Safe Alternatives for Baby and Child

Is holiday crafting making your home feel a little more creative and festive right about now?  It is in our home.  One of my favorite crafts that me and my 3 year old daughter are working on is a JOY JAR.  A very special and heart felt gift idea that we were inspired to create from Amanda Blake Soule’s AMAZING book, The Creative Family.

The Creative Family has 100% encouraged heightened imagination and craftier bonding time between me and my little darling.  This book is so amazing that you will NOT be able to put it down once you have opened it.  Not only are there sweet, simple projects and activities for you and your children (of all ages), but Amanda’s gift of being an inspirationally creative earth mama literally jumps off of the pages.  I have read the book twice, and I am just as inspired the second time around to have more fun with fewer toys and look at life with my young girl with new eyes.

Quoted from Amanda Blake Soule in her book, “As parents, it is both our responsibility and our privilege to be sure that our family’s creative spirits have all the room and tools they need to soar freely.” We agree with her completely and we appreciate how beautifully her book encourages that creative spirit to emerge.  She invites individuals, children, families and communities to embody a creative life whether it be at a sewing machine, with musical instruments, in a garden or the kitchen.  The possibilities truly are endless, and Amanda brings ease and freedom into exploring all of these options (and then some).

I just love how she infuses each practice, craft and experience with heart-felt treasures such as gratitude.  She takes a theme such as this, and offers simple, yet delightful and impacting ways to create around that particular expression.  The gratitude hug, the gratitude alphabet and thank you cards are examples that stand out.  Implementing them with my daughter has been a joy!

One of my favorite quotes from her book is one where she quotes Plato.  “The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things.”  Ahh, how refreshing is that?  Especially during this time of year where we are encouraged to fill our shopping carts with tons of unnecessary, toxic junk.  This quote has stuck with me and I am grateful.  I love how she shows parents how they can choose quality materials for our children, and still stay in the budget.

She gives a few simple patterns that families can try with fabrics, felts, scissors and thread.  But she also uses alternative art materials such as grains and beans, shells and acorns.

Encouraging Imagination

Again from Amanda’s book about children and dress-up play, “I believe that watching themselves transform gives them the knowledge and power to recognize that they can create change in their lives.”

How has her ideas in her book on imaginative play influenced life around here lately?  Well, my daughter and I seem to be more “theatrical”.  She dresses up in her play tent, and I announce her arrival with a “ladies and gentlemen, introducing the talented, the funny, the gifted…..”  Honestly, she can go on for hours and hours with this one.  Don’t have a play tent?  The Creative Family shows you how to turn ANY space into an entertaining stage.

All in all, I do recognize the sparkling life in my daughter’s eyes when we make things together, when she is given the space to create, and when she is honored by being showcased on the fridge.

This is a fairie fort that my daughter built out in nature!  The Creative Family talks on the specialness of making something so miniature and magical.  Another wonderful way to use our imaginations and freely explore and play in the world we live in!

Handmade Holidays

The holiday seasons do give us endless possibilities to create and give from the heart.  What a gift to instill in our children.  It is quite refreshing to step aside from the hussle and bussle of the shopping extravaganza, mostly of unnecessary gifts, and become steeped in the real meaning of the holiday itself.  Giving from the heart!

We have been inspired, encouraged to do just that and the rewards have been priceless!  Here is our joy jar by the way, containing notes from my daughter’s heart (written by me) to her Grammy and Auntie.  Auntie has already received hers, and she loved it so much!

The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections available on Amazon.com for just $12.89!

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