THE EVOLUTION OF CHILDREN'S CREATIVITY IN THE AGE OF THE MILLENNIUM

Accepted


Introduction
Education is an endeavor, effort, or action that is carried out consciously, regularly, and with the intent to change or develop the behavior of children in accordance with the desired personal development. Education is beneficial for the development of all parts of the human personality, including knowledge, values and attitudes, parents in caring for, nurturing, and educating children by creating an aura and environment where children can explore experiences that provide opportunities for them to know and understand the learning experiences he gets from the environment, through observing, imitating, and experimenting, which takes place repeatedly and involves all the potential and intelligence (Arsani, 2020;Binawanti, 2022;Gandana dkk., 2022;Kultsum dkk., 2022;Putri dkk., 2022) Early childhood education is a very big investment for families and the nation in providing education to children. Children are the next generation of the nation, so as educators in kindergarten, it is hoped that they can develop the potential of children. The education obtained by children at an early age will determine their success in the future. In the words of Rasulullah SAW: Meaning: "From Abu Hurairah R.A said, Rasulullah SAW said: Every child is born in a state of purity, it is his father and mother who make a Jew, Christian, or Magian". HR. Bukhari and Muslim in the Book of Jami 'Ash Shaghir (2010:46) Children are the next generation of the nation who will grow and develop into people who are devoted to Allah SWT, physically and spiritually healthy, have a noble character, are intelligent and skilled, and responsive to the times. The involvement of adults around children is vital in monitoring their development and growth, such as a teacher who must observe their growth daily. According to the Directorate of Early Childhood Education, teachers must observe children's knowledge, abilities, and habits. The hope is that after the teacher knows these three things, the teacher can design a learning development program according to the interests, strengths, and needs of children so that children are more creative. Learning development programs that are structured and planned following the principles of child development will stimulate children's potential to become creative children.
Self-actualization is the ultimate level of basic human wants, and creativity helps people achieve it. Creativity is a sign of a well functioning individual and improves life quality. In this era of growth, the welfare and glory of society and the state depend on innovative efforts. To do this, young children must develop innovative attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. We'll examine early childhood creativity.

Research methods
Descriptive qualitative research was used. Qualitative research tries to find out and describe the activities and impact of their acts in narrative form (Albi Anggito, 2018: 7). Qualitative research doesn't use statistical analysis or other quantitative methods. And the approach used in this research is a descriptive approach, which is research that is solely based on facts that exist or empirically live on the speakers, so that what is produced or recorded is in the form of giving language that can be said to have character, such as portraits or exposures as they are (Muhammad, 2016: 192). This study combines a qualitative method with a descriptive approach to acquire a sample of data, which is then classified by the major theme.

Definition of Creativity
Creativity is the ability to solve problems in creative ways. Talent, interest, physical, emotional maturity, personality, physical and social environment affect children's development. Every child has boundless learning and creative-thinking potential. Creativity is combining existing facts, information, or elements. Creativity is also defined as the ability to find several possible answers to a problem based on data or information (Firdaus dkk., 2018;Hidayat & Widjajanti, 2018;Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (KBBI) Online, 2022;Meitiyani dkk., 2019;Nasution, 2017Nasution, , 2017NewsUAD, 2018;Suhendar dkk., 2021). Conny (1999: 89) defines creativity as the ability to think differently and generate innovative solutions to issues. According to Harris as quoted by Hamdani (2002: 2), creativity can be viewed from three perspectives: (a) creativity is an ability, namely the ability to imagine or create something new, the ability to combine, change, re-implement existing ideas, (b) creativity is an attitude, namely the willingness to accept change and renewal, play with ideas, and have flexible views, and (c) creativity is a process, namely the process of working with ideas.
According to numerous expert definitions, creativity is the ability to create something new by blending existing pieces. The new thing here was something he hadn't seen before, while it would be recognizable to others. It was both non-existent and new combinations of existing things.
