Personal Space, Quiet Time, and Wild Rumpuses

From the beginning, this blog as been published sporadically and constantly fell victim to my inability to keep a routine. 

I'm sorry about that.

Lately though, it's been more about my need for a little bit of time to myself, to think and sort things out and sometimes (for me) that means turning into a bit of a hermit.  Thankfully, I live in the country so I don't have too much social interaction to worry about (husband, numerous billy goats, and attic-dwelling squirrels are about it) so I've managed to spend a fair amount of time in thought and quasi-meditation. 

Still, despite my lack of fondness for noise, and especially human noise, I cannot keep myself away from the rambunctious, raucous, and rowdy children that I spend my days with.  I love them too much to let them be quiet!!!  So we've had lots of noisy adventures lately...

I would be remiss if I didn't not come back to the blog, at least for a bit, to talk about our Wild Rumpus. 

My newest program, PlayArt! has been a huge success and this week I couldn't wait to read "Where The Wild Things Are" (in celebration of the film, Halloween, and the little monsters in all of us) and host a Wild Rumpus.  So, after doing our stretching/wiggling/pseudo-warm-ups, we had a "Standing on one leg contest" followed by an imagination game, "Yes Let's" both of which were HILLARIOUS!  (I wish I had pictures of those!!)

Then we made "Wild Thing" costumes!

Afterward, I gave out their Halloween goody bags filled with candy (not too much), stickers, and their own musical instrument to take home.  The instruments came from a mixed bag by Oriental Trading and included kazoos, mini air horns, recorders, train whistles, classic noise makers, clappers, etc etc. 

Then we let the wild rumpus begin! 

It was FANTASTIC and reminded me of just how much I love the uninhibited noise of joyous children!  So, in spite of the fact that I am more than exhausted... I just can't wait for next week!

Of Heaven and Angels

I feel no need for any other faith than my faith in the kindness of human beings. I am so absorbed in the wonder of earth and the life upon it that I cannot think of heaven and angels.
-Pearl S. Buck

Imagination Takes Flight

I've been working with kids for over ten years now.  (I know...it's crazy.  I can't believe it either.) I grew up in some kind of weird art limbo between backstage and art studios.  Then, I worked in theatre institutes for children.  Then, I opened my own Shakespeare Camp for children.  And now I work full time promoting literacy and art with children...as well as teaching inner city kids about nature and farms and ecosystems and evolution.  It's a pretty kick-ass living!  As a consequence of my work, I often get to do really, really cool things with kids... like the mural my preschoolers did, or the robots we made, or the insane day of finger-painting...

This week, we made wings! 

These wings are SUPER easy to make.

Supplies: poster board, elastic cord, brass brads, decorative stuff (markers, crayons, etc)

1- Just find yourself some plain poster board (or colored poster board, or double sided poster board)

2- Fold the poster board in half and cut something that looks sort of, kind of, wing-shaped. The wings pictured here are a bit fancier but you can really just cut a sort of oval shape for really nice wings... as long as you're mostly symmetrical then you can't go wrong!

3- Hand the wings over to child (or self if you're making some grown-up wings) with markers, crayons, crêpe paper, glue sticks, sparkles, glitter, stick on gems, ribbon etc etc etc.

4- While child goes CRAZY with their wing making, cut two lengths of elastic cord (the kind used for beading) about a foot long.

5- Tie either end of these cords to brass brads.

 (In Total You will need: 2 stings, 4 brads)

6- When child is finished making crazy wings, stick the brass brads through the poster boards from front to back. The puncture will go from top to bottom of the wings, NOT side to side, you want the top of the string above their shoulder and the bottom under their armpit. I sized mine so they were taught when placed on the wing.

5- Child will wear wings like a BACKPACK.

Some fun books that go with this activity are:

My kids had a blast with this craft.  They ran around the room like crazy winged super kids forever and could not be stopped!  The wings are not really very durable, but they're easy to repair (tape) and just as fun/easy to make again the next day! 

 

Nerdy Baby Etsy Find!

So the other day I was be-bopping around Etsy looking for fleece skirts (I'm on a mission, more on that later) and Star Trek geekery (as always) and came across this fantastic shop.  After perusing the goods for a while I felt confident that by the end of the year I would be totally bankrupt after ordering every single item this woman has in stock.  I don't even have kids, I'll be using upcoming baby showers as an excuse to buy this stuff!!

Tiffany Ard is the artist and she runs a wonderful blog.  If you go by, tell her EnsignRose says hi!

The items in Tiffany's eclectic shop are all pretty amazing, original, and knock-your-geek-socks-off hillarious.

My favorites are:

"Baby's First Book of Physics"

"Nerd Baby Prime Number Counting Chart"

And

"Newton's Three Laws of Motion Art Poster"

Which I am SOOOOOO ordering for my living room.

If you would like to go buy some of the items and keep me from spending the entire contents of my bank account on Tiffany's work, you can visit her Etsy Shop or her Webpage!

Toddlers and Paintbrushes

So... I'm becoming one of those reclusive types who refuses to venture into the world (for anything besides toilet paper and Star Trek Box Sets)... or interact with any human beings (in person or online) for any reason.  And this mentality seems to be bleeding into my blogging as well.  I'm sorry about that.  I hope to post as much as possible but things just keep piling up.

Anyway...

Last week I set my toddlers loose with a ton of chubby, stubby paint brushes, tempera paint (mixed with dish liquid...very helpful!) and giant white rectangles of construction paper. 

The tots had a blast, mixing colors, swirling the sloppy paint around the paper, getting their hands (and faces, and hair, and toes somehow) messy with color. 

Some of the parents thought I was crazy to give their two and three year old children paint brushes and big cups of paint, some thought I might be a childhood art guru, and all were pleasantly astonished by the work their children produced, the enthusiasm they showed toward the joy of painting, and the pride they displayed when spreading great puddles of color across blank white paper.

I love process oriented work and emphasize it as much as I can. Hopefully this will be the beginning of a fruitful and wonderful semester with my kids.

Backyard Wonderland...

I finally got a weekend at home. 

Hooray!  

I've been using it to do some adventuring: 

 exploring the gorgeous land around our old farm house...

and looking for the inhabitants of this little faerie space...

 

It's almost over but I anticipate several more 

adventures as autumn approaches. 

Today I made...

I've always really enjoyed leaving curious little objects laying around for other people to find:  origami animals, weird notes and drawings, the little plastic toys from quarter machines... 


But I was thinking that I'd like to do something with a little more purpose, a little bit less obscure, so that whoever finds it knows the intent of the one who left the item.  When you leave these odds and ends, there's the hope that they'll make someone smile but there's always a chance they'll say, "Did some poor child lose their tiny plastic dinosaur?  Oh dear!"  And I don't want that. 


So I made these: 

These little glass gems have things inside that make me happy: elephants, crayons, breakfast etc.  And on the back they all say, "Please enjoy this free smile!" 


I hope to spread a few laughs and a couple brighter days with these.  


What do you think?  If you make some and spread them around, let me know how it goes!