This year Friboy is printing his own birthday invitations. This is his first lino carving and I am surprised how at ease he was with it.Continue reading
Elemental beasts by Friboy
Squirrel feeder – a small tribute to nature
I wanted to start this post in an encouraging way but I have no idea how, so I will let this intention speak for itself. A while ago I started noticing the squirrels that live in the park near our home. They are active from around march to november, usually in the early morning and sometimes at noon too, if it’s not too noisy. I started leaving nuts for them, but being at home with my son allowed us more time to make a proper feeder.
3d painting
This is the only artsy activity I managed to do this summer with Friboy. I wanted to do more clay masks from different cultures but he wasn’t into it that much. We made this one which is inspired by Romanian dance masks related to winter / end of the year traditions.
Where science meets whimsy
Autumn school break is over which means that for the past two days I have been binging on Harry Potter and Kambly biberli and taking long baths…in the bathtub. While our vacations have been getting easier because FriBoy has grown into a collaborative, easygoing and fun kid to be around, I still find it hard to manage his activities all by myself. We haven’t had grandparents here to help out in a long while, and those couple of hours a day, while they were in charge and I got to sit and do nothing, really mattered.
Earth Overshoot Day and Diy Aquarium
Last Wednesday was the earliest Earth Overshoot Day ever registered, which means we have used more resources from our planet than it can renew within a year, with still 5 months to go till the end of the year.  This date happened to fall on the Swiss National Day – 1st of August, which made big news. According to Swissinfo, Switzerland is operating as if it had three planets at its disposal: it passed its country overshoot day on May 7. If everyone on the planet could afford the lifestyle of people living in Switzerland, as well as in many parts of Europe, it would be for a very very short time.
Monster challenge – paving the way to design thinking and engineering
Half way through summer vacation and I feel like it has been another school year where I am the teacher. I had stopped drinking coffee a while ago, but vacation is not helping out with my resolution. Creativity is also fatigue, unless you take a break from it. And this has been our most intensely creative vacation, Friboy wants to create and build stuff every day, we even did it while vacationing in Latvia.
Artsy Wednesdays – Stuffed Toy Reloaded
Since FriBoy figured out that he can design and make his own stuffed toys, this has become a favorite activity in our household. He also wants the most unusual animals which we can’t readily find in a toy store. This time he wanted a flying squirrel, now our 5th handmade stuffed toy.
Artsy Wednesdays – Flying Kite
Last weekend I saw a friend putting together a kite out of scraps of paper. I never flew a kite as a child and I thought it was absolutely awesome. I also remember my father telling me that it was a popular activity when he was a kid because there were no toys and children would play a lot outside, improvising all sorts of contraptions.
Artsy Wednesdays – Chocolate Easter Bunny
I am starting this post with the end phrase: this was super awesome !!! – because it really was a great activity, as neither of us have ever seen how those chocolate shallow figures are made. Plus last year for a “what do you want to be when you grow up?” art project at school, FriBoy painted himself as a Maître Chocolatier and I thought I’d make his wish come true for a day.