{art} collabs with olders

For Christmas I asked each of my kids if they would paint a collaborative painting with me. This is tricky territory because I have trained myself over the years to let them paint with little direction and normally can not imagine laying paint on their artwork. 

But this was different. We thought of it as an experiment and I love the results. We picked poems by  Dickinson, Wordsworth and Berry to work into each piece. I suggested that they paint an animal or scene that reflected their interests and personality and they sketched in the design. My help was more with painting backgrounds and adding touches here and there. 

I love what they (we) made and now have a great poetry corner in our eating space. I am sharing here because it feels like such a good connecting and creative project to do this time of year. It was the perfect present and I think we will incorporate this approach more often. 

to market, to market

This fall, my kids are participating in something new. Our midweek farmer's market has started a kids market. Kids are encourage to make and sell their creations. It is such a fabulous idea! 

Each week there are a handful of tables selling baked goods, artwork, duct tape creations, sculpty magnets and jewelry, sewn napkins, and more. My kids and their friends have fun thinking up projects to make, learning about marketing, pricing, customer service, and displays. They do all the work, from production to set up. I am there as back up and a resource but have fully handed the responsibility over to them. The motivation of making some cash has brought out their grit and entrepreneurship.

Honestly, it is a bit slow now because it is still so hot. But come cooler weather, I hope they are swimming in customers. 

Does your local farmer's market have something similar? If not, I have a feeling most would be receptive to the idea.

{project} stuffed memories

In the fall session of Journal Jam we have been drawing, painting and writing about our stuffed animals. This activity is the perfect project for a family art night.

Ask each kid (and adult) to bring a stuffed animal that they have had a long time and really treasure to the table. We drew ours with pencil, outlined with a Sharpie marker and then water colored. Kids can share their memories orally, dictate to an adult or write them down themselves.

Looking closely at sentimental objects slows down time and offers a restorative meditation to everyone at the table. And the finished product will be cherished and adored down the road.

Be sure to share a link in the comments if you do this. I would love to see your journal entries.

bones

It seems like every October we study biology or something creepy with our homeschool co op. Last year we dissected sea creatures and buried (and a month later dug up!) fish.

This year we are studying bones. There are lots of cool bone decorations and one of the easiest things ever is to grab some skeletons from the dollar store - 3D or wall hanging and label them.

We watched this Crash Course video on the skeletal system by Hank Green, played a little Skeletons in the Closet, and then labeled these guys.

It was a fun review of the major bones of the body and we now have some creepy decorations to get us in the mood for Halloween!

{writer's lab} zine making with kids

We have spent a lot of time the last few months making zines. Zines (short for magazine) are an inexpensive, alternative media that have been popular since the 1920's at least. Some might say that early pamphlet and booklet writers from the early days of the printing press were the first zinesters.

Typically, zines are hand written or typed, glued together, and photocopied. The accessible materials and publishing method have made it attractive to punks, skate culture and various fan fictions. The marginality lends zine writers a certain freedom in their creation. Since you are writing for a small audience and you can print issues as needed, the subject matter can be as arcane as you wish.

This highly specialized content makes zines perfect for kids to create. They can write about anything they want, include as many pages as they want, and distribute freely (or very cheaply) among their friends. 

I especially like that it is so much more physical than blogging or other online publishing methods (which I obviously love too). The actual writing, cutting, gluing, driving to the copy shop, copying, collating, folding, stapling or binding - all gift the zinester with the wonderful experience of actually participating in the entire process, in real time. I love that and think it is often missing in our lives. 

So are you ready to get started?

We started in our house with my zine making. I made a little zine for the Journal Jam lab I am running this summer. I made this because I wanted to send participants something real and tangible in the mail. I am smitten with real mail these days and this project was an extension of that passion. Making a zine was also on my TRY THIS list. 

