{radical art of homeschooling} it's a lifestyle

“I am beginning to suspect all elaborate and special systems of education. They seem to me to be built upon the supposition that every child is a kind of idiot who must be taught to think. Whereas, if the child is left to himself, he will think more and better, if less showily. Let him go and come freely, let him touch real things and combine his impressions for himself, instead of sitting indoors at a little round table, while a sweet-voiced teacher suggests that he build a stone wall with his wooden blocks, or make a rainbow out of strips of coloured paper, or plant straw trees in bead flower-pots. Such teaching fills the mind with artificial associations that must be got rid of, before the child can develop independent ideas out of actual experience.”  – Anne Sullivan, Helen Keller’s Teacher a disclaimer - the views,opinions and thoughts are completely my own and based on my personal experiences of raising my kids and interacting with my community. I am in no way meaning to prescribe a particular method of lifestyle. I want to share my journey and open up a discussion and safe space for each of you to explore this subject, either for the first time or to go deeper into you current practice.  How we began homeschooling I never intended to homeschool, although looking back, I can now see how everything led me to this point. I did fairly well in school, but early on felt that I was just putting in my time. I knew I was in a flawed system and I figured out how to work with in it to stay under the radar, get good grades and even cultivate a positive reputation among my teachers. But I was not learning much. I memorized content and completed projects which I immediately forgot. I came alive when traveling with my family, hearing the rare engaged history or humanities lecture, and while working at one of the many jobs I held from the time I was 14. The real world was where I wanted to be and school seemed like an institution bent on keeping me out of it. So, I paid my dues, started college early and wondered what my future would hold. It wasn't until my upper undergraduate classes that my mind was reawakened. My major was art history and I studied gender and power constructions, historiography, mythologies, photography, costume, performance, and low art. I worked with an amazing array of professors who were challenging and pushed me until my mind cracked. I was able to travel to NY and spend several summers in Paris meeting and working with artists who through their examples of engaged and discursive living helped me rebuild my brain and create my own approach to life. Later, in graduate school, I taught humanities and American studies courses to freshman and sophomores. I was under impressed with most of them who came straight from the school system. They lacked creative and independent thinking skills. In fact, they were right where I had been a few years earlier, punking the system for a grade. (I had thought I was the only one who went through this). The most interesting and engaged students were older, had lived, worked and traveled and hungered for knowledge and conversation.  I even tried teaching 5th grade for a semester at a local public school. While I loved my students (who were severely socially and economically challenged) it became apparent that the system I had contempt for had gotten even worse. The constant testing, implementation of new learning schemes, and complete lack of understanding of my childrens' actual needs was eye opening. Luckily, I was at a school that was so bad, the principal was just happy to have someone in the classroom keeping the kids safe and contained. I had a little freedom and would try things like reading chapter books aloud, mediation, watching and responding short art films and unstructured outside time.  I will never forget the time we were watching a Little Rascals episode and I looked at the face of my favorite student (troubled and brilliant, he was). In the flickering light he has relaxed, put down his ever present posturing and defenses and was laughing. Laughing like a real kid. It broke my heart because this is what these kids needed. Space and time to connect to something safe and fun. And it was nowhere in the curriculum. His drug-addicted mom took that from him, his community with its crime and guns took that away from him, and the school system was taking it from him.  When I started having my own kids a few years later, I spent so much time watching them explore and experiment. They were natural scientists and learners. My job seemed to be to support them and offer resources. To be there and witness their process.  When they approached school age, I could not fathom taking their time from them. They were so happy, healthy and connected to each other, their extended family and larger community. (I know some have really great school communities - but there was not a great option for us at that time). So, our decision was not necessarily to "homeschool." It was really a decision to not add school to what was already working so beautifully. School did not seem like it would add as much as it would take away.  The lifestyle and its benefits Homeschooling is not an education method, it is a lifestyle and has the potential to change everything. If explored deeply, it becomes a lifestyle of curiosity and questioning. Homeschooling has led us to rethink nearly all of our automatic thinking from housing, to health care, to sleeping arrangements to jobs and careers. Many people have told me they could never homeschool (I guess assuming it is way too much work). I usually respond that I could never adhere to a typical school and work schedule. Homechooling is intense and hard work, but there are some sweet, sweet luxuries built in. Here are the benefits for our family: We sleep in our natural cycles. Typically, we have slept with the sun cycle. As the kids enter teen years this might be changing. I love the fact that they are able to sleep in when their bodies need the extra rest. Experiencing puberty in your own comfort and boundaries has been wonderful. This is total luxury, but I love the fact that during certain uncomfortable times, we can rest and take care of ourselves.  