Assessing the Creative Home

Is your home creative?
We know that assessment (especially self-assessment) is a particularly powerful way for people to understand their own processes and make change. Of course, it is a wonderful time of year to assess how your own home and learning environments are serving the creative individuals who dwell in them. Below you will find 28 very short questions to ponder about your own living and learning environment. When answering these questions, think about how often each takes place. Everyday? Weekly? Occasionally? Seldom? Never?


Do the people (children and adults) living in your home have the opportunity to...


1. Dream?

2. Reflect?

3. Monitor their own progress?

4. Make choices?

5. Write?

6. Go outside?

7. Leave a project and come back to it hours, days, or even weeks later?

8. Play in a totally unstructured way? For great lengths of time?

9. Be alone?

10. Wonder without being told an answer?

11. Get messy?

12. Dress up?

13. See inspiring works of art?

14. Use different types of art supplies?

15. Use different types of math tools?

16. Use different types of building materials?

17. Use different types of science tools?

18. Question you?

19. Negotiate the rules?

20. Sing?

21. Listen to music?

22. Block out the music?

23. See themselves represented (gender, race, family structure, etc.) in works of art, the literature and/or media?

24. Hear language that is above their own writing and speaking level?

25. Remove themselves from any given situation?

26. Play cooperatively with other children and adults?

27. Solve their own problems?

28. See their work and projects displayed?


Once you have taken time to think about these creative activities and how often they show up in your home and learning environments, use your answers as an opportunity to make a few new springtime goals for your creative home.