My Little Treehugger

Like so many others out there, I’ve been a faithful reader of the Soulemama blog for quite some time. Her first book, The Creative Family, has been on my wish list for what seems like an eternity. I finally treated myself to a copy this week and I’ve had my nose between its pages ever since. My friend April opened the doors to her beautiful new Nurtured retail store this past week. I dropped in to say hello, check things out and drop off a few goodies fromThe Wool Fairy. I was so thrilled to see several copies of The Creative Family lining her shelves. I immediately snatched up one for myself! Wanting to support April in her new and exciting endeavor, my purchase was completely justified (:

A few of the projects in the book caught my eye right away. Luckily, I had the required supplies on hand so the boys and I dove right in. We pulled out some unbleached cotton cloth and our fabric markers and set to work on her “Art Placemats” project. Over the last few months, Chi-Chi’s drawings have started to take on much more recognizable forms and shapes. I was awestruck by the seriousness and concentration he put into his placemat drawing. I was also happy to hear that my dear boy is actually listening to me when I’m rambling on about nature and how the world works. It’s always interesting to witness their interpretation of topics we’ve discussed. He loves to draw trees. His drawing actually depicts the water traveling up the roots all the way to the leaves. He also incorporated the sunrays shining on the leaves to provide food to the tree. My favorite part of all is the large burl pictured on the far right tree. We’ve been spending a lot of time in the forest, admiring and discussing burls in particular. His little loving heart decided to give this particular work of art to his Graga as a birthday gift. My Dad is a retired forester so it’s ironically appropriate! The man also likes to eat (who doesn't) so it's a perfect fit!

What’s so great about this project is that it is super simple, but very rewarding for the children. Both Chi-Chi and Muffy were beaming with pride as I took their canvasses and stitched up the placemats on my sewing machine. They were really quite delighted with the transformation. We only had one minor incident where Muffy snuck under the table and stomped down on my sewing machine pedal with his lead food. I escaped the incident without injury so it was all good!

We’ve had trees on the brain the last couple of days it seems. The boys were fascinated with a simple little science experiment we did this week. We took a stalk of celery and placed it in a cup of water and food coloring. I was actually amazed to see the dye travel all the way up to the very tips of the leaves. It was a great little exercise to provide the boys with a tangible example of a plant drinking water.

No doubt I’ll be burning my way through Amanda Soule’s beautiful book all weekend! More fun to come I’m certain!