Drawing contests for kids across the country are looking to channel creative energy and spark positive ideas. Mai Phuong finds out what all the fuss is about.

Vietnamese children who won prizes at last year’s “Children’s Idea ” pose for a group photo. The contest aims to take children’s ideas and dreams about life and turn them into moving models.

Experts say nurturing a child’s creativity is important for their psychological development - something drawing contests launched across the country are trying to promote.

In the run up to International Children’s Day on June 1, the contest “Children’s Idea,” sponsored by Honda Viet Nam, aims to tap kids’ creativity and fuel their imaginations.

The contest, launched earlier this month, asks kids to draw a picture of their dreams in life. All the ideas should be about movement and action, so they can be made into movable 3D models, an organiser from the event, Dau Thi Giang, says.

The competition, which will close in July, is open to kids of all nationalities living in Viet Nam. The winner will go on a trip to Japan to meet contestants from similiar contests sponsored by Honda in other countries. All kids must be of primary school age.

This is the second time the annual programme has been held in Viet Nam. Last year, thousands of children entered. It was “very exciting and cute,” Giang says.

“Last year’s event was really extraordinarily creative. Without the contest, most of the ideas would have never seen the light of day.”

Taking first prize in 2008 was seven-year-old Nguyen Thi Minh Ngoc, who surpassed 10 others candidates from across the country stole the show with her model of a vehicle that can cure tree diseases.

Ngoc, a student at Chu Van An Primary School in Ha Noi, drew her dream of a special vehicle and called it a “mobile hospital” for trees. She said that her idea originated from her love of nature, which was now very “sick” due to environmental pollution.

From the picture, her idea was turned into a real-life model, which she made using everyday materials found around her home.

A five-litre plastic container was used to make the body of the vehicle, a piece of cardboard formed its cabin and the wheels were made from six bottle caps. In the cabin, she used a match box to make a computer screen.

In her address to the judges, Ngoc said her vehicle used solar energy and had many “technical hands” to cure tree diseases. These hands could perform technically precise work, like a doctor to a patient, such as measuring temperatures, injecting drugs, catching worms, spraying water and much more.

Ngoc’s imaginative idea won her and her family a trip to Japan to attend an awards ceremony for kids who had entered similar contests for kids, in other countries.

Other entries included a model of a “motion machine” made by Hirano, a sixth-grade student from Japan. Hirano said he dreamt of a machine that absorbed all human anger, worry and fatigue and produced drugs that could boost love, happiness and satisfaction. He also wished that all the quarrels, fights and wars in the world would disappear.

The machine was designed with a plastic tube into which people could breathe their sorrows, angers and other bad feelings. Afterwards they would receive “love tablets” to heal them.

Motivation

Another contest this year, launched by the European Commission in collaboration with the Children’s Newspaper, is also encouraging children to think about current issues while harnessing their creativity.

The EC contest, also held in other countries across the world, asked kids to consider the topic of gender equality.

Last year, the contest received over 25,000 entries from 51 countries, and in Viet Nam received 3,000 drawings. The 10 best were sent to Brussels for the international competition.

Nguyen Ngoc Yen Nhu, from Viet Nam’s southern province of Long An, and another girl from Thailand were the only two winners from Asia.

Many of the entries were lauded for their sensitivity and intuitiveness. In one picture, a child describes a woman standing in front of a ladder that she must climb. The higher she climbs, the more challenges she faces. At each step, she has to decide what her choice will be. If she stays on the steps of education, she might be very successful and have a high status in society, but she also might not get married. If she chooses the steps for work, she will get high rankings in her career but will be faced with problems in her family: no time to take care of her children or to do the housework.

Through the contest, all the organisers and judges agreed that creativity, particularly in children, was multi-dimensional. It could be a trait, skill, ability or an approach, or all of the above.

When you are creative, you go beyond the typical or normal approach to arrive at something completely new and unique. Creativity means stretching your mind to new corners. Creativity is one of those – “I can’t describe it, but I know it when I see it” – ideas.

The contests raise the question of how important creativity is, especially for the young. When being creative, whether it’s drawing a picture or trying to figure out how to make something work, several elements are in play. Developing these elements can affect a child’s growth and development on all levels.

Good for you

According to Dr Nguyen Huy Tu, a lecturer of psychology at the National University of Education in Ha Noi, nurturing creativity can help children develop in a number of areas.

Experts gree that creativity helps children in a number of areas.

Self-expression: Children can express what they see, feel, hear, and think; it can help a child find their own unique style.

Curiosity: Children are allowed to follow through on their hunches, impulses and natural desires to find out what things are, how they work and what will happen.

Exploration/Experimentation: Children can try different ways to use an object, toy or work on a project

Imagination: Children are free to fantasise, engage in imaginative play or come up with many possibilities for whatever they are focusing on, often trying things or coming up with possibilities we think are “impossible”.

Open-ended thinking: Children are stretching their thinking skills by not having to come up with only one possible outcome or answer.

“There are many different definitions for creativity, but in my own research, it is the ability to create new, original and useful things,” Dr. Tu says.

He stressed that creativity should also be encouraged to spark new useful ideas.

“Many children who do not have the chance to take part in such creative contests still have high levels of creativity, but are not being encouraged in ways that can make their ideas useful. If not channelled properly, this energy can become destructive. This can be called dead creativity,” Tu says.

New, original and useful ideas are important to a child’s development, the doctor says. They provide a foundation for children to acquire problem-solving skills, feel good about themselves, develop a sense of uniqueness and help to expand their intellectual and cognitive skills, as well as their perseverance. These are important skills that children can use in daily life and continue to use as they grow into adults.

VietNamNet/VNS