So, the kids watched my process and then became interested in making zines themselves. They started making zine/workbooks for classes they were leading in our homeschool co op. My 8yo son, who is a big Keri Smith fan then branched out to making several zines of creativity prompts. 

We were also involved in a really cool, co op camp recently. One of my jobs was to create a zine of the experience. I had wanted to include the camp kids more but time was extremely limited. Instead, I listened for quotes, took notes and pictures, and included as much of the kids experience as possible.

The subject of your zine can be anything! It can be your poetry, recipes, journal entries, cartoons and art, fan based (My Little Pony, Lego, Harry Potter), open ended prompts, a story, tutorials and musings. Or all of it! 

You can write the whole thing yourself or ask your friends and family for submissions. 

 

Once you have a list of topics compiled and you have narrowed it down to one to start with, you....start!

Making a list of what you want to include in your zine is a good idea. 

I usually make a mock up first. That is just blank paper folded with page numbers and notes about what will go on each page. If you are doing front and back, folded 8.5x11 in paper, you might be surprised at how quickly it gets confusing. I constantly refer back to the master. 

Also, if you are going to do double sides pages, do them on individual pages and have the copy shop help you make a master from these. It is really impossible to draw, tape and write on both sides of paper and not have it bleed through to the other side. 

We like to use a wide variety of writing styles within the zine. I will print, write cursive, use fonts from the computer, utilize different markers, use a typewriter and find words from magazines. The variety can make the zine feel energized and alive or cluttered and hard to read, so work with finding the balance that you like.

Adding decorative touches is fun too. Rubber stamps, stickers, photographs, little drawings and my favorite, washi tape, can all photocopy in black and white nicely - so experiment and have fun.

When you have everything written, decorated, and organized, it is time to head to the copy shop. As much as I would like to do all the photocopying myself, I rely on help from the copy master. After talking with him, it was revealed to me that the copiers behind the counter have much better image quality that the ones used in self serve. The public copiers are all preset and have fewer options (this is at my copy shop - yours might be different). So, I work with the experts; they have been exceptionally helpful to my kids and myself.  Our runs usually range from 10-20 copies at a time.

Time to distribute. How will you share your work? We have given ours out to friends, sold them to friends, posted them on Etsy, and given them to community members. You might leave a few at the local coffee shop or in the periodical section of the library. You can send them to friends or even famous people in your content area. Comic shops and record stores might sell them or give them out too. It is up to you to think about where your potential readers might be. If you are a serious zine producer, you can list them on distribution sites, but we are far from that now.

Please leave resources and any experience you have had with zines in the comment section. If you produce a zine, drop me a line and I will gladly promote your work in whatever way I can. I would love to organize a kid zine swap at some point, so log your interest here and start writing and making!

{how to} dip net

What you need :

~ nets (we have a selection that we have picked up at garage sales, pet stores and chain stores).
~ tubs (maybe some dishpans from the dollar store or other wide tubs)
~ camera
~ field guide (search online for printouts of the invertebrates in your area)
~ journal

Dip netting is such a great way to see what is living in the bodies of water around you. I am always surprised at what shows up in the net. From leaches to huge blue crabs there is so much more to the world that what we easily see. It is a little like magic, if you ask me.

We have dip netted in retention ponds, lakes, swamps and the ocean. It is one of our favorite things to do and something I hope to do much more of this year.

Here are some tips and guidelines, but I think you will see it is easy and intriguing once you get started. 

(Obviously, be safe - whatever that means to the particular body of water you are exploring). 

Start by fill in a tub or two with the water from the source you will be dip netting from.

Use your nets to gently scoop from the bottom of the water.

Take your net to one of the tubs and empty your scoop. Look around, be careful and see what it in there. We have separated out the animals into a separate tub to observe them while dip netting.

The best place to find creatures is at the edges, near vegetation and grasses and I would assume near rocks although we have very few of those in Florida.

Always treat the creature with gentle hands and return them to their home shortly after logging and observing them. It is essential that kids are taught to treat these specimens with respect. Do not remove them from their natural habitat.