According to Ahmad Susanto (2011: 112-113), creativity can be defined in numerous ways. Creativity is a unique expression of the whole person as a result of interactions, feelings, attitudes, and behavior.

Creativity
Creative kids are interested, have varied interests, and like creative hobbies. Creative kids are independent and confident. They take calculated risks more than other kids. This means they don't mind criticism or scorn while doing something significant, important, and liked. They don't mind making errors or expressing unpopular thoughts. Innovative people stray from tradition, stand out, and surprise. Confidence, tenacity, and perseverance help them succeed. Utami Munandar (2004:35) failed more than 200 times in tests before inventing the light bulb. Creative people are organized. Their unique plans and original goods consider potential challenges and their consequences.
Creative qualities According to Hamdani (2002: 4), there are three types: (a) fluency, or the ability to solve open-ended problems with several correct answers, (b) flexibility, or the ability to solve open-ended problems in several ways, and (c) novelty, or the ability to solve open-ended problems with several correct answers and one answer that students are not accustomed to at their stage of development or level of knowlege.
Creative thinking has five traits, according to Guilford (2011: 117-118): Fluency is the ability to develop ideas; flexibility is the ability to communicate them. problems, (c) authenticity is the ability to solve in an original method, (d) decomposition is the ability to express something in depth, clearly, and at length, and (e) reformulation is the ability to review an issue from a different perspective. Utami Munandar (1999: 88) identifies two types of creativity: cognitive and emotional. There are various cognitive and affective qualities of creativity: (a) the ability to think fluently (fluency), flexibly, originality, judge, and detail / in depth (elaboration); and (b) the ability to think intuitively (intuition). Affective creativity involves mental attitudes or feelings. Affective and cognitive qualities are related. Curiosity, imagination, feeling challenged by pluralism, risk-taking (not scared to make mistakes), and appreciation are emotional traits.
Creative kids are interested, have varied interests, and like creative hobbies. Creative kids are independent and confident. They take calculated risks more than other kids. This means they don't mind criticism or scorn while doing something significant, important, and liked. They don't mind making errors or expressing unpopular thoughts. Innovative people stray from tradition, stand out, and surprise. Confidence, tenacity, and perseverance help them succeed.
During development, boys are more creative than girls. Boys are treated differently in several societies. Boys have greater opportunity than girls to live independently, take risks, and demonstrate their authenticity.
Higher-income children tend to be more creative. First group received more democratic parenting, second group more dictatorial. Democratic parenting can foster creativity by allowing children to express their individuality and pursue their own interests. Children from high-income families have better access to recreational spaces, noteworthy sites, and information centers that might boost learning. creatively think and act Different birth positions affect children's inventiveness. This expression implies that environment trumps heredity. Middle and youngest children may be more imaginative than eldest. Firstborns face more parental pressure than later offspring.
Small-family kids tend to be more imaginative. Large families demand more authority to control the many children. Authoritarian treatment inhibits creativity. Small-family kids are treated more democratically. This mentality fosters a creative atmosphere.
Urban children are more creative than rural youngsters because their environment stimulates creativity more. Cities offer additional places, items, and challenges to encourage children's creativity. Intelligent youngsters at the same age are more creative. The former have newer ideas, wish to overcome social conflict situations, and can create alternative solutions. They also argue that intellectual youngsters deserve to be picked as leaders over children their age.

Develop creativity
Since birth, creativity and other psychological characteristics should be fostered. Slamet (2005:75) says the following behaviors indicate preschoolers' innate creativity: a) Children enjoy exploring their environment, b) observing and holding everything, exploration, expansive and excessive, c) great curiosity, asks questions incessantly, d) expresses his thoughts and feelings, e) likes adventure, always wants new experiences, f) likes to experiment, disassemble and try out various things, g) rarely feels bored, something to do, and h) have high imagination power. Hasta Karya, Imagination, and Exploration are early childhood creative practices.
