The Conscious Family
Creating With Children
(In honor of the sacral chakra - the center of creativity...)
Human beings are created to create -- be it as miraculous as a new life, as grand as a piece of fine art, as fleeting as a silly song, or as simple as a daily "to-do" list. I, for one, am quite the creation lover, in all its manifestations, and, of course, I am trying to instill a similar passion in my children. We do art daily, like, for real: an entire section of my basement is filled with bins of craft supplies, and homemade art covers the walls. Sometimes it's doodles, only to be recycled when the box is overflowing. Other times it's a sculpture of recycled bits. Or a mobile.
After pre-school the other day, my little one told me that when he grows up he wants to be an 'art guy.' Ah, how my heart sighed!
One of my favorite recent activities with the boys combined two of my passions -- creation and critters. The boys and I decided to make pinecone, peanut butter, and sunflower seed bird feeders. But it all started with ice cream. It was "Sunflower Seed Saturday," at our local dairy farm and favorite spot, Broom's Bloom. They were dishing out free seeds from their sunflower crop to the public. The boys and I most happily filled up a bucket, bellies already full of 'dirt' and cones. When we got home, we grabbed some bags for a pinecone collection walk through the neighborhood. Our jaunt turned out to be surprisingly social (got to talk to all of our neighbors!) and scientific (got to discover, compare, and discuss all sorts of fallen pinecones on the ground!). We were having a great day, and we could have ended there, content as cake. But the fun had just begun! There was PEANUT BUTTER to glop! (caretakers of peanut-allergic ones, forgive me here!) We set-up on the back deck -- pinecones, peanut butter, and sunflower seeds. String, spread, roll.