A list or chart of the diversity you find turns this into a handy little science project, but really the exposure to these underground worlds is illuminating and inspiring to the dip netter.

Have you dip netted?

What is the most interesting thing you have brought up?

{make} wax paper mono prints

Inspired by this post about plastic bag mono printing, my daughter and I spend a sick day working with wax paper, watered down acrylics, paper and a brayer.

Mono printing is a print making process that makes one unique print at a time. There is no stamp or printing plate that allows you to make multiples. One is all you get.

They are simple and fun.

Basically, we painting designs and abstracted shapes with watered down acrylic paint (sometimes scratching into them or altering the texture in some way.

Then you flip over the wax paper onto your art paper (water color, newsprint, cardboard, anything...) and rub it with your hand or a brayer. I love using a brayer because it gives a consistent pressure along the whole piece.

Carefully peel back the wax paper and see what you have.

Add more layers to it. We just folded our wax paper over onto itself as we added more details.

This activity is great because it is economical and so open ended.

Parents should be at the table playing next to their kids. We have the best time and discover the most when we make art side by side.  If you have a hard time just playing with color - what about making journal pages with spaces that you can write on later? or think about making cards, book marks or gift tag with the resulting fields of color? If nothing else you can have pretty paper for your grocery list.

{math lab} make a huge hundreds chart

If you have a kid learning to count to one hundred who enjoys playing with numbers and patterns, this is a great lab to reinforce those skills. You can easily print out or even buy a hundreds chart (we had one hung in our bathroom for several years!). But it is even cooler to make your own. 

And anything done on a huge scale is immediately more engaging. 

For our hundreds chart we used a big piece of free cardboard I picked up from Sam's. I am in the habit of always grabbing a sheet when I am there as they have unlimited uses around here. 

Then with markers, crayons or paints, make a grid and invite your kid to fill it in. They will quickly begin seeing patterns in all directions. 

When you are done hang it up or keep it handy. My son loves to look at this and refers to it when adding up big numbers. 

If you have older kids, you can adapt this to make a multiplication chart!

{how to} make a simple advent tradition

OK. Here is the deal. I really dislike highly curated crafts and experiences for kids. Especially during the holidays. You can search Pinterest for advent calendars and will see some really amazing things. But in our house, the mama's creative interests lay elsewhere. And the kids want to be a part of the planning and tradition making. So, our holiday projects are messier, less color-coordinated and I contend, easier and more fun.

Our advent is in the top 5 favorite holiday activities. I think I love it as much as the kids. It acts as a touchstone and organizing activity. I wanted to share the way it has evolved in our family and offer an example of the great memory making that can happen when we drop the perfection and engage our kids in the process

+ Get 25 envelopes. You can use white ones, colored ones, homemade, whatever. It does not matter! I like these little coin envelopes that I use when sending badges and goodies to my lab participants. They come in packages of a gazillion, so I always have a bunch. 

+ Let the kids decorate them. Get our rubber stamps, paint, glitter, magazines, anything that might be fun. And let go. Really let them go for it. You will have the most amazingly beautiful and meaningful envelopes no matter what they do. You can jump in and make a few too of course. 

+ Hang them on a string as a garland or put in a box or bowl. Again, whatever works for you. You might even deliver one each day in your indoor family mailbox. 

+ Fill them with activities. I put in the actives I KNOW are happening in advance and fill the rest as the month goes along. So many times, something really fun comes up and alters our plan so I keep it loose. I make a list that I keep with my calendar and usually organize a few days at a time. Most are so simple, there is not much to do.

The key to this project is that you listen to what your kids think are the most important holiday activities and make sure they are covered. Sprinkle that with a few new ideas and lots of very simple activities and you have month of fun.  Hopefully, this makes the anticipation for Christmas more bearable by spreading the magic out over an entire month.