Hasta Karya means handicrafts. http://googleweblight.com. Real labor helps young children develop inventiveness. Each child will utilize his creativity to build or create something real. Creating a practical work develops children's creativity and cognitive skills. This method encourages kids to utilize their imagination to create new items or constructions. When youngsters produce art, their imagination and creativity internalize. Each youngster will display different sorts of work based on their ability and inventiveness. Each youngster can express their creativity, resulting in unique products. Children create cookie jar towers, cars from boxes, clay dwellings, and junk robots.
According to Mulyasa (2012:103-104), increasing creativity through practical work allows children to design new homemade products. They can change existing objects. Every child's activity will help them become more imaginative and eager to learn. Hasta work is children's thoughts turned into real works. The teacher can ask about the child's work when he's finished. Write down anything the child says to corroborate his work so the teacher doesn't misinterpret it. After generating the work, let the child enjoy it if feasible. Appreciate children's work by displaying it.
In Children's Resources International (2000: 146-164), examples of early childhood craft activities include: printing motifs, finger painting, patterns, translucent paper cuts, scrape pictures, waxcoated pictures, and weaving in boxes. Making elegant hanging shelves, Children's work or ideas can also be poured into handwork, artwork, or children's displays, such as drawings, paints, folds, collages, cutouts, writings/scribbles, scraps, and buildings. Crafts, dances, blocks According to the Big Indonesian Dictionary, imagination is the power to imagine, whereas imaginative is having or using imagined power. Language Development Center (1997:372) If we think about what youngsters normally do, it's probably imagine. Children's fantasies include phrases like "I wish I were president or if I had wings and could fly." Some girls practice sociodrama by pretending to cook as a parent, mother, brother, and sister. These are common instances of children's imaginations.
According to Mulyasa (2012: 105) one of the basic exercises so that children can be creative is imagining, namely the ability to see images in the mind. This ability serves to bring back memories of the past as a possibility to occur in the present or in the future. Dorothy & Jerome Singer have researched and written a children's imaginative game, they believe that imagination is essential in the development of children's intellectual and language abilities. Children remember ideas and words that they have experienced because they can combine ideas with images in their minds.
In imagination games, children can demonstrate a situation, play their role in a certain way, play someone's role and replace it if it doesn't fit or imagine a situation that they have never experienced. In drama games, children can bring up dialogue, adding new nuances to their characters and new in the plot. There is no better storyteller than a child. In addition to children's story writers, they also act as seasoned actors, directors, audiences, opposite the roles of other players, as well as commentators on the roles played by their friends so that they know whether he has played his role well or not. The child creates his own knowledge when he is free to participate in imaginative play.
In addition to the above, many simple objects can be used as tools for children to imagine. For example, brooms, brooms, children can use according to their actual function, namely to clean dust and dirt or can also be used for other functions such as piggybacks, motorbikes, bicycles, flying witches brooms, and so on. Likewise with chairs, children can use them as cars, tractors, fortifications and so on. Likewise with other objects, imagination makes the impossible possible. Mulaysa (2012:105-106) The world of children is a world full of surprises. A play world that is rich in the sparks of children's imaginations in expressions that are so honest and natural and amazing. This child's imagination develops along with the development of speaking skills. And become a means for children to learn to understand the reality of their existence as well as their environment. Imagination is born from a human mental process. This process encourages all emotional forces to engage and play an active role in stimulating creative thinking and ideas, and energizing creative action. Children's imaginative abilities are part of the right brain activity that is beneficial for their intelligence. In toddlerhood, imagination is part of the task of development. While in school-age children, the child's imagination is at the stage of the strongest intensity. So that children have the strongest memorization power, the strongest memorization with the most memory material. This is a period like this that parents should pay attention to so they don't just pass by and can help foster children's imagination.
