Creating Alongside your Children

This is the time of year that we all make the effort to bake cookies, create decorations and make memories with our children. I love that. Plus, as a family that celebrates Christmas, I love the wonder, the songs the Balsam tree scented candle merriment of it all.

Throughout 2017, I have made a more conscious effort to create alongside my son, and incorporate him in the more day to day creativity of home life. I feel like we've done a pretty good job of keeping up with this resolution of sorts.

We invested in a kitchen helper stool, that brings my son to counter height. This way our on can measure, pour and mix right along with us. We have taken nature walks and collected bits for collages and encouraged our son to take some of his own photos of what he would like to learn more about later. We have also invested in Mother Goose Time. You've heard me say it before, and I will say it again, it is a great investment. This month we received the curriculum for free in exchange for sharing how we incorporate it into our lives.

With Mother Goose Time, we have explored the rain forest, our amazing bodies, community helpers and more. While we are a family who is supplementing preschool with this educational monthly subscription; it has become a core part of the the creating alongside my child resolution that I made for 2017.

Every month, we have set up science experiments (sprouting potatoes in water has been this month's bit hit,) followed recipe cards, created holiday celebrations for our family, and we have done it right along with our son. When my son created a rain forest collage, I created one right next to him. It made for an entire afternoon's worth of discussion about why we observe things differently, who prefers what attributes about the topic and how we can both make something so different using the same materials. I have memories of my school days where an art teacher might create an example for the class of a project that was going to be made that day. I remember being one of those kids that would study that example and try to remake it.

What I have tried to do over this last year with Mother Goose Time, is set up an environment where we are creating together. Yes, my son notices where I glue my sloth photo, and sometimes wants to copy, but he also is in real time asking me why I'm making my artistic choices. Everything from willingness to make mistakes, thinking outside of the box and exploring new language is being touched upon in our daily activities.

If you want to make a creative New Year's resolution, I highly encourage checking out Mother Goose Time. The program will not only provide the foundation for preschool education, but encourage collaborative creativity in your home.