Here are many ideas to get your creative juices flowing. PLEASE leave your ideas on this project in the comments.

anything that is already on your calendar that is remotely fun
movie nights
pancakes + cocoa for breakfast
make cookies/caramels/peppermint bark
make homemade dog treats
make wrapping paper
caroling
make bird feeders
read a favorite book
take a solstice walk
holiday spa baths
take wish list items to the SPCA
lunch with a friend or grandparent
plays and performances
parade
any local events
paint your nails red + green
string popcorn and cranberries
kind bomb the library or the store
make peppermint bath salts
make salt dough ornaments
make gingerbread/peppermint/cocoa play dough
conduct an oral history of the elders (find out what the holidays were like for them)
hang twinkle lights in the bathroom + bedrooms
have a candle lit dinner
decorate tshirts to sleep in
make coffee filter snowflakes
open a new game to play
download Lego instructions for holiday themed projects
write letters back and forth to the North Pole
drive around and look at lights
make origami to hang on the tree
donate a car full of old toys and clothes
play with shaving cream and little animals in a tray
sing some songs/learn a song on the piano/recorder
do a treasure hunt for a little gift
service work
go on a photo hunt for red + green things
ice skating
play date
family lego/mine craft/rainbow loom party
Skype far away friends or family
make the biggest snowflake ever
make holiday cards/thank you cards
decorate the mouse cages

{book review} Grasper + simple prompt

Grasper by Paul Owen Lewis might be my favorite kids' book ever. A picture book about a little crab who is curious about the world outside his little tidal pool, adults will cheer his adventure as much as kids. Despite warnings that the world is a scary place and you must stay in your small but safe area, Grasper yearns to explore. He is told that when he is molting he is so vulnerable that he must stay put. After a wave washes him out to sea, he realizes that he can only grow so big in his home. The crabs in the open sea are huge and full of life and color. He returns to tell his friends and family, but they can not believe him or his new ideas.

When I briefly taught elementary school, I remember having similar discussions with my kids. The majority of them came from severely disadvantaged homes and literally had no idea of the possibilities of the world. Their goals were very low and adjusted based on what their parents (if they had them) or other kids had taught them. 

I so badly wanted to wash them sea for a peek at their potential.

Prompt: We talked about what the world would seem like if we never left our house or neighborhood. We have been scared and vulnerable in our travels, but always appreciate the bigger world view - just like Grasper, and the risk is worth it. 

Each kid used a large piece of drawing paper divided into two. On one side they drew a creature in a small habitat and on the other side illustrated a big, wide world. Simple. 

As they drew, they talked about examples of constriction and freedom in their own life. And I internally  thought of my own examples, both cultural and self imposed. 

writing lab :: letters from Revolution

We always pay a visit to colonial and revolutionary America in June and July. This year the kids all picked a persona and wrote letters that they exchanged with their friends. What a fun project! We had explanations of early small pox inoculations, tales of women led relief efforts and sharp shooter tales.

What made this project successful was the promise of trading with other kids (this had a real purpose), the freedom to write about whatever was interesting about the period, and the hands-on aspect. We painted and burned the paper and then used wax seals.

I think this approach would be fun with any time period and a group of kids. Even better would be to actually send the letters (and maybe even packages) through the postal service.

I hope you have a wonderful 4th of July filled with food, explosives and gratitude for the liberties we enjoy.

in which we pickled a shark

One of the only things I really missed about Florida while in France was beach evenings. Right now, the water in the gulf is hotter than a bathtub. The gentle, sloppy waves combined with the company of dolphins and sting rays makes it other worldly. We all float around in the soup until the last possible moment.

Then we beach comb. On this sojourn, we found a baby shark that had recently died (it had a small puncture wound on its head - maybe a bird?). It was too perfect a specimen to leave, so we did what we do. A little iPhone research and call for help on social media helped us decided that we would try to preserve the shark in isopropyl alcohol. (We need to have formalin on hand in the future!).