We eat better than we would with a more typical schedule. We eat home cooked meals together as a family (for the most part!). We can eat when we are hungry and take as long as we want.  We learn in multiage groups. Not only within our family, but also in various home schooling groups and classes. Kids are attracted to each other because of common interests not simply because of arbitrary ages or school grades. The past two summers, my son took a master naturalist program intended for adults and learnt along side school teachers and retirees.  We follow interests as they arise. We are always up to try something new and not held to a schedule of when things need to be learned. A deep interest in Egypt can be studied right away. In school or within a strict curriculum, this is not as easy to accommodate.  Life becomes an experiment - the ultimate lab. I love that we are able to try new approaches to life. We can experiment with where we sleep, when we read, how we eat dinner, where we meet friend to learn, anything. It is all open. We can try and adjust all we want.  We can adjust days easily when illnesses arise. We are not sick to often, but I have often felt a deep sense of relief that when I am up with a sick kid all night, I know I  can recoup the next day. I can not imagine how hard it would be to go to work, find care for a sick kid and fit in doctor's appointments. I know this is a privilege and I appreciate it immensely.  More physical exercise. I will never forget when my daughter was at her 5 year check up. The doctor, noticing how tall she was, was relieved when he knew she would be homeschooled. He shared that when kids enter school (especially bigger kids) they are prone to gaining weight right away due to sedentary days. Because she was homeschooled and would be more active, this was not a problem. As my boys were born and also active and outdoorsy, I knew that they would have a problem in school too. When my kids were young I read about Charlotte Mason, a 19th century educational reformer. She believed that children should spend at least 6 hours a day outside. That number stayed with me, and I made it my goal to get them outside for the majority of the day. That could never happen with a school based lifestyle.  More quiet and self focused (and even bored) time. We can schedule tinkering/reading/hanging out days as often as we want them. These are some of my favorite times when the best ideas and plans are hatched. Better integration into daily chores. They can cook their own hot breakfast. I have noticed that when we are in a heavily scheduled camp week (one that seems to most closely represent a typical school schedule) they are less able to help with chores.  Peer pressure seems to be rare. I rarely see serious bullying or peer pressure in homeschool groups. For the most part, the kids are helpful and supportive to each other. And I have never (ever) heard anyone tease another for what they are wearing, the backpack they are carrying or what they are interested in. Seriously. For much of my kids' life they dressed in costumes (or the same outfit everyday). And they are accepted. They have, at times, weird and esoteric interests. And they are accepted.   Deeper sibling relationships can be cultivated. Early on, I read several articles explaining the impact and importance of sibling relationships (even over parent relationships). For the most part, my kids are very close and I hope that their bond continues and offers them support long into their lives.  Education is not parceled out or divided into discrete subjects. When it is working the best, learning is a vital part of everyday living, part of who we are, a family of autodidacts.  Every homeschooler knows about taking advantage of sites when everyone else is at school or work. For a long time my husband worked shift work, so we were already used to the luxury of midweek shopping, eating out and site seeing. When we had kids, it got even better. We have spent long quiet afternoons at the zoo and aquarium talking in depth to the animal care workers, we go to Disney during the week and DC right after school is back in session. The off season and off times are our favorite times to do stuff. We tend to stay close to home on the weekends and holidays. A lot of homeschool groups have back to school parties to celebrate the emptying out of the science centers and bowling alleys.  Journal: Write down what benefits you will have (or already have) from homeschooling. Get as detailed as possible. Include selfish benefits (like, I don't have to wear a bra first thing in the morning!).  Is there a big goal or dream that your family would like to work towards? (a year of travel, moving to a farm, starting a family business...) What is the biggest drawback? (be honest here, many people worry about time to themselves, loss of income, lost of status, what others might think...) What are your biggest worries? Write down what a perfect day would look and feel like for you and your kids. (this is a great journaling activity to do as a family. I am always surprised at what is most important to my kids. I try to ask them this a few times a year). If images move you, I highly recommend creating a collage of words, magazine images, original art and text exploring what it might be like (or what it is like) to live a life outside the mainstream.  Share you thoughts in the FB group or the comments here.  +also, if along the way, you are digging the content, I have added a donation button at the top of the page. I am trying something new (always trying new things...). Instead of having every lab be a paid for thing, I am interested to see if I can create and share content in this way. Thanks for any support (monetary, notes or good vibes :)

