Living Room Entertainment and Reasons Not to Document it

Last night my creative little heart invited us to an evening of entertainment. His act: stand-up comedy. He has spent a lot of time during this quarantine creating funny videos and comic strips. He enjoys a standing weekly date with his Mimi on Sunday nights where they watch Americas Funniest Videos together virtually while on facetime. It made me think about how important it is to find reasons to laugh during this time of  quarantine that is so full of heavy, serious, scary, dull and boring moments.

Watching my son enter the room in a fun outfit he put together, carrying a mic made of tinker toys reminded me of my child hood. My sister and I would put on performances for my parents friends and our family. We would push the coffee table out of the way and sing and dance. I recall one time when I played the piano keyboard for my grandparents. When I was done they clapped and said, “Encore, play us another!” I only knew one song so I started playing it again and my Grampy said to my Gram, “I thought she was going to play another song, a different song!” She elbowed him in the ribs and while smiling, nodded at me to continue.

These are some of my best childhood memories. I purposely have no images or video from last night’s comedy show to share with you because I promised my son that I would keep that private, just for family, but it got me to thinking: How much does sharing video and images of these moments alter them? How unencumbered were my sister and I when we twirled and danced without fear that it would be posted publicly? How freeing is that to have these moments as memories without being publicly documented?

Tina Fey shared on The Tonight Show a few weeks ago that her kids and some of their cousins and friends kids put on a talent show virtually using video conferencing. She said it was a great way to get the kids off their screens every once in a while. (If you’ve been parenting through this quarantine you know the struggle to limit screen time while distance learning on the internet and the easy access to hours of streaming entertainment. The struggle is real!) Anyway, Fey said that she loved being able to send them off to practice for the talent show. My older son created a video clip of himself playing guitar for his schools virtual talent show. Sharing these memories through the technology available is a fun way to keep us somewhat connected while forced to stay apart.

I organized some of my own students (and a few brave teachers) to submit video clips of them dancing to a song they all knew from school that had motions. Some students really enjoyed it and others were good sports and participated out of obligation. I only shared it with our small school community, but still the fear of documenting something potentially silly deterred some students from enjoying participating and prevented others from joining in at all.

I guess my muse about at home live entertainment this morning is that I want to encourage families to create space this summer for their kids to put on a show completely undocumented. Give them your full attention and allow them the gift of being able to take the risk of being silly or performing in front of you without the anxiety of it being archived on social media. Sit back, relax and enjoy the show.

Five Tips for Sticking to a Summer Art Challenge

A quick google search for "summer art challenge" yielded
over 68,000 results

Art challenges can be a great way to motivate creativity this summer! Do a quick search on Google or Pinterest and you can find lots of graphically engaging lists of prompts for making all kinds of art. Here are five tips for successfully sticking to your challenge.

1. Set your own challenge for yourself. Challenges are generally more successful when you choose it for yourself and are personally invested in the challenge. If someone else sets the goal for you, it becomes less about something you want to achieve and more about pleasing someone else.

2. Set an attainable goal. A goal to do something daily is great if you actually have the time and motivation to do it. If the goal is too strict or difficult to accomplish it might not be attainable. Instead of a daily goal maybe set a goal to engage in art 5 out of 7 days in a week for a month. That way if you miss a day, you won’t get too discouraged or give up. Try making it a weekly goal instead of a daily goal. Or set a shorter time frame (for example, draw every day for a week rather than every day for the whole summer) Try setting multiple short term goals for the summer.

3. Set a goal that is specific and measurable. Wanting to improve your skills is great! But making vague goals like: this summer I am going to get better at drawing or this summer I’m going to do more drawing are not measurable goals. How will you know if you reach that goal? Instead, try being more specific. For example, this summer I am going to draw in my sketchbook 5 days out of every week.

4. Select a format that works best for you. Really specific challenges can be great because they pushed me conceptually and forced me to illustrated a specific theme each day, but if that sounds too restrictive and you’d become frustrated or bored try an idea jar instead. Take a challenge you find online and cut up each prompt into separate papers and place them in a jar. When you want a prompt for your artwork, select three ideas from the jar and choose one of them. This adds more freedom for you to choose and may help you stick to your goal.

5. Be held accountable If no one knows you are doing the challenge you might find it easy to let it slide when you hit a plateau or a wall. Instead find someway to be held accountable. Let someone know what your goal is and check in with them to share how you are progressing. Maybe post images on social media or find another outlet to create mini deadlines for yourself like participating in Illustration Friday where you submit a drawing on a weekly basis.

Whatever your challenge is for the summer have fun with it, be realistic and extend yourself some grace if you slide off course. Art can be a great way to relieve stress and anxiety. You owe it to yourself to spend some time making art this summer. How will you challenge yourself?

Found Objects for a Miniature Garden

Ceramic fairy garden house nestled in our
herb garden made by Brookye Keeney

Ever since I read “The Borrowers” as a child I have loved miniature things and the idea of an imaginary world where things are made from found objects. A friend of my parents had a doll house called “The Mouse House” which was made from a hollowed out log. A section of the trunk was removed so you could see the toy mice living inside and all their tiny furnishings. The local pizza place in my hometown had a huge doll house display in their take out area where I could look at the miniature village while waiting for my family’s order. As an adult I worked as a seasonal sales associate at A.C. Moore one Christmas. My favorite job at closing time was to return the back shop from the miniature doll house section. So as you can tell it’s an interest that has stuck with me!

