Family Rhythms: creativity

This year for Christmas Advent instead of buying those advent calendars with the waxy chocolate squares that are disgusting yet fun to eat because you get to eat chocolate first thing in the morning, I made my boys their own advent with things I found around the house.

I put some hooks on the wall (those 3M ones that go on and off the wall with ease), tied some string between the hoooks and hung up some old (but clean - I do have some class) socks up with clothes pins. Each clothes pin is numbered from 1-25. The clothes pins from 1-24 have a sock (or stocking if you prefer to call it - makes it sound more festive) hanging from it, and the 25th has a star that marks Christmas Day. Each morning I put something in the sock that corresponds with that day. The first thing the boys do in the morning is dig into their sock (stocking) to see what treasures and treats they will find. Even before they go to the bathroom, which shows me that they have an amazing amount of willpower - I can't do anything in the morning before I visit The John!

Being a homeschool mom, there is a certain amount of pressure to be crafty. Children should be exposed to making things with their hands, experimenting with different mediums, creating something neat out of materials. I'm not very crafty and I'm not very creative. Every once-in-a-while I pull out stuff to make something out of. The kids get quiet. They know what's coming. A frustrated mommy is whats coming.

It's not that I don't like to make things. I DO like to make and build things. Cris and I built our fence all by our little selves. We measured, marked, hired a bobcat to drill the holes, set in the posts, mixed the concrete, leveled the posts this way and that way and the other way (they are perfect! I can attest to that!), marked this way and that way, put up all the runners, screwed in all the boards (some were done in the middle of the night with a flood light...I'm sure our neighbors LOVED us...but we were running out of available time!), and painted it inside and out. I single handedly purchased and hauled all the fence boards and 3000 lbs of concrete - one bag at a time - along with toting along 2 wee ones. I recall telling the boys that we had to go to Home Depot once again and Tove, who had just turned 2 at the time, cried out "No!! Not Home Depot!" We made many trips there.
This is the finished product:

Building this was a lot of work, a little frustrating because we had to squeeze in taking care of a 2-year-old and 4-year-old, kind of fun, and very rewarding. I liked building and creating it.

But "crafts"??? Not so much. I like creating things with a purpose and things that will last. I dislike the twaddle of meanial crafts.

Have you ever tried to work with Fimo? Don't try it with little kids. Waste of time. We did manage to create this "Eye of Horus" when we studied the Ancient Kingdom of Egypt, but it was frustrating, not enjoyable, and not rewarding. Fimo is the most annoying medium I have ever worked with. It's like trying to soften a stone by squeezing it.

We switched to clay when creating Ancient Chinese ming vessels, but I was annoyed when I opened the clay I had bought to discover I had purchased one white tub and one terra tub. So Elijah and Toviel had half as much clay to play with.