{radical art of homeschooling} welcome

Welcome to The Radical Art of Homeschooling! 

I have had this lab brewing for awhile and decided to offer it last summer as a sort of a beta lab, especially for those who are on the fence about sending their kids to school this. I think it will also be useful for those of us who are moving into new stages in our homeschool experiences. My kids are 10, 12, and 14. Their needs are rapidly changing and if I thought I had it all figured out when they were younger, I was wrong! I am constantly recalibrating to meet their evolving needs.

This lab will consist of weekday blog updates exploring different aspects of homeschooling. Topics will include: lifestyle, learning spaces, learning communities, uncommon resources, the value of process, building lessons, documentation, mission statements and parent care. I will include journal questions that you can write responses to or use as discussion prompts with anyone else who will be involved in homeschooling your children. We will not go into depth about learning styles or curriculum, although those topics would certainly be perfect to discuss in the Facebook group.

Which brings me to the second part of the lab. The community I am hoping we build through this lab will be as valuable an asset as anything I could ever offer. Please, participate in the FB discussions (join HERE). Share your experiences, fears, ideas, and breakthroughs. We have a gathered an amazing group of women who have varied backgrounds and rich experiences. We have seasoned homeschoolers, unschoolers, education specialists, new homeschoolers and part time homeschoolers.

Collectively, we are an amazing resource. So tap into it and share your expertise and divergent ideas. Never underestimate the value on a good online group! In the past few years, I have made friends online that have become real life friends. I hope to extend this to my children, too. After the lab, we can do nature and mail exchanges, send each other postcards or even meet up when we travel. We can build something spectacular! 

You really do not need any supplies for this lab other than a journal, pen and internet access.

I will see you tomorrow! Here we go! (below is one of my favorite music videos speaking to the magic of spending your days with your kids- enjoy)

And as always, please let me know if you have any questions or issues. I am here for you.

onward,
Amy


 

{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?

