places around the community). Similarly, we were both frustrated with the way that creativity, expression, artistic exploration, and imagination often falls by the wayside in a current climate that emphasizes testing and delivery of facts. Though we intend for this site to be inclusive of diverse types of creative and imaginative engagement, we will likely tend discuss music more often given our backgrounds.

What makes this site unique?

First and foremost Raising Creative Children focuses on helping people address creativity, expression, artistic exploration, and imagination that are critical to child development. This site also shares research that is often unavailable or unknown to the general public in a way that can be easily understood and put into action.  We also draw on our experience as arts educators and musicians. We are just as likely to discuss STEAM education (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math) in relation to early childhood or what research findings on brain development and the arts mean for new parents as we are to share the books, toys, music, and creative play activities that we find fabulous for families.

We will also try to be inclusive of as many perspectives and approaches as we can, so expect to see one post celebrating the benefits of organic wooden toys and then another highlighting the creative potential of a particularly well-designed app for performing or creating music on mobile devices. We’ll also provide information and research that can be helpful for developing a critical perspective when making decisions about the countless resources available to today’s caregivers.

Our disclosure statement and policy on advertising on this site:

Our emphasis is on providing resources and ideas that can be helpful to people interested in supporting and fostering children’s creative engagement. This means sometimes linking to items that can be purchased at venues such as Amazon. We participate in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. So, when linking to products on Amazon, we use affiliate links. This means we will receive a small percentage of compensation if you make a purchase using the affiliate link.

Our editorial content is not influenced by advertisers or affiliate partnerships. This disclosure is provided in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR § 255.5: Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. We will not promote products unless we genuinely feel they could be helpful or valuable to others.

We may accept and keep free products, services, or other forms of compensation from companies and organizations. The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. If any advertising appears, it will be in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network. Those advertisements will be identified as paid advertisements. If we ever review a product that was provided to us by a company or organization we will make it very clear to readers.