I have often said — in my head at least, if not out loud — that I think creativity is the thing that makes people human. We all have a desire to make things, to use or imaginations, to control our worlds in ways that (at least most) animals can’t. Whether being creative means making […]
Making Art with Mix it Up
I usually let the girl choose all the books we bring home from the library, but on a recent trip (in which we brought home 17!) I slipped in a couple I thought she would particularly enjoy. One of these was Mix It Up! by HervĂ© Tullet. Like his previous book, Press Here, it’s an […]
Experimenting with Glitter and Paint
I’ve been doing some cleaning in the girl’s art area lately, and one good thing about that is that it means we’re finding things we forgot we had. It was nearly a year ago the last time we played with paint and glitter gel, and the girl found the remains of the bottle over the […]
Go Back to Basics When You’re Busy
You might have noticed a distinct lack of posting lately, and I’m going to let you know right up front that’s going to be the norm for the next six weeks or so. The book is due Sept. 1, and there’s still a lot to do. All my creativity is going to it rather than […]
7 Tips for Creating with Kids
Most of the time when we have projects for our kids or they are coloring or painting, they’re doing it by themselves. But the girl loves to involve one or both of her parents in making something with her from time to time (and it was pretty much all she wanted to do on Saturday) […]
Letting Your Kids Create, Even When You Don’t Want to
This morning at 6:17 a.m., the girl asked to paint. Sometimes it’s hard even for me to muster the enthusiasm for creativity. But I know that it’s important, so we did it. Make Your Life Easier If you have a kid who wants to create at all hours, make it as easy as possible for […]
Painting with Frozen Watercolors
The other weekend husband was going out of town, and it was one of those uncharacteristically hot spring weekends, so I wanted to have something fun and special planned that we could do in the heat. We didn’t need it then, because we stayed much longer at a birthday party than we probably should have, […]