Tales from our table #5
Creative monsters, crafty enterprises and infinity nets - This months creative projects; successes, failures and the mess left behind.
A little housekeeping before we start. Last month I was a bit all over the place with sharing articles, so I wanted to outline a simple schedule for monthly FREE and PAID articles. I promise I’ll do my best to keep to it! Paid articles will go out on Tuesdays and free articles on Thursdays. Click the links below to see an example of each article style.
First week
Art in Practice deep-dive part 1 - PAID article
Second week
Creating art together family art prompt - PAID article
An article about running workshops, community building or another topic I feel driven to write about - FREE article
Third week
Art in Practice deep-dive part 2 - PAID article
Forth week
Free printable activity sheet or colouring pages- PAID article
Tales from our table article: A monthly round up of creative projects and family life - FREE article
Now to the arty stuff:
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.
For some context, I have two children, H who is 10 and F who is 6. We currently live life and home educate in South Australia, along with my partner.
This past month I have been in a season of growing understanding around my son’s Autism, particularly in relation to how he approaches writing and creative projects. I have let go of some long-held expectations, shifting my focus from what is ‘lacking’ to celebrating the awesome skills and interests he currently holds.
PROJECT - Creative Monsters
My son H, who is 10, is an avid reader and lover of language, but hardly ever writes. He can write. He can form letters legibly and spell well. He understands punctuation, grammar and has an amazing vocabulary, but finds writing very challenging. His hesitancy with putting pen to paper is due demand avoidance and anxiety. The demand of a blank sheet of paper; of having to compose something to write, deeply triggers his PDA autistic profile, making it very difficult for him to engage with any written activity.
In our first 2 years of home education, he hardly wrote anything. Although I knew pushing him to write would be counter productive, I still felt a huge amount of anxiety about him ‘falling behind’ with his writing skills. Any time I tried to encourage him to write, it just made things worse.
Over the years, and with my growing understanding of autism and demand avoidance, we are gradually finding interesting ways for him to engage with the written word. He is improving typing skills through chat functions in computer games, he uses speech to text to write emails, we play spelling games, he creates narratives in Dungeons and Dragons and writes me messages in secret codes. He even wrote a story using a label maker mini printer.
I have come to see handwriting is just one small part of a whole array of literacy skills. This doesn’t mean I don’t support him to further develop his writing skills, it just means the pressure is off. I now see it as just one small piece of the puzzle. A piece of the puzzle that we are free to approach and develop in our own time, when he feels ready, and without the stigma of ‘being behind’ that he would have been labeled with in mainstream school.
Recently, through his interest in fantasy fiction, we have been looking at the structure of stories. To help us on our writing adventures, we drew ‘Creative Monsters’ as muses to inspire our stories. My daughter joined in with this project and their monsters had amazing back stories.
Initially, to guide us through the steps of writing a story we were using the book Unleash Your Creative Monster by Andy Jones. Although this book is really fun, I quickly realised the projects suggested were beyond his current ability and willingness to engage with writing. So we moved over to using the Mrs Wordsmith - How to Write a story book. This book has much smaller incremental steps towards building up a narrative and is much more suited to where we are at right now.
It’s small steps, a little at a time, but I’m excited to see where his new found willingness to engage with some writing leads us.
PROJECT - Crafty Enterprises
I have no doubt in my mind that my daughter will at some point, probably sooner rather than later, start a creative business selling things she has made. She often comes up with innovative money making schemes; last week, she decided to make necklaces with all the seconds from the craft boxes I manufacture. She even employed her Yiayia to assist with the colouring. It was clear from her body language and commitment to her project, that this was very important work to her.
Although the necklaces she created are awesome, the most joyous part of the project what the day spent quietly chatting and colouring alongside her Grandmother. It has further reinforced my view that art and craft is a beautiful way create connection and build community with others.
PROJECT - Infinity Net inspired by Yayoi Kusama
My son used to make lots of art when he was younger but not so much anymore. It’s not often that he joins us in creative projects. However, for a long time has loved the artwork of Yayoi Kusama. I think the repeating patterns of dots and nets appeal to how his brain works.
Recently he embarked on a project to fill a page with Kusama inspired Infinity Nets. The project is still unfinished, but that doesn’t matter. This is another expectation that I am letting go of, that every project entered into needs to be finished. Sometimes our interests move on before we get to that point and that’s OK.
If you’re looking for some easy Yayoi Kusama inspired art projects, I have a printable activity sheet available to download from my website.
Books we loved this month:
Even though my son doesn’t write much, he is an avid reader and LOVES being playful with words. He particularly loves puns and nonsense verse poetry. About 2 years ago, in one evening, he memorised the Jabberwockey poem from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carrol. It remains a favourite today.
After recently watching the Alice in Wonderland movie, we were inspired to read the book again together. This lead my son into a deep-dive into some of his favourite poetry by Spike Milligan and Shel Silverstein.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
It is important to me in these ‘Tales from our Table’ articles to share an honest insight into creativity with children and our family life, not some manicured version presented for social media. The projects we have embarked on over the last month may not seem very impressive, exciting or even finished, but they are a true reflection of my children’s interests and skills. I hope in some way they give you a little inspiration and joy.
Thank you for reading.
Eleanor X
My monthly ‘Tales from our Table’ articles will always be free, but if you are looking to more creative ideas, to delve deeper into art techniques or to receive free printables, please consider becoming a paid subscriber to Creative Spaces.