Children's imagination does not grow the same in every child. Efforts are needed to build children's imaginations to grow and develop optimally. To help children grow their imagination, according to there are several benefits of children's imagination: Making children skilled in socializing and communicating; Make children able to think creatively and analyze; Enrich children's knowledge; Make children more confident, independent and able to compete; Bring out children's talents. https://id.theasianparent.com/build-imajinasi-child.
The ability of children to imagine will lead children to become creative thinkers which of course is very beneficial for children's growth and development in the future. So that children are able to face and find solutions to any problems they face in the future. There are several ways to cultivate a child's imagination, including; (a) Take time to accompany children to play. You can give your child the freedom to direct and lead a game in which you are actively involved. Or you can read storybooks and tell stories to your child; (b) Give a positive response to the child's imagination, Place yourself as a good and active listener by asking questions that are creative and lead to positive things; (c) Avoid banning children too much. Prohibition often inhibits creativity, it would be better if we replace the prohibition sentence with a sentence of recommendation that is more motivating for children; (d) Listen to pleasant music. Music that is fun and suitable for a child's heart rate will stimulate and foster a child's imagination; (e) Create a comfortable, safe and pleasant home atmosphere for the growth and development of the baby.
A relaxed and safe atmosphere will make it easier for children to develop their imagination, therefore it is important for parents to ensure that there are no sharp and dangerous objects in the children's playroom, in addition to the conducive atmosphere that has been created. Jackie Silberg (2006:55-64) explains that some examples of imagination game activities for early childhood are: My first drum, Ten small meatballs, Pumpkin, Train, Mother and child, Pretend, Hand puppet, Shopping, Driving on the highway , Birthday cake, Birthday, Dress up, Riding ticket, Making a house, How old are you?, Making pancakes.
So there are many activities that can be done to develop imagination in early childhood. Based on the Big Indonesian Dictionary, the word exploration means field exploration with the aim of gaining more knowledge, especially the natural resources found in that place. Center for Language Development and Development (2010:254) Creative ideas often arise from individual exploration or exploration of something. Exploration can provide opportunities for children to see, understand, feel and ultimately create something that interests them. This activity is carried out by observing the world around it in accordance with the reality that exists directly. These observations can be in the form of the environment, including forests, hills, sand, sea, ponds and other natural environments.
Exploration is a game activity carried out by exploring or visiting a place or environment to learn something. Exploration activities for early childhood are an effort to learn to elaborate and use simple analytical skills in recognizing an object. Children are trained to observe objects carefully, pay attention to every part of a particular object and know how to live and how the object works.
Exploration activities are field exploration with the aim of gaining more knowledge, especially the natural resources found in that place. Exploration can also be said as an activity to gain new experiences and new situations. Exploration is a game activity carried out by exploring or visiting a place to learn certain things while looking for fun or as entertainment and games. The purpose of exploration activities in kindergarten is to learn to elaborate and use simple analytical skills in recognizing an object. Children are trained to observe objects carefully, pay attention to each unique part, and get to know the way of life or how the object works.
According to Mulyasa (2010:107) exploration activities will provide opportunities for children to understand and take advantage of their roaming gods in the form of: Broader and more real information insights; Cultivate children's curiosity about something they have or have just known; Clarify the concepts and skills they already have; Gain a full understanding of human life with various existing situations and conditions.
Efforts that can be made to stimulate the creativity of early childhood are to introduce and familiarize them with the natural surroundings. Because from nature, children can get to know many things that are unique and specific. So to make children bright, they need to do exploration, in the form of play activities, exploration and small activities. Of course, parents do not need to force an activity on a child if it will make him bored. Children who are immersed in their activities in a wrecked car, children who are busy climbing small trees (cherry trees), catching dragonflies and grasshoppers or picking out strange pebbles on the banks of the river are some examples of the forms of exploration that they usually do.
