The Family Creative Process

Meet 'Chicko' ... she is entirely Lila's creation... and that's why I love her! :-) 

We made her this week, and whilst I helped Lila a little bit with the glueing, all the ideas were entirely her own. 

I was about to recycle the Green & Blacks hot chocolate tin when I noticed that it was actually quite a nice tin, so I thought we could make something with it...

I asked Lila what she thought, and she said it should be a chick. OK... why not, anything is possible! 

We set to work on making a chick. 

Lila gave instructions on everything except the little gem that I found for a beak (she had suggested we draw one but then chose the gem once she saw it...) and sticking the feathers - she didn't know we had any. But the crown, googly eyes, feet, name, gems, the yellow paint... that was all her work. 

And it reminded me of a post I wrote a couple of years ago whilst Lila slept - about how just being exposed to the process of creativity at home plants beautiful seeds of possibility in our little one's minds... I'm going to re-share some of it here, because I am still as passionate about the ideas included... whilst a little on the long side - it's not meant to be preachy at all, just an expression of my enthusiasm for creative family living!  

I hope that if you too are a family who enjoys making stuff - you find encouragement in these words! :-)  

Families are inherently creative...

A lot of creative work takes place in our home and undoubtedly so many other homes in which small children dwell...children are inherently playful and creative and motherhood is a richly creative time too...

Not only do we find ourselves being drawn towards creative activities and play with our children, but we are often responding to the daily challenges that our little-ones present to us with all of our creative resources!

The things we love to make in our house are rich and varied - you will have seen some of my work here, and Vince loves to build stuff - furniture, garden items, computers, electronics, most recently replacing the engine on our camper van... and I include all sorts under this umbrella of family creativity - cooking & baking, sewing, storytelling, singing, gardening as well as making things... things that most families do together without even thinking about it! 

It is all life affirming, and contributes, I feel, to our connectedness, wellness, and sense of possibility. 

 

Permission to pursue our creative endeavours means that everything is in balance when creativity flows!

And for me, the act of creativity is a kind of need. It is a deep impulse and it doesn't always have to be about the end result - as yucky as it can be to be confronted with an idea that hasn't worked out - it is even more limiting and painful to have an idea and not try at all! Vince and I both find that just creating - whatever it is, keeps everything in balance. 

When we are creative in our daily lives, we are flowing. And the opposite is also true! By flowing, I mean - easeful, in-balance, happier, more alive - and without a doubt, more abundant. There is definitely great abundance in the creative space - abundance where one fulfilled idea creates and leads to another and as our creations pour forth so too does our joy...

When I sit down to draw, I enter stillness. Stillness, but also flow. I connect to something deeper... my inner voice - not the daily self-talk and chatter (sometimes positive/sometimes negative) that whirs away in the background, but my higher, clear, healthful voice. Ideas come. I follow my intuition a kind of just knowing what and how to do it... and I emerge connected, centered, composed.

I sometimes glimpse this same process unfolding in the children too  - when I watch them at work... I love those moments, they feel harmonious and peaceful and it is so rewarding to see them finding the same kind of resource in being creative. They are finding new ways of reflecting and expressing different moods and feelings without the need for words.

The sky is the limit - when a creative 'anything is possible' attitude is at work! 

I think that for young children, being creative and making stuff, whether it be with lego, arts & crafts, helping to make lunch, or even in Minecraft (for older children) is also so much more...

Just creating - something, anything - whatever it is - is also about a kind of Sky's the Limit philosophy - it is about putting the world together (or taking it apart!) in ever new and exciting ways, it is about possibility and a 'can do' attitude to life - I truly believe that with every creative act we make, we are laying the foundations of a strong - "I can try anything I dream of" - attitude to life! 

It is about resourcefulness, finding solutions, and over time of course, learning new skills, feeling proud of our achievements. 

Creating is also about the magic of transformation - when the starting point is an invisible to the naked eye, almost intangible, free-floating idea that then becomes something concrete and physical and 'embodied' by a process of doing... it is a process of emergence, that for me, somehow beautifully mirrors the growth and learning, the change and transformation, that small children undergo daily. Constantly becoming new in their deepening understanding of the world, they are always transforming... little works of creation and creativity in their own right! It makes sense that they need this to be somehow mirrored by all the things that they produce and create.

 
Creativity can be simple... 
  
It doesn't have to be complicated. Often we will do something really simple - like marbling (there is undoubtedly some skill in creating the marbling effect - skill that I don't yet have!) where as far as the children are concerned they are simply choosing the colours and watching with awe and anticipation whilst I attempt to marble a blank page. Each and every time we do it, it is a magical experience watching their surprise and delight at all the new patterns - they are always so engaged and witnessing the transformation from one thing into another - a blank piece of paper into full rainbow glory - is thrilling for them. 

And although they haven't necessarily mastered a new skill - they have gained a sense of possibility, a new set of ideas to be stored away for future use and combined with another creative project of their own devising...

At Christmas time couple of years ago, as gifts to our close relatives we made miniature Winter (Alpine) Gardens. The children did participate - they chose the alpine plants, the gravel, some of the decorations and painted the trays... at the time, we were busy with so many other crafts, I questioned whether this was just one creative task too many and how necessary it really was despite them being lovely gifts. But we pressed on - once we start something we always finish! And then, during February half-term we spent a couple of hours in the garden one cold afternoon... during that afternoon Romy adopted a plant pot with a dormant tree in it as his own miniature garden... he rumaged about for various items to decorate it, placed a coloured stone in it, and over the course of several weeks continued to 'grow' it... It was then that I realised that he had been really inspired by the project, and it was worth it afterall. 

Children take everything in so deeply, whether we see it or not, whether they actively participate or not. By just following our own creative impulses, the children learn to follow theirs.

Our own projects can always be integrated into family life...it's not the end result that matters to us, process is everything!

I am grateful that Vince and I didn't give up on our creative endeavors that we so enjoyed before the babies came along. 

And I love to see the children's own impulses unfold and grow. 

Whilst we take care with our work and are joyful when it goes well, the end result really is not the only focus for us. 

Equally, it doesn't matter whether or not the children choose to pursue the arts at a deeper level later on. 

The process is everything. 

When the creative self is thriving, and at the core of all we do, there is the facility and freedom to explore anything of our choosing at a deep level and to make dreams come true! 

Robots, beautiful drawings and paintings, garden trellis, cakes, veg boxes, gifts, sculptures, slime, herb garden, vegetables, stories, blankets, songs and super hero capes... we dream it, we manifest it! 

So... all the creative work that we share with our children gives the greatest gift of a big empowering YES to life in all that we can do!