At 10 pm we pulled back into our center-of-the-state town and I flip flopped my sandy self into a Walgreens, loaded up my cart with alcohol and then asked the pharmacist for a syringe. "Any size will do," I casually said. "As long as I can use it to inject."

When we got home, we emptied and cleaned out our gallon popcorn jar and filled it up. We looked at the shark some more and then each kid took turns giving it shots. We were fascinated and saddened at the same time. But we thanked the shark for his life and hope he will live in our cabinet of curiosities for a long time. 

And of course this sparked all sorts of conversations. Most interesting was the Jersey Shore shark attacks of 1916; what an amazing story!

project googly eye bombing

At the urging of some of my Book About Me lab participants - we have been eye bombing the Paris Metro.

This is a super fun, kid-friendly public art project! If you try it, share your images - they are hilarious!

{make} your own currency

Hello - I have been in full on adventure planning mode lately!

We had so much fun with a recent activity, I wanted to share. This would be a great project to tuck away for a day when you need something quick and engrossing.

One of my son's birthday gifts last week was a treasure box with a leather journal, compass necklace, wax letter sealing set, colored rocks and jewels and a money making set. The whole thing was a hit, but I think the money making kit was the best.

A variety of wooden disks from the craft store, some sharpie markers and watercolor paint were all we needed to create funds for a new quest.

We had so much fun coming up with designs, numbers, and even a new name for his

currency (they are all "chings"). He invited his siblings to make chings too - so now he has a wide variety and their adventuring play just got a little more interesting!

{monday mission} walk a labyrinth

This week, see if you can find a local labyrinth to walk with your kids. You can search here or ask around. The one near us is in a park and has a nature theme, so it is not listed in the religious or spiritual directories.

The unicursal (one way in) nature of labyrinths is intriguing to kids who must stay focused as they wind around the space. We giggled and ran (not appropriate in a church, tsk, tsk!) and wondered how we ended back out at the edge and where exactly the unseen route was.

Have you walked or made labyrinths with your children?

If this activity sparks the imagination, you can go further. 

You can mow a labyrinth in your yard.

Read the Greek myth of the Theseus and the Minotour

Watch the Jim Henson movie Labyrinth.

Check out the Labyrinth Society's website for kids.

{exploration lab} dissect an old mattress

On my kids' list of experiences to have, dissecting a mattress was high up there. In particular, my son wanted to make spring loaded shoes and he knew he could get those from a mattress. But finding an old bed in the alley did not seem like a good idea to me.

Luckily, when my brother moved, he left us his mattress which was in good shape but headed for the dump. The kids first drug it in and out of the garage for a month and used it to alternately jump and lounge on. After spending one afternoon laying in the yard on a mattress, I can attest to the decadence of this proposition.

Finally, the day came they were ready to literally tear in to their project.

It was amazing (as all these kid led projects are).

They worked together, divided up the tasks, took turns and split the raw materials when they were done. My daughter constructed a little bean bag sofa for her club house, one son had plans for a knight costume and the other son, well, he just could not cut up the spring grid. He was fascinated by the construction and pattern and thought it would be a shame to destroy it. I agreed and we propped it up in the garden and might grown vines on it or use it as a nature display area.

Or in a few months, he might be bouncing down the street in his new spring loaded shoes.

string painting with olders

sometimes i forget about simple, open ended art projects that we did when the kids were younger. 

i might think, oh, we already did that. but that is the beauty of open ended projects - they can be done many times with different results. 

we looked at patterns, and variables, and talked about string theory and worm holes and star births.

what art invitations would you like to revisit?

{writing prompt} hope alchemy

What are you hoping for now? 

Write the one thing, or the laundry list of things that you are hoping for in your journal. 

Then...if you have access to feathers (or leaves) .... stamp or write those wishes and release them back into the world. 

choose your 2013 guiding word

The potential energy held in the time immediately after the holidays and before the new year is tremendous. You can hear it crackling under the surface, waiting to be harnessed and transformed into whatever you can dream up.

