Growing Up Creative

The birthday cake

The end of summer is the beginning of birthday season in my family; we are all a by-product of winter love. Our birthday rituals are still evolving, but the one thing that has been consistent since before children (BC) is that on your birthday you may ask for any cake you like. I know it sounds a little silly, but some rituals are.
The cake can be a simple cheese cake, a layered meringue and chocolate cake with cherries on top, or a rocket ship lemon pie; what ever it may be, I am up for the challenge.
The process of baking and decorating the cake is very soothing and creative. for me it is another opportunity to engage with my girls through the process of making. We usually work on it together the girls and I, they mostly dip their fingers and decorate, and I do the cleaning...Sometimes I buy special sprinkles that would spark our imagination, other times I buy marzipan and we mold our own little figures to decorate the cake, and sometimes the requests are very specific.
Last week it was Zoe’s 6th birth day, few days prior to her birthday celebration she gave me a sketch for the design of her cake. I felt like I was back in the days when I was working million hours a week in an architecture firm, with a crazy boss handing me assignments on post-it notes, only this time it was my daughter. We went over her sketch, and decided on some unresolved details: chocolate on the bottom, vanilla on top with some red roses outlining the heart. She and I were thrilled when the cake came out just the way she wanted (except the frosting which could use some improvement).

Next was Oren's turn. he was lucky to get 2 cakes:
a lemon pie, one of his favorites, and a send and sea shells cake

Please take a moment to share your family birthday rituals. I am looking forward to reading them all.

Happy Birthdays.

Sparks:006 sharpen your nose - a fun game for everyone

I was at the beach with my extremely talented aunt. as usual we were engaged in long conversation about everything and anything that seemed important at that moment. Her son just got married, which led to a conversation about childhood and raising kids. She was telling me how she and her brother, who is also a great artist, used to walk down the streets and imagine the cars as humans making faces. We both agreed that kids don’t need much to be creative, what they need the most is to sharpen their senses in order to engage with their surrounding and notice details. One of the ways to sharpen their senses is by playing games, here is one for you. We have played it the other day and had so much fun; I know you will too….

How to sharpen your nose

you will need:
4-6 cups
4-6 sheets of paper
rubber bands
something to poke holes with
4-6 items that have a strong and distinct fragrance such as: half a lemon, mango, onion, lavender, rosemarie, mint leafs, popcorn, a smelly rose.
paper and something to draw with

What to do:
Place each object in a cup, place paper on top, hold tight with a rubber band. poke some holes on top.

Number each cup

Pass cups around. participants need to identify what they smell and make a drawing of it. if they cant identify it, they should draw what they think it may be, or what something that smell like that would look like.

the participants should not reveal the answers to the others until everyone is done.

Make sure everyone numbers the drawings according to the objects.

 

Reveal objects at the end.

have fun
tali

Making botanical prints is great for getting it all out

Our morning did not start so well. I think it was Mid Summer Crisis. something had to change. So I made some sandwiches, cold lemonade and yet another cup of coffee, the girls and I set down to make a list of the things we all want to do in the next couple of weeks. Things really changed after that. The girls decided to go out and pick some flowers, while I grabbed:

3 hammers
plain white paper
paper-towel
drawing tools
and my camera.

I have cleared the overflowing working/dining/everything table and made some room for our new project – botanical prints. I have found it on this great list of ‘50 summer craft projects’ compiled by  www.thelongthread.com

Before we knew it, we were getting all of our aggression out, hammering the dainty flowers onto the paper.  Even Hammering our fingers every once in a while didn’t stop us from making those prints.  Before we knew it, it was time for lunch.

 

you can find detail instructions for this project in www.buildmakecraftbake.com

How to engage with art (for children and adults)

Unlike many adult visitors to art museums, young children do not feel they need to be “experts” to respond to artwork. They are open-minded and spontaneous in their responses and interpretations.  There is a lot to be said about the importance of historical context and the understanding of art, but it is much more important to encourage an open ended dialogue about the work of art, a dialogue that values both adults and children’s opinion.

