Life with Kids is Easy!
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Gifts are already made and bought? Then what is left is to add some festivity and the atmosphere of surprise to each thing. With the help of some unique wrapping paper! It can be made at home, together with a child (even a tot).
One of these days, while Soniya (21 mo) was painting with finger paints, I was experimenting with Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, crafts, Creative Work, design, do-it-yourself, early-childhood development, holidays, ideas, kids, painting with children, presents, St. Valentine's Day, Women's Day
We presented our daddy with the gift described below when he returned from his business trip. We wanted to share with him the atmosphere and events we had faced. As if he had not left and was aware of everything happening.
One of those days Soniya (21 mo)painted bright pictures with finger paints. But she did not stop at that point: she also thoroughly painted her face and the mirror beside. Of course, I immediately fetched my camera 
With the taken photos of a small size I decorated Soniya’s paintings. In her other picture I wrote down her funny pieces of speech and described some situations from our life of that time.
Now the most important task was facing me: how to make everything as a gift? Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, crafts, Creative Work, do-it-yourself, drawing with kids, early-childhood development, family, holidays, ideas, kids, presents
Bitter frosts still continue. Soniya (20 mo) has used all the plasticine and paints and she has glued everything that can be glued – even the pieces of pine cones. Something new should be invented, immediately! Otherwise, the mum is also bored at home…
On the day when Natalie and Arseny were making huge glasses-masks, Soniya and I were making a doll or, to be more exact, a “girl”. The activity really turned out to be developmental!
In Soniya’s hands a new “person” was born, with all the features of its face, hair and body. And our daughter got Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, crafts, Creative Work, do-it-yourself, early-childhood development, ideas, kids
Arseny (23 mo) is not interested in games, his cars any more, he cannot find what to do – and all because it is too cold outside (25 degrees below zero Celsius)… Not the best time for the mum who has to invent something cheerful and developing, immediately, but the imagination has almost stopped working. Especially when the little one answers “no” to most tempting suggestions . In such a state the astounding ideas usually come to one’ mind. For example, one of these days our son and I organized Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, crafts, Creative Work, design, do-it-yourself, early-childhood development, ideas, kids, lifehack
The Fifth Meeting of the Children’s Art-group
The first (in 2010) meeting of the children’s art-group has already taken place. And it is notwithstanding the fact that both the road to our house and the neighbouring streets were covered with 20-centimetre snow which had fallen at night.
The New Year unexpectedly brought us some new elements into our art meetings. Now not only mums/grandmas and their children come to us but also dads. And, secondly, one more boy, Svet (2,5) finally joined us.
We started our meeting with a story about how the New Year’s Eve is celebrated in different countries, how Father Frost/Santa Claus comes to all the children on our planet though he may be called differently and be accompanied by different personalities. Here you can download an illustrated story about the New Year in different counties prepared for children: from Santa Claus and Per Noel to Queen Lucia and Goddess Laxmi.
An important quality which unites all the characters in the story about the New Year is the desire to give presents, tasty things and joy to people. We also decided to prepare something sweet to present others with it – this time we were making pastry for gingerbread.
While the pastry is being cooled in the fridge, we Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, cooking, crafts, Creative Work, do-it-yourself, early-childhood development, food, holidays, ideas, kids, modeling, New Year's Eve, presents
Merry Christmas, our dear readers!
Last Sunday meeting of the children’s art-group was devoted to Christmas.
By the way, we have prepared for you an illustrated story about Jesus Christ’s birth for children which you can download here or in the section of this blog “Material for Kids”.
Last Sunday, there were 4 children at the art meeting. First, we sang songs. Due to it, the children’s attention was established (as well as the atmosphere of our today’s meeting). Then a little theoretical and practical episode followed: I asked the kids how one can make other people happy?… The children were smiling but keeping silence. When finally the voice of an adult was heard, “You can give someone a present”, I took a bag where each child found a parcel with toy cats and dogs . I wanted to show the children not only the theory how one should act but also its practical use (and also to illustrate the idea that presents can be given not only for something but also at any time without any special reason ).
At the art&craft part of the meeting the children were decorating Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, christmas, cooking, crafts, Creative Work, design, do-it-yourself, early-childhood development, food, holidays, ideas, kids, presents, recipe, Russian cuisine
The creation of something new takes place thanks not to the intellect but to a play instinct based on inner necessity. The creative mind plays with objects which it likes.
Carl Jung
Children are little magicians. Just by their presence, they make impossible possible. For example, absolutely any adult is able to make a toy from nothing in the presence of a little child, and during a couple of seconds!
Look how we played today:
We’d got only animals and nothing else. And then everything appeared. You create whatever you want, you go wherever you want. The limitlessness of opportunities makes you stunned!
Wherever we find ourselves: in a hospital, in some transport, in any situation of waiting – in a moment you can create a small world on a piece of paper. And no boredom, no kilos of toys taken with you. Here is the magic – the magic to be (near) a child.
