I have no idea! I have no definitive answers or sage advice.

Sometimes it feels like I have no space in my head for my own thoughts and ideas, let alone quiet time to pursue my own creative practice. Often the message we hear from those in the parenting advice world is that ‘you need to carve out time for yourself’ or ‘you need to look after yourself first in order to be the best parent you can’. I’m not saying this is bad advice, in fact it would be wonderful to have more time to myself, but it just isn’t possible for everyone. Some of us, myself included, have children who, due to neurodiversity or health issues, require more of our time and support. Some may have financial insecurity meaning they need to work extra jobs whilst also caring for a family. Others might have no family or community support to lighten the load. All of these things mean it can be difficult to find the time to pursue our own interests, hobbies or even finish reading a book. For me, the thing I would like to spend my time doing is crafting and making art. Not for any reason or financial gain, just because it fills my cup.

To fulfill this need for a creative outlet in my life, instead of having separate time to myself to pursue art making, which isn’t really possible for us right now, I have managed to weave creativity into the fabric of our daily lives. For the moment, while my children need my support and I need to contribute financially to my family, this will have to be enough. With purposeful action, I have woven artistic practices and innovative thinking through our home education life, through the community spaces we are building and my business Mini Mad Things. It’s not separate, just part of our everyday living.

Although I do feel the need to learn and grow in my own creative knowledge, separate from my life as a parent, (I really want to learn some pottery and painting skills), I love that I have been able shift my creative practice to fitting alongside being with my children and running my business. I love the work I do making art with kids, inspiring families to create and facilitating workshops. I get so much joy sharing art ideas with children and other families. This feels good enough for now and I know this period of my life, of more intense parenting, won’t last forever.

Why does creativity matter to me?

Even though I’m not regularly creating my own art or design work, outside of making art with my children, my hope is that the concept of creativity is permeating into my children’s lives. I hope that they grow up knowing that they to can breath life into their ideas through creative work.

Creative practice of all forms feels so important right now. Being able to make art, craft, build and fix things, sows the seeds of re-imagining the world we are living in. In her recent article, Sara Sadak shares:

‘In a time where the arts are censored, attacked, and surveilled, it is important for all of us to stake fierce claim on the capacity for our brain to imagine and create alternatives. This muscle is built through making of all kinds. And it is applied and extended to how we imagine family, community, education, healthcare, how we are to be with one another. Creating is a muscle we all desperately need to foster.’

I couldn’t agree more. Creative practices can help us make connections with others, build communities and imagine alternative systems for us to live within. Eventually, just maybe, we will be able to move out of the harmful and oppressive systems around us and step either partially of fully into these new systems we have built. Systems that have been build with creativity, care and mutual work.

Making connections with creative projects

We have just moved house and as a result, I was looking through and packing a big box of my children’s art. I wanted to share with you this super simple art project we created together years ago, when my children were 3 and 6 years old. I have fond memories of us sitting around the table together, with art materials spread before us, each making marks on a paper, creating art together.

It’s so simple, get some sheets of nice quality thick paper; one for each person taking part. Place a range of easy-to-use art materials on the table, like crayons, water colour paints, markers or pastels. You each start with a piece of paper and begin adding colour or making marks. After a few minutes, stop and pass the paper around to the next person, who then adds their marks. Continue the process until you have all added something to each of the pieces of paper and the paper is looking full. The result is a collection of collaborative artworks and a fun time chatting, making art together. All ages can take part, from babies to grandparents.

Happy art making friends!

Creative Spaces is a reader-supported publication. To allow me to keep sharing lots of ideas for free, if you can afford it, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, it’s only $6 AUD per month.

FURTHER READING:

Folkweaver

The Moment I Knew My Kids Were Actually Watching my Creative Life

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a year ago · 5 likes · 4 comments · Sara

DrawTogether with WendyMac

Making Art During Fascism

Special Note: I’m removing the paywall to make this series on Creative Action FREE for all. We can only do this with the support of subscribing members. If you appreciate programs like this and want to support DrawTogether’s work in the world, please become a member. A little bit goes such a long way to keep DrawTogether’s work going and growing. Thank …

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a year ago · 283 likes · 26 comments · Wendy MacNaughton

Today I’m writing about the growth and development of our home education community space, PROJECT CREATE, since it’s beginnings one year ago.

You can read about our first steps building the community in these two articles:

I’ll start with a little background; PROJECT CREATE is a cooperative of home educating families who work together to facilitate a range of activities, create friendships and build community. We operate from a repurposed warehouse and office space in a semi-rural area of South Australia approximately 30 minutes drive from Adelaide.

The ethos behind the space is to build a respectful and inclusive community where young people’s person-hood is respected. We aim to create a space for learning and exploring our interests whilst also supporting social justice issues and divesting for mainstream capitalist culture. Together we learn, play, create art & music, attend protests, volunteer in our community and much more. Sometimes we create a lot of mess, but most importantly, we create friendships and a sense of belonging with other home educating families and the wider community.

There have been times over the last year when it has felt like a LOT to take on; building and running this ‘third space’ for our community. All the families involved have busy lives. We home educate, run businesses, support our neurodiverse children, write books, create art and music, volunteer in the community, whilst educating ourselves about new approaches to learning and parenting, all under the pressures of capitalism to just make ends meet. I’m not complaining, we are all pretty privileged with a safe home to live in and at least one family member with a stable income. However, living within our consumerist capitalist culture whilst also putting in the work to divest from that culture and build a robust, grass-roots community space feels like a LOT.

However, now we are starting to feel the results of all our hard work and it’s amazing!

A few weeks ago, we celebrated one year of using our space with a party. It was so fun to come together, share food, dance and welcome new families into our community.

HIGHLIGHTS THIS YEAR:

DUNGEONS, DRAGONS & GAMES

We have a thriving Dungeons and Dragons scene. We have just added a third D&D table, this one all girls, to the fortnightly sessions at our space. This is a particular highlight of our activities for my son, who has been playing with the same group of friends for two years now.

On the weeks between D&D, we have recently began a board games club, facilitated by one of the parents in our community, where the children bring new games to share with their friends. With the help of the funding we received from ASDE, we have been able to purchase lots more games for our community space.

WOODWORK MAKER SPACE

This month we revamped one of the rooms to create a woodworking maker space complete with tools, a work bench and lots of materials. At our first session using the space, it was so fantastic to see the kids inspired and the room was bussing with experimentation and creativity. The tools we purchased for the space, again were made possible with funding we received from ASDE.

Over the coming months, we hope to support the children in learning some simple woodworking techniques and to gain competency using different tools, to allow their creative ideas to flourish.

CREATIVE WORKSHOPS

Throughout the last year, myself and other parents have organised a range of creative art and craft workshops at PROJECT CREATE for our home education community. One particular highlight for my son, was a series of cosplay workshops to make fantasy helmets and swords.

WE PUT ON A PLAY!

A founding ethos of PROJECT CREATE is to center the children’s voices in the decision making and activities we host. Earlier this year, one of the young people in our community (age 11) decided she wanted to write and produce a play based on Greek mythology. She then invited other children to take on the acting roles. The adults were there to support and help facilitate the making of costumes and props. Although there were a few stressful moments when the kids weren’t sure it was all going to come together, they performed the play to a audience of friends and family, and felt so proud of their achievements.

WELCOMING NEW FAMILIES

The best part of the last few months in our community has been welcoming more friends into our space. It had been so wonderful to have new families joining our co-op group, who are excited by what we have built so far, and want to contribute their skills to the community. Those skills have included facilitating board games, running craft activities, cooking, cleaning and just providing support. The core group of families, who had started the space, got to a point earlier this year where we were all feeling quite depleted. So for us to have the support of new people and the energy they have brought, has been much needed. It is so fantastic to feel that others get what we are trying to build and want to contribute.

Over the last few sessions at our co-op meetups, each family has been making a poster about their personalities and interests to share with the group as a way of facilitating the building of friendships.

THE FUTURE FOR PROJECT CREATE

I’m excited about what the future holds for our community. Sometimes I feel that the kids involved take it for granted. They don’t realise quite how special what we are building is becoming. But that’s kind of the point; for them to grow up feeling its normal to contribute to and be part of an equitable and inclusive community, where their voices are valued and where we care for others and the world around us.

If you would like to know more or have any questions about how we began our community space, leave a comment below or send me a DM.

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My response to those comments is that: EVERYTHING IS POLITICAL!

