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Erin
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I'm so excited, I have found an easy way to unleash and foster my children's creativity. 
For a couple of years we really haven't done any art  The whole idea of art/craft was just too overwhelming and then I'd feel guilty that my younger children weren't receiving the rich education our older children did.
However this week creativity abounds in our home, everyone has been so busy creating they have barely focused on academics, although in a way they have. The interesting trend I have noted is, as their creativity increases so too does a natural interest in real learning. I may start teaching a topic but then the dc run away with it, take it to a deeper level. Does academics increase with creativity? I'm sure studies must support this, anyone know?
So, our easy way? I have set two centres, an art centre and a craft centre. These consist of two tabletop areas, with a chair in front. The craft centre has a number of craft materials in the shelves underneath (you could stack next to if you didn't have shelves) and a hot glue ready at hand. Every day the children are at the craft centre busy and thus far needing no direction, creating away.
The art centre I have taken more direct involvement. Each day I lay out one feature of the better quality art supplies with a stack of blank paper. One day the offering was soft pastels, the next two days was oil pastels, the next was quality pencils and paper, I also laid out advanced colouring books.
I'm just so amazed, and not only are the children availing themselves if this material but branching out. Yesterday the origami book came out and most of the day was devoted to creating boxes, huge ones and tiny wee ones that sat on their fingertips (I consider that geometry  )
So for anyone else who was as down as me about your lack of art/craft all is not lost.
I'd love to hear any other tales of re-discovering your creative side.
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Erin
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Mackfam
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Erin,
This is a fantastic idea! I did something similar to what you did at the beginning of our schoolyear (July) in our learning room and everyone is really enjoying it, too! I set up an art center island out in the middle of our room. We had an old tv stand and it's really sturdy and solid wood (so it's great for holding materials) and the kids really gravitate toward the art materials I set on top of it. I put our art calendar display there as well! I did have to cover the ugly back of the cabinet since it floats out in the center of the room - used a very cheery red oilcloth with white polka dots. Now I like looking at the back of it more than the front of it!!!  I keep meaning to do a blog post on it and have one halfway started....just haven't ever posted it. 
I'll share pics if you will!  We could post a pic here on thread if others would like that, too!
I'm thinking seriously about your *set out one medium* invitation type display. I love strewing and have always had great success with it and just haven't done that in a while. I may set up a special *invitation* area on the top of my cabinet to do just what you have described to invite more involvement with different materials.
Love your ideas!!! So glad you started this thread! 
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Jen Mackintosh
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CrunchyMom
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LOVE IT!!!
I really like your setting out the different mediums one at a time.
I'm really battling organization lately and keep flip-flopping between making things available (being out of sight, out of mind myself) and getting annoyed by visual clutter.
Boy, I'd love to make my entire home one big school area and fight mightily having my home look like one big school area. 
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
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[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Mackfam
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| Posted: Oct 28 2011 at 8:47am | IP Logged
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CrunchyMom wrote:
| Boy, I'd love to make my entire home one big school area and fight mightily having my home look like one big school area. |
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I know what you mean with this, Lindsay! And at some point (only in the last few years, I think), I made peace with it because we DO learn all the time, all over our home. I found that home = learning and organization starting meshing more with my design/visual sensibilities when I began organizing with real stuff in every room, so that learning opportunities can be embraced when they spontaneously present themselves and tools are at hand. I avoid organizing tools in primary colors/kitschy/schoolish design...like you'd find in an elementary classroom, and just organize in ways that make sense, are workable, and work with our own *eclectic-traditional-farmhouse-charm* personal sense of style.
Having one room as a learning space certainly helps us, but it isn't exclusive in terms of it being the only room in which learning happens, nor is it the only room I make tools available (if that makes sense?). And, our learning room is in the center of our home and is totally open, so everyone sees it. It functions more like a cenral hub, and learning radiates out from every spoke. And of course....I LIKE  seeing pretty art supplies set out!!! This is totally off topic, so I'm going to stop.