Being a designer, Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, drawing with kids, early-childhood development, ideas
On Friday evening, in joyful anticipation, I am going to the Art Store! There are so many things for art now! Wow! But this time I need some certain things – on Sunday children are gathering for the art meeting at our place…
Today our art-group consisted of 4 children: from 1,5 to 7,5 yr. At the beginning, traditionally, a meditation part: we are teaching the kids to work with their attention, to feel the vibrations. But all this – through beauty and joy! For every meeting we (Soniya takes an active part in this process try to decorate everything beautifully in our room. One of the elements which adds festive mood – flowers! 18-mo-old Soniya loves to visit the flower shop and choose flowers together with her mummy and then proudly carry them home. Vera with her two little ones also drops in at the flower shop and then Bazhena and Kirill hand tulips or chrysanthemums over to me when I open the front door for them In my opinion, the beauty of nature, even its small element, helps forming of the aesthetic perception of the world.
The calm part of the program gives place to games (Soniya’s toys attracts the elder kids ). And we also spontaneously turn on the video with the dance “Ranu Ranu” which causes real joy!
– watch the videoBoth adults and children were dancing. Kids copy the movements so easily – one is just surprised looking at them! For the future, we decided to include some dancing element as a physical warm-up into all our art-meetings.
So what about art itself? Impressed by Natalie’s and Arseny’s experience , we also were making pen and pencil holders (but for us those were vases ).
The technique is very simple: to make balls from modeling clay, to roll them out with a rolling pin through a plastic bag on a piece of cardboard, to decorate them with some balls of food foil and then to roll the cardboard in a pipe. For little Soniya, I was making the balls myself, she only stuck them to the cardboard. For the elder kids, the task was more complicated: Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, Creative Work, design, do-it-yourself, early-childhood development, home schooling, ideas, kids, modeling, parents, presents, tips
I had two great desires at the same time: to celebrate the 18 months of our daughter Soniya and to organize children for joint art project. Finally, I decided to unite these two things.
How did the idea of children’s art group come to my mind?
One day I came across the blog called The Artful Parent which I have been reading since then. Its author, Jean, the mother of two charming girls (one of whom arrived only a couple of months ago) started her blog partly to chronicle and share the art experiences they had with the art group, and also as a way for her to focus more on what it means to her to be an artful parent: to encourage creative expression, imagination, joyfulness, and a love of learning, not just in her daughters but in the entire family. She drew and painted her way through childhood, then went on to study art history and studio art at Wellesley College, worked an art museum and an art magazine (though later her work sis not connect her with art any more). After her first daughter was born, her interest in art was revitalized and she realized that she wanted to raise her little one in an art-rich environment and to encourage her creativity and imagination as much as possible. Having read several books on teaching art to children, Jean started the Toddler Art Group with several other moms and their toddlers (who were of 12 mo then). They met weekly for two years and again this past summer, doing everything from body painting and paper maché bowls to printing with flowers and making wood scrap sculptures not forgetting about the basics: painting, drawing, and collaging.
I also would like to follow Jean’s steps trying to involve our Soniya in the atmosphere of art as often as possible. Why painting is very useful for kids, you can learn in the article “Scribles – It Is Serious! Or What, How and Why Our Children Draw”. Kids love imitating the ones in company of whose they are in. And making some art project together with other kids is always much fun for them. As for me, I could clearly see that involving the child into the art process is very important for the parent himself – it really helps focus on beauty and art not leaving an opportunity and time to pay attention to negative things in life…
And here I am calling to our friends-mums inviting them to a meditation (it is nice to balance oneself before starting something), painting and dinner. Only Vera and her daughter Bazhena (5 yr), Olga and her son Zhenya (6,5 mo) were able to come. Foreseeing such a variety of ages, I tried to find some task which could be interesting both for Bazhena and our Soniya. Do you remember our article «Painting with Toddlers: Art-balls»? For the two girls and Vera, I prepared three boxes with balls of differenttexture and white sheets of paper. As soon as their hands touched the paint, imagination awakened and joyful exclamations were heard: “Oh! What nice colour appears! Wow, Interesting dots from this massage ball!»
Our works will tell you what mood we were in while painting : Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: birthday, books, children, Creative Work, drawing with kids, early-childhood development, home schooling, ideas
All the children love construction sets. Many adults love them, too. In each of us, there is a fundamental desire for creation when Something appears from nothing and the Whole is always bigger than the sum of the details it consists of… a miracle!
However, a 18 mo old toddler is too little for all those tempting sets with details which his mother enjoys looking at in the stores (I did not have such sets in my childhood!)… The little one would like to run and make fun but the mother, for some reason, does not like to run… The father likes to run (is it so, dad?) but he is away from home all day long… Boring…
Once, having run after our toddler for the hundredth time, I also thought, “It’s really boring… And if there were a construction set!” And at that moment it dawned upon me: Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: children, early-childhood development, family, home, ideas, kids, parents
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