Jeez, Louise. The past four days have been so busy because I just started another session of Create and Innovate. I teach this enrichment class at my children's school and it is truly a beautiful thing. I layout tables full of random things that I purchase at R.A.F.T. (Resource Area for Teachers - click here for a video tour of this crafty heaven) and let the kids pick out whatever they want to build a city.
They build hotels, parking lots, movie theaters, homes, stores, even restaurants. Its extraordinary to watch their untethered minds explode with possibilities.
This is a very labor intensive program but it is truly a labor of love. Both exhausting and fulfilling. I provide all of the construction services (i.e. - glue gun, sharp scissors / exacto knife cutting and piercing materials) which allows me to hear what they are envisioning. I do as I am told and do not give my thoughts or opinions. It is their city and they eventually figure out how gravity and weight distribution work without a bit of my help. It is remarkable. Magical really. There is nothing quite like watching a child submerge into his or her imagination and create something without any instruction from an adult. I am a very lucky woman.
Tomorrow I have the day off and I intend to ignore the laundry and do some serious scrapbooking. I just received Nate's ABC's from my Kash at HSN. I have been flipping through the cartridge and planning all the cool layouts I want to do with photos of my son as a toddler. Tonight, I realized that part of what makes scrapbooking so fulfilling is the heartfelt planning that goes into creating pages. We meditate on a memory and use "cute" and "pretty" scrapbooking elements to bring it back to life. Far too often I forget about the moments and focus on getting it done. I depend on adrenaline to take me from one task to the next, when really I should be experiencing and savoring this time in my life. I know, I know... nice words and great idea in theory but when you wake up in the morning and you have to make lunches and herd the kids into the car, savoring the moment isn't part of the equation. At least scrapbooking allows me to savor it later.
This sounds like such a cool project.
ReplyDeleteI used to run a workshop for kids to make magical worlds out of junk like this, they'd build dragon's caves, castles, seas for mermaids. It was so much fun!
ReplyDeleteI agree about scrapbooking helping you to savour the moment later, too often you're so burnt out that you can't appreciate the moment as it happens! It's one of the reasons I love to scrap. x