Garden fires n children

Last night saw us start clearing out our fire pit. It's been neglected since last summer and become very overgrown, so the big girl set about cutting back the grass. When she'd half finished we started our fire by giving the two smaller girls the job of rolling the paper and digging out the dried bits of kindling. They got to light it and although only one of the girls stayed with feeding the fire, the other two had the very important task of rolling on the floor with a space hopper and climbing the tree. 

The result? A small area ready to dig for our pit kiln on a couple of weeks that we can explore smoke decorating and raku firing in. 

I'm loving having fun planning this project. 

L is for Literacy - Emotional and Linguistic

For this weeks AlphabeThursday, its the letter L.  For more entries, please go to Jenny Matlock's excellent blog.

Branwen's Burglar.

This week I have done two workshops in relation to literacy.  The first was to run a bookclub at my kids school and the second was as a participant at a workshop on Emotional Literacy.

I've never organised a bookclub before and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.  We started by making collages of our favourite characters, then I went round the room and asked the kids what they wanted from a bookclub and made a list of activities we can do over the next few months.  Next month will be how to make our own books, something I have a good experience of, so we will probably do simple concertina books. 



Then on Tuesday, I attended a workshop on Emotional Literacy and Multiple Intelligences run by Elizabeth Morris, a psychotherapist, psychologist and all round incredibly knowledgable lady on children and their development.  To let our children grow up to be emotionally intelligent adults John Gottman recommends following 5 principles and these were the basis for the workshop that I attended.

What are the five elements of emotion coaching?

1. Be aware of a child's emotions
2. Recognize emotional expression as an opportunity for intimacy and teaching
3. Listen empathetically and validate a child's feelings
4. Label emotions in words a child can understand
5. Help a child come up with an appropriate way to solve a problem or deal with an upsetting issue or situation

It was a fascinating day and I really enjoyed it.  I'm looking forward to putting some of the things I learnt into place.

Derby Makers at The Silk Mill Museum

Our Sunrise Pinhole Camera - Beer Tins and Gaffa Tape!

Last night, I took myself and my daughter off to the Silk Museum to play at making pinhole camera's with the Derby Makers.

It was a really good experience, we were given our (empty) cans of beer to gaffer tape, put a hole in, and insert a piece of photographic paper in.  Between us we made three camera's and now have to decide where we will put them.  The plan is to make it a sunrise pinhole camera.  Facing south it will track the progress of the sun across the sky for the next 6 months.  We intend to put ours out on the Winter Solstice and bring it in on the Summer Solstice.  We haven't actually decided the exact spot for each camera, but will be posting the results in 6 months.  I'm also hoping to do this with a class of year 3 & 4, so hopefully will get good results there.
This is all very experimental, I've seen images taken by Sunrise Camera's but its all a bit tricky, subject to rain, wind and if placed in a public place, cleaners, drunks and the curious.

Work Time

Working in the Studio means life is easier and more fluid.  It means no travelling and no childcare costs, it means being close to school and on hand if anyone is poorly.  It means being able to go and see Gold Badge Awards and going on local walks with 30 children.

It also means being very disciplined.  Saying No to a cup of coffee at the school gates, not agreeing to pop into town for a browse of the charity shops but taking yourself seriously and valueing the time between the demands of being a mother.  I'm still learning this discipline.

My main struggle is when the children are home, the ideas flow and the dreaming about the next painting or the next bit of creative writing, or the next mosaic dance around my brain with letters, colours and pictures and I'm usually well organised enough to scribble these ideas down....

However, when the week begins and school uniforms are washed and dried, homework is done, and stories read, I often just collapse in a heap.  I spend a lot of time thinking and not doing.

This leads to me feeling rather miserable and frustrated which leads to a non productive day such as yesterday, which in turn leads to the circle of depression which is enhanced by being unmotivated.  I then find myself in a spiral which can just get worse throughout the day, I speak less and become very introspective.

On the other hand, being in control of my work time means I can just grab the dog lead and head out over the fields, lifting my mood in time for the school run and before you know it, I'm laughing on the school yard with other parents and cheerful children are coming out to meet me, demanding to be fed.  We can then skip off happily home to play a game and I can let my imagination dream and plan my next time the house is silent of shouts, laughter and distraction.

Bit of a reflection...

I have been trying several things on my pursuit of happiness. So far there have been a few disasters, which have just caused me stress. And some successes, swimming has set a whole course of ideas and is possibly leading to a collaboration involving lots of technical things. The demolition of my ramshackle and dangerous asbestos garage has helped immensely, especially with the memories that it was tightly holding onto, these have therapeutically been driven to the nearest recycling centre. The garden has opened up and suddenly my head no longer has a domineering dilapidated building sitting on the left.

Its also willow pruning season. So a couple of trips up to the labyrinth in the Derbyshire countryside have led to long stretches in the cold sun hadve put paid to my SAD and put it away for the winter. I also went along to the Green Hare Willow Group at the local school and while the gardening experts pruned, trimmed and did sensibly stuff, one of the mums (also an artist) and I made stars and moons to counteract the predominatly christian teachings of school. This has also led to talking about partnering for community projects with the lovely and talented Emma Carr.

And then yesterday morning, a Tai Chi class has left me feeling centred and calm despite the fact that my hands and feet do not work in conjunction with one another.

But at the heart of all these activities? Friends and children. They are the main things that have brought me happiness. So simple.