Collecting Spring

As I have mentioned before, one of my favorite blogs is SouleMama. Though she fully cops to the fact that it’s far from the case in her home some days, her blog resonates a serenity I crave many days with my three and the comings and goings and nonstop noise-noise-noise of it all. So, nearly every morning I spend a moment with my coffee and Amanda Soule, who is a special kind of teacher in many ways. She’s younger than me, but I want to be her when I grow up. :)

One idea of her ideas has been fully incorporated into our home. She calls it their Nature Table, a place where the odd pine cone, shell, rock, etc. finds its way inside to be enjoyed. We refer to the idea as “Collecting.” We collect each season, taking time to really notice the changes brought to our little part of the world, and attempting to create a little bit of beauty indoors in a nonconventional way.

Spring is coming upon us in fits and false starts this year. The sun and warmth are playing hard to get, and rain seems reluctant to give up its hold. Don’t get me wrong: I much prefer this knowledge that we will have water this summer, that our community supported agriculture share will supply our family with a bountiful variety of local, organic produce—not just kale, kale, and more {sigh} kale--, and that maybe, just maybe it won’t be in the 110+ degree range as much this summer. I am not complaining much about the rain we’re getting this spring!

So, yeah… spring. We’ve been bringing all manner of fresh flowers. My boys are oh so eager to bring me bouquets of all sorts, much to my delight and often to my husband’s dismay because he has been nursing a few plants along during the past two bone dry summers. The three of them are trying to reach a detente, agreeing upon good '”picking candidates” and trying to remember which plants are verboten. In their gusto, the boys see them all as good, and there are little arrangements all over our home brightening up the kitchen sink, and other unexpected areas.

At this time, my favorite objet is the bird’s nest Carter made at preschool. The “nest” is only a paper bag with a bit of this ‘n’ that, and some eggs Carter made out of play dough, but it’s precious to us all and has been a bit of a mobile installation, finding its way all around the ‘front’ of the house, with a little help, or course. My bird-loving fellow beams with pride over his creation, as does his mama.

Family Art Time

Mo Willems talked about it on NPR. Amanda Soule wrote about it in The Creative Family and her blog. I firmly believe children need to be actively creative.

Now, there is a groundbreaking statement, right? Who knew!

But before you scream something about poo and Sherlock Holmes at me, let’s really think about it: it seems like the last thing our society wants to risk is a child with time on his or her hands. Sure, you don’t want your kids utterly bored all day and night. Activities are great! We have our out of the house routines every weekday. In a couple of years, once we have fully emerged from the ‘baby jail’ stage, where we must return to home base frequently to recharge, and when every human in the house understands and willingly uses toilets, we’ll do much more than we do now, I am sure.

But we’ll also take time to just ‘be’. Everyone needs time to simply create-- in many different ways--together. It grounds us. It bonds us. We encourage each other, and help one other.

I can’t say we’re able to sync up to do Family Art Time even weekly during the school year. Generally it’s a good after breakfast on the weekend activity, but life moves fast and sometimes it simply doesn’t happen. However, now we’re into summer vacation, and, when we’re home, I’m going to try to make it a morning ritual at least a few times a week.

This morning was our second ‘go’ of it for the summer (2 out of 3 days is not bad!). Even Cole got to take part, and it can be hairy at times when he decides to ‘embellish’ Bunny’s masterpiece, but he’ll learn to keep his scribbles to himself.

It’s not about the end product, but letting one’s mind ‘air out’ a bit, I think. You can’t color outside the lines if you never take out the crayons.

Musings… The Creative Family

As a little Christmas gift to myself, I bought Amanda Soule’s book, The Creative Family. It’s really a great investment, if you’re into crafts and ‘quality’ time… into unplugging, I suppose you could say. If it’s not your bag, then, that’s okay! It takes alllll kinds in this wide world of ours, right?

I guess I should clarify. There is no anti-technology dictum to enjoying the Soule Mama way of ‘being’. It’s just not a buy-the-newest-gaming system way. My kids have their Leapsters, and I can feel my resistance to the Wii wearing down (the WiiFit really looks pretty damn cool).

But see, I grew up with hand crafts. DOING them. I could spend hours just sorting my threads for cross stitch and embroidery. I still can find time flying by as I look at and finger yarns. (The kids, sadly can not – and I do recall that boredom as my sister and I passed time at the local notions store while we had to suffer through what felt like seventeen whole eternities while our mother chose whatever it was in there she was choosing that particular trip, so I try to spare them that torture—when I can help it!).

With Littles around, it’s been, shall we say… challenging for me to set up and maintain any order for my own yarns, etc. I can, however recall a time, before Carter was born, in that wonderful time when Bunny was three (and able to keep herself more or less out of MAMA’S stuff), when I had projects going. So, I know it looms for me. Parenthood is nothing if not a wonderful exercise in patience, and putting one’s own needs and wants aside—for a while, and not always gracefully. If only I were consistent and always understanding, like, say, Little Bear’s mother. But too bad for the kids… I’m just not, haha.

Anyway, that does not prevent me from doing some things to help foster that love of creating in the kids. It’s a win-win… I get to use my creative leanings, and also know that someday they’ll be busy with their crafts while I do my thing at their side. I believe the development experts would call it parallel play… or in this case, parallel crafting.

Gathering and collecting good supplies means I have to find places to put all this STUFF. While someday I want a large armoire with oodles of shelves, putting off until someday makes for a lot of mess today. So, I decided to think outside the box and repurpose things around the house.

I have a hutch that I picked up along the way, which was really a holding place for serving bowls and dishes, as well as linens. It’s nice to have that place for them, but in reality, they mostly collected dust, and I’m not good at remembering to dust. So I began collecting $1 containers of various types to contain categories of craft supplies and other kid stuff.

I’m not expecting House and Garden to request a photo shoot anytime soon, but I very much like that I can pull out all the painting supplies, or the Play Doh quickly. It lends to their frequent use, I am finding.

Post Christmas Hangover?

A couple of days before Christmas I decided to give myself a small gift and get Amanda Soule's wonderful book, "The Creative Family", which is only about $10. It's not a craft book per se. To my thinking, 'craft book' means lists of specific materials, instructions, and a certain end result for each project.

That's not what this book is. Far more than end results and 'do' lists, it's about fostering a creative, imaginative spirit in every member of your family. It was funny, with a bevy of gifts to put under the tree, and many commercial 'name brand' presents, to be reading about paring down and being more selective. I felt simultaneously guilty, a bit rebellious (hey! we're happy, and not nearly as consumerist as so many families I know!), and mostly unsure of how I felt about it as I read the opening chapter of the book.

In the week that followed, I kept picking up and putting down the book, slowly absorbing, and considering what I do and do not think would work in my house. Really, I am still thinking.

One thing I am sure of is that I will continue instilling in the children a love of art and craft... of creating things with your hands and imagination. I would like to also teach the children embroidery. While my kids also have Leapsters, I think there is something to be said for busy hands that are actually creating. There are ways to learn hand-eye coordination that do not involve Mario, I am sure! ;)

This will be an ongoing thought process for us here. I have somewhat restocked the art supplies, and am in the midst of changing the dresser cum entry table into a art/craft supply 'cupboard'. Perhaps someday I will have a whole wardrobe filled with well organized supplies, but until then I will be happy with what I have done and provided for the children to learn and explore.