Tales from our table #2

Dragons, Dots and Barbie Houses - This months creative projects; successes, failures and the mess left behind.

In these monthly tales from our art table (aka. The Kitchen Table), I hope to share an honest insight into the creative projects we embark on; successes, failures and the mess left behind. Creativity is at the heart of our family life, not just literally because it takes over the place where we eat, sit and talk, but also in the way we live and approach learning together. It permeates everything; mathematics, science, literature, the way we fix things that are broken and solve problems together as a family. So inevitably the paint covered brushes of our artworks will be mixed with the politics of our daily lives in these stories from our kitchen table.

When writing these tales, I hope to find a balance between sharing an honest insight into our life whilst also respecting the privacy of my children. I will try to focus on my story; their story is theirs to tell. For some context, I have two children, H who is nearly 10 and F who is 6. We currently live life without school in South Australia, along with my partner.

(Note: In these posts I occasionally share Amazon affiliate links so you can find the books or art supplies we use. But if you can, please consider supporting your local bookstore or art supply shop.)

Our family table

When I think about all the creative projects we have created in the last month, which include Chinese dragons, Yayoi Kusama artworks and Barbie houses, it sounds very jumbled, but somehow everything is connected. It’s just not always obvious at the time. 

The way we approach art is very linked to how we live our life and learn. Although I don’t plan to make this Substack about home education, it inevitably will pop up from time to time. So, to give you some context, if I had to give our educational approach a label (I’m not a fan of labels), it would be ‘unschooling’. (Read more about unschooling here, in the A Life Unschooled Substack, if you are interested.) I tend to think of the way we learn as just living life without school, following our intrinsic interests and curiosities which inevitably leads to learning. My job is to be a guide and facilitator for my children, whilst also acting as an example by pursuing my own interests.

Whilst I highly value foundational literacy and numeracy, following a set curriculum or having an agenda about what my children ‘should’ be learning just wouldn’t fly in our house. My eldest, H, is autistic with a PDA profile. Without going into too much detail to protect his privacy, he needs autonomy in what he wants to learn. Also, anything that is presented in too much of a school-like way (i.e. involving questions, quizzes or tests), creates a lot of anxiety for him. My daughter, on the other hand, is VERY independent. She knows what she is interested in doing (or not doing), how she is going to do it and approaches most things with unwavering determination. She is a creative force to be reckoned with. Both of them, for different reasons, don’t fit in with how teaching happens in school. So, over 2 years ago, after a lot of consideration, we took the leap to leave mainstream education and have landed here in this happy, although not always easy, family life where our educational voyage of lifelong learning together is shaped by the unique traits and interests of each family member.

So, following this approach to learning and life, you can easily find yourself jumping from dragons and Barbies, to Yayoi Kusama dot covered rooms in one month.

PROJECT - Cardboard Chinese Dragon

Following on from learning about Lunar New Year in February, we embarked on a collaborative endeavor to create a mythical Chinese dragon. Using a flattened cardboard box, I drew and cut out the dragon shape. We then used one of my favourite up-cycled craft supplies, Who Gives a Crap toilet paper wrappings, to collage paper patterns onto the body. To create scales, we made DIY printing blocks from wood and sticky backed foam, which allowed us to stamp repeating patterns along the body to represent the dragon's scaly skin. My son took on the job of painting the head and claws with great care and detail.

Cardboard Chinese dragon craft

Project - Yayoi Kusama inspired obliteration room

Inspired by the immersive art installations of Yayoi Kusama and the fab book Mini Artists, this month F embarked on a project to create her own interpretation of Kusama’s obliteration rooms. Using cereal boxes and lots of colorful dot stickers, she created her own artwork.

For this project she used 2 cereal boxes glued together to create 3 folding panels. Onto the white card, F drew the interior of a room using black marker. She then covered the room in colourful dot stickers. The panels can stand up to create an immersive 3 sided room.

Yayoi Kusama inspired obliteration room art

Even though I have lots of creative ideas and regularly run workshops, at home we still regularly look at art books for inspiration. F loves the independence of flicking through a book and deciding what to create. Sometimes she will follow the project exactly, but more often she will get creative and design her own version. Some of her favourite art books are, (she is currently 6) Mini Artists, Art Workshop for Children and Collage Workshop for Children.

