Motherhood offers such a wonderful opportunity to slow down and 

connect inwards & access a part of us that may been hiding under layers of condition thinking: our Inner Child, our Spirit. 

Once we begin to experience more flow and calm through working on our mama mindset and energy (read here for simple ways to restore balance & here for a guide on getting started with self care). We open ourselves up to new daily normals – creative experiences to delight our spirit, our inner child as well as our children. 

Before I had children I remember thinking of craft with children as “play school” type activities – toilet rolls, cereal boxes, patty pans, sticky tape and textas. While these things are okay in moderation (my girls certainly enjoy the occasionally pair of toilet roll binoculars), it is so lovely to give our children and ourselves sense experiences that work with our Spirit. 

Our children absorb all experience without any filter, so providing experiences that work with their senses, nourishes them on a deeper more soulful level. We are able to offer them a taste of creating for the simple pleasure of the experience – rather than creating for the material product as an end result. 

Why get creative with your children?

A wonderful opportunity to role model mindfulness and reverence

A sense experience for our children

Opportunity to enliven our Inner Child (our Spirit) 

How to begin?

Focus on creative activities that nourish the senses rather than the end results. Of course the end result may be of interest to us, however choose creative activities that focus on the experience. 

Some simple ideas include:

Wet on wet Watercolour

Beeswax modelling

Beeswax crayons for simple drawings (focusing on filling all the white space with colour rather than drawing a particular “form)

Good quality pencils for older children (Lyra are a beautiful brand that are tactile to hold and the colours are vibrant)

Wool for finger knitting, “wool twisties” & weaving

Nature – offers us such magic to create with, seedpods & gumnuts for so many creations, flowers to thread & sticks for little hands to sand with sand paper.

Even something like baking bread is a creative sense experience – the rhythmic kneading of the dough, the patting and rolling are all activities that not only help with our children’s fine motor skill development but also work on strengthening their senses.

Also consider….

The atmosphere and presence we hold while with our children – are we sitting together or are we multi-tasking?

Don’t expect too much of young children. Ultimately the young child is “at home” in movement – so creativity is something that only comes in short bursts. Keep the experience short and sweet for little ones.

If it does end up being a total mess which of course somedays it may be. Simply allow yourself to surrender control of “the right way” – take a few deep breaths (allowing any frustration you may have to gently come out through your voice on your exhale) and smile. Tidy the mess by seeing it as a beautiful opportunity to role model mindfulness & care, usually when I do this, the girls fight over who is going to help me I make it look so fun! Sometimes we take ourselves so seriously, but for a child, mess is simply another sense experience!

As always thanks so much for reading. I’m delighted that you are here and looking for ways to find a little more calm & connection amongst the busyness of life.

I’d love to hear from you, do you create with your children or do you often find the experience a bit of a nightmare?

Nat xx