Every choice we make about how we live our lives is political. How you treat your partner and friends, how we care for loved ones and neighbors, how we show up, or not, in our communities, if we give money to charity or volunteer our time to help others. All these choices have a political meaning and consequence.

Where we shop, what brands we buy or boycott, where we bank or save our money and even the type of job we do reflects how we show up in the world. Do we buy fast fashion or shop second hand; purchase from Amazon or support a local store? Do we fix and mend broken things or throw them out and buy something new? Again, political.

How we use or abuse the natural world around us is political. Do we pollute and destroy or try to preserve the natural world? Do we view ourselves as above or part of nature? Do we recycle rubbish? Do we care for animals?

The food we eat is political. Do you choose to eat meat, buy local or grow your own food? Do you share what you have with others?

If we decide to have children or not, and how we raise children is very political. Are we authoritarian, permissive or somewhere in between in our approach to parenting? Or do we choose to step outside that paradigm and raise our children with an emphasis on autonomy and consent?

How and where children learn is political. Do our children go to a private or public school? Does the school follow a specific pedagogy or share religious teachings? Or maybe you choose to step outside of mainstream education and home educate. Again, these choices are political.

Do you follow a religion and if so, the ethos of your place of worship you choose to attend is again a political choice.

The type of books, newspapers, magazines or websites we read effects how we think and has political consequences. Do we ban books or use literature as a way to learn about people from diverse backgrounds and lived experiences?

Our decision to use social media or not, and what kind of content we follow is political.

Do we choose to vote or protest?

Even our decision to talk about or ignore politics is political.

And yes, children’s art and crafts can be political too. The way we engage in creative projects with young people effects how they feel about themselves and can be a reflection of how we treat children in general. Do we create projects where we expect cookie cutter replicas or do we value personal expression and creativity? Do we correct, control, judge and grade? Or do we create a space for artistic exploration and creativity to flourish without judgement?

No only is our approach to art with children political, the kind of topics or artists we learn about is a political choice too. Do we just look at western, white artists or actively seek out diverse voices? Art has always been used as a was to express ideas and through engaging in projects inspired by artists from different cultures, we can empathize and learn about the experiences, opinions and experiences of others.

I will say it again, every choice we make about how we live our lives and show up in the world is political. If we avoid or ignore this, we become passive participants rather than actively shaping the kind of world we live in.

WE CAN USE ART TO PROTEST TOO!

On my website, I have a range of colouring pages and activity sheets exploring different social justice and environmental themes. All of these can be downloaded and coloured in to create posters to share in your home, school or local community.

Lets make some art and share some love with the communities around us! If you have a particular slogan or theme you would like me to make colouring sheets about, leave a message below.

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For paid subscribers, I will share links to download all my social justice and climate action colouring sheets below:

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So, this year we embarked on a project to read books from a diverse range of authors sharing stories from different countries and cultures around the world. We created a map to mark the places we had visited through literature. Some stories come from real life, others are historical fiction rooted in a location or period in time. We also love fantasies informed by different cultures and reading about mythologies from around the world. All of these can give us understanding and appreciation for the infinite mosaic of cultures our world contains.

BOOK-SCHOOLING (If that’s a thing!)

Four and a half years ago we stepped out of mainstream education, due to school not being a happy or safe place for my son, and began to home educate. I won’t sugar coat it, it’s been a hard journey but definitely the right choice for us. I think often the image conjured in our minds when we think of home education depicts large families sitting harmoniously around a wooden table, with art supplies beautifully arranged in baskets, studiously working together, interspersed with an occasional run barefoot through a meadow or frolic in the woods. That is not our life. Home education is not easy, not for us anyway. Some days it is utterly exhausting and my mind is filled with doubts that I’m screwing my kids up!

One thing that has always worked for us is books. I love children’s books, my son is an avid reader of all things and my daughter is following suit. In the home education world, there is a huge range of different approaches to education. For example, world-schooling which is traveling and learning from the world around you or game-schooling which leans predominantly on learning from playing board games or computer games. I’m not sure if this is a thing but we book-school. Most of our learning is done through reading a broad range of fiction and non-fiction literature. This is what lead us to the idea of traveling the world through stories.

Obviously you don’t need to be a home schooler to read lots of books, that is the awesome thing about books, they are for everyone. I strongly encourage you to get out there and support your public library or independent bookstore, if you have one.

OUR JOURNEY IN BOOKS SO FAR

The books listed below are novels and mostly fit in the 8-12 age range. Some to contain complex issues facing our world including poverty, migration, climate change, colonialism, racism and social injustice. I don’t shy away from these topics with my children, everything is open for discussion in our house, but I encourage you to research any books you choose to read to see if they are suitable for the age of your children.

(Note: In this article I share Amazon affiliate links so you can find the books we read, but if you can, please consider supporting your local bookstore or library.)

EUROPE

UK:

• Spies In The Sky by Beverly McWilliams is the story of a group of pigeons that were used to carry information during WW2. The story is set in Norfolk, UK and a Belgium.

• Storyland: A New Mythology Of Britain by Amy Jeffs is a retelling of ancient stories from the UK.

• Forest Folk Tales by Tom Phillips retells traditional folk tales from the UK.

• A Kind Of Spark by Elle Mc Nicoll is based in Scotland and tells the story of Addie, a neurodivergent girl who campaigns for a memorial when she learns that her small Scottish town used to burn witches simply because they were different.

GREECE:

• Homer’s Iliad and The Odyssey retold by Gillian Cross. A beautifully illustrated retelling of these Greek mythology stories.

• Greek Myths, published by DK.

• Monkey King And The World Of Myths by Maple Lam is a fun graphic novel that brings together Greek and Chinese mythology.

FRANCE:

• Safiyyah’s War by Hiba Noor Khan is inspired by the true story of how the Grand Mosque of Paris saved the lives of hundreds of Jews during World War II.

NORWAY:

• The Last Bear by Hannah Gold is set on an island in the arctic circle near Svalbard where a young girl befriends a lost polar bear. Through her relationship with the bear, she heals some trauma in her past and her relationship with her father. The story also covers climate change.

• Laila And The Blue Fox by Kiran Millwood Hargrave is set in Tromso, Norway and on a boat in the Arctic circle. The book explores themes of migration, climate change and family relationships through the eyes of the two main characters, Leila and Miso the fox.

• Riddle Of The Runes by Jamina Ramirez is a story of mystery and adventure set in Viking times.

• Norse Mythology, published by DK.

AFRICA

SOMALIA:

• When Stars Are Scattered by Omar Mohamed and Victoria Jamieson is a true story told in graphic novel form about a boy named Omar and his brother, Hassan, who live in a refugee camp in Somalia.

NIGER & LIBYA:

• Illegal by Andrew Donkin and Eoin Colfer is the story of Ebo, and undocumented migrant making a dangerous journey from his village in Africa to Europe, told in graphic novel form.

NIGERIA:

• Onyeka And The Academy Of The Sun by Tola Okogwu is a futuristic fantasy set in London and Nigeria about a girl who finds that her Afro hair has psychokinetic powers.

EGYPT:

• Egyptian Myths, published by DK.

I would love to read more stories based in Africa or by African authors, please give me your recommendations in the comments below:

Leave a comment

ASIA

INDIA:

• Nush And The Stolen Emerald by Jasbinder Bilan is set in colonial India and London. Nush travels to London to retreve a precious emerald that was stolen from her family by the East India Company. This book is a great for introducing destructive effects of colonialism to young readers.

• Asha And The Spirit Bird by Jasbinder Bilan is the story of a girl, Asha, and her friend who travel through the Himalayas to find her lost farther.

• Tamarind And The Star Of Ishta by Jasbinder Bilan is a sad but beautiful mystery infused with magic about a girl who returns to her mothers ancestral home in India after growing up in the UK.

• Ash Mistry And The Savage Fortress by Sarwat Chadda; think Percy Jackson but based in Indian culture.

• Tales From India by Bali Rai

PAKISTAN:

• Amal Unbound by Aisha Saeed is based in Pakistan and calls attention to contemporary global inequities, exploring themes of social injustice and education. The story tells of one girl's courage as Amal struggles to regain her freedom and become a force of change for her village.

THAILAND:

• A Wish In The Dark by Christina Soontornvat is fantasy novel and retelling of Les Misérables by Victor Hugo with elements inspired by Thai culture.

