Combinatory play can be best described by the examples of lego, just like lego blocks can be connected in different manor to make various different things, likewise, we amass a collection of cross-disciplinary building blocks — knowledge, memories, bits of information, sparks of inspiration, and other existing ideas — that we then combine and recombine, mostly unconsciously, into something “new.” From this vast and cross-disciplinary mental pool of resources beckons the infrastructure of what we call our “own”“original” ideas.
Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while.
For e.g. first image is that of simple rectangle and circle but when i combine the two i get a new perspective, a novel circle which is moving.
Practicing combinatory play from a small age will help the child further in life in being more creative and productive.
What do you think helped Albert Einstien, Steve Jobs and Maria Popova in being so inventive and creative?
Yes! its combinatory play. Combinatory play is the “act of opening up one mental channel by dabbling in another”. In other words, it is taking two unrelated things and putting them together to generate new ideas.
But the question here is what all activities can be done with little kids to later help them in life to me more productive and creative.
Combinatory play starts with helping your kid find a hobby or something which is their calling. It need not be anything difficult, but just something that should fun!!
Next Legos/blocks is a very prop for combinatory play. Since it induces the child to think about what all can he do.
Some other homemade combinatory play toys can be:
1. Mixing pieces of different jigsaw puzzles and asking kids to sort them out and complete the puzzles. In this activity kids will have to keep in mind what all the actual jigsaw puzzle looked like and have to sort through colors and patterns.
2. Ask your children to make a new story out of earlier ones he/she had read. This is very similar to creative writing and will make kids think about new ideas from older ones.
3. Similarly you can also get your kids to combine some old and new toys to make something completely new and random. For e.g. combining robot with fishing rod to make a fishing robot.
4. Joining dots and doodling are also examples of combinatory play.
5. Another activity can be make two list of things present in two different places and ask your kids to think of new things that can be made by combing things from the lists. For e.g. list of things in your purse and list of things in a room. now combine say sunglasses (from purse list) and windows (from room list) and combining them we get windows which won’t allow sunrays.
In this activity things need not be reality or possibilty, its just an activity to make kids imagination run wild.
Similarly, many other activities can be found. Some of theses activities may seem tough but minds of children are really fresh and they are more eager and keen in observation, so try these activities at home and you may be surprised.
In the end! just keep in mind to let those creative juices flowing and let the imagination run without care in the world, for, kids are the most creative beings and if given a good start then they can do wonders in their lives which is sometines impossible for us because we are so much governed by the stringent rules of what is possible and what it isn’t.
Happy playing!!
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