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Welcome to Creative Mama, where mamas can have fun connecting creatively with their kids and find meaning in mamahood. |
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These easy to create colourful elephants (haathees) have been bringing hope to our loved ones, during these times of change. Whilst we continue to put up colourful rainbow artwork around our home to invoke gratitude and show support, we decided to upcycle old milk cartons and deliver funky haathees with positive vibes to family and friends who are recovering from surgery, live alone and celebrate their birthdays in lock down.🌱🙌 What we used:
Let's Create: Lay the milk bottle on it's side and cut the entire bottom half of the bottle off with a serrated (bread) knife, just below the handle, which forms the elephant’s trunk. Cut arches on all four sides to make the legs. Now the fun part! Decorate your haathees with different coloured paint and glue on sequins, stickers, gems with PVA glue. Glue on some (googly) eyes if you have them or paint them on, along with some ears and a tail! Connect and Inspire... Creating these rainbow haathees have helped the kids feel connected and purposeful, knowing they are uplifting their loved ones, during the pandemic. Needles to say, our family and friends have loved receiving their colourful inspirations of hope. These haathees have also been great for imagination play and story-telling. In addition, the kids have practised their fine motor skills and coordination, whilst they designed and experimented with colour. For more rainbow art ideas to bring colour to your kids days, especially during the gloomy grey winter weather, take a look at Painting with Marbles and Creating and Colouring Mandalas. This activity was inspired by The Imagination Tree's Milk Jug Elmer Elephant. The kids enjoy reading this much-loved patchwork haathee's books!
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Parent Educator and Author, Elaine Heffner once said, "The art of mothering is to teach the art of living to children." For our first big trip overseas with three young kids in tow, we stayed with family who manage a missionary hospital and orphanage in central India. The orphanage currently houses 60 girls from 6 years of age. WHAT WE DID: Before we embarked on this life changing journey, we decided to raise some funds for the orphanage. When my 7 and 4 year old sons brought some artwork home from school (and amazed me with their creativity), I curated a few and designed them into celebratory cards for birthdays, Christmas and the Chinese New Year with Vistaprint, online. We sold the cards at our local community group and celebrations, raising enough to pay the school fees for two of the girls for the coming year. LET'S CREATE EXPERIENCES! When the boys presented the cheque to the very excited girls at their annual Christmas function, I felt so proud of them and I could see they felt pretty special to have helped support the orphanage. The boys enjoyed the simple living so much that they didn't want to leave when it was time to say farewell. They were amazed at the incredibly poor conditions but still thriving people of the hospital and orphanage. CONNECT & INSPIRE... Needless to say, this exceptionally enriching experience and many others in India gave the boys the opportunity to learn invaluable life lessons including empathy and tolerance and obtaining the virtues of kindness and humility. It was great to see their emotional intelligence kicking in when I heard the older one tell the younger one that they shouldn't eat the Cornettos that the orphanage gifted them with, in front of the girls, as the girls could not afford to eat them. They chomped down the melting ice-creams soon after we left the orphanage. Now that was some new found self-control for one of their favourite desserts right there! We're thinking this creative project for our wider community might become an annual Christmas tradition - please email me if you would like to pursue a similar project! I would love to explore more creative ideas for community and encourage 'the art of living' to my kids. Hope to hear your thoughts and suggestions in the comments section. Who likes to daydream? Who has ever dreamed of flying? And who has ever tried to fly? Well, that is what Arya’s Flying Dreams (now available in eBook format) is all about! Who likes to read books? Who has ever dreamed of writing a book? And who has ever tried to write a story? Then you have just planted the seeds for your own book that you could be the proud author of! Because in dreams we plant the seeds of our future...  These were some of the discussion points used to engage 200 Grade 2 and 3 students during my Book Talks for Book Week at local primary schools. We all have a story inside us that we dream about making into a book and sharing with the world. The feedback from the teachers, including my sister, was that students felt inspired with practical tips to write and publish their own children's book. It was a fun family affair to help support and promote Arya's Flying Dreams with my older son participating in his Grade 3 Book Talk. Then, my middle son dressed up as Arya and my niece dressed up as Arya's Mum in their respective Book Parades. Did you know that the word ‘inspire’ originates from the Latin word 'inspirare' meaning to ‘breathe into’, as in to breathe life into an idea? Our stories are simply ideas that we bring to life, using our imagination. Here's what I covered in my Book Talk to inspire you to breathe life into your idea - your story: What I did: The topics I covered:
Let's Create! I expanded on the above topics and included sneak-peaks of my original sketches that my illustrator, Valerie Bouthyette interpreted beautifully. In particular, I covered brainstorming ideas, creating structure for your story, identifying themes, utilising literary devices, practicing and editing your writing voice and the publishing journey. Connect and Inspire... In order to inspire the students to connect with and participate in the discussion, I set a simple challenge to listen for a few tips that would score them a few copies of Arya's Flying Dreams for their school library. I hope these tips encourage you to take small steps towards creating your dream story:
If you know a primary school, library or community that would be inspired by this discussion, I look forward to hearing from you at [email protected]. Please share Arya's Flying Dreams with friends. It is available online at Amazon, Book Depository and Booktopia. Thank you! |
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