ART IS ‘beautiful or thought-provoking works produced through creative activity’ (Encarta Dictionary). It is a subjective commentary of an artist that is meant to be viewed differently by each person. Art can be sometimes intimidating and difficult to approach, that is why I have compiled yet another list. This one will give you some ideas of how to engage with art.

DEVELOP A CONVERSATION
Start by Reading the label: The title, the artist, the year it was made, and what it is made of. This is a good way to start a conversation.
Start by not reading the label, Look at the work of art first; see if you can imagine what the work is about.
Change where you stand. Change how you view a painting by moving really close (remind them “no touching”) then move really far.
Relate what you see to what is familiar to your child. It is only natural to make a connection between what you see and what is familiar to you. Making references to the child’s world makes it easier for him/her to understand and engage with art.Terms you may wish to use in your discussion:
Line
Color
Texture
Shape
Emphasis
Movement
Pattern 

MAKING
Sketch from the original, sit together with your child in front of an artwork. Practice your drawing skills by sketching from a master. Drawing from observation will help you and your child notice details and understand the artwork on a deeper level. It will help you remember what you have seen (why is drawing important)

Write a story: one of my favorite activities is to sit in a café and imagine the life of the person sitting next to me. This is kind of the same game: Find a realistic painting or sculpture and make up a story about it. You may draw or write the story (or both). Some guiding questions may be: Who are the people? Where are they? What are they doing? You may start with “once upon a time” (always a promising beginning for a good tale)

PLAYING GAMES
Turn your child into the Tour guide.  Give your child the control over the visit to the museum. Let him/ her be the tour guide, navigating you through the different rooms, focusing on the art work they find important, for as long as they want to. Have them explain the work to you just like tour guides. Help them develop ideas with open ended questions. “This kind of experience shows them they have valuable contribution to make and allows them to learn actively from artworks, through self directed inquiry.” Katrina Weier Empowering Young Children in Art Museums: letting them take the lead.

Play detectives (This one is great): Buy some postcards of the art work featured in the museum at the Museum Shop, and then try and find the artwork throughout the museum together.
Who doesn’t like to play "I Spy." Have children choose an object in a gallery and describe it to other family members so that each one can take a turn guessing what the object is.
Seek and Find. Ask your child to find paintings that have his or her favorite colors, shapes, or objects in them. This game teaches children to look very closely at objects.

I hope this is helpful, please take a moment to share any other ideas or thoughts you have. I am looking forward to hear about your next visit to the museum

tali

Other posts from this series:

Inspiration and investigation

Art museums are also for children

Art museums with children

Celebrating love on Tu B'Av

Night has fallen on the city of Jerusalem. A cool desert breeze is a relief from the hot summer day of the month of Av.  All the unmarried women of Jerusalem are dressed in simple white clothing; rich could not be distinguished from poor. Giggling and chattering, they are ready for the dance that will possibly help them find love, on the night of Tu B’ Av.  The unattached men are groomed and determined to find the girl they will marry. The surrounding vineyards of Jerusalem are transformed on that one fool moon night, on the 15 of the month of Av, back in the days of the second temple.

2000 years later this holiday is once again celebrated in Israel.
On one hand, instead of the simplicity that blurred the boundaries of wealth, it is a highly commercialized holiday, characterized with stylized heart shape chocolates, heart shape helium balloons, heart shaped cookies, and heart shaped everything (highly influenced by Valentines Day).
On the other hand, if this is what it takes to help us pause from our fast pace life and schedule in our busy calendar a day to celebrate love, so be it!

2000 years later there are vineyards once again, on the surrounding hills of Jerusalem. You may not be able to find dancing bachelors waiting for the love of their lives on Tu B’ Av, but some tasty wine is becoming part of the landscape signature. The ongoing drought  have led farmers to scrap their high consuming in water orchards such as kiwi and apples and replace them with wine making grapes that are native to the area and are very low in water consumption read more.

Israel may be running low on water, apples and kiwis but it is filling up with delicious wines that are perfect for a celebration of love.

In the US you may find some of the Israeli wines at the local liquor store, or on line at:

www.israeliwinedirect.com

www.onlinekosherwine.com

Other posts about hearts:

The origins of the heart symbol

Heart for dinner