April Blog

Creativity in Bloom!

Welcome to April! This month, also poetry month, I'll be discussing all things creative, starting with:

Part 1- Writing

"Finding Inspiration in Everyday Moments"

This is one of my favorite months for writing. As the weather becomes warmer, neighbors begin working in their yards and families take long walks together with their furry friends, the inspiration for writing is effortless with the help of nature, a cup of really good coffee or tea and a favorite pen and notebook handy to collect your thoughts before they turn into yesterday's memories.

When writing poetry, it should be noted that poems do not have to rhyme! We've all heard the "roses are red, violets are blue" poems but some of the best poems I have heard do not ryhme at all. Poems that are deeply meaningful will most likely have a lot of imagery, focusing on the concrete so it's real and tangible. Think of a hot summer day and the way you can taste a piece of sweet juicy fruit as it sits cooling on your tongue following an afternoon outdoors doing yard work. If you can picture watermelon, strawberries or pineapple in this scene, you have created specific imagery which will be more powerful and vivid to the reader.

Writing from experience in this situation is a good example of using imagery to show perspective in poetry.

For my poetry example, I will use a short piece I wrote about yard work while sitting on my deck overlooking my yard on 4/2/25 and how I long for a truly green grassy property. I've entitled my poem,

"To Be Green."

As another season moves quickly in, I see the remains of the year before.

The uneven ground where it sometimes looks brown and leaves holes where the

ants dig deeply down.

Each week the mower works very hard as it runs and and over the rectangle yard

removing the sometimes chunky green stems that never seem to come to an end.

When the dandelions pop their yellow tops and blow across the yard, I shake my

head in wonder, "why this task is oh so hard."

I guess that's just the way it is and how it'll always be

Some grass is meant to grow just right, and some are just meant to stand up

and fight.

This is my experience with the struggles of taking care of my own lawn and dealing with that awful "crab grass" that never seems to disappear.

Ok, so now we see how imagery in poetry works but it is also key when writing prose, telling a story without conforming to a "rhyme" or "meter" as poems do.

Some prompts for writing with kids could be as follows:

*The day my tooth fell out

*A time when I lost my favorite jacket

*If I had a million dollars I would buy...

*The day I woke up late for school

Children enjoy telling stories about familiar things and when they write about it, they learn to use imagery which helps build vocabulary and word choice.

When I was a substitue teacher in between jobs, I had a classroom of mixed ability kids who struggled with writing and reading. With permission from the principal, I engaged the students in a writing prompt, or a challenge at the beginning of class. (it was a middle school level) I randomly put two prompts on the whiteboard and asked them to choose one and spend ten minutes on it and raise their hand to share after if they wanted. One prompt was like this:

• You walk into your empty house after school and as you go into the dining room,

you see something on the table that doesn't belong there. What do you do and

why?

The next prompt was:

• You and a friend walk home from the movies one night. It's dark and as you turn

the corner for home, you hear footsteps behind you. You turn around but no one

is there. All of a sudden, a horrible scream seems to come from a house across the

street, but it has been abandoned for years. What do you do?

This was a fun impromptu assignment and even though some of the students were not "typical," they wrote quietly in their journals. Their imaginations were busy at work and there were chuckles and whispers among them as they eagerly did their best work at a moment's notice.

In keeping up with "World Creativity and Innovation Day ( April 21) I have included a creative journal template to print and use to help you and your child enjoy writing using a simple outline to jot down ideas.

Whether you write poetry or prose, it's a great way to use those "everyday moments" and find that inspiration turns everyday experiences into magical stories.

__________________________________________________________________________________

Creative Journal for students

Part 2 - Education - "The Magic of Hands-on Learning"

One of the most rewarding experiences I've had as a mother then educator was when I volunteered to be my daughter's girl scout leader when she was in Kindergarten back in 1996! As the years flew by and when she was in ninth grade receiving her Bronze Award in Scouting, I reflected on the many ways our troop (which started out with sixteen little girls in 1996 then ended with six in ninth grade in 2006) engaged in group activities over the years. After doing lots of reading and while studying for my Master's at the same time (what was I thinking, lol!) I learned that children do learn most effectively from a hands-on approach with a teacher or parent as facilitator to guide with questions and observations instead of showing them how to do something. Our girls loved crafts, to compare, to build and create no matter what topic or cause we were aiming for.

In order to create a learning environment that includes rich, hands-on information, I broke down our meetings into parts they could absorb and gain an independent idea from, which would help them to create their own individual project. After some initial reading and information gathering for about ten to fifteen minutes, which included a short book or article on the topic, we transitioned to learning a craft or an interactive lesson or experiment made so they could teach it to each other and fully understand the relationship between the information we gathered and the outcome or result of creating something that followed the lesson.

According to the mission of the GirlScouts.org website, scouting "is a youth organization dedicated to building girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place." Earning patches and badges were just one way our troop used hands-on activities to fulfill the goals of learning and sharing.

Making Mother's Day planters for the local nursing home, baking special treats for school staff, making friendship bracelets to give to other friends in school for friendship day and inviting one of our engineer parents in to explain and show how an electric circuit works to cause a bell to ring were just some of the things our troop used a hands-on approach in learning with fun activities.

Another great way to bring nature into a hands-on day of learning is to plant seeds or bulbs that will grow into a beautiful piece of the environment for years to come. This month, April offers many opportunities to get involved with hands-on fun by celebrating National Arbor Day - April 26th. Plant a family tree and track the growth as a project to do together!

The magic of hands-on learning has a multitude of rewards for youngsters. When children are allowed to pick up and safely play, fidget and create a new item from their own understanding, there is no telling how or where the time they invest in it will lead to.

Part 3 - Parenting - "Balancing Screen Time With Creative Play"

In this section, I will discuss my tips for managing children's screen time while encouraging more play, reading and hands-on activities.

This is possibly one of the most controversial topics today because of the different parenting styles and circumstances around family dynamics. So, in order to balance screen time, it can be broken down by age and might look like this:

• under age five, limit screens to 20 minutes 2X/day with educational dvd's, TV

shows and computer games.

• Ages 6-10, Video games, hand held devices and family friendly movies can be

  scheduled 2X/week so as not to interfere with school work and extra-curricular

  activities.

• Older children can be rewarded to utilize a variety of devices based on school work and chores completed.

If your child has difficulty finding pleasure from things without screens, perhaps a theater group or sport like Karate, or other physical activity like swimming, golf or music class would be beneficial. The more there is a social factor involved, the better the child will engage in it for pleasure.

Family board game night can be added as a challenge and even ask other families to join in and compete! Activities like puzzles, color/paint by number and even cooking or baking can be lots of fun and very interactive without being dependent on a screen.

Children need a healthy balance of a variety of activities to give them a sense of formulating choices without forcing it upon them.

Bookstores and libraries often have a section for younger kids to play with games and toys while being imaginative like in a puppet show while interacting with other children.

Celebrate Children's Day on April 30th by having a "tech- free day" as a family! Spend the day outdoors enjoying nature, walking or participating in volunteering at a nursing home, pet shelter/rescue or enjoying a music festival.

The possibilities are endless! The best thing after is to write about it in a journal and see how inspired your creativity finds you!

HAVE A GREAT MONTH AND I'LL SEE YOU BACK HERE IN MAY!