Camp Creek Press

Imagine two children who are asked to paint a picture of their house. The first child hasn't used these paints before, or for a long time. The second child was given them to play with yesterday.

The first child is a bundle of frustration. The paint colors are running together! My house is beige, not brown, and I can't make the color I want! I used the black paint and now I've ruined the yellow paint. And now it's all dripping on the floor! I quit!

The second child learned a lot yesterday just by playing with the paints and painting several pictures. She waits for one area to dry before painting next to it with another color. She mixes new colors on a clean sheet of paper. She cleans her brush carefully between color changes. She is working intently. When she finishes her first painting, she talks about it and then asks for another piece of paper. She's ready to try another.

The child who was given time to play and explore can now work purposefully.

If you paint two big wet spots next to each other, the paint will run together. Imagine how interesting and fun this can be when you are just playing and experimenting — watching the yellow paint swirl with the blue, and then the center is turning green.

Imagine how disappointing and discouraging this same effect is when you really wanted a yellow dress covered in blue flowers.

The lessons we learn during play, we apply when we are working to create something important to us.

To work with a purpose is to choose deliberately, with a definite goal in mind.

Imagine two children sitting down to draw a bird with a collection of pencils. One child hasn't used these pencils before; one has. Who will be more successful? Even pencils have different personalities — hard and soft leads make different kinds of lines, we can apply too much pressure so they break or make a hole in the paper, color can be dragged across with the edge of our hand and spoil our work.

To work purposefully is to reach for a material or a tool confidently, choosing it because we know what it will do.

We cannot work purposefully until we have become familiar with the materials and tools.

Free exploration means we have no goal in mind, we're just seeing what this material can do and what we can do with it.

We learn through play, and what we learn, we can use when to create work that is important to us.

(W)ith a sense of certainty, play is almost always mindful. People take risks and involve themselves in their play. Imagine making play feel routine; it would not be playful. In play, there is no reason not to take some risks. In fact, without risk, the pleasures of mastery would disappear. … We tend to be more adventurous at play because it feels safe. — Roger Kelly, Leisure

(Did you figure out this was a lesson for you and not for the children? :^D)

Live pets are wonderful to have at home or in the classroom, but if you can't have something alive -- or can't keep something alive -- or are unwilling to purchase several very similar-looking hamsters in a row (I'm not pointing any fingers here, Emily) -- a wonderful and easy display for your science table or child's bedroom is a terrarium or paludarium (if you are willing to buy a series of very similar-looking goldfish).

The above display, so inexpensive and easy, was cobbled together after the untimely demise of a pair of hermit crabs. So inexpensive! So great!

Martha Stewart Kids magazine had a great article on making paludariums -- a combination of a terrarium and an aquarium. Her version is quite involved, as you might imagine, and looks beautiful. I could imagine, however, an easier version (my version is always easier) combining, say, an inexpensive aquarium like the one above (less than $10) holding plants and a lift-out large glass jar holding a couple of tiny fish. In fact, that sounds like something my younger son would love, so maybe we'll try that as a project.

With one inexpensive aquarium, you can create a lot of different looks over the year: a desert with sand and miniature palm (live, of course) or cacti (buy the needle-less ones!) .. then a beach with shells .. then a forest with plastic animals and dense foliage .. then a boggy area, perhaps with a guest toad. (Keep the lid on if you want to keep tabs on your toad. Right, Emily? And plan on letting him go in a few days or needed to clean the tank.)

And remember: plastic dinosaurs never die. And you don't have to clean their tank.

Martha's paludarium online (unfortunately picture's not so great on the site; i'm looking for the original issue with much nicer pictures)

Build a Terrarium (National Geographic)

For those who work in education, fall is the beginning of the new year rather than January 1. Our teacher friends are getting their classrooms ready for their new students -- always exciting and fun. This week we'll share some of our tips for making a beautiful classroom (or home!) space for children without spending much money.

Our preschool classrooms, like many in America, were located in the basement of our building. Yet we still managed to have a very bright and open space, and we received a lot of compliments on its warm and welcoming feel.

One way we accomplished that goal was the right paint color -- light, bright, but also warm. It was a very light yellow, and it even managed to warm up the overhead fluorescent lighting.

We also bounced our natural light around with several mirrors, making the most of our two windows. In the picture above, you can see students choosing art materials from mirrored shelves. Mirrors not only bounce light and reflect views, but they give the illusion of extra space. Setting a mirror behind a plant gives you two plants, and so on.

These mirrored shelves were easily (and cheaply!) accomplished with inexpensive metal shelving hardware, wood planks, and five-dollar door mirrors (bought at this time of year, meant for dorm rooms) laid sideways and attached to the wall in between the shelves.

Set out art materials in garage-sale wooden bowls and berry baskets, and you have a beautiful, affordable display.

Karrie from Girl on the Rocks is starting a week of weaving information about looms, patterns, and more. Check out her blog for great ideas about palm-sized looms and weaving projects.

For young children, you can't go wrong with a classic plastic pot-holder loom and a bag of nylon loops. This is the type we use with kids age 3 and up in the classroom and art studio.

The loom pictured up above was a heddle loom we used in the classroom. It is useful for weaving belts, skinny scarves, bracelets, bookmarks, and headbands. You can make your own heddle with popsicle sticks; maybe we'll show you how in another post.

For large weaving projects, or shared projects on which several children can work together, you can purchase large classroom looms for about $215. Or you can do what we did -- find a big, cheap wooden picture frame (thrift store, garage sale, junk shop, or clearance), drill holes along the top and bottom, and insert pieces of dowel rod you cut yourself. Total cost: approximately $4.00. We added a couple of pieces of wood at the bottom to serve as feet, strung it up, and we were good to go.

Of course, I have just looked through 500 pictures of the kids in the art studio and can't find a good picture of our loom in action. I will ask Leisa if she has one and post asap!

Read about it elsewhere:

Purl Bee: The Lure of the Loom

eloomination

eloominator blog

For a nice selection of plastic and wood looms, check out Dick Blick. Be careful: art supplies are just as enticing online as they are in person.

This is a picture of hands sewing, not weaving. I'll ask Leisa if she can find a picture of our homemade loom!

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