Tag / creativity

by arTree

Happy Pi Day

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Have you ever wondered what’s inside a computer keyboard?

Well, my little engineers don’t need to wonder anymore – they know! 🙂

We celebrated Pi Day yesterday by opening two old computer keyboards and popping all of the little keys outside. It kept 5 kids busy for over an hour so I think it was a big hit! They took turns with the grown-up tools and  patiently unscrewed every last screw that was holding the parts together.

Now we have a box filled with computer scraps – I’m thinking robots… let’s see what the kids come up with! They often take me on a totally different journey. For example, I would never think of using the keyboard parts to create a shaker 😉

 

by arTree

Pet Rocks Rock

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We have been talking about animals this month, especially pets. And since not all of the kids have pets at home, we decided to make our own. We chose the rocks (everybody got two) we wanted to use and gave them a proper bath. The kids loved splashing and scrubbing the rocks clean. Then they dried them in a towel and let them rest for a bit.

Rest didn’t last long though since everybody was so excited to start painting. We used regular tempera paint – and covered the whole rock with colors. Then we added feathers, beads, eyes, flowers, buttons and yarn to make our animals unique.

As they were drying, we filled out their adoption certificates, signed them and told stories about them. Some of the rocks were friendly bugs, others were parts of a vicious snake… it was really fun seeing the different animals and hearing the creative stories behind them.

by arTree

Happy Valentine’s Day


Today we were sitting at our table, eating snack, reading books and talking about Valentine’s day. What it is and what it means for us.

I asked the kids how we celebrate it. They looked at me for a while and then said: ‘by loving everyone!’ I love that answer! (Even though I totally did not expect that) – isn’t it so much better than saying by giving each other candy and cards?

Gotta love preschoolers.

by arTree

Our Remodel Story

remodelAs always, it started with an idea.

Two years ago when we were looking for a place to live, we saw this big house on almost an acre of land. As soon as we walked out on the deck a mother deer walked into our garden, followed by two little fawns – and they started nurising just in front of us. We were sold!

We moved in a couple of weeks after that.  And as it happened, there was a 700-square foot building right next to the main house. The previous owners used it as a shop and storage but once I saw it I knew it could be so much more than that. It screamed: art preschool!

We talked about it a lot, counted and planned… until we were ready to do it. We found an amazing contractor and started on this long, painful and exciting journey. Now, after a year of permits, plans, 100s of decisions and a lot of patience… we have arrived. The building is almost ready. We have new drywall, wonderful floor that should survive anything, skylight-like diffused lights that should be perfect for creating art under… basically, the interior should be finished in a week or two. I cannot wait!

We still need to finish a brand new bathroom (we are connecting to sewer to be able to do it so it slowed us down a bit) and a playground for the kids… but I cannot wait to be able to start moving in some furniture soon and sharing it with all of you! YAY! So excited!