{life lab} the chore wheel

I hate chore charts and reward systems. I do not believe that I should pay the kids to help out in their own house and luckily they are very willing to help when I ask - but it takes too much nagging energy to keep up with 3 kids, a stupidly huge old house, 2 dogs, 2 cats, 5 mice, 4 chickens, a crab and fish etc... you get the idea. 
We have tried several things and nothing works or feels right for very long. The best approach we have come up with is the chore wheel. On it, I have listed the very minimum of daily maintenance chores that need to be done. Each kid has a clothes pin that rotates around the wheel each day. The idea is that we work on these chores first thing in the morning before we go anywhere or start working on other projects. 
Things get tricky around here because we have a very full (+fun) schedule. If we can keep these basics going as habit we are never with out clothes or come home to a completely trashed kitchen. Of course, some days it does not all happen because we are rushed out the door and might not come home until evening. That is ok. It is a guideline. 
My kids get do pocket money just for being a part of the family. I also offer them ways to earn extra money here and there with extra jobs (cleaning out the silverware drawer etc.) And sometimes they just have to help clean all day. 
The chore wheel changes every now and then but it has served as a great visual and hands-on tool for helping us all keep a home care rhythm. 
I would love to hear about how your family shares the work load. Leave a message in the comments...
(a picture of our command station in progress. we have a calendar, our family values, the chore wheel, a season wheel, a family portrait and a bit of mail art from a friend. sometimes my to-do list is on post it notes on the wall too. i like that because it feels good to take them down and toss them when i am done). in the same room we have a chalk board wall and a big cork board.)

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!

the biggest memories are of the smallest things

We are getting ready for a big trip, a monumental trip, a trip that can quickly get mangled up with all sorts of expectations. It will be wonderful and I am grateful.

Yet,

I am constantly reminded that most of our very biggest and most cherished memories are of the mundane. Everyday activities that are just a little bit more magic because of a turn in attitude and fun (and that turn is often elusive for my addled mind).

And they are nearly always free.

The other afternoon, we took our journals down to the local lake to draw and write and mediate. The weather was warm and windy, as balmy as Miami, a real feast for our senses.

A few drops began to fall, so we reluctantly gathered up our supplies and started walking the half mile home.

Then the heavens opened. As the sky was pouring rain and my kids' hearts were releasing joy. They love nothing more than to get caught in the rain. The brisk walk home was filled with constant chatter and stealing away into strangers' carports and eaves to catch our breath.

When we reached our home, they could not bear to stop, so they danced in the rain for the next 20 minutes, while my youngest sang at the top of his lungs. Whenever he is happy, he sings Star Wars and Christmas music mash ups.

I realized or remembered for the millionth time, to slow down, allow for the unexpected and embrace that which is, not lament that which is absent.

My mantra for the past year has been "all in." And I fall short from this tiny missive daily.

Yet,

everytime I fully experience the space we are in completely, with all my senses - reality is refocused into a surreal realm, where dreams and possibilities peak out with a shy little wave to let themselves be known.

All children need this more. A big part of this blog's mission is to capture and record and remind myself how it works for us.

And, I love to hear how it happens in your world too. Together, we can change the world - one tiny magical moment at a time.

{monday mission} start a collection

Building a collection is such a great activity to work on individually and as a family. We have enjoyed working on various collections over the years and have learned so much as they often spur new directions in our explorations. Here are a three ideas that have helped us in our collection of collections.

my tiniest collection - 3 woodpecker feathers

1. A collection can be of anything. 

we currently have collections of:

bottle caps
smashed pennies from our travels
rocks
fossils
seed pods
my little pony figurines
restaurant crayons (?)
stamps
golden books
dolls and doll clothes
coins
sugar cubes from around the world
records
buttons
feathers

my feather collection is stuck in one of my found birds nests

2. Offer ways of both storage and display.

A collection can easily become a junk pile if it does not have a useful way to be both stored and displayed. We often keep our collections in tin and cigar boxes, plastic bins, shoe boxes, entire drawers and tote bags.

For display, think creatively. I like a series of glass fish bowls, a hanging banner or even a temporary table surface. Old letter press trays can be found at antique store rather cheap. Shadow boxes from the craft store can be painted or stained in any creative way.

Ask your kids to make a museum or dinner centerpiece with their collection. And invite people to come over and share their collections or just enjoy yours. It is fun to bring things out of storage to enjoy.

some collections are temporary

3. Allow collections to have a life cycle.

Meaning, sometimes a collection might be short lived (like the one we had of silly bands). This is especially true of environmental collections you might make when spending a day at the beach or in the woods. Above, is a collection of interesting found objects my kids found when exploring an old windmill well. They set up a display, invited us over to look at it and then left it for the next hiker.