Project - The Barbie Dream House

As a parent I have actively tried to avoid Barbie. The ideas around female body image and consumerism the shows and dolls promote doesn’t sit well with my anti-capitalist, feminist self. It was all going well until about 6 months ago, I’m not sure how it happened but my daughter is now going through a huge Barbie phase. She loves all the clothes, the tiny shoes, the accessories, the Dream House; the whole pink, shiny world. Although I don’t really like it, I do understand why she loves it. She is deeply into imaginative play and loves acting out stories. Barbies are perfect for that. However, there is just something about the constant emphasis on hair, makeup and outfit changes; that never ending focus on the external looks, that really rubs me the wrong way. Whilst trying really hard not to dismiss her interest, I can’t help but add in a few questions along the lines of ‘What do you think is more important, how you look or how you treat others?’ or ‘Did you notice that in real life, peoples bodies are all different shapes and sizes?’ She responds to my thinly veiled agenda with ‘I know all that Mummy, I just want to play.’ 

Even though I’m still not ready to embrace Barbie fully, I do LOVE the epic amount of resourcefulness and creativity that F put into creating her Barbie Dream House. She started the construction with 2 cardboard boxes stacked on top of each other, adding lots of pink paint, furniture and decorations. I’m particularly in love with Barbie’s bed, with all the hearts and sparkles, it’s kind of fantastic!

DIY Barbie Dream House

F spent 2 days creating the Dream House and you could tell from her focus and body language that this was really important work for her. So I was there by her side embracing her interest with love and trying to get over my long-held dislike of Barbie.

If you try any of our projects at home, leave a comment and let me know how it went, I would love to share in your creative fun.

Books we have enjoyed this month: 

Following our interest in Chinese culture, last week we read the beautiful book Where The Mountain Meets The Moon by Grace Lin. It is the story of a young girl's magical adventure to visit the Old Man of the moon to bring prosperity to her poor home, only to realise she already has everything she needs; the love of her family.

Where the mountain meets the moon by Grace Lin

We all really enjoyed the book, which is beautifully written, but the story left me with a sense of sadness and the question: Is capitalism robbing my children of the feeling of being content with what we have? We have a loving family and a safe home. We have enough. However, the constant bombardment of consumer goods, that are supposed to improve our lives and make us happy, are robbing us of contentment and skewing our focus from what is really important; love, families and the communities around us. 

I appreciate that I am writing this from a position of privilege where I have a safe home, a loving family and a level of financial security. I have the privilege of being able to worry about being content, while so many people in the world are just trying to survive. Capitalism has robbed them of so much more. I would love to hear your thoughts.

Moving on from these deeper conversations, F, who is almost reading fluently, is loving the Arlo and Pips books by Elise Gravel and the Cat and Cat graphic novels by Susie Yi. She loves cats and snacks, so a story about two cats who go on a magical adventure to find endless snacks is right up her street.

Books my 6 yr old is loving at the moment

H, who is 9 (very nearly 10) and an avid reader, has been enjoying the Keeper of the Lost Cities series by Shannon Messenger. Although he will happily read really chunky novels like these, he also enjoys graphic novels and comics. He has been loving the Investi-Gators series recently. They are pun heavy and make him laugh out loud, which is a pretty good recommendation as far as I’m concerned.

H loves reading about big concepts in mathematics and recommends the books Not Your Average Maths Book and A Quick History of Maths. He is also enjoying the Beast Academy workbooks, which is HUGE for him, it’s the first time he has every wanted to engage in more structured learning of mathematics.

Books about mathematics my son enjoys

Final thoughts

I’m still not sure yet how all these topics are connected but they are all part of a bigger picture of the world around us. I don't see learning as a linear process. It's more like a tangled web of interconnected nodes; each one representing a skill, a piece of knowledge, or an interest. As we navigate through this maze of learning, improving our skills and delving deeper into our passions, we strengthen the ties between these nodes, weaving a vast tapestry of understanding that shapes our perception of the world.

Thank you for reading this months ‘Tales from our Table’.

Eleanor x

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