Where creativity lives

Create a “creativity corner” in your home where your child can go to begin projects, Cameron writes in “The Artist’s Way for Parents.” Stock it with items that may provide inspiration: corks, Q-tips, sequins, toilet-paper rolls, glue, yarn, pipe cleaners, beads, tissue paper, etc. ... “As you find things in your home that may belong there, add them to the stash. If you do not have a corner free, the ‘creativity corner’ could be a box or a shelf. The point is to designate an area where your child can find — and add to — an assortment of supplies to fill the blank canvas.”

“My mother set us to an activity and let us be,” she recalled of her own childhood.

Overscheduling and pervasive technology must also be minded, she writes, as modern threats to a creative life. Busy parents who follow her advice will likely find themselves doing less.

Three things, though, must remain on the to-do list. For adults, Cameron recommends an activity called “morning pages,” in which a parent writes three longhand pages of observations and musings to clear the mind and harness solutions to problems. Secondly, she advises a weekly outing to a new place that parent and child find mutually appealing. Lastly, she suggests a positive bedtime ritual.

As in her first “The Artist’s Way,” Cameron makes clear the divine connection between creativity and spirituality.

“It’s important always to have a sense of wonder,” she said.