The Artful Parent

I'm heading to BlissDom!

I'm driving to Nashville, Tennessee, today for the BlissDom blog conference. I have the car packed with music, audio books, and snacks and I can hardly believe have the next five hours to myself in the car! Usually car drives involve mediating the needs of four different people, including two small but very vocal beings. Needless to say, this peace- and quiet-loving mama will thoroughly enjoy the solo road trip.

The Tooth Fairy

Maia lost her first tooth last weekend! She was very excited about her wiggly tooth and kept talking about the tooth fairy—sharing all the interesting facts that she knew about tooth fairies (and surely learned from the other 6 year olds at school). And, of course, she knew the whole routine about putting the tooth under your pillow.

But she lost her tooth in the middle of the night! It was simply missing when she woke up. We searched her bed and bedroom and finally decided that she must have swallowed it during the night.

39 Ways to Play and Learn with Playdough

After posting about cooked versus no cook playdough recipes the other day, I thought I'd follow with a round up of ways for kids to use and play with the playdough. I began with links to my many playdough posts, but then went a little crazy and added all kinds of other playdough fun found around the web. Enjoy!

Use playdough to explore art concepts

• Make mosaic art with the playdough (from Putti Prapancha)
• Explore color mixing with playdough (from At the Butterfly Ball)
• Playdough dress up (from Inspiration Surrounds... Creativity Abounds)
• Make a playdough maze (from Squashed Tomatoes)
• Roll the playdough into balls, snakes, and snails (plus a kool-aid playdough recipe, from The Chocolate Muffin Tree)
• Make your own natural dyes for the playdough (from Mini Eco)

No Cook Versus Cooked Playdough

You know how much we love the cooked playdough recipe we've been making forever. It's the play clay from MaryAnn Kohl's First Art, and I've posted about it here and here as well as probably about 20 other times. It's awesome. The texture is smooth and playdough rubbery, the batch makes a more than generous amount to play with, and it lasts just about forever.

How does no cook playdough compare?

We've made five different no cook playdough recipes so far. Some use cold water, some use boiling hot water. Most of the other ingredients are the same but vary slightly in amounts. The recipes with the cold water are grainier and a bit drier in general. Here's the recipe for the no cook playdough I like the very best, using the hot water method.

Share the Love with Interactive Heart Mandalas

Maia and I have been making interactive mandalas for a couple of months now, taking turns drawing each successive layer. Lately we've been making them into heart mandalas, mostly because Maia loves hearts, but also because of Valentine's day. And yesterday, as a family Valentine's celebration activity, we made a huge heart mandala together.

Heart Applique T-Shirts for Valentine's Day

I made these heart applique shirts yesterday as Valentine's gifts for Maia and Daphne. While they were last minute in execution (and luckily very quick), I have intended to make them for quite a while now.

Valentine Suncatcher Craft with Colored Notebook Dividers

Do you remember how impressed I was with the Kiwi Crate we received last December—especially the suncatcher activity in it? I've been meaning to buy some colored film ever since, but haven't, partly because I don't know where to find it (anyone?) and partly out of sheer laziness. However! When I came across this post about learning with light at Still Parenting (via Pinterest of course), I was thrilled at the colored shapes she made for her light table from cheap notebook dividers. Thrilled because one of these days I will surely make us our own light table (I've only been saying that for the last three years). And thrilled because the solution to my colored film search was presented to me on a platter.

Colorful, yet sheer, notebook dividers!

On Vacation This Week

I am just checking in briefly to say thank you for celebrating alongside me last month both with the amazing giveaways and with all the great guest posts! What a fun month! As much as I enjoyed the excitement, though, I have to admit that I am really looking forward to getting back to blogging as usual. I've missed it!

But first, a little vacation... I will be away from the blog this week. Also away from facebook and e-mail and twitter. This one will be a true digital sabbatical. One week, and then I'll be back. Until then!

A Round-Up of Artful Resources

Wow! What a fun blogiversary celebration that was and what a wonderful series of giveaways! I wanted to thank everyone who participated, both those who offered the lovely giveaways and those of you who left hundreds and hundreds of comments!  

Thank you!!

In case you didn't win something that you were really interested in, I'm including links to each of the giveaway posts here as a reminder of some of the artful resources we have available to us (you can click on the images or the links below...).

 

         

     

   

Guest Post: Make Your Own Zen Tray for Sand Drawing

I am excited to share a series of guest posts with you by other Artful Parents and teachers while I step back from the blog a bit this month! I hope you enjoy the new perspectives, different ideas, and fresh energy that each brings to this space. And I encourage you to leave a comment to continue the discussion, add your own viewpoint, or simply say thanks!

Guest Post by Jena

I remember, when Little J was just a baby, we lived in Royalston, a very rural town in the central, northern part of Massachusetts.  It was a very lonely time for me.  I had no local friends because I always worked an hour away before having my baby.  I had no roots in my town. 

Little J and I would take a daily walk through the woods to the post office in the center of town.  The post office was next to a small avant garde private school, whose mission was based in nature and the outdoors.  I would watch as teachers took their class outside to the sandbox, where they would practice their writing and math skills by drawing numbers and letters with sticks in the sand. 

This is what this project reminds me of.