April 2012

Why Our High Schools Need the Arts

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“A must-read for anyone who cares about dropout prevention, Dr. Hoffmann Davis’ latest book is laid out like a map of the developing teenage psyche, leading the reader to a clear understanding of why learning in the arts is critical to adolescent development and engagement in school.” –Kristen Paglia, Executive Director, Education and Programs at [...]

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Outdoor Body Painting

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My kids are generally happiest outside, which I imagine is the same for most kids. The air is heating up and we’re looking for more opportunities to step outside, and I always love it when I land on ideas for combining my love for the outdoors and art (the perfect combination if you ask me). The other [...]

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Word Drawing Game

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Do your kids like to draw? Do you ever play drawing games? The other day my kids and I were cleaning out the garage. Well, really it was me while they loitered, moved things around, and made a lot of noise. My 3-year old found an old, but never-before-opened game of a Cranium. She adores opening new [...]

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Sensory Activity: Wheat Berries

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Could your child spend hours sifting flour or scooping sand? Sensory activities like these can fully absorb the minds of young children as they test the limits of materials and build imaginary worlds through pouring, filling, and building. This sensory activity is so easy, it doesn’t require a lot of materials, and the process of exploring [...]

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Making Paper with Kids

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Have you ever made your own paper?  It requires some patience and preparation, but it’s not tricky and the process is worth exploring with children or anyone who’s curious about how to make paper. After my toddler, Baby Rainbow, created a sensory bin full of paper and water, I saw an opportunity to upcycle that mushy [...]

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Sensory Activity: Wet Paper

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Does your toddler enjoy squishing play dough, scooping rice, or dumping buckets of sand? It’s widely recognized (read here and here) that sensory activities play a central role in infant and child brain development. This is one of those amazing activities that just “happened,” invented by a toddler who was curious about the combination of paper and [...]

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Creative Challenge: Egg Carton

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Do you enjoy repurposing and upcycling materials into new things? Do you try to instill your children with the ability to be resourceful and mindful of their footprint on the environment? Then here’s a challenge for you! Every two months I host a Creative Challenge with the introduction of a new material and an invitation for children to create something [...]

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Spring Art: How to Make a Bunny Garland

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Yesterday I shared how to make watercolor paintings with kids. And from those paintings, I cut out these cute little bunnies. This was all my daughter’s idea. She mapped out a plan for Spring decorating, and one of the things on her list was “a bunny garland, with bunnies that are the same shapes as the ones [...]

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How to Watercolor Bunnies with Kids

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Watercolor is a medium that can be as demanding and temperamental as those who choose to paint with it. But it is a colorful and exciting medium all the same – well suited to describing the many moods of the subject, as well as those of the artist wielding the brush. –Jean Burman Do your [...]

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