After reading an article in my "Parenting" magazine about how a child's future success can be determined by how creative he/she is, I posed a question to Julia. This question was mentioned in the article as the type of question one would expect to see on the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking - a test that has shown decreasing creativity scores over the past two decades.
I don't think Julia could have come up with answers that were *less* outside the box if she had tried.
ME: Julia, I have a question for you. How many uses can you think of for a toothbrush? Meaning what are some things you can do with a toothbrush?
JULIA: You can... brush your teeth, you can... well, you can put it back in the toothpaste holder...
ME: Yeah? And what else?
JULIA: You can... well, you can put it in a bag if you're going on a trip.
ME: Hmm. And what else? Could you... clean something with a toothbrush?
JULIA: (grinning) No!
ME: Well, you COULD, couldn't you?
JULIA: You could... squirt toothpaste on a toothbrush. Mom, why are you asking me this?
Luckily, it turns out that answering her question provided the opening for her creative flood gates. Once I explained that the purpose of the exercise was to come up with different and maybe even silly ways to use a toothbrush, she was full of ideas. (I mean, if this blog has proven anything over the past year and a half, it's that Julia is full of some kooky imaginative energy...)
Some of her ideas for using a toothbrush included dusting the house with it, dipping it in water or paint and using it on paper, pouring soap on it and scrubbing things clean when there are no sponges, and pinning it onto your head as a bow (??) She was particularly interested in the paint idea after I told her that when I worked at preschool, we would occasionally paint pictures with toothbrushes. However, she was stuck on one logistic behind that set-up:
JULIA: But you wouldn't want to use real paint, because then when you brush your teeth you'd get PAINT on them!
ME: Well, you'd have to use a toothbrush you were going to throw away, like when you get a brand new toothbrush and you throw away your old one.
JULIA: (thoughtful, not quite on board with my idea) Maybe I would just use my sister's.
Yeah, because it's okay if Madeleine gets paint on her teeth, right?
Good Ole Julia. She's being very careful, initially, to answer the questions with the appropriate answer so you can't trap her in to saying she could use the toothbrush to itch her bottom!!! Hahahaha. Once you let her know that it was okay to think of zany things, she went to town. Love, Yiayia
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