I’ve been trying to get better at organizing some of the inspiring ideas and activities that I come across each week. I’m not yet sure of the best way to share this with you, but I’ll take a simple stab at it. Today we have some cool kids activity ideas and inspiring articles on how to educate creative children.
Will you let me know what you think?
School is a prison – and damaging our kids. This though-provoking article from Salon, written by Peter Gray (research professor of psychology at Boston College), makes a good argument for homeschooling and alternative forms of unschooling. We’re not a homeschooling family, but I find this topic fascinating and believe that education as we know is making gigantic shifts in this direction.
I recently wrote an article for the pregnancy and parenting site, What to Expect, called 5 Tools for Raising Creative Children. One of my favorite tips is to set up a creative corner. Here’s an excerpt:
“Set up a Creative Corner: Setting aside a space to create sends your child a clear message that hands-on making is a worthy pursuit. Your creative corner could be a child-size table that fits in your kitchen (which also happens to be a great place for the kids to get busy while you make dinner), a cleared-off dining room table, or a corner of your living room. At one point, we played with the idea of turning one of our closets into a mini art studio. Once you have a spot, you’ll want to outfit it with some art materials. To keep it simple, start with white paper, colorful construction paper, crayons, washable markers, child scissors, white glue, watercolors, a heavy tape dispenser, and a stapler.”
DIY on the Cheap
Dyan from And Next Comes L came up with a brilliant way to make color blocks with materials from the dollar store. Her set cost just $3 to make! Dollar store, here I come!
Amy at Wildflower Rambling created a set of 30 free, downloadable Leaf Identification Cards. Thanks to the cards, my smart kids have determined that there’s a sycamore in front of our house. I had no idea — this whole time I thought it was a maple, and wondered why the leaves went straight to brown in the fall. We couldn’t find all the trees in our neighborhood, and these have inspired me to make a few cards of my own.
The photos in 7 Ways To Turn Your Fall Leaf Collection Into Art from Handmade Charlotte. make my crafty side giddy, and you’ll want to pin, and make, them all.
Simple Play Activities
Megan from Coffee Cups and Crayons has a growing series of Busy Bag Activities that you’ll want to check out if you have little kids. Busy bags are basically bags filled with simple activities that can keep children engaged while waiting in restaurants, waiting rooms, or airplanes. If you have travel plans for the holidays, this is for you! Even better, Megan and a few collaborators have compiled over 200 busy bag ideas on their Pinterest Page that makes finding the perfect busy bag super easy.
Join us for Sharing Friday
Coming this Friday: Share a photo of your Creative Table (AKA creative invitation, set-up, or provocation) on my Facebook page. The benefit? You’ll share your awesome idea and everyone comes away with tons of inspiration to carry them through the next week.
Sign up for our Newsletter
Don’t forget to join our newsletter, where we’ll share exclusive offers and inside information. This week we’re giving away a complete Spielgaben set exclusively for one lucky newsletter reader. There are some cool creative books and art material giveaways in the pipeline for our next newsletter.