VIETNAM:

• Inside Out And Back Again by Thanhha Lai is a story told in verse about a 10-year-old girl, Kim Ha, escaping the Vietnam War in 1975 to move to a new town in Alabama.

SOUTH KOREA:

• When You Trap A Tiger by Tae Keller is based in the US and tells the story of a biracial girl, Lily, who learns about her heritage when her family moves in with Lily's Korean grandmother.

CHINA:

• Where The Mountain Meets The Moon by Grace Lin is a fantasy-adventure novel inspired by Chinese folklore. In the story, Minli makes friends with a flightless dragon, a talking goldfish, a King, and a boy with a buffalo. The characters she meets all play a role in helping her find her way to the Old Man in the Moon. Throughout her journey Minli learns lessons about happiness and true wealth.

• A Ghost In My Suitcase by Gabrielle Wang is the story of Celeste, a 13-year-old Australian girl of Chinese decent. When she travels to China to visit her grandmother, she uncovers an incredible family secret. The story explores Chinese mythology and culture.

• Guardians Of The New Moon series by Eric Huang explores the Chinese Lunar New Year myths and stories in fun and exciting adventures.

• Myths of China, published by DK

JAPAN:

• Peach Boy and Urashima Taro published by Tutle is a selection of traditional Japanese children’s stories.

INDONESIA:

• Berani by Michelle Kadarusman is set on the island of Java in Indonesia and follows Malia, Ari, and a captive orangutan named Ginger Juice in a story about environmental activism.

PAPA NEW GUINEA:

• The Shark Caller by Zillah Bethall is a spell-binding adventure of friendship, forgiveness and bravery, set on the shores of Papua New Guinea.

AUSTRALIA

• Runt by Craig Silvey set in outback Australia tells the story of Annie and Runt, a stray dog, who enter a dog show to try and raise money to save her families farm.

• Blueback by Tim Winton is an achingly beautiful story about family, belonging, and living a life in tune with the environment.

• Magic For Tigers by Michelle Kadarusman is set in the forests of Tasmania and is an environmental story about protecting the forest and searching for the now extinct Thylacine ( Tasmanian Tiger).

• The Song Walker by Zillah Bethall is fantastic tale which meshes modern life with ancient folklore to create a gripping, emotional adventure set in outback Australia.

NORTH & CENTRAL AMERICA

USA:

• The Lost Whale by Hannah Gold is the story of Rio, who moves from the UK to California to stay with is grandmother when his mother is unwell. In his search for a lost whale, Rio heals his relationship with his grandmother and tries to save his mother. This story touches on mental health issues in a beautiful and sensitive way.

• The League Of Secret Heroes series by Kate Hannigan is an action-packed adventure trilogy about a trio of young superheroes fighting for justice during World War II.

MEXICO:

• Folktales of Mexico edited by Neil Philip is a retelling of traditional folktales from Mexico.

COSTA RICA:

• Turtle Moon by Hannah Gold is an environmental adventure based in the jungles of Costa Rica where Kaia fights to protect a rare turtle nesting site and inturn heals her relationship with her parents.

We haven’t traveled very far through the Americas yet, please give me some recommendations of stories from North, Central & South America:

Leave a comment

OUR ADVENTURE CONTINUES

Our map of the world in stories is an ever-unfolding atlas of awe and adventure which we plan to continue throughout the year. If you have any story recommendations, please leave them in the comments below and I will share an updated list of books later in the year.

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This week I’m talking about showing up in our community, protesting and sharing some social justice colouring pages, which are free to download for paid subscribers.

For the last few months, in our home education co-op, we have been working together to support some environmental causes and show up in our community to protest. We decided to take part in a local sustainability fair event, where we had a stall selling up-cycled crafts and fashion, that the children and adults in our co-op had made. We screen printed secondhand t-shirts, tie dyed old clothes and made baskets from scrap fabric and twine. We then sold the items at the community event and gave 100% of the money to 2 environmental charities that the children chose to support; The Bob Brown Foundation, who are protesting the logging of native forests in Tasmania and across Australia, and the Australian Marine Conservation Society who have multiple projects protecting Australian ocean environments.

The children involved worked so hard making the crafts and selling them at the event; chatting to members of our community about how the items were made and the charities we had chosen to support. It felt good to be out in the world doing something positive.

The following weekend, several families attended a rally in Adelaide organised by The Bob Brown Foundation, protesting the ongoing logging of native forests. It was the first time I have attended a protest with my children. I was a little apprehensive if they would feel comfortable with the noise and business, but they did great. It was such a beautiful day being in community with others and showing up to support our planet.

I would never force my children to attend a protest or even to believe in the same causes as me, but I was keen for them to experience it once, so they can grow up with the knowledge that when we feel like things are unjust, we have a voice. Attending a protest is one of many options available to us to make our voices heard. Others might include writing to members of parliament, voting, donating time or money to a charity, direct action in our community supporting people or nature, or even becoming a politician!

If you are looking for fun and easy ways to make protest posters with your children or in your community groups, I have a range of colouring in pages with can be downloaded from my website MINIMADTHINGS.COM

These include climate action posters, anti-capitalist colouring pages, children’s rights activities and Pride colouring pages. I will share links to download all of these for FREE for paid subscribers to Creative Spaces. (It’s just $6 AUD a month if you want to subscribe!)

I love seeing my printable activity sheets and colouring pages out in the world. If you download any, leave me a message below or send my a photo on Instagram @minimadthings

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Through these collaborative artistic endeavors we can build friendships and support systems, reignite inter-generational connection within families, deepen our connection with nature and create a sense of belonging within a community. We can also use creative practices to combat and dismantle oppressive systems, support marginalised communities and protect our planet.

There are so many ways we can use art and creativity to build a better world; let's explore and share ideas together!

If you have a community project you would like to share, please reach out in the comments, I would love to hear from you.

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COMMUNITY MURALS

Today I’m chatting with Jen Bloomer about creating community murals. Jen is an artist, a workshop facilitator, and mother that's work and life is focused on creativity, connection and community. She is based in Berkley, California, USA where she facilitates creative workshops, both in person and online. Jen is part of a team of multi-racial expressive arts therapists and educators who has developed Co-Create to Liberate which brings the spark of creativity to diversity, equity, and inclusion in schools, workplaces, and communities.

She also creates beautiful print based artworks which you can find on her website and my kitchen wall!

To begin our interview, I asked Jen about what lead to her current creative practice and community work:

Jen responded: I worked in a lot of non-profit jobs and for schools and kept feeling like I was trying to find the "most impactful" work in addressing systemic issues of inequity. I realized that the most impactful work I could do was to follow my passion for creativity and art, and work to share that with others.

Next, I asked Jen to share an occasion that she has used a creative practice to contribute to, strengthen or grow her local community:

Jen responded: The school my kids go to doesn't have a full time art teacher so the kids don't get much art. I worked with the principal, garden teacher and school staff to create a mural with all 400 kids on an old shipping container in the back of the school by the school garden.

The project took place in 2022 so many of the school events had been shut down due to COVID so it was a really powerful way for the whole school to come together and work on a something to make the school more beautiful for all.

What was your favourite part of the project?

Getting to know the kids and feeling connected to the school community.

If you’re feeling inspired and want to create a mural in your community, Jen shared some great tips:

You don't actually have to be an expert painter to create a community mural. A lot of the process is about coordinating people and supplies. I think it's most impactful when the community gets a lot of say in the design. I suggest priming the area you plan to paint with a primer and then using Acrylic paint (Nova paints are my favorites!) and finally varnishing with a UVA protecting varnish at the end.

I asked Jen about any future creative projects she has planned:

I have a whole series of designs I would love to paint at large scale as murals. The series about how we gather and how we come together across difference as humans- it's about our shared humanity.

Finally, we chatted about the future. When things seem bleak, what gives you hope?

Any time I go to listen to someone playing music, see a play, see a dance performance, see new art, and see someone putting their voice out into the world, my hope in humanity is re-instilled. The arts give me hope!

FIND OUT MORE ABOUT JEN BLOOMER

• Head to her website Radici Studios to read more about Jen’s creative workshop offerings and shop her beautiful print artworks.

• View more of Jen’s murals and large-scale artworks in her portfolio.

• Follow Jen on Instagram @radicistudios

• Subscribe to jen’s Substack, Creativly Rooted.

  Creatively Rooted

  Creativity as a source for regenerating, reimagining, healing and thriving. Art, graphic newsletters, coloring pages, prompts and reflections from artist Jen Bloomer.