Each year, I eschew resolutions or life lists and instead gather my intentions around one word. I let this word being my guiding principle and use it to motivate and re-center myself through out the year.

I recently read an interview with Joy Harjo where she said, " ...writing tells the truth, but also constructs a truth upon which to build on." YES! Writing, even for the non-writer, can not only help figure out where you are at, but can construct the road map for where you want to go.

There are so many possible truths and one way to get to the one you want is to write it (or paint it, sing it, perform it...)

Grab your journal and use any of the following prompts  to uncover what your word for 2013 might be. And please, share with us!

What do I want to create in the new year?

What do I want to do and how do I want to spend my days?

What do I need to moving towards?

How do I want to feel each day?

What is the legacy I am creating right now?

What are the thoughts I am most afraid to think?

What idea makes my heart beat a little faster?

What can I give up?

How do I want to experience time?

What do I want to create in the new year? 


My word for the year is fly - which for me means to take leaps of faith and do all the madcap things I am thinking/writing/plotting about. I started last year with my labs and was rewarded in both huge and subtle ways. This year, the ideas might be even bigger and I am going to jump into to clear, blue air without a safety net. So, be prepared for some spectacular claims and perhaps some crushing failures. I expect both.

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Want to work with me and creative moms from around the world? Sign up for the Mama Scout Family e-Lab! 

It starts January 7th and offers you 30 packed days of ideas, prompts and creativity projects to help your family reconnect and think outside the box. Troop 4 needs you and your energy!

winter solstice

Hi there. I have slowed down in this space this month as I enjoy the season with my family. Also, I genuinely feel like I do not want to clutter my little digital world any more content than is necessary. You need to be with your family - not trying to keep up with blogs and Pinterest. I seem to be getting nonstop email blasts and links to last minute sales and huge craft round ups that only give me angst.

And in light of recent, horrible national events, I just don't feel like talking too much. 

But, I thought I would share something from the Holiday e-Lab about the winter solstice which happens this Friday. If you have never celebrated a solstice, this year might be a great time to start. It can be reverent, it fits easily into whatever spiritual practice you believe in, and it is full of light and beauty.  

Solstice is the shortest day of the year and although the days will start getting longer, for many, it marks the continutation of a season of early darkness and deep winter; a time for turning inward towards home and the family nest.
 
Although, I live in Florida, where the winters are mild, we do notice how early it gets dark. We like to celebrate with warm dinners and games, movie nights, extra long night-time reading and lots of blankets.
 
This season is also an ideal time to personally turn inward. By allocating a little extra time for journaling, art making or reading, the stillness of life becomes like a cocoon. You can plant ideas and dreams that are as wispy as a gossamer thread yet can manifest fully developed when the sun returns into creatures with wings.
 
Solstice is a time to celebrate and study light and the earth. We inevidably study the science of the earth and its rotation around the sun and make many kinds of lanterns and light sources to make our dinners awash with flickering color.

You might want to spend solstice night with out using any electrical lights. This is a perfect night for a bonfire, bathing and brushing your teeth by candle light.  

If you want to make some lanterns and lighted crafts, I have created a pinterest board with a handful of ideas.

Our traditional solstice dinner is fondue. When my husband and I were much younger we attended a magical wedding in Switzerland where we ate lots of traditional fondue dinners. It is like comfort food to us now as it brings back memories of an amazing adventure. 

We eat cheese fondue with crusty sourdough bread and apples. And we drink wine and hot tea, which we were told would aid in digestion. 

I was going to type up my recipe, but found this sweet story with the recipe, so I will share it instead. 

What is your warmest, most comforting food? That is what you want to serve on Solstice night.

I would love to hear how your family celebrates solstice.

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Be sure to check out the 2 e-Labs I am very excited to be offering this January. 

You can read more about them in the upper right hand side of this page. 

Email me with any questions!