Field Trip Scrapbooking

We're going through a homeschool metamorphosis this year. At some point I realized that we were spending a lot of time and energy just trying to get through the material without losing it and experiencing very little enjoyment and excitement over new information and acquired skills. Next year we'll be shifting what we do and how we do it and possibly switching over to year-round school (gasp). One of my goals/hopes is to get more joy out of learning for all of us. I've already made some attempts to shift the scales with some project focused learning.




One of our new undertakings is scrapbooking our field trips. We usually come home with great pictures, brochures, free kid stuff, stickers, etc. What better way to put everything together than in a scrapbook. Thanks to Grandma, the boys already had scrapbooks ready to house their work.

Living with a Highly Creative Child

Mateo is one of a kind. He's got creativity oozing out of his pores. Ezra enjoys drawing and creating as well, so I have to keep supplies at the ready whenever their creative juices start to flow.



These days I have to buy 2 to 4 drawing pads a week. I keep certain supplies out on our supply cart at all times: stickers, glue sticks, scissors, a hole punch, markers, crayons, color pencils, and drawing pencils. Messier supplies only come out when we are doing special projects and I'm there to monitor their usage. I also have to make the boys ask for tape now as we have spent many an evening peeling tape off of furniture, walls, carpet, etc.

Keeping supplies handy allows the kids to grab what they need and create things like these...

Ezra wants to be a police man if the whole race car driver thing doesn't work out.

Lego Superman

Minion mayhem.

Teo is in the process of making a Frankenstein piñata for Ezra's birthday in four months.

Homemade race tracks.

... without this busy mama needing to stop what I'm doing to pull out supplies for them.

While they really enjoy planned art projects and following instructions to make a special craft, they also need space to themselves to put onto paper or boxes, or wherever (just not on the walls), what is in their minds and hearts.

As the boys grow older I'd like to hone some of their artistic abilities in personalized ways. Giving them some freedom to creatively explore is also important to me. We art together and we art apart. That's just how we do it around here.

Independent Creativity: An Impromptu Building Project

Boxes, boxes, boxes - little boys and boxes. Mateo found a box out by our garbage cans that Matthew intended on taking to the dump. Mateo to the rescue (cue Superman themed music)! There was no way he was gonna let that box meet an untimely end.

The boys dragged it into the house (it had yet to get soiled) and commenced fighting over what to do with it. Mateo wanted to make it into a toy box. Ezra wanted to turn it into a car. The tall skinny box was at their mercy. To stop the bickering (no one was backing down) I suggested they think about a project that would better suit a tall skinny box like that. Someone suggested a building and the other emphatically agreed. I don't always get involved in squabbles, but when I can tell it will end in tears I try to steer things in a different direction to spare us all the drama. It doesn't always work, by the way.

We worked together to tape paper to both sides. One boy drew one side of the building while the other boy drew the other side.

I like these kinds of projects because they are all kid - inspired by them, initiated by them, completed by them. I help by finding tape when asked. Otherwise, I stay out of it. That means a few mama moments alone while the kiddos are busy doing their thing. I can always use some of that.