Growing Up Creative

The new house within the new house

Oren, the girls and I, have been living in a long saga of moving to a new house…a   v e r y   l o n g  one. Finally we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and it is so very bright.

A couple of weeks ago we have received our brand new fridge, a beautiful cooling box in silver gray with plain square edges, no magnets will be covering this one. My girls were very disappointed thought…because the fridge came without a box. The two have been building dreams of houses and castles from the over sized refrigerator box, what a letdown it was for them. 

The other day we have received another appliance delivery including an air conditioner a stove and a washer. This time everyone was happy. The washer’s box immediately turned into Ori and Zoe’s new house (the new house within the new house) with a door and a couple of windows just big enough for the two of them, 2 pieces of paper, and some markers.  The AC box will be used as an extension to their house once the AC is installed, and the circular foam cook top packaging will be used as the wheels for their cereal stand/ car Oren salvaged from the local grocery store. Now all we need is a school (one more month to go).

Cookies on a stick

For Zoe’s preschool graduation, a couple of years ago, Ms. Pickles the preschool cook, baked the kids a cookie on a stick.
Today we have finally tried it ourselves. Well, they didn’t come out as nice, but they are all already gone! The preparation was accompanied with much excitement and an unavoidable built up anticipation for the reinvented old school cookie, irresistible with a glass of milk.

You will need:
20 Craft sticks or popsicles sticks
A glass of milk per child/ or a child at heart

For The dough:
125 gr/ approx one stick of unsalted butter
½ cup of sugar
1 egg
1 tea spoon vanilla extract
2 cups of flour
½ tea spoon baking powder

How to:
Mix all the ingredients. Let cool in the refrigerator for approx 30 minutes (cover it up so it doesn’t dry)
Form a small ball of dough
Insert a craft stick/ Popsicle stick into center of dough.
Flatten dough keeping stick in the center into desired shape; we have made hearts, circles with dough pieces pasted on top for face features, and stars.
Bake with the stick till the cookies are golden. The stick should not burn, only turn a little yellow. If the stick appears brown, lower the heat a little and keep on baking.
After the cookies were done we have decorated them with royal icing and sprinkles on top. 

For Royal Icing:
Mix egg white with sugar powder, keep on adding sugar powder till the mixture is thick.
Apply on top of cookies. Decorate with sprinkles; let the icing harden.

Note: the dough recipe is for sugar cookies. It is a recipe I have been using with great success. you may use any other butter cookie recipe or sugar cookie recipe for that matter.

Enjoy it (and share with friends)

Sparks: 005 drawing inspired by reading

I remember Shoshanna was telling me that her son’s kindergarten teacher often asks her students to draw a favorite part of a story after reading it to them, this way she knows they will be tuned to the story and their mind stays in focus. I remember thinking how clever that was; she gets their attention and boosts their imagination at the same time.

The other day we were reading flotsam by David Wiesner (again), it is a story told in pictures only, of a curious boy who finds an underwater camera at the beach; after developing the film he discovers some fantastic photos of unreal scenes that are illustrated in a realistic manner, such as an octopus perching on an arm chair reading a tale to his little ones

 
oversize starfish as big as islands walking in the clear blue ocean,

a small oriental village made of shells mounted on to the back of a sea turtle, etc. 

Somewhere in the process of telling the story, I remembered Connor’s teacher and a post I have  recently read of drawing inspired by “The Little Prince”; I proposed to Ori and Zoe to make a drawing of an imaginary picture that could have been one of the pictures the camera took… the idea was a success.
A VAST world of imagination has just open up to us.
When we were done with the story we pulled some paper, markers and colored pencils, and we drew an underwater fantasy.

I always thought this book was wonderful, but trying to create an image inspired by the book made me realize how brilliant the author is.

You will need:
The book Flotsam
Paper
Drawing material

What to do:
Tell the story
Draw an imaginary picture that the camera may have taken
Discuss each other’s drawing
Hang on the wall

Thoughts and variations:
This activity could also be done with any other book and with any age group.
Drawing inspired by a story helps a child engage with the story on a deeper level, it encourages him/her to concentrate in the story and gain a better understanding. It increases creativity, noticing details, drawing skills, and helps with rendering thoughts and ideas onto paper.

Here are some ideas of what you may draw:

• your favorite part of the story 
• a place depicted in the story
• your favorite character
• a different ending
• an instrument or a tool that was used in the story

Some other books that you may use for this exercise:

• It's Okay To Be Different : draw yourself and how different you are (you may offer to sit in front of a mirror)
• The Little Prince : draw a planet of your imagination (see Berlin's Whimsy: summer lists)
• My Father's Dragon : draw a map of the Island of Tangerina and Wild Island; make a picture of the dragon (one of my favorite books)
  

These are just a few books that were lying in front of me, If you have any other suggestions, please add them in the comments below or email me.

Happy drawing