  By Jen Bloomer

I want to say a huge thank you to Jen for sharing her creative ideas and experiences. I always feel so inspired after hearing stories of how creative practices can help build robust communities around the world.

Thank you all for taking the time to read.

Eleanor X

ART TABLE

A few weeks ago I painted an old wooden coffee table white, placed a basket of acrylic paint pens on top, wrote the invitation ‘Hi I’m Table, please draw on me!’ and left the table in our home education community space.

Initially the children were hesitant, some even double checked before drawing with comments like ‘You mean I can actually draw on the table?!’

‘Yes, you can draw on the table.’ I replied.

It has been wonderful watching the table evolve with everyone adding their own little pictures and messages. What is most exciting though is how, in some small way, it has brought uus together. The children, and adults are drawn (sorry for the bad pun!) together by the simple act of sitting across a table, doodling and chatting.

The ART TABLE has even provided opportunity to practice conflict resolution skills. One child was upset when others had scribbled over a drawing she had created. She raised this issue in our weekly home education co-op meeting. We chatted as a group about how this made her feel, shared ideas about how we could resolve the issue and came up with shared agreements about what we could do in the future to prevent a similar situation happening.

I love how simple creative practices can bring people together and strengthen our communities!

CLIMATE ACTION POSTERS

This week I created 10 new colouring pages, depicting different environmental causes, for you to colour and create your own climate action posters. You can download the posters from MINIMADTHINGS.COM or paid subscribers can download them for free from the link at the end of this article.

I would love to see the posters out and about in the world in your communities. Send me a message with a photo and I’ll share them in my next Substack article.

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For some context, I have two children, H who is 10 and F who is 7. We currently live life and home educate in South Australia, along with my partner.

It’s been a slow start to our year. I feel very privileged to be able to say that. I feel for many in the world it has been a chaotic and scary beginning to the year. Here in Australia mid December through to the end of January are the summer school holidays. Although we home educate and don’t really follow school terms, the school holidays still effect our weekly rhythm. Lots of the activities we attend stop and it’s also our opportunity to catch up with friends who do go to school. After a long break, I’m ready to get back into our more regular weekly routine.

For me, and my children, having a gentle routine to our weeks anchors us. It makes our days feel a bit more predictable and flow easier. It’s a balance between having some regular activities that we attend and having some downtime at home. We are fortunate that we live in an area with a thriving home education community. You could fill each day 3 times or more with different classes, activities and meet-ups. For us, being that busy would be too much. Its a juggling act of compromising between my son, who’s default is to stay home, and my daughters preference to go out and be with people at any given opportunity. I’m somewhere in between socially, but generally feel like I’m stuck in the middle just dropping all the balls!

THE CREATIVE STUFF

Over the summer we have launched into a variety of creative activities. I will share some with you below. At the end of the article I will share some links for paid subscribers to download lots of printable activity sheets for FREE.

PAPER MACHE CLAY

In the last few weeks we have been exploring all the things we can make with paper mache clay. I love that it's a pretty cheap material to make, dries really hard and is so versatile. I'm not an expert, but I will share what I have learnt and a few projects we created below.

If you want to delve deeper into this topic, I recommend checking out Ultimate Paper Mache>>>

Paper mache clay recipe:

• 1 1/4 Cup of soaked paper pulp with some of the water squeezed out

• 1 Cup of dry wall joint compound

• 3/4 Cup PVA glue

• 1 Cup flour

Making the clay:

To make the paper mache clay, first rip the paper you are using and soak in water. Absorbent paper like news print or toilet paper is easiest but you can use other paper, you will just meed to soak them for longer first.

Once you paper is fully soaked and the fibers have broken down, drain the mixture and squeeze out about half of the water. This isn't very exact, I recommend checking out this video for a more detailed explanation.

Put the paper pulp, dry wall compound and PVA glue into a bowl and mix. You can either mix with your hand or use a stick blender. Gradually add the cup of flour until you reach the right consistency. A softer consistency is good for spreading thinly over surfaces, ticker is best if you want to sculpt more textured surfaces.

Now your clay is ready to use. You can store it in an air tight container in the fridge for over a week.

Making a structure to cover:

With paper mache clay, you need a base structure to cover. This can be made from cardboard, wood, masking tape and even molded aluminum foil. If you're using cardboard, I recommend using a double layer of corrugated cardboard, otherwise the moisture from the clay will make the card structure warp.

So far we have created mirror frames, a tigers head and Yayoi Kusama inspired flowers. To create the Kusama flower, we used a template you can find in my Yayoi Kusama printable activity bundle. I will share a link for paid subscribers to download the printable for FREE at the end of this article.

FANTASY MAPS

Creating fantasy maps has been another great project we have loved over the last few weeks. This simple activity inspires so much imagination and creativity. Plus you can learn about all the elements used to create a map like a key and coordinates at the same time.

You can find the Fantasy Map Printable that we used here on my website. For paid subscribers to CREATIVE SPACES, I will share a link for you to download the printable for FREE at the end of this article.

PLANET PROTECTORS CLUB

My daughter recently began a new club with her friends called the Planet Protectors Club. She made a plan of all the materials and equipment she would need, researched relevant books and documentaries and prepared everything to take with us to a recent home school camp. At the camp she invited friends to come and join the club, to colour in animals pictures and create climate action posters.

In a world that feels like it is spiraling out of control with countries actively choosing to go in the wrong direction with regards to tackling the climate crisis, this little moment of a 7 year old deciding to take action, organise and do something positive felt good. The problem is, if we the adults, leave it to our children to sort out, it will be too late!

BOOKS WE HAVE LOVED

I love to travel. However, partly due to living where we do (flights from Australia to anywhere are expensive), partly due to not having disposable income and partly due to the environmental impact of travel, in the last 6 years I have only left Australia once. Sometimes in our quiet little corner, I feel very disconnected from the rest of the world. So, in the last few months we have been taking a journey in the books we read.

We have chosen books that feature stories from different locations and cultures around the world and it has been wonderful. My favourites from our growing collection have been The Last Bear and Turtle Moon by Hannah Gold. Both are environmental stories about a child’s connection to nature and how this effects their relationship with their family. One is set on Bear Island in the Arctic circle, just south of Svalbard and the other is set in the Costa Rican rain forest. We also enjoyed Asha and the Spirit Bird by Jasbinder Bilan which is about 2 friends’ journey across the Himalayas in Northern India. If you’re looking for a story about Australia, I would highly recommend Runt by Craig Silvey which tells the tale of Annie and her dog Runt who try to save their outback town and family farm.

We created a map to record the locations of the books we have read and will continue adding to it throughout the year. If you have any book recommendations for me suitable for 8-12yr olds that feature a specific country, let me know in the comments.

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SIMPLE KID-MADE CRAFTS

I will leave you today with the message that creative activities with kids don’t need to be expensive or involve complicated processes and instructions. Kid made, up-cycled crafts are the best!

My monthly ‘Tales from our Table’ articles will always be free, but if you are looking to more creative ideas, to delve deeper into art techniques or to receive free printables, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to Creative Spaces.

Below I will share links for PAID SUBSCRIBERS to download my Yayoi Kusama activity sheets and templates, the Fantasy Maps printable, Climate Action posters and Endangered Animal printables.

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It’s not OK just to stay in that comfortable place without acknowledging that others are not so fortunate. But just acknowledging is not enough. We have to take action and try to make the world a better place for everyone. After all, we are all connected, particularly in the face of the climate crisis.

It’s hard to know where to start. How do we approach learning about the challenges of the climate emergency with our children but not end up in a place of hopelessness and inaction? How do we share the realities of what needs to be done to ensure a livable planet for their future without damaging their mental health? Should we even share the realities of this with our children? After all, it is our mess to tidy up.

Faced with the enormity of the task ahead of us, remaining hopeful is hard. We decided that small actions in our daily life were the way forward. Little changes bit by bit gradually built into our daily life was the best way to take action. These small projects that we work on together in our community feel like a positive way to approach the topic of climate crisis whilst safe-guarding the mental health of our young people the best we can. This feels like a more sustainable way to approach what feels like an insurmountable problem. For my children, I hope it feels positive and empowering. The problem is big but we can all contribute and together we can have a significant effect in changing the way we live now and for future generations.