It is important to let kids take charge of their collections on their own. There is no easier way to kill a kid's interest and passion than by trying to take control of the project by demanding limiting perimeters or even by being overly enthusiastic.

When we took our daughter, a budding philatelist, to a local stamp shop to meet the owner, it was nearly soul crushing. Instead of encouraging her novice enthusiam, he immediately started explaining how she needed to focus her collection on only one country and should invest in a particular $100 album. There was no room for her interest or discovery. Thankfully, we all agreed his restrictions were unreasonable for the type of stamp collecting she was interested in.

4. Take the time to look at other collections.

We love checking out other people's and institution's collections. Antique stores, yard sales, conventions, trade shows, car shows, museums and visitor centers are all great places to get inspired by what inspires others.

We have enjoyed collections of citrus labels, Coca Cola memorabilia, gems and rocks, cigar bands, local shells, pins, marbles, doll furniture, historic costumes, old cars and more.

It is always invigorating to be around enthusiasts and learn what intrigues them about their area of speciality and passion. Because, in the end, we are not only learning about a new subject matter, we are also learning about how to craft an engaged and curiosity driven life.

In the comments, share with us about your collections...

Want to work with me in boosting your family's creativity? 

check out the newest section of the Mama Scout Family e-Lab. 

homeschooling is....

homeschooling is....

forays and explorations into canned fish products and picnics at the sidewalk on the go cart you built yourself.

(I would love to hear the weird things that your unschooly, autodidactic lifestyle has brought to you - please share in the comments). 

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?

best toy ever :: an old mattress

Best toy ever. 

An old mattress. 

Used for jumping, napping, cuddling chickens and reading comics. 

Soon, it will be dissected to peer into its mysterious innards. 

Finally, spring jumping shoes are on the design board.  

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.

________________________________________

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!

mail and children :: ideas and resources

Do your children love getting and sending mail? Mine have had a deep love of the postal system since they were old enough to understand what the mailman was bringing everyday. 

In fact, my daughter even went as a ballerina-mail lady one Halloween, because ballerinas and postal workers were the two coolest jobs she could think of. 

We have been having some mail time fun around here recently, so I thought I would share some of the different ways we have had played with the mail over the years. 

Reading and writing letters is particularly useful for reluctant writers, but more importantly, the open ended and imaginative qualities are spectacular. You can create any world or character with letters and maps. The possibilities are endless. 

Here are 7 ways to have fun with the mail.

{add your own suggestions in the comments!}


1. Participate in a nature exchange
Nature exchanges can be amazingly fun. Basically, you pair with someone from a different geographical region and swap a box full of nature items from your area. Leaves, shells, seed pods, rocks and pressed flowers are among the most popular bits. You can also send a little note, a regional folk tale, photo of your family, and handmade treats. 

I have done several of these and love them. You can sign up different places on line, but I have had the best luck organizing them one-on-one. You might send out a request to some of the Facebook groups you belong to or just email someone you "know" online to ask if they would be interested. 

I am considering running one through Mama Scout this spring, so make sure you are signed up for my newsletter and Facebook page to get the information. 

2. Put a mailbox in the house (and the yard)
One of the best things we ever did was install a real mailbox in our house (the photograph at the top of the page). It is positioned upstairs in the landing between all the bedrooms and receives mail year round. We have also had an outdoor one for  children to leave messages to each other and the bigger outside world. 

These are magic making. And so easy you can do it NOW. 

And of course, be sure to use those mailboxes. I have had long conversations with my children through the mail. Something about writing the letters makes the communication different, more thoughtful and deeper. 

3. Make your own address labels, stamps, supplies and more.
This is so easy and obvious, but you would be surprised at how custom stickers and stamps add to the excitement. I just buy Avery labels in different sizes and make each kid their own return labels with fun fonts and pictures. You can also make stickers that have warnings or funny sayings on them. And of course, just coloring and drawing on the labels and turning them into stickers and stamps is fun too. 

