It is very auspicious for the child’s development to draw his attention to nature in all the possible ways: to observe natural phenomena together with him, to find flowers and leaves and then make beautiful bouquets from them, to feed birds outside, etc. One more way is to use natural materials in arts and crafts.
Here is Read the rest of this entry »
These Christmas Trees were made from maple seeds at the Sahaja Yoga classes for children (at the creative part of them) in Novosibirsk, Russia
Last Sunday my daughter (7 months old) and I went, as usual, to the Children’s Sahaja program (we started attending them when Sonya was about 5 months old). The meditation part was followed by an art part. One of the mum’s was conducting a workshop for the mums of the children – we were making Christmas-tree balls for each other as presents (to be more exact, we took single-colour balls and decorated them).
At modern shops, you can find gel-pencils (in the same department where pencils and felt-tip pens are sold). We used them to draw pictures on the balls.
Glue and spangles were also of great popularity among kids and their mums. The technique is not Read the rest of this entry »
You can make all kinds of diyas with vibrated clay, water and colors. Diyas are a great gift also as they can be made with pure vibrated products. This way we can fill people’s homes and hearts with vibrated art made with love (Priyanka J.)
The story below is taken from the blog “Monsoon Masala” run by Priyanka Joshi, a freelance journalist and mother of a 5-year old son. Enjoy and get ideas for your creativity!
“Have you ever seen a diya with traditional patterns from Turkish/ Japanese/Jewish/Namibian/Uzbek/Filipino/Mexican/American Indian/Iranian/Thai design, architecture and embroidery styles?
For 3 years now, I’ve been adding this international touch to Diwali by involving my friends from different countries to make diyas with traditional patterns found in their native cultures. For me, this is a deeply gratifying and a great “building bridges” activity between communities. For the whole month of October, we have been opening our home to people from all walks of life. They bring their kids, their parents, their neighbors. We share our stories of arriving in America, making it our home more and more each day as we drink tea, laugh, talk about life, raising kids, and Diwali. After some time, our fingers mold clay into diyas almost on autopilot, and our kids jump around us, gluing beads, feathers, fabric and sequins to these diyas. Even my 5 yr old son who doesn’t talk to girls (“…because they’re weird, only play with Barbies, and don’t like Spiderman”), gets okay with them while making diyas.
My dream is to, one day, Read the rest of this entry »
On Sunday, besides the meditation part, at the Children’s Sahaja program there traditionally was an art part, too. Aunt Olga has so many creative ideas that we can only admire the beauty which appears and… study. This time the kids (and adults as well) were involved in creating eggs. I am sharing the idea and experience with you.
What you will need:
- an egg – you should take its content through a little hole at its top beforehand, otherwise it can explode in some time in your favourite cupboard or somewhere if you do not want to part with it.
- plasticine;
- beads of different kinds;
- enamel with spangles.
From plasticine something like sticks are made which then are formed into “baskets” and/or plaits. These things are stuck to the eggs then. This is a kind of foundation which is decorated with patterns made from beads. The parts of the plasticine which turn to be without any decoration are covered with the enamel (to defend it from dust and to guarantee its safety).
What should attention be paid to: if you use plasticine of several colors, the latter should be in harmony with each other (for the final art work to look elegant).
As experience has proved, such eggs can be made by children starting from 3, 5 years old.
I remember that first I tried cross-stitching when I was a child of 5. It was my granny who started teaching me. I can’t say that I was a great success at that time but I remember with her help I could complete one work – a rabbit. Then cross-stitching was put aside. But…
20+ years have passed. And several months ago, looking at the walls of our room, I thought that some beautiful things should be added to them. To paint a picture – takes much time. Photos? We have some already. Why not cross-stitch something? It was a brave idea as I haven’t done it for decades. But I remembered that once I managed to do it (in my childhood) and it gave me confidence to try again. And I did it: three of the works are now hanging on our walls and four works served presents for other people (it is such a pleasure to present somebody with something you have made yourself).
My husband and I are sure that it is important to teach/show kids as many kinds of art as you can as when they grow up they will decide for themselves what art skills they would like to develop. If you’d like to have a try with cross-stitching, please find below some works and the shemes for them.
Children can make different applique’ works using pieces of cloth. Below is just an example of what can be made (the bear was made by a girl of 10).
First a piece of cardboard was taken which was then covered with cloth (using glue). And then – use your imagination 
The crow is made of a cone and playdough.
The fish is made of coloured sand which is glued to the cardboard.
The maple leaf is made in the following way:
- take two sheets of paper and attach one to the other at the corners with the help of clips;
- the upper sheet should be the one which has a cutting in the middle in the form of a maple leaf;
- then take a sponge and plunging it into different colours of gouache (in turn) colour the leaf;
- take the upper sheet away.
The apple is made of millet which is glued to paper.
The flower is made of millet, too.
These flowers are made of napkins which were rumpled and then glued to paper.
The egg is made of playdough which is stuck to paper.