So in the next few months we have chosen 2 projects to focus on. We are working together, kids and adults, to make up-cycled crafts and clothing to sell at a local sustainability fair. There will be screen printed second had t-shirts, tie dyed old clothes, woven baskets made from rags, up-cycled soft plastics made into bunting and much more. All the money we raise will be donated to an environmental or social justice charity of the children’s choosing. I’ll share the crafts with you in the coming weeks.

Our second project is to make protest signs and artwork and attend a protest organised by the Bob Brown Foundation to protect native forests here in Australia.

Our hope is that these small actions will show our young people (and the adults involved) that we can make positive change in the face of the climate emergency. I recently finished reading It’s Not Fair by Eloise Rickman (which I highly recommend). The book talks about adultism and the way we view and treat children in our society. One of the chapters deals with our responsibility, as adults, to ensure a safe and livable planet for our children. In the chapter Eloise outlines some simple and achievable actions we can take to give our children the opportunity to have the safe future they deserve.

ENDANGERED ANIMALS

Over the holidays I spent time creating new colouring in sheets depicting 15 endangered and critically endangered animals. Did you know that more than 46,300 species of plants and animals are threatened with extinction. Than includes 71% of cycads, 44% of coral reefs, 41% of amphibians, 37% of sharks and rays, 34% of conifers, 26% of mammals, 21% of reptiles and 12% of birds. The ICUN Red List of threatened species is a great place to learn more about the challenges facing different habitats and animals around the world.

These colouring sheets are designed as a super gentle way to engage in learning about the dangers facing many animals and habitats across our planet with young children. The drawings are available for you download from MINIMADTHINGS.COM, alternatively paid subscribers to CREATIVE SPACES can download then for FREE below.

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For some context, I have two children, H who is 10 and F who is 7. We currently live life and home educate in South Australia, along with my partner.

It’s been a few months since I have written one of these articles sharing the creative projects we have embarked on at home. Life has been busy and although we have been doing a fair few crafty things, I just haven’t had the time to sit down, reflect and write.

Over the last month, my children have been preparing for an annual child entrepreneur market they take part in. The market is run by some families in our local home education community.

This year we collaborated with another family and decided to share a stall. That last sentence made the process of deciding to work together sound very simple. It was far from simple. The journey to collaborating began with a conversation I had with a friend (the mother of another home education family). We (the adults) thought it would be a nice idea to work together, lightening the load of work needed to prepare, sharing creative skills and making fun crafty products to sell together. Sounds great right? Well, when we proposed this idea to the children, we were not initially met with enthusiasm.

Let me set the scene a little before I continue. All the children involved are home educated in a very non-competitive, self-directed and supportive culture. We actively avoid comparison and judgement against peers. Their education is about their personal growth, not their position in graph compared to other children. We are also all families that actively divest from capitalist ideas around hording wealth and buying all the shiny things.

Back to our proposal of collaboration…

When we suggested the idea of working together, we (the adults), proposed that we would all contribute in making items to sell and all the money earned would be shared equally between everyone involved. This simple concept, that seemed fair to us, was met by many (totally valid) questions. Questions like, ‘What if I make more things than someone else, shouldn’t I get more money?’, ‘What if the things someone makes don’t sell, should they still get paid?’ and ‘Do the younger children, who aren’t as good at making things, still get the same amount to money?’ A few of the children involved were very upset at the idea that they would have to share their hard earned money with others. Their immediate response to our proposal of collaboration and sharing was met with a NO. They wanted to go it alone. They wanted to have individual stalls and keep all their own money, even if it meant being in competition with their friends. The idea that they ‘could’ possibly make more money than their friends was very appealing.

Myself and the other mum involved were a little caught off guard by their reaction to our proposal. It was surprising to us that, these children who have been raised is a very non-competitive, anti-capitalist families, chose capitalism. They wanted the chance to win; to beat their friends and keep all the money themselves.

This lead to a very interesting discussion. I put forward a question to the children; ‘What happens if you don’t win? How will you feel if you go it alone and don’t sell anything?’ They hadn’t really considered the other side of the story, that for some people to win, others had to loose. I explained that there was a finite number of people attending the market, each with a certain amount of money to spend. Working alone, there is a chance that you might be able to get a larger slice of that money pie but there is also a big chance that you might get less.

I explained that we all have different strengths and weaknesses. Some people have awesome crafting skills, others might be really good at talking to people and selling, some might be great at calculating change and handling money, others might love working on the display of our stall. If we pooled our skills and resources; if we worked together and supported each other, as a whole we would be stronger. Working together as a collective, we might get a little less money each, but we would be working with friends not against them.

In the end the kids chose socialism. We all worked together and had a great time.

During the discussions, I also proposed a communist approach to running the stall; the parents keep all the money and resources for themselves, giving each child and very small but equal amount of money for their work. This idea was met with a big NO thank you!

UP-CYCLED SOFT TOYS

Let’s get to the creative stuff...

One of the products my daughter made to sell was some soft toys, she called Squishies, made from the fabric of old t-shirts and sweaters. I helped her cut all the fabric, then she stitched the little creatures together on the sewing machine, stuffed them, glued on the eyes. She worked all day making these cute little critters and was so proud of her creations.

BADGE MAKING

One of the most fun bits of craft equipment I have purchased over the last few years is a badge maker. The kids absolutely love designing and creating their own cute badges. For the market, my son made 100’s of cool badge designs.

UP-CYCLED SCREEN PRINTED T-SHIRTS

This was my favourite project we worked on together for the market stall. We brought lots of second hand t-shirts and screen printed cool designs. We chose a very simple method of screen printing, creating paper stencils which we then used to mask the ink going onto the t-shirts. Keeping it simple meant that the kids could come up with their own design ideas. I also made a few of my own designs too!

FINAL THOUGHTS

I’m not sure why I was caught off guard by the children’s initial gravitation towards capitalism. Capitalist ideas are pervasive in everything we do; in children’s TV shows, music videos, magazines, books, computer games and in every town main street. In every community event we visit, celebration or show there are snacks, souvenirs or trinkets to buy. You can’t just go to a local Christmas pageant or community fete without there being stalls of plastic rubbish enticing children (and adults) to spend money on stuff they don’t need. We can’t just enjoy an experience, there has to be stuff to buy too!

It feels like an uphill battle to counteract that capitalist consumerist message our children hear and see every day. We try to not buy things that we don’t need, to purchase second hand or repair items we already have, to give freely to charities or our community without expecting anything in return. We try but I’m not sure it is enough to counteract the shiny newness of buying stuff. It is an uphill battle but I’m not going to give to trying to live a different way.

My monthly ‘Tales from our Table’ articles will always be free, but if you are looking to more creative ideas, to delve deeper into art techniques or to receive free printables, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to Creative Spaces.

PROJECT CREATE - A community space in the making

It has been 3 months since we began using our newly cleaned and refurbished home education community space and it’s wonderful in so many ways. It’s amazing what we can do when we come together for a common purpose; when we give freely our time and resources and just get shit done. The space, which was initially filled with junk and rat poo, is now filled with creativity and life. The early stages of the process included a lot of hard work cleaning, clearing and dreaming. Next came creative projects to bring our community together, and filling the space with furniture and resources. Now, we are at the stage of evolving our community though implementing workshops and activities based on our children’s interests and creating new processes for shared decision making.

SPACES & WORKSHOPS

From the early dirty rooms and mess, the space has come so far. Ideas have evolved and we have now collected resources and set up lots of different spaces. These include a book sharing library, second hand shop, art room, hang out space, tinker room and more.

BOOK SHARING LIBRARY

Through donations of books from families involved, we are building up a sharing library. We operate the library on a ‘give a book - take a book’ honesty system.

THE ART ROOM & MAKER SPACE

We are gradually building up a wide range of resources for art and craft which have either been collected or gathered from local buy nothing groups. These materials are free for all to use in our art room and maker space.

I have been running a weekly ART CLUB where I offer art project ideas based on different creative techniques and we make art together. For the next 8 weeks we are looking at lots of different printing techniques. It has been such a pleasure seeing how our art space is evolving and all the creative project embarked on.

COMMUNITY KITCHEN & MEETING SPACE

The central space in the building is a kitchen, meeting and hang out space. This is where we come together to make lunch and have our co-op meetings.

GARDEN

We are gradually converting a unused outside space into a community garden. So far we have added big planters filled with herbs, vegetables and flowers. We plan to add larger vegetable beds, a fire pit, benches and a large table to create an outdoor seating area.