We love making our envelopes from magazine pages. I use this template because it is little and cute. 

4. See what you can mail 
Can you mail a soda bottle? A hula hoop? A ball? A Flip Flop? Try and see! While you are at the post office asking and finagling, set up a tour for you and your friends. This classic field trip is always educational and interesting. 


5. Start a stamp collection 
Maybe it is only natural that our love of mail turned one kid into a budding philatelist. My daughter has a super cool collection handed down from her Great Grandfather. She is interested in the images and where the stamps are from instead of building a complete collection. She recently received this book and loves the creative ways it suggests collecting. 

6. Sign up for Mariposa Forest letter service
There are all sorts of subscription services for kids (magazines, craft kits...) but this is by far my very favorite. 

When you join,  your child receives biweekly letters from the forest creatures of Mariposa Forest. The letters include a gorgeous photograph and maybe a even a map. My kids were instantly smitten when we first tried a few dispatches from the forest and begged to get it year round (which they will for Christmas). 

This is one of the best gifts I can think of this year. It is imaginative, lasts all year and supports creative women (which is huge in my book!)


7. Get a copy of JRR Tolkien's book Letters From Father Christmas (immediately!).
I saw this recommended by Lori at Project-Based Homeschooling and fell in love as soon as it arrived. 

For over 20 years, Tolkien wrote his children a yearly letter Father Christmas. They included delicate drawings, hand-painted stamps, and hilarious tales of all the mischief happening at the North Pole. There are characters and languages you might now have know were up there. I promise, you will love this book. It is pure magic and a testament of the power of letters between parents and children. It might even spark your own creative project with your children. 

{idea} real creative family living

As soon as my children were born and I started really watching how they interacted with the world, I knew I could not force my limited ways of thinking upon them. From early on when they made toys from acorns and fluff, experimented with language and at times seemed to connect with an invisible world that I could not see, I wanted to offer them a home that encouraged free thought, possibilities and hands on experiences. Whether telling stories, making up songs, or going on day long wanderings, I want them to feel that they are creating their experiences, their education, and their life. 

The ideal of this vision sounds so much more saccharine than the messy reality (and by messy, I do not mean the way people use the word now to mean kind of sexy. I really mean messy).

For us, the creative life is not a swirly, gentle lifestyle where we are all happily singing as we transition from task to task.  It takes immense personal responsibility and dedication to truly create a life and resist what I call "default living". 

Our family life is painfully beautiful and sublime at times. Sometimes we can even enter flow as a family while we create.  But many other times we are sloppy with our intentions and become frustrated and so angry at each other, ourselves and our emerging talents. We fail spectacularly, we get it all wrong and sometimes we do not how to rebuild what we have broken.  A creative family is not always a peaceful family. The sweat and tears that pour while we individually dig into the meat of life and the essence of who we are is worth bearing and offers a deeper sense of well-being than just the causal ease of everyone getting along. We realize that being uncomfortable often opens a space where things start to get interesting.

Allowing for and encouraging creativity makes the family culture so much richer. It offers our family a shared culture and language based on our experiences together. We have jokes and memories that are so specific they barely make sense to us. We become a team of dreamers, a club of doers and a battalion of warriors, all together. 

From those first days, I could see that my kids had so much to offer me. They had new ways of looking at things, different methods of solving problems and more complex ways of experiencing life. 

What would I have missed out on if I only supported my own myopic ideas on how a family should work? 

I never would have tromped through a rainforest looking for stick bugs. 

I never would have danced around in a roomful of strangers in my socks. 

I never would have protested the circus or slept in my backyard.

Encouraging creativity in your home is so much more than making sure you have markers and glue available to your children. And while I think a creative, "open-source" lifestyle looks different for each family, here are three fundamentals that I think we all share: 

embracing a "yes" philosophy. 