My little creative hearts building a
fairy garden at their Mimi's house

Making a miniature garden is a great summertime activity. It can be an ongoing project that can be added onto through out the summer and a place for kids to engage in screen free imaginary play! The internet is full of inspiration and the theme of your garden is totally up to you! Fairy gardens are very popular, but if fairies aren’t of interest to you there are examples of dinosaur, lego, train, beach and camping themed miniature gardens too. Use found man-made objects like buttons, thimbles, silk flowers, and glass marbles or beads and natural found objects like pebbles, seashells, acorns and tree bark. Fashion them together with glue, and wire and add details and embellishments with paint, permanent marker, and polymer clay.

Brainstorm with your kids about:

• location (an out of the way spot in your back yard or a place where neighbors frequently walk past and can enjoy)
• dwellings (houses, buildings, tents, caves etc)
• a layout for pathways, creeks, bridges and ladders
• everyday activities (hanging laundry out to dry, cooking - maybe over a campfire)
• recreational activities (fishing, boating, swing set)
• relaxing places for your imaginary beings to spend time (bench, hammock)
• Accessories (signage, lights, small plants and moss that you can grow, plastic dinosaurs or lego characters)

When choosing a location come up with a spot that is agreeable to everyone and set boundaries of where the edges of the miniature garden are so it stays somewhat contained. For example, your miniature garden could be in a shady spot where kids can retreat to play on a hot day, or a container garden on a porch. Think about what it’s purpose is and how it will be enjoyed.

Miniature bistro table and chairs made from buttons with
a silk flower umbrella, fashioned together with wire.

Pay attention while on walks in your neighborhood or while spending time in your backyard. Have a bag or box handy to collect found objects in until you are ready to create. Keep an eye out for abandoned objects around the house like old flower pots, fruit pits, seashells from that last trip to the beach, spare buttons, glass marbles, scraps of cloth and other treasures that can be used in your miniature garden. This is also a great opportunity to teach kids about re-using and re-purposing. Remind kids that before using an object, they should get permission from an adult if it is an object that doesn’t belong to them.

I hope this post inspires you to create your own miniature garden and engage with it all summer long!

Reflections on Parenting During Quarantine

During this time of quarantine, I’ve noticed an abundance of free subscriptions and memberships being poured out by all kinds of educational resources. The generosity is heartwarming, but as a parent sifting through it all I find it mind boggling. There is no way I could take advantage of it all and I wouldn’t be doing my kids a service by trying. Luckily my kids are receiving quality academic and enrichment from their public school teachers. My children have had plenty to do without being overwhelmed by school work or becoming bored. I appreciate the quality of the assignments that peak interest and keep their minds engaged. We have not received any assignments that I would classify as busy work. Leaning on my child’s teachers to provide their academic learning alleviates the fatigue I will surely experience if I try to take advantage of every educational offer out there right now.

As an art teacher myself I feel like a curator for my school’s families. It’s my job to sift out something meaningful for my students to engage in each week. I encourage you to use your child’s teacher as a primary resource. Let them curate each weeks learning experiences. Of course there are people who, for a variety of reasons may need to take a larger role in their child’s education right now.

As families find themselves housebound, I think some parents are feeling a bit overwhelmed as they figure out how to facilitate their child’s learning. I appreciated this article Tips for Homeschooling During Coronavirus published by NPR. This is a great opportunity for our kids to pursue their interests deeply. 

“Bonus: If it's something they're truly interested in, you won't have to bug them to do it.” - Ana Homayoun, educational coach

My biggest take aways from these first two weeks parenting in quarantine:

Guide your child as they set the schedule for the day. We set up an hourly schedule on the glass french doors in our kitchen. Using crayola window markers I help my kids map out the day so they meet their academic and personal goals. Designate time for schoolwork, creative time, as well as time to be physically active and spending some amount of time outdoors. Reserve a short time each day to contribute to family by completing chores. Let them take ownership over their time and they will be more willing to keep the schedule.

Break up the day by interspersing creative and physical activities throughout the day. Providing short breaks from school work by going for a quick walk around the block, cuddling with a pet, building with Legos or doing a short drawing tutorial online can help pace kids (and parents) so they don’t get frustrated or burned out. Leaving all the “fun stuff” for after school work is done, might seem like a way to incentivize, but I found that using these activities to break up the day as short term incentives work better for my family.

Slay your dragons before lunch. I was so proud of my youngest son for setting his schedule to get his most challenging subject out of the way first. It made all the difference for him to be able to choose that for himself and see the advantage of it rather than if I forced him to. Maybe this experience will help him manage his time later on in life.

It’s all about intention. A planned pajama day can be fun, but staying in pj’s just because of lack of motivation can be a slippery slope. Keeping a routine and having standards like: everyone has to be dressed and ready for the day by 9am on weekdays can give structure to your day that will be beneficial in the long run.

Extend grace to your kids, your children’s teachers and yourself as you navigate this unprecedented time. Even with the greatest intentions and planning we will all have moments or even entire days that don’t go well. When we have these rough times be prepared to extend grace and just do the best you can under the circumstances.

What lessons have you learned as you parent during this trying time?