TINKER ROOM

This room is a work in progress. We have lots of tools and old electronics for the children to pull apart and experiment with. For the younger children, they love just smashing things up but we are finding that the older children, who attend our home education co-op, are looking for something more. They want to build and create. So our next step is to implement some electronics workshops for them as well as creating a woodworking space.

SPORTS & GAMES

In the large warehouse area of our space we have pool and ping pong tables along with bikes and scooters.

PLAY ROOM

One of the smaller rooms we have converted into a play space dedicated to younger members of the group. We have a big cubby house, dress up costumes, books and toys.

D&D GAMES ROOMS

Each week we run a Dungeons & Dragons and board games group for about 15 children in our home education community. The children involved have taken ownership of their space and added posters and decorations to their rooms.

SECOND HAND SHOP

We have opened a second hand shop which is run by the children in our community. Collectively they worked out how the shop would be run, they wrote their own rules and staff jobs. All the money that they raise will go to buying equipment for our community to use whilst at Project Create.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF COUNTRY - The opening of Project Create

To mark the opening of our space and celebrate all we have achieved as a community, we held an open day for friends and family. It was wonderful to welcome the wider community into our space.

During this time we held an Acknowledgement of Country with Deanne Hanchant, a life-long Adelaide Hills local. Deanne is descendant of the Tanganekald and Ramindjeri (Ngarrindjeri) peoples of the Coorong through her grandmother, and of the Barkindji peoples through her grandfather, Deanne also has family connections to the Narungga and Kaurna people. She works as a consultant for Aboriginal employment and development with a background in education, archaeology, ancestral remains and SA history. During her talk to us she shared the history of possum skin cloaks and a boomerang which had been found in our local area.

The children also shared some of the activities we have been doing at Project Create which included a choir & band performance, art exhibition and opening our second hand shop.

IMPLEMENTING SHARED DECISION MAKING

Our next step, as our space evolves, is to implement a better system for shared decision making with a focus on centering the children’s voices in the running of our space. In the past a lot of our decisions were being made over a group message WhatsApp chat. This meant that the children’s voices were being lost in the process, with the adults taking over the majority of decisions and planning.

We have now implemented a morning meeting at the beginning of each co-op session where we will check in with each other, plan activities for our day and have the opportunity to share exciting news, resolve disputes and plan future activities.

Making space for the children to contribute to the running of our space is super important to me, but it hasn’t been easy. It is so easy as adults, with the best of intentions, to just to take over. This is such a big learning process for me. I didn’t grow up in a family, school or community where children’s voices were ever really listened to. So I am having to be very intentional with my actions to create space for our young people to contribute in a meaningful way.

I’m so excited about the possibilities Project Create holds for the future of our home education community. But the most exciting thing is what I have learned about the power of people coming together to make shit happen. Whilst I would always advocate people vote, I don’t think we can then sit back and wait for electoral politics to save us. We have so much power in our local communities to create positive change, to build a better future and support those in need, if we just come together and get shit done. The skills I have learnt so far, and continue to learn can be applies to any grass roots community project, not just creating a home education space.

Creative Spaces is a reader-supported publication. To allow me to keep sharing lots of ideas for free, if you can afford it, please consider becoming a paid subscriber, it’s only $6 AUD per month. Paid subscribers to Creative Spaces also get access to our printable activity sheets for FREE and access to all archived articles.

Thanks, Eleanor X

Recently I had the pleasure of running a workshop at a new art gallery in our local community. The gallery, named Fabrik Arts is housed in a renovated woolen mill. The space includes a beautiful exhibition hall, meet the maker artist studios, artists residency accomodation, a museum and several workshop spaces.

Given the spaces history in producing woven woolen textiles, the new gallery has a focus on textile arts. At the opening weekend I ran an embroidery workshop where we stitched onto copies of historic photos of the mill building and workers. The embroidery technique was inspired by the art of Victoria Villasana.

I idea behind the workshop was to connect people to the history of the building through the historic photos and then to add a new contempory layer of art, with colourful stitches, to represent the new life of the art gallery as a community art space. It was wonderful to meet and chat with so many people from our local community, many of whom had relatives who had worked at the mill. Children were sitting alongside parents and grandparents, sewing and chatting together. The action of doing a craft broke down barriers and allowed easy conversation to flow between strangers. I felt privilaged to both facilitate and be part of such a wonderful weekend of creativity.

I know I go on about it all the time, but this workshop was a wonderful example of how making art and craft together can help create connection and build community.

PRESENT - A project by textile artist India Flint

I wanted to share with you one of the exhibits that I loved from the opening of the new Fabrik Arts gallery space; a collection of embroidered self portraits brought together by artist India Flint.

The exhibit which ‘aims to create an offering of creativity, connection and a coming together in stitches’, is comprised of 130 hand stitched self portraits from all over the world. The artworks, may sewn on old hankercheifs, were hung in the entrance to the gallery and moved with the wind as people entered the space. I loved how these beautiful hand-stitched artworks represented a comming together of the textile art communtiy to celebrate the opening of this new community space.

Having said all that, it wasn’t only about the art. ART PLAY was also about building community, making connections and forging friendships. The making of art together created a space for us to talk, share feelings and deepen our connection with others.

The art activities we embarked on were super simple, in fact they are activities I regularly do with children. My focus for the workshop wasn’t to teach anyone art techniques, it was just about being playful and experimenting. We created colour ‘automatic drawing’ paintings loosely inspired by Paul Klee, we played with inks and made colourful scrape paintings.

I was really looking forward to spending the evening with friends and meeting new people, however at the end of the workshop I realised that, if I was honest with myself, I didn’t enjoy the experience very much. The art was fun, the people were awesome, it was getting paid to host the workshop that took away the joy. The transaction of receiving money made something I love, sharing creativity, into a job or a chore. I felt an obligation to provide a good service to those who had paid to be there. Although getting paid is beneficial for me, it wasn’t enough of a benefit for me to not enjoy the experience myself. It made me feel like I was outside or separate from the community I was trying to help build. I was there to facilitate rather than take part.

I am a huge advocate for creative people being compensated for their work. However in this case, I don’t want to be paid. I want to be able to offer my skills freely and participate in the community I am aiding to build.

In this situation, my need for money in order to survive in the world we live in decreased my connection with others. In short, capitalism killed the fun!

In the future I still want to help facilitate art activities for adults but I think a system of bartering or exchange of skills is more aligned with how I want to engage in my community. I am imagining an evening where we all come together and offer something to the group. Maybe some participants bring food to share, others bring drinks, I bring creative activities and others contribute by keeping our community space tidy or fixing some broken furniture or being a supportive friend. We all have skills to offer and each is important to creating the kind of community I want to be part of.

For some context, I have two children, H who is 10 and F who is 7. We currently live life and home educate in South Australia, along with my partner.

It has been 2 months since I last wrote one of these ‘Tales from our table’ articles sharing an insight into our family life and the arty projects we get up to at home. I just didn’t feel I had much to say. We have all been ill for weeks with flu, which left me feeling totally depleted of energy, creativity and enthusiasm for most things. It took me a long time to feel energised again, but slowly we are back in action finding new projects to feel excited about.

Along with illness, the past month has been filled with questions. Why do we live in Australia so far from our family in the UK? Do we like where we live? How do we fit into the community here? Will we ever move to a different country? Are my children happy growing up away from their extended family? If we stay in Australia, will we have any support when we are old? Will we ever be able to afford to buy a house? Are all my children’s needs being met with home education? Sometimes where we live in South Australia feels very isolated from the rest of the world; Is this a good thing or a bad thing? I acknowledge, all of these questions are filled with privilege; being able to debate which ‘safe’ country to live, or to choose between home education or free public school is such a huge privilege that I don’t take for granted. Nevertheless, I’m still questioning everything.

These questions are in-part fueled by my recent 45th birthday (half way to 90, yay!) and my youngest turning 7. I’m no longer a mother of little children. We are all changing, growing and getting older. Maybe I’m having a mid-life crisis!

ARTY PARTY DECORATIONS

To celebrate my daughters 7th birthday, we had a party in the forest with friends. Her chosen theme was ‘Ocean & Sky’, so we created magical decorations to hang in the trees. There were Pegasus, rainbows, mermaids and beautiful dragon flies.