I'm off to set out watercolors, q-tips, and paper...and invite some artistic exploration!
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Jen Mackintosh
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ekbell
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Having little room (no possiblity of a separate learning area even if I wanted it) we have 'cubbyholes' full of art and craft supplies in the bookcases near our central table.
There's no shortage of artistic endeavors although the need to clear the table for meals does limit things a bit :-(
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Mary Fifer
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This is a very encouraging thread. You see, I, too, have done very little in the arts and crafts department at least during the school year. I have depended on summer time for learning the next skill like sewing, baking bread, and music. This has worked really well so far and the older children can go to our stamping desk for making cards and go to the sewing table to sew (thank God for a useful if not finished basement).
Now that my youngest is seven though, I might do a bit more of this, too, especially during the Christmas break. Thanks for linking from the other thread - Homeschool Confessions.
:-)
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Sharyn
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I think I'm getting the hang of this 'inspire' idea too. I'm wanting to start the kids lapbooking, so I filled a file with an assortment of templates for their use and gave them a book of lapbook ideas for inspiration. I did a Math lapbook for my youngest and the rest were clamering to do their own.
And hows this for tricky. I bought some brown paper bags to cover our notebooks with, because they all had the same design and you couldn't tell them apart. I covered my own notebook and decorated it. Meanwhile my dd saw and loved the idea so much she went and covered her entire set of notebooks herself
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Mary Fifer
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Too tricky!
I wish that every good example I set were executed so well!
I love the covered notebooks, by the way, they are so much more special when they're prettily put. I like keeping them through the years, too, but we frequently can't find where we put the previous year's books.
Maybe our grandchildren will have a better go of this now that we've gotten so much figured.
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Sharyn
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Mary Fifer wrote:
I wish that every good example I set were executed so well!
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Alas no, it doesn't always go how you hope for... but when it does 
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Erin
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I love sharing in all your excitement and reading your ideas Hoping to share photos soon.
Sharyn, I've experienced that modelling myself (such as piano playing). How are you storing/displaying the notebooking templates to be enticing?
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Erin
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Sharyn
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Erin wrote:
| How are you storing/displaying the notebooking templates to be enticing? |
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At the moment I have been storing the paper (cut them out type)templates in a large 3 d ring binder, 10 copies of the one template in a sheet protector. I 've managed to fill an entire binder so far. But it's easy to flick through the file and select the template you are after. I've got another binder full of coloured paper and scrapbook like supplies. And we have a box of plastic templates for drawing shapes of the kind that scrapbookers use on our table.
The idea is to make everything ready and waiting so that creativity can flow unhindered
I have the Big Book of Books by Dinah Zike to help them with idea's. We will also do some of the Faith Folders to give them some practice. I'm hoping then the templates and supplies being 'ready to go' that they will start doing some lapbooks under their own inspiration. They have already done a couple themselves. I can see them finding this a good way to explore creatively displaying information that they have learnt. With as you said creativity inspiring learning.
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Angel
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We haven't been doing as much art as we used to, and I think it's totally related to the two variables you pointed out, Erin: mom's involvement and easily accessible space. In our old house, we had a much more organizable space for art supplies. They could be out, but up out of reach of babies, and they were obvious to those who could use them. Every so often I would sit down to do an art project myself, and therefore, everyone would want to do an art project.
I don't have that space in our new house. I keep moving the supplies around, paring them down, etc, but I haven't yet hit on that magic formula.
Actually... I do have a giant room upstairs I could turn into a school room and line with bookshelves... but I would have to plow through the Legos first and then police it every moment of the day to keep it from turning into a giant disaster area! Plus there are only two windows up there and the kids have repeatedly told me, "We like to do our school stuff downstairs."
I think they like an entire house set up for learning, too!
Anyway, I'm still working on this. Wondering why we bought this house a little bit ( cue deep breaths) but thinking that more mom involvement is probably what is needed when the space isn't there...