In encouraging children to explore, parents also need to develop their communication skills. In this case, it is better for parents to start by inviting their children to chat (talk) from an early age about the activities being carried out, so that their speaking skills also continue to increase. Furthermore, parents can also introduce stationery such as pencils, pens, crayons and old magazines for their toddlers. This activity is very good for other parents to participate in, because the basis for learning to write and read at an early age lies at home. Therefore, the home, parents, must provide facilities for learning, playing and entertainment such as songs, rhythms, collections of story books and other types of books.
The exploration game itself takes place in predictable patterns observed as young children grow and develop. According to Beaty, JJ (2008:92-93) All children seem to go through three definite stages of play each time they explore for themselves the possibility of a new object or activity. To make this stage easy to recognize and remember, we call it the "3M": manipulation, mastery and meaning. Children through these stages of development are allowed to explore new objects and activities on their own. If we tell children to behave the way we do, we are interrupting their learning process. Our guide should follow after the kids have had a chance to try things out on their own.
For example, when children of any age first start exploring a new object, they turn it upside down, or use it in unconventional ways. For example, when children first use unit blocks, they often fill containers or trucks with the blocks and then spill them. Building with the blocks comes later, once the children get used to the possibilities of the blocks through manipulation.
According to Ariavita Purnamasari (2010:288-310) There are several examples of activities carried out in nature for early childhood, namely: Science is very fun, Mirrors, Shadows, Catching rain, Desert box, Underground days, Come on researching insects, House of bricks, Worms, worms, Let's go to work, worms, Butterfly life, Researching pine cones, Analyzing annual plants, Changes in trees throughout the year, Spring planting, Indoor mini garden, Grass sponges of various shapes, Bus wheel, Plant iron, Magnetic vehicle, Make color, Refreshing lemon juice, Coat with wax, Wash hands.
Exploration games are very important for children in order to develop their imagination. Children who are in rural areas and in wider areas for access to the outdoors are more fortunate in doing exploration of a natural nature: catching sparrows that prey on rice in the fields, catching eels and ikat in the water flow and getting to the activity of dismantling the tides. game tools.

Supporting and Inhibiting Factors of Children's Creativity
Creativity is a person's potential that can be developed. In developing this creativity there are factors that support the growth of creativity and there are also factors that hinder the creativity of a child.
At first creativity was seen as an innate factor that only certain individuals had. In subsequent developments, it was argued that creativity cannot develop automatically but requires stimulation from the environment. According to Hurlock, quoted by Ahmad Susanto (2012: 124) suggests several factors that can encourage and increase creativity. Among other things: (a) Time, children's activities should not be arranged in such a way, so that only a small amount of time can be used for them to create an idea or concept; (b) The opportunity to be alone, only if there is no pressure from social groups, children can be creative; (c) Encouragement regardless of how far the children's achievements are, meaning that to become creative children they must be free from ridicule and criticism that are often hurled at children who are not creative; (d) Facilities, play facilities or other means should be provided to stimulate the encouragement of experimentation and exploration, which are essential elements of all creativity; (e) A stimulating environment, home and school environments should stimulate children's creativity; (f) The relationship between children and parents is not possessive, meaning that parents who are not too possessive will encourage children's independence; (g) How to educate children, democratically educating children both at home and at school will increase children's creativity; (h) The opportunity to acquire knowledge, creativity does not appear in a void. The more knowledge that is mastered, the better the creativity of children.
Utami Munanadar (1999:19) suggests that the factors that support creativity are: Age; Parent's education level; Availability of facilities; Use of free time. In addition, the factors that support creativity according to Seto in Munandar (1999: 19), a child education expert said that efforts to develop children's creativity can be done using the 4P strategy, namely by looking at creativity as a product, personal, process, and driver.
