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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. Dinosaurs, digging and tools are a few of my boys' favourite things. So, when they discovered how to create mini ice excavations to free frozen dinosaurs, it was NEXT LEVEL! This STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, Math) and sensory play has since become the kids' favourite activity not only because it's fun and easy to do but it also helps them to focus on something engaging, quickly. There is nothing quite like hammering away at blocks of ice to unwind and release energy – for both kids and parents! Now, we always keep an ice tray full of frozen creatures. Preferably, near the ice packs for injuries in our freezer. What is the method behind the madness? When the kids (or I) feel grumpy or get a bump, we quite literally break ice as an ‘ice-breaker’ and a distraction from the stinging pain of cold ice pack on owie! In fact, experts advise the art of distraction is often effective to help calm kids down, especially when they are hurting or need to let go of tension. Now, even the kids' play-dates request this fun, easy and engaging activity when they come over. A win-win for everyone :) Learn how we do it, below. WHAT WE USE:
LET'S CREATE! Invite the kids to place a creature figure in each open space of the ice tray. Then, help them to pour water into each space and put the ice tray in the freezer. When the water has frozen, remove the ice tray from the freezer and extract the ice blocks onto a large surface (preferably on the ground, outside). Then, let the kids excavate away at the ice blocks with their toy tools to free the fossilized bugs or dinosaurs! Another option is to use water sprays to slowly melt the ice blocks. My kids also like to find different things to freeze to keep it interesting, such as tiny trinkets and water beads. CONNECT & INSPIRE... Not only is this activity an effective distraction and releases energy, it also develops skills such as:
Author Elizabeth Gilbert once said, 'A creative life is an amplified life. It's a bigger life, a happier life, an expanded life and a hell of a lot more interesting life.' Kids who often practice creative pursuits in life (such as writing, singing, crafting, painting and dancing) generally feel more empowered because they are more thoughtful, reflective, happier, interesting, better in problem solving, challenge the norm and build greater confidence. Other benefits to raising creative kids include:
Encourage your kids to be creative, to use their imagination, and then praise them when they do. Build their confidence to present their creative point of view, their thoughts, and their feelings. In this way, you are not only empowering them and powering their brain, but you are also helping them to expand their childhood and hold onto it - just a little longer. Do you think creativity can help your kids in some life skills? I would love to hear from you in the comments below! When kids engage in creative pursuits in life (such as art, craft, writing or dancing) they are better at self-expression and have higher emotional intelligence. This is because they have a safe and welcoming (creative) space to explore and understand their emotions. Read more about how Creativity can Empower your Kids here.
Dr Laura Markham, trained clinical psychologist and founder of Aha Parenting advises we teach our kids that:
When my younger son has trouble expressing his emotions, he sometimes act out by yelling his frustration. This is because his brain has not developed fully to physically control his wild emotions. He doesn't even know his behaviour is inappropriate in a full-scale meltdown. Child development expert, Daniel J. Siegel suggests that “connection should be our first response in virtually any disciplinary situation.” WHAT I USE: It's not easy to drop whatever I am doing and become very present and empathetic to my son's needs but it is my most successful way in making him feel safe enough to express his tears and feel the fears that may be driving his anger. Holding him close, I acknowledge how he is feeling. He knows someone understands, which makes him feel just a bit better, so he's more likely to cooperate. He knows he doesn't have to yell or act out to be heard. Engaging in creative ways together with my kids is also an integral part of my connection with them. In order to help them cope with their emotions whilst limiting their actions, I connect with them via a visualisation technique I created. When my son is willing to listen, I compassionately invite him to visualise an Airport Control Tower trying to help land planes safely, during stormy weather at the airport. The Airport Control Tower is his brain's Emotional Control Tower and the planes are his hands, feet and mouth. LET'S CREATE! I help him understand that just as we can't control the stormy weather, we don't usually have a choice about what we are feeling. However, the Airport Control Tower can control the planes flying around it and similarly, our brain's Emotional Control Tower can control how we use our limbs and voice. Our brain can choose to land our limbs safely by our sides and control the volume of our voice, during the storm. In time, the stormy weather will pass and so will our stormy feelings. They always do. CONNECT & INSPIRE... This holistic visualisation usually engages my son's imagination because he loves aircrafts and begins to focus on what types of planes his limbs could be. This dissipates the desperation in his emotional outburst and helps him to feel in 'control' of his emotions, which he often expresses to me when he is ready. That is, until the next time a new challenge filled with new emotions he is unable to control comes his way! Before that happens, it's time for a big glass of water to boost my own oxygenation and patience power...knowing that one day he will be able to 'control' his emotions because he has a healthy, expressible emotional life (like my older son) makes it worth the effort and wait! Read Ice Excavation & The Art of Distraction for another technique your kids can use to let go of tension and release energy. How do you help your kids with their emotions? I would love to hear from you in the comments section! |
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