Mudpies & Butterflies » fun homeschool https://lifelearnersla.com Learning Alongside Your Kids in Los Angeles Tue, 13 Oct 2015 15:30:11 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=3.9.2 Celebrating Big Trees & Big Spirits 9/29 https://lifelearnersla.com/2011/09/celebrating-big-trees-big-spirits-929/ https://lifelearnersla.com/2011/09/celebrating-big-trees-big-spirits-929/#comments Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:19:56 +0000 https://lifelearnersla.com/index.html%3fp=8552.html This week we will share our goodies from the Annual Sequoia Family Campout.

Kids will explain and explore the life of the Giant Sequoias and the rituals of the Black Bears that almost everyone sighted. Bring small pieces of your natural world to make a delicate mobile (or just use what you find in [...]]]> This week we will share our goodies from the Annual Sequoia Family Campout.

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Kids will explain and explore the life of the Giant Sequoias and the rituals of the Black Bears that almost everyone sighted.  Bring small pieces of your natural world to make a delicate mobile (or just use what you find in the park). Click on image below for the simple how to.

Mobile of nature

Those who didn’t get to make Pine Cone Art last week can do it this week.  Come watch a slide show of a dozen of your very own M&B families in the Sequoia National Park. * (M&B Campers bring your memory cards or send me images ahead of time)*IMG_6484

Mudpies&Butterflies Annual Sequoia Family Campout was an amazing adventure!  Potlucks, all-family Talent Show, Crystal Cave tour, close-up bear sightings, gorgeous hikes, lightening night shows, Bucks walking through camp, one hour of thunderstorm & hail, powerful family time, Kaweah River rock jumping, Tokepah Falls grandeur, and yoga before the Largest Tree in the world (photo on left)!

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Animal Morphing with Clay 9/15 https://lifelearnersla.com/2011/09/animal-morph-w-clay-98/ https://lifelearnersla.com/2011/09/animal-morph-w-clay-98/#comments Mon, 05 Sep 2011 23:55:54 +0000 https://lifelearnersla.com/index.html%3fp=8311.html cat mermaidKids will be inventing their own creatures by combining two animals (or more) into one.  By morphing the top half of a cat with the tail of a fish – Voila a new species.  They will sculpt them, name them and who knows what else.  ALL the clay is being donated by Victoria (big M&B thank you!) Of course if any one parent or child wants to do something else with the clay – that always receives a thumbs up @ Mudpies & Butterflies!  Self-expression is key – as is Confidence.  Which is where this next request comes from…

Can we only practice open-ended questions around the clay play?

IMG_5828What happens when kids draw or paint?  Oftentimes, parents, teachers, or elders say – “What is that?”  Due to past experiences for the child, I witness the energy shift and a struggle begin with in the child.  Bodies slump; they take deep, preparing breaths; and sometimes art supplies drop from their hands.  They are pulled out of “being in the art”to fulfill someone else’s need.   Who has witnessed a child’s frustration when a well-intentioned comment about what they have drawn doesn’t match at all to what they were creating.   Have you also ever noticed, that when kids are working in proximity to each other, they OBSERVE each others work, and usually wait for the actual artist/owner to speak about their piece before offering any comments.  Most young kids are intuitively aware that the journey as well as the end product belong to the person who is creating.  Hmmm…

IMG_7339Are our inquiries stifling the creative juices flowing through their hands holding crayons, pencils, or paint brushes?  And why does the art piece have to be something? The stimulation of the process is the main event for these early years: the bumps on the paper, the firmness of the tool in their hands, the way pigment thins as it is smeared across the page. All these “mini-experiments” are impacting their brains along with the smell of the room, the rumble in their belly, and the light casting shadows.   And if the artistic idea they started with isn’t spoken aloud, a child will confidently, freely, let it morph into something else.  Or maybe the magical journey of blurring colors into oblivion or the intense release of rubbing a crayon to a nub becomes so uplifting, the initial image is unwittingly IMG_5309sacrificed.  We parents, waiting in the wings for evidence of burgeoning Picassos, may be coveting that initial image too greatly.  With emphasis on genius, we could be preventing a more natural education of their world from developing.

In my mind, clay is powerful in the World of Art for Children.  It reeks of PLAY, not expectations.  Children (and adults) who mistrust the looming liberty of 2-dimensional art, are willing to give this crazy, squooshy mud a chance.  Even if a child has tightened their expected reign of reality in drawing or painting, a child might explore imaginatively with clay.  And did you know that by working with a piece of clay in your hands and not on a table, helps us readily pull a shape out of the lump instead of attaching pieces to it.  This calls upon more organic deductive reasoning, similar to how we find shapes in clouds.  This is minimizes frustration and maximizes creativity.  Clay can be pinched in here and smoothed over there, allowing their imagination and experiential knowledge to wish the artwork into existence.

