Category: kids crafts

  • Think outside the box. (Or use the box to do it.)

    I posted this Twyla Tharp quote as a journalling prompt for my teens the other day: “Before you can think out of the box, you have to start with a box.” Sometimes you have to learn the rules or experiment within a safe container, before breaking them and venturing outside and taking a leap. Creativity isn’t […]

  • A Geometrical Family Activity.

    Make a mandala. Make it on paper. Make it in the garden with things found in nature. For more details, you can read my old blog post. The Ancient India block, where we create mandalas, is one of my favourite blocks. As they draw a the mandalas, I tell the story of Brahma, Vishnu, and […]

  • Once upon a time.

    “Make up a story… For our sake and yours forget your name in the street; tell us what the world has been to you in the dark places and in the light. Don’t tell us what to believe, what to fear. Show us belief’s wide skirt and the stitch that unravels fear’s caul.”  – Toni […]

  • love note no. 23: dear colours.

    Dear Colours, After the last couple of days, I have come to the conclusion that we take you all for granted.  In fact, I am quite sure that this love letter will seem silly and even trivial to some who read it. But you have a depth that intrigues me. In a sense, one could speak […]

  • i *heart* homeschooling.

    We have hit the middle part of our school year, what I like to call “the heart.” I wrote about my plans for this term here. Here is my intention for these next three months: the arts, math, poetry, creating writing, and story with a focus on Classical Greece and the Renaissance. Why? Because it is this […]

  • mayBE 2015: twenty-two.

    #5: “Mama, I made GLUE!” Me: “What? How?” My youngest is my only son and lately he has been conjuring up new ways to get into mischief that none of my girls have ever even dreamed of.  So I panicked a little as he ran in the room one day proud of this particular accomplishment. […]

  • mayBE 2015: eighteen.

    In our house, mandalas are drawn all the time.  They have similar meditative properties to the zentangle that Lynn introduced in mayBE: seven. The kids draw them in restaurants.  They draw them on planes.  We have made them out of natural objects on the beach. And you can even have them as colouring pages for […]

  • mayBE 2015: seventeen.

    Are you a city mouse or country mouse? What landscape is around you?  A cityscape?  A countryscape? What scape intrigues or excites? What scape would you or do you retreat to? A small backyard one?  A vast and open seascape? A virtual cyberscape? A spacescape? To get your imagination going, take a look at this […]

  • mayBE 2015: sixteen.

    I have a guest post today from Princess Perez-Villapando!  I have known Princess just over 30 years.  Although we had lost touch for a few decades, I am happy that we have been able to reconnect online and collaborate on projects over at Sense of Story.  You can find them here and here.  Her ability to […]

  • mayBE 2015: fourteen.

    Today my good friend Marisa is guest posting!  I have known Marisa for over 20 years and she is also a part of the “I married my high school sweetheart” club. ( She actually is a member of “I married my grade school sweetheart club”). She has been a constant source of creative inspiration.  I […]