To create the decorations we used an old cardboard and fabric scraps. The rainbows are very simple; just cut an arch shape, paint rainbow colours and glue fabric strips onto the bottom to create streamers. The flying Pegasus are a bit more complicated, so I made a template and instructions which can be downloaded from my website:

Find the Pegasus template here

FAIRY HOUSES & FURNITURE

My daughter loves all things magical and fairies at the moment, so we started work on making a fairy village. Instead of doing all the ‘important’ life stuff I ‘should’ have been doing, I spent a few hours helping her make little houses from wooden craft sticks and hot glue. After completing the houses, she wanted to make furniture and started with a bed. However, after making it, she realised it was way too big to fit in the house (to great amusement at her silly mistake), so it became a bed for Snoopy. I’m hoping the village evolves but there is an equal chance that it might not, if her interests move on, and that’s OK too.

BOOKS WE LOVED THIS MONTH:

Whenever I feel any doubt about our decision to home educate, I buy books. Not parenting books or books discussing different styles of home education; children’s books. When I question our choices, the one thing I fall back on is that both my children LOVE reading. I remind myself that if all we do is read books and play, that is enough for now. That is enough on those hard days, in fact, that is enough on most days. We do do a lot of other things; horse riding, karate, Dungeons & Dragons, watching documentaries, trips to museums, park plays, swimming, camping, singing and lots of time hanging out with friends, but reading books is our bread and butter, and my excuse to buy all the beautiful children’s books!

Below are a few reads my son (who is 10) enjoyed last month, he’s mostly into Si-Fi, magical adventures and fantasy at the moment. His top pick out of this selection would probably be Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. This one is definitely for slightly older readers but he LOVED it so much. When Stars are Scattered and Illegal are beautiful graphic novels sharing stories about refugee children, which I really recommend.

My daughter (age 7), has just got to the stage of reading longer books independently. She loves graphic novels like Barb the Brave and Investigators. The longer novels here, like Mr Gum by Any Stanton (which is so funny) and Blueback by Tim Winton (which is such a beautiful story about protecting the environment), we read together.

If you have any questions about the books or have recommendations of your own, leave a comment below.

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FINAL THOUGHTS

I’m still filled with questions. I feel like the next year will be a period of flux for us but now I’m feeling more ready to embrace change. I will leave you with these cute drawings that I found on the breakfast table this morning and the thought that creativity doesn’t need to be an epic, elaborate craft project, simple drawings are enough.

My monthly ‘Tales from our Table’ articles will always be free, but if you are looking to more creative ideas, to delve deeper into art techniques or to receive free printables, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to Creative Spaces.

When I first began my business MINI MAD THINGS about 6 years ago, I had only ever shared 1 image of each of my children on social media; a photo of them just after they were born. My husband and I had no intention of ever sharing any more images, that was until I started a business based in selling products for children. It was a very small business which I started with pretty much zero budget. I needed children to model the products I sold and to create crafts that I could share as content on social media. It made sense to use the very cute children I had in front of me.

For a few years I continued that way, sharing photos of my children making art and using the products I sold. It was an easy, convenient and low budget way to create content for social media. However, it quickly progressed from me just snapping a few cute photos to something more toxic.

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There are two issues that became problematic for me. The first, the sharing of my children’s image and life story as content on social media began to make me feel deeply uncomfortable. This phenomenon, which I recently heard called ‘sharenting’, is an issue that we are only just beginning to understand the full effects of with the children whose parents have posted about them on social media since before they were born just now reaching adulthood. If you want to delve deeper into this topic, Devorah Heitner’s book, Growing Up In Public, provides an interesting insight.

The other issue, the one that I want to discuss further in this article, is the sharing of my children’s art. I’ll be honest, I totally killed their enjoyment in creative projects. I ruined for my children the very thing that I was hoping share with others; a passion for creativity.

I would set up projects for them based on social media trends or ideas that I thought would get me more likes without thought of my children’s interests. I would ‘correct’ their art work to make it more ‘Instagram worthy’. I would make them pause in their creative flow to pose for a photograph. I hovered over their shoulder trying to snap a good image while they were making. I shared photos of them online without their consent. I used the excuse that it was all for the good of our family. I was trying to make money to support my children.

It is quite difficult for me to admit now, but I feel ashamed of how I behaved.

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Gradually over time, my children were less and less interested in making art. I could see that my actions were destroying their love in the very thing that I was advocating for others. My son would get sad when he noticed I had altered his artwork. He would get cross at me for taking photos of him without asking. My daughter would shout at me that I was ruining the fun by taking photos all the time. She said the projects I wanted her to make, the ones that I thought would get more Instagram likes, were boring.

I can’t blame them for being cross at me. The way I was treating them was disrespectful. If someone treated me in the same way, demeaning me by ‘correcting’ my artwork, photographing me without my consent and manipulating my interests all to sell products and make money, I would be pretty cross too!

As my daughter got older, she began to vocalise her dislike in the whole process very clearly. It was during this time, about 3 years ago, that a started to question my approach to parenting and read about unschooling. Through this research I delved into the idea of child-led learning and consent based parenting. I began to see how far I had strayed from that initial idea that we were never going to put our children’s images on social media until they were old enough to decide for themselves. I felt so much sadness that I had killed for them the very thing that I loved so much; crafting and making art.

Fortunately, it is never to late to change. These days, my approach to sharing art projects on social media is a little different. Often I will just create a project myself and share a tutorial without my children’s involvement. If I do share a photo of something my children have made, I will ask first. If they agree to me sharing a photo, it usually only includes their hands or the back of their head. I have totally given up trying to manipulate my daughter into making something I want her to create, her creative choices are her own. I don’t share stories about their lives that are personal. And I will never alter any of my children’s artworks again to make them look better for Instagram. It’s still not perfect but their love of making things has returned. My daughter is an avid crafter of all things, 100% on her own terms.

I’m so proud of my daughter for being able to advocate for herself and for telling me that I was wrong. I hope she never loses her fierce independence and willingness to express her opinion when she feels something us unjust.

It gives me so much joy seeing her enjoying making art again.

RESOURCES:

• An interesting article about the impact of sharing our children’s lives on social media, aka ‘sharenting’.

• Read about ‘sharenting’ in the context of sharing home education information online.

• Growing Up In Public by Devorah Heitner is a super interesting read about coming of age in a digital world.

• Read more about Unschooling in the article below:

a life unschooled

How to live as if school doesn't exist

Some time ago, I wrote about the ways I’m shifting from living without school, aka unschooling, to living as if school doesn’t even exist…

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2 years ago · 23 likes · 14 comments · Fran Liberatore

• Read about consent in the context of parenting:

a life unschooled

Chapter Two: What is Consent and why do we need it?

I am Substacking a book! It’s called Expanding Consent: breaking cycles of domination in our homes and beyond, and it’s free to read…

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2 years ago · 12 likes · 7 comments · Fran Liberatore

Today our community art prompts are all about drawing funky monsters and surreal creatures with 2 fun drawing games. These are great activities to do as an ice breaker at a creative workshop, as a family game or with friends.

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Last week I reached 1000 Subscribers! So to celebrate, for the next few weeks, I’m offering a massive 40% off annual subscription plans. So if you have been pondering if a paid subscription to Creative Spaces, now is a great time to join us. So that’s 1 year of creative ideas, printable activity sheets and art prompts for just $51AUD (Usually $85 AUD).

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CREATING A SPACE - Building and dreaming

Since I last wrote about our work towards creating a permanent home education community space, we have made huge progress. The space we are using, an old office and warehouse building owned by one of our friends, is now cleared and cleaned. In the last few weeks we have acquired furnishings (mostly up-cycled and free), set up many of the rooms ready for use and begun filling the space with games, books and art supplies. The work we have put into the building is giving it life, changing a dirty, unused space into a warm, inclusive and exciting place to be.

A few weeks ago we held our first get together in the newly named ‘Project Create’ and it was amazing. There is still lots of work to be done but it was exciting.

COLLABORATIVE CONSTRUCTIONS - Marble run

At our first few hang-outs at ‘Project Create’, I facilitated 3 collaborative creative projects to begin building connection and community between our young people. The first was an epic, large scale, marble run building project.

MATERIALS:

• Long cardboard tubes - I sourced these for free from a local fabric supply store and then cut them into varying lengths, splitting some down the middle to form half pipes.