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Angela
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CrunchyMom
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Angela,
I'm thinking I want to take Erin's idea and make up art trays in the different categories so that I can take a tray and have everything needed to do a particular art project and set it out on the table, and then, it can all go back into the tray to be put away. This way, I can keep the supplies in a location that isn't immediately convenient for where it will be used. This means, I can also easily move "art" to the porch or outdoor picnic table in good weather.
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
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[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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ekbell
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The discussion on lapbooking supplies reminded me of when l made a few mini-offices to help reduce distractions and my older children promptly created their own.
[mini-office :file folders used to make a folding work corral with appropriate reference materials on the 'walls'.
There are quite a few webpages with examples and printable reference materials. They are particularly useful when there is limited wall space or a number of children working at different levels or subjects at the same table].
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CrunchyMom
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Lovely pictures of Erin's art centers!
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Angel
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Erin, is that long counter the top of a bookcase or meant to be a desk/counter? Seems like a very efficient use of space! (And the flowers are so cheerful. )
I think I mentioned on the Homey learning thread that I am hoping to turn a hallway closet into a sort of learning center. My dh is stopping on the way home from work tonight to buy wood for closet shelves - whoohoo! I was thinking along the same lines as you were, Lindsay, about setting trays out on the table... or maybe keeping them in separate containers, bags, or baskets in my closet. I just have to recover my motivation. I'm not the best on the "mom involvement" part of the equation (seems like there's always something that interrupts any sort of planning routine I try to make), so I like to have the "easily accessible organization" overcompensate.
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Angela
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CrunchyMom
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Angel wrote:
I'm not the best on the "mom involvement" part of the equation (seems like there's always something that interrupts any sort of planning routine I try to make), so I like to have the "easily accessible organization" overcompensate.
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Me neither, and I'm hoping that this type of organization will help me compensate as well, even if it is just "easily accessible" to me, rather than the kids, it will make the "mom can we paint" or whatever question less overwhelming for me to answer, which will hopefully make me more of a "yes" mom when it comes to this sort of activity
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Lindsay
Five Boys(6/04) (6/06) (9/08)(3/11),(7/13), and 1 girl (5/16)
My Symphony
[URL=http://mysymphonygarden.blogspot.com/]Lost in the Cosmos[/UR
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Erin
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Angela
The benches are actually old school cupboards (from the Convent school). So doors need to go back onto them, visually it is starting to annoy me to see all the contents, although I'm toying with the idea of making fabric baskets, what would look more appealing, baskets or doors?
However as you have a smaller home I think you could even set up a centre with just a card table. You don't have to have all that space.
I've never been one to be good at the homey touches, I was given the flowers but am thinking I should cut some every week.
The ease for me is I'm in the room working with other children whilst some are over at the centres. So the only direction I give is laying out the art supply each morning (2 min tops). Then I guess being in the room ensures the 3yr old doesn't decide to hurl the materials. Although I've always stressed extra care with the "good art supplies." They are kept in a drawer, not easily accessible to the little ones.
I love your craft tray idea Lindsay.
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Erin
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Sharyn
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I have a lockable metal cabinet (tall and wide) that is right next to where we work. I can get what I want out quickly, and little, and not so little people can't make a mess of everything. It's great! I wish I'd got it years ago. In fact I'm going to get another because the first is full It is full of jigsaws, games, leggo, sewing stuff and such but the second I'm going to dedicate to filling with different kits. Sewing kit, jewelery making kit, watercolours kit etc.
The amazing thing is when you get lots of kits together even the mum who 'isn't so crafty' finds an interesting change can take place, and not just in the kids
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Erin
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Sharyn
Now a lockable metal cabinet sounds fantastic! Where did you get this? I'm all ears.
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Erin
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4Real Forums : The Arts in the Everyday
Topic: Easy Way to Unleash Creativity