IMG_7310To inhibit critique and foster maximum creativity, I am asking everyone (including myself) to practice open-ended inquiries with each other during CLAY play.  (This can be done with drawing and painting as well.)  The idea, is that through active listening to thoughts and ideas, our children will feel that their unique perceptions and ideas are worthy.  But to do this , we have to convince them we will patiently listen to whatever they choose to share.  You can do this with an open-ended question that invites them to share and respectfully await their response.  Not responding isn’t necessarily a cue to repeat the question louder, but a opportunity to witness your child deeply engrossed “in the art.” As you wait, you can just breath and watch or grab your own clump of clay and work beside them.

IMG_7329A good question to start with is, What is happening now? This might seem uncomfortable if you don’t often find yourself asking your children for updates.  Adults are used to naming things, identifying and communicating what we see to our kids.  But phrases that encourage more than a single word response, tell the other person “I really want to hear YOUR answer.”  This communicates that we are prepared to wait as long as they need to respond.  Another good line is, I would love to know how did you do that? Yes, you probably know how they did it, but we aren’t listening for the specific answer, but opening their gates of creativity.  We are empowering them to feel content with their expression.IMG_3863

Some of  you may recognize that your kid doesn’t have a problem opening up and instead tells you EVERYTHING.  That is great!  Bu there will be a time when this free sharing of thoughts and questions will end. Usually because they think you don’t listen enough or they think they or their peers know more than you do.  And as pre-teens or teens in a world filled with dangerous temptations, you will wish they would tell you everything again.  Honing this skill now, is exactly how you will bridge those years.  Here is your chance to build a foundation that you can both tap into down the road, because they will know the difference between you patiently listening versus just going through the motions.

IMG_7317With follow up question like, Can you tell me more about it? and their delight in sharing freely with you lets you know that you are on the right track.   And then, all of sudden, you are tempted to correct the way they made something.  Don’t point it out.  Instead focus on their body language and how they are feeling.  If they are building an animal ask, IMG_1573 What would it be like to ride a creature like that? Help them conjure their feelings or experiences.   Or, What would it feel like to pet that animal?Or if it was a place, What would happen if we traveled there? This may bring their attention to a detail they haven’t gotten too before or maybe not.  Paintings and sculpture, hold less internal restrictions if children are tapping into their past experiences and perceptions of how the world works and not by surfing our expectations of what the final product should look like.

If playing with art supplies (or sports) ends up with us feeling empty, misunderstood or lacking, why try anything new?  My goal with this activity is to help M&B kids to feel that their voice and perceptions are appreciated by parents, peers, friends and society.  And as their caregivers, we represent the world who believe that art (and life) is not a world of right and wrong, but can open up wide to respectfully hold many things in between.    And even if the piece of art doesn’t end up fully-realized to match their image in their head, the experience of thinking about it, manipulating it, and sharing can hold positive feelings for us all.

Amaya

Recipes for two types of reusable play clay.  And 50 questions to spark fun & communication!

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Math-A-Ganza! MathMidway thru Aug12 https://lifelearnersla.com/2011/07/math-in-motion-thru-august-12th/ https://lifelearnersla.com/2011/07/math-in-motion-thru-august-12th/#comments Sun, 10 Jul 2011 18:08:08 +0000 https://lifelearnersla.com/index.html%3fp=7128.html Learning concepts for the sake of learning, can be b-o-r–i-n-g. But when you are playing a game, making art with cool machines or figuring out how you can do something crazy for the first time… well that is ACTIVE LEARNING or as my kids call it – FUN! Last week we went with a gaggle [...]]]> Learning concepts for the sake of learning, can be b-o-r–i-n-g. But when you are playing a game, making art with cool machines or figuring out how you can do something crazy for the first time… well that is ACTIVE LEARNING or as my kids call it – FUN!  IMG_4409Last week we went with a gaggle of families to this fabulous Carnival of games and activities touring the US that uses Math & Physics to engage the entire family.  We were there for almost four hours and my family is returning again this week to take more friends!

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Math Midway will be at the Discovery Center for Science & Technology in Thousand Oaks until August 12th. Notice all the volunteers in white lab coats?  Everywhere you turned there was a helpful person willing to be patient and explain any and all aspects of the events.  And these aren’t even all of the exhibits.

IMG_4448IMG_4449…………………………………………………………IMG_4426My daughters are 4 and 7 and were entertained and stimulated.  They asked some provocative questions and were EXCITED to apply Math and Physics principles to the games they were playing.  The older  homeschoolers in our group were equally impressed and spent more time at certain exhibits.  Each element of the exhibit offers a mulititude of layers.  On the surface layer, it is like a magic trick that is instantly gratifying.  Then upon further investigation, the deeper understanding grants you even more challenges.  Every parent was engaged as well by this fun exhibit: from the string-less  harp that plays on sensors, the numberline tightrope a monkey rides on,  to the center attraction – the square-wheeled tricycles on a fibonacci sunflower.  I promise you will not leave Math Midway with out learning something new!

Check out some of the action shots and videos of the fun we all had.  And if you do go, tell them that MudPies & Butterflies sent you!  If you do, they will get $1 off each person in your party.

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