May 3 // Backyard Derby, Cardboard Vase, and Different Ways to Be Creative
We've got some great ideas and lots of prompts for you today!
Hello! Creativity builds confidence and joy. We’ve got three fun activities for you today: a backyard derby, a cardboard vase for Mother’s Day, and the monthly creativity challenge. Enjoy!
Backyard Derby
The Kentucky Derby is this Saturday. Whether you care about “the run for the roses” or not, it could be really fun to have your own little backyard race with friends. (Or park. Or living room. Whichever works for you 😉)
If your kids don’t know how to gallop, it’s fun to learn! You move forward with a springing action, one foot always leading and one always trailing in back.
You can also make a simple hobby horse with a stick or dowel and a sock. You can watch this tutorial to make a nicer one, but here’s one we made stress-free in a few minutes for our race! Simply stuff the sock with poly-fil, tie off the end, and voila! You’ve got a trusty steed.
Then determine boundaries and the number of laps. You can say something like: “This is the starting line, then the course goes around this rock, then back to the tree. That’s one lap. We will be doing three laps each round. On your marks, get set, go!” Everyone feels so silly doing it that it’s giggles all around!
Act of Thoughtfulness: Mother’s Day Cardboard Vase
If you’re a mom reading this, you might want to pass this idea along to your husband and ask him to do this with the kids for you 😉 It’s good for the kids to get in the habit of thoughtfulness, and here’s a simple (and probably free!) way that they can do that!
Take a piece of cardboard and draw a vase with a Sharpie or white chalk marker. (Both look great!) Maybe an adult can draw the vase shape for them and they can color it in to decorate. Then poke holes above the vase with a pencil or something and slide flowers and greenery through the holes!
If you don’t have flowers or anywhere to find them, you can make a lot of nice arrangements with a cheap grocery store bouquet. Since you have to use leaves and greenery as filler, only a few flowers can go a long way!
Some kids might enjoy spending a lot of time on this, moving the flowers around and rearranging.
Bonus if you add a sweet message to the card. You can give this to any woman who might want to be encouraged on this day (which is everyone.)
30 Days of Creativity Challenge
If you haven’t already, please read yesterday’s email about how Creativity is for Everyone. We made a creativity challenge for you! Here’s the first week of prompts, which you can save to your phone, or you can print out the pdf below! Let these ideas inspire you to make something. Even better, collaborate with your kids and create something as a family!
As we talked about yesterday, there are many ways to create. For example, today’s prompt is “candle.” One kid might prefer to make a candle out of LEGO’s and another might make one out of a painted toilet paper roll. Maybe you want to write a poem about candlelight or tell a story about an anthropomorphized candle who watched a soldier write a difficult letter to his bride.
For example, here are three different ways different members of our family creatively expressed the prompt of “rainbow,” none of them being a traditional painting.
Foraged arrangement ⬇️
Watercoloring a word in rainbow order ⬇️
And making rainbow leggings with chalk that has been ground into a paste ⬇️ (It’s the yellow globs of chalk on the toenails that really finish the look. 😅)
Whatever creativity looks like for you, it does something good for our brains and hearts when we become like children and make something.
If you make something you’re proud of, please email it to family.scripts.info@gmail.com or tag us on social media! You also might want to send a photo of what the kids made to an older family member who would like to know you’ve thought of them. Other people will probably like to see what you made, and sharing about it can help you remember to create!
Enjoy!
Warmly,
Hope and the Family Scripts team