• Stackable plastic crates - These are great for adding height to your structures

• Large cardboard boxes

• Smaller cardboard tubes

• Cardboard

• Pool noodles

• Fixing materials like cable ties and Kraft packing tape

• Scissors and craft knives

• Marbles

It was fantastic seeing the young people collaborate, solve problems and work on building the huge construction together.

MINI COMMUNITY SPACES - Art house cubby

The second project we embarked on was building a cardboard cubby house for the younger children to play in. I constructed the house using large sheets of cardboard. The children then created mini artwork ‘tiles’ to decorate.

I created the first iteration of the project 4 years ago when writing my children’s craft book, Adventures in Cardboard. Since then I have made many versions for creative workshops. This house, collaboratively decorated with each of the children’s artworks, will stay at our home education co-op space for everyone to play in. A mini community building within our community space.

COLLABORATIVE MURAL

The third project we have been working on together over the last few weeks is a collaborative artwork to decorate the walls. Each child and adult involved in our community space drew around their hands onto a large board. The then painted the overlapping hands together with each person adding their creative mark.

This artwork fills me with so much joy and excitement for the future of our community space.

Thank you for taking the time to read about some of the simple ways I’m using creativity to bring people together. I hope it inspires you in some small way.

Eleanor X

Firstly, I am a maker. Even if I hadn’t started a business centered around children’s creativity, I would still be making crafts at home with my children and for myself. I make purely for the joy of having made something. It is a huge part of who I am. I can’t help but create.

But, why share those creative pursuits with the rest of the world? 

Well, let's start with one thing I’m not trying to do. I’m not here trying to profess that my crafty family life is somehow better than another way of being. I’m not trying to say you need to be doing all these crafts with your kids to be a good parent. 

The reason I share my creative pursuits online is that I value myself and my skills. It has taken me a long time to reach this understanding, to recognize that my creative ideas are valuable. I have something to offer, and these ideas can be valuable to others. And so, I created a small, but fulfilling, business, based around sharing my creative knowledge. I feel so privileged to have been able to build my creative passion into a job and I love sharing my joy for making with the world.

I also feel creative activities can be a fantastic way to make connections with others and build community, which is something I’m very passionate about.

Looking deeper, beyond my personal and professional joy in creativity,are there other reasons I do art and craft with my children?

There are many Instagram accounts and blogs out there sharing craft ideas that encourage early literacy and numeracy; elaborate sensory play trays or early writing skills cleverly disguised in crafts. This has never been my jam. Whilst I’m sure these types of educational focused art and craft blogs are all very well meaning, I feel that, at times, they can fuel anxiety for parents. They send the message that if you are not facilitating all manner of creative learning projects to encourage academic skills at a young age, your children will somehow be at a disadvantage. They will ‘fall behind’. As a parent, who cares deeply for my children, I too feel that anxiety. I understand that it is easy to be co-opted into feeling you need to be constantly pushing ‘educational’ activities at a young age. You don’t.

The pressure to facilitate early academic based activities can contribute to the exhaustion and burnout of parents and feelings of shame. If you can’t keep up the pace in supplying stimulating projects or if your children are not interested or engaged with such activities, you are somehow failing as a parent. This is not true.

I will also add, that I feel the idea of being ‘ahead’ or ‘behind’ in relation to childhood development is really toxic. It sows the seed in us, from an early age, that we need to constantly compare ourselves with others. Which in turn fuels continued competitiveness as we grow, which feeds into an individualistic way of thinking and a consumerist capitalist society. If you don’t have a problem with capitalism, you might not see a problem with this, but I do. I appreciate that this is a hugely oversimplified leap, but everything is connected!

There is a growing body of research that concludes that early academic tuition at preschool age, in comparison to lots of free play, has long-term damaging effects on children's social, emotional, intellectual, and academic development. Conversely, you could also conclude that lots of free play during childhood has a benefit to social, emotional, intellectual and academic development in later life. If you want to go further into research on this area, Peter Grey writes extensively on this topic in recent articles and his book Free to Learn.

Before I end my rant on the pushing of early academics in the guise of crafts on social media, I want to add, I hope the content I have shared online through my business MINI MAD THINGS hasn’t contributed to parental anxiety and the feeling that we need to do all the things in order for our children to ‘succeed’. This has never been my intention.

Whilst I recognise that many crafting activities, like playing with play-dough or threading, have great benefits for developing fine motor skills which in turn can help with developing the muscles needed for literacy skills, this isn’t my primary reason for crafting with my children.

For me, I have always taken a slightly more expansive view of the benefits of pursuing art and craft activities. The three key benefits I have noticed, with my children, over our years of crafting together are creative thinking, resourcefulness and confidence.

CREATIVE THINKING

Being able to think creatively goes hand-in-hand with problem solving. Artistic projects, embarked on by both children and adults alike, allow the practice of creative thinking and problem solving skills in a low risk environment.

‘There are so many big problems in the world, sometimes what I most appreciate about art making is the “low stakes” opportunity to practice navigating challenges. Art is one of the best ways I know to practice problem solving, to practice disappointment, to get curious and to practice life.’ Jen Bloomer - Creatively Rooted.

As stated by educator and speaker Ken Robinson in his 2006 TED talk, Do schools kill creativity?;

‘If you are not prepared to be wrong, you will never come up with anything original.’

When making art and craft, you can practice ‘being wrong’ without major consequences, solve those problems and try again, allowing the development of creative thinking and problem solving abilities. These skills can then be applied too all areas of life, not just art and craft pursuits.

RESOURCEFULNESS

Resourcefulness, which is strongly linked to creative thinking and problem solving, is defined as the ability and ingenuity to cope with difficult situations, or unusual problems. It is about getting things done in the face of obstacles and constraints.

This is a skill that I have seen develop in my daughter, particularly in the last few months. She will have an idea about a game or toy she wants to play with and her first thought is ‘can I make it?’ She then looks around the house for materials. Inevitably she won’t be able to find everything she needs, so we might have a discussion about materials she could substitute to make her ideas work. She is being resourceful with the materials we have available and bringing her idea to fruition in the face of obstacles and constraints.

From an early age we always crafted using a variety of materials and techniques. We have drawn, painted and sewn together. Made doll’s clothes, cardboard cubby houses and wooden toys. We have experimented with clay and printmaking. She has seen me crochet blankets, sew quilts, fix old clothes, do DIY around the house and much more. Gradually, without too much explicit instruction, the idea of being resourceful has seeped into her way of thinking. 

CONFIDENCE

This leads me to confidence. Through the process of crafting together, and observing me making all manner of creations, my daughter has had time to try and experiment with many creative skills using her hands. This had led to her ever growing confidence in her own creative abilities. So now, even when faced with an unfamiliar craft or new idea, she has the confidence to just have a go. She will try, possibly fail, try again and learn through the process. This self-confidence is then applied to other areas of her life.

I have found, embarking on creative pursuits with my children over the years has been a joyful and fulfilling way to practice these three interconnected skills of creative thinking, resourcefulness and confidence. These undoubtedly important skills allow a person to be adaptive and cope with varied situations, which in our quickly changing and turbulent world, I feel will be beneficial for their unknown future.

I love sharing my passion for making with my children, however, I want to add that even though creativity is important to me, it’s an integral part of who I am, I always try to remind myself that my children are not me. They are their own people with their own interests, skills and passions. I may choose to share my creative passion with my family, but they are free to take from it what they will, without judgment or pressure.

So, returning to my original questions; Why do I do art and crafts with my children? And why do I share those creative ideas with others?

Personally, I make art because I love it, it is part of who I am.

I do art with my children because it creates joyful connection and the opportunity to practice important life skills.

I share my creative ideas with others because I value myself and my skills. Also, I get stupidly excited about all creative things and can’t help myself from sharing my love for art.

I hope you enjoy the creative inspiration I’m putting out into the world!

Thank you for being here and reading Creative Spaces. If you have enjoyed my work, please share with a friend.

REFERENCES:

• Articles by Peter Grey from his Substack Play Makes Us Human.

• TED talks by Ken Robinson on the importance of creativity in education.

• One of my favourite Substacks, Creatively Rooted by artist and activist Jen Bloomer.

This article includes a fun and easy community art prompt PLUS paid subscribers can make more patterns with a FREE download of our Symmetry Printable Activity Sheets.

This week we are going to have some fun with colour and patterns with a group painting game. It’s a great activity for both children and adults alike; a great way to break the ice or warm up to other creative projects. It’s all about making marks and patterns without too much thought, letting go of preconceived artistic expectations and having fun.

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