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.
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.
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.
Each year before a major holiday I plan to send postcards to our extended family members. Sometimes I even go buy beautifully illustrated cards that end up in a drawer instead of the post office, or other times I craft cute cards with FriBoy, that end up in a different drawer. Social media has done that to us, now we send memes and tag each other on facebook. But this year is going to be different. I will definitely send these cards!
I was clueless this morning what to do for a creative activity but when desperate, clay is always a good idea.
A STEAM challenge and a creative way to reuse old toys’ parts – Pointillist robot
First and foremost, I think education should have an interdisciplinary approach to art and science. Teaching them separately is like mining the human brain for an isolate resource and ignoring the rest. I think it goes against the holistic evolution of the human brain and body to exploit an aptitude in favor of another and compartmentalize disciplines.
We recently visited the Museum of the district Pays d’En Haut in Château d’Oex which is hosting a temporary exhibition of Swiss paper-cut art from the Simmental, Saanenland and Paysd’Enhaut regions of Switzerland.
Making his own stuffed toys is a great way to teach a boy about engineering, design, planning and sequencing, problem solving, the value of one’s own effort, while developing creativity and patience…even if this means putting a needle in his hands.