Automatic "no's" shut down the any conversation and connection we might build with the asker. Strive for a "yes" always, even if it needs qualifiers. And you can turn the responsibility over to the requester. "Yes, we can go to the Galapagos Islands, if we can figure out how to save $15,000. How can we do that?" (That is an actual conversation going on in my house now. When I was growing up, I hated the automatic "no" and the way it pushed me out of the process of problem solving).

teaching our kids how to look closely

By allowing ourselves to slow down, to avoid automatically heading to electronic devices when there is a lull in the day, and to experience boredom, we also encourage deeper looking and noticing. I think that being able to "look" closely and notice the minute is a skill that is not always valued in the shotgun approach to many of our day's activities. The subtle and small can become the infinite and profound, offering answers or at least some direction to the biggest problems facing us. I will always remember when my 8 year old son called me over to hear the sound of a snail eating or how we used to wait and watch our chickens lay their eggs. The mystery of the universe revealed itself and bound us together in new ways.

talking and reading a lot

When people ask me what curriculum we use, my answer for the longest time was, "The one where you talk all day." Through conversation; real, meaningful conversation, we as a family ask big questions, make proclamations about what we believe, change long held tenets, and begin to connect the threads from all the facets of our lives into a more cohesive structure. Reading out loud as a family encourages exploration, discovery and even more conversation. 

This is what a creative life looks like to our family. I would love to have your thoughts on what your creative family looks like in the comments. 

{art lab} finding art in the street

We like to look. And spend a lot of time in the alley ways around our house hunting for things, recording textures, and even hanging poems on trees. When I ran across Carla Sonheim's tutorial on blob hunting, I knew what our next alley adventure would be (and that I had found a great new resource).

We headed out with our creativity journals and looked for shapes that were made from stains, cracks, leaves, shadow or anything that caught our fancy. This exercise required that everyone really look past the actual items they were seeing in the road to the primary shapes that were revealed. 

I was happily surprised at how much we got into this. Despite the fact that we were just going to collect the shapes (and then go inside with art supplies) they stopped to draw what they saw immediately. 

In fact, I was unable to participate as much as I had planned because I was ping-ponging back and forth as each kid wanted to show the magical scenes they were discovering under their feet.

This reminded of a water painting project we did a few weeks ago. 

These sorts of things seem so simple, but are really a linchpin of our curriculum. By just learning to slow down and look, and then imagine, kids' worlds are rapidly expanded. 

They begin to make new connections and see fresh possibilities in even the most mundane circumstances. 

Schools will not teach your children to see maps in paint spills or dancing men in sidewalk cracks. As this is not a quantifiable skill, you will not see it on any worksheet - which is why it is so imperative for parents to provide this type of experience for their children as much as possible. 

This is not about raising dreamers, it is about raising thinkers. 

Thinkers and doers who will create technologies, write novels and plays, and discover scientific breakthroughs because they are able to look at disparate information in unique ways. 

guerrilla art :: kind bombing with kids

My young writer's group met at the library recently. After we had shared our work and talked about satirical writing, I planned a final project of kind bombing. 

I showed the kids this video and asked them what they thought of it. They all thought it was awesome and I proposed that we did something similar right then. 

We wrote good wishes and thoughts on paper and hid them in books in the children's department. 

Simple, positive, and a great way to get kids to love writing.

They responded to this project enthusiastically, coming back to make more messages several times. Each kid decided what section to "bomb" which was fun. Chapter books, insect books and sports books were hit the hardest. 

The secretive nature and sneaking around for good seemed to inspire them as they talked about what people would think when they opened a book and a sweet note fell out. 

The idea of creating a little something and leaving it and your trace in the world is powerful for kids (and adults). What seems simple and almost like a prank, actually connects kids to the public sphere and gives them a sense of agency within it. 

They can actively shape their environment.

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And be sure to check out my new Holiday Lab!