In addition, according to Pristina Kusuma (2012:11-12) there are (4) supporting factors for the development of children's creativity, namely: Mental stimulation, by providing motivation, strengthening, and accepting children's strengths and weaknesses, children feel confident to try, take the initiative and do something spontaneously; Climate and environmental conditions, a conducive environment will develop children's creativity, such as adequate lighting, bright colors, wall decorations, music, aromas; The role of the teacher, the teacher being the second parent for the child, it is proper for the teacher to give the best to the child. Like teachers doing innovations to develop children's creativity; The role of parents, parents have an important role in the development of children's creativity. By appreciating each child's work, children become brave and confident to learn about their environment.

Inhibiting Factors of Children's Creativity
Renzulli in Ahmad (2011:125) recommends three interrelated traits for gifted youngsters. General ability, creativity, and intrinsic motivation. In growing creativity, a person can face difficulties that impair or kill his originality. In order to help youngsters fulfill their potential, we often utilize coercion. Coercion or violence implies we give excessive presents or praise, not just threaten or impose regulations. Evaluation, Prizes, Competition, Restrictive Environment kill creativity. Utami (2004:223) quotes Rogers as saying that educators should not evaluate students while they are producing. Even anticipating evaluation can diminish a child's creativity. Positive criticism or assessment, even in the form of praise, might make youngsters less creative if it focuses on expectations. Most people feel gifts can improve behavior. Not so. Gift-giving kills creativity and inner motivation.
Competitions are more complex than assessments or prizes because they incorporate both. Students compete when they believe their work will be judged against others' and the best will win. This is common and kills creativity.
Force cannot improve learning and creativity. His childhood school emphasized discipline and memorizing. He was taught what to learn, how to study it, and on tests to repeat it exactly, which was painful and momentarily ruined his enthusiasm in science. When he was 5, his father showed him a compass, and he was immediately captivated. This example indicates that a severely restrictive environment can diminish interest and intrinsic motivation. Utami (2004Utami ( : 223-224) (2004 Cropley in Ahmad (2011:126) suggests several characteristics of teachers that tend to inhibit children's creative thinking skills, including: Emphasis that teachers are always right, overemphasis on rote memorization, emphasis on mechanical learning, emphasis on external evaluation, strict emphasis on completing profession. Children's creativity can also be done using the language of the heart or heart by adults. So that the approach of the heart, is expected to accelerate the emergence of creativity in children (Sugiharto, 2018;Supriadi & Alisyahbana, 2020).
In everyday life we find many children's treatment and actions with various patterns and behaviors. So that the expression of children's creativity often causes an unpleasant effect for parents (Binawanti, 2022;Growing Together, t.t.;Kupers dkk., 2018). For example, parents forbid their children to tear paper because they are afraid that the house will be dirty, or shout when their children play in the sand for fear that their children will be exposed to germs. Even though each child has a different expression of creativity, some seem to like to doodle, move around, chatter, conduct experiments, and so on. The attitude of parents like that means it is one example of the many factors that hinder the creativity of a child.

Conclusion
Children's education is a coaching effort intended at children from birth to the age of six years which is carried out through the provision of incentives to promote physical and spiritual growth and development so that children have the preparedness to enter further education. Children's education from a young age includes all of the efforts and actions taken by educators and parents in the process of caring for, nurturing, and educating children by creating an atmosphere and environment where children can explore experiences that provide opportunities for them to know and understand the learning experiences they have. This includes creating an aura and environment where children can explore experiences that provide opportunities for them to know and understand the learning experiences they have. gathered from their surroundings by repeatedly engaging in activities such as mimicking, watching, and experimenting; these activities take place on a regular basis and require youngsters to use all of their potential and intelligence.
In order for children to have a greater capacity for creativity, educators must be able to tailor educational development programs to the specific capabilities, areas of interest, and requirements of individual students. Creativity is a sign that an individual is completely functional, and it is this fully functioning individual that enables individuals to better their overall quality of life. In this new millennium, the prosperity of society and the grandeur of the state are dependent on creative contributions, which might take the form of new ideas, new inventions, and new technology.