WEBVTT 00:02.417 --> 00:03.518 [SPEAKER_00]: Christian parenting. 00:06.059 --> 00:11.782 [SPEAKER_00]: This past weekend was little by little homeschool conference and it was an amazing day. 00:12.442 --> 00:18.505 [SPEAKER_00]: We are just so thankful for all that God provided and the volunteers and the women that came out. 00:18.625 --> 00:23.728 [SPEAKER_00]: It was just a fantastic day and we just, if you attended, we love spending the day with you. 00:24.028 --> 00:26.650 [SPEAKER_00]: I absolutely, it was just my joy to be able to host that. 00:27.050 --> 00:30.832 [SPEAKER_00]: So thankful for Jamie Erickson from the Unlikely Home School and Elizabeth Orbanoix. 00:31.352 --> 00:36.417 [SPEAKER_00]: from a foundation world view for coming out and speaking, they are both back home. 00:36.838 --> 00:43.364 [SPEAKER_00]: We hosted family friends over the weekend and it's just been, it's been a wild, crazy weekend. 00:43.384 --> 00:45.366 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, okay, let's let the dust settle. 00:45.386 --> 00:52.073 [SPEAKER_00]: I've got a little bit of stuff to take care of to kind of finish up stuff with the conference, follow up with some things and that kind of stuff. 00:52.593 --> 00:54.035 [SPEAKER_00]: But then I'm like, oh, okay. 00:54.376 --> 00:55.798 [SPEAKER_00]: I already just have a little bit of margin. 00:56.699 --> 01:05.251 [SPEAKER_00]: So it feels kind of good to get back into the routine of things and get back to podcasting and all of those things, but today we are going to talk about how to add. 01:05.741 --> 01:08.563 [SPEAKER_00]: and embrace creativity in your homeschool. 01:08.903 --> 01:18.528 [SPEAKER_00]: Not as one more thing to do, but as something that is important to include in your homeschool, and again, it don't you need to add it to something else. 01:18.568 --> 01:27.273 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it replaces something else, or maybe this episode will just help you to see what you're already doing through just a new lens, a lens of creativity. 01:28.877 --> 01:31.000 [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to Little By Little Home School Podcast. 01:31.200 --> 01:40.734 [SPEAKER_00]: I am your host, Lee Nguyen, and we are hitting here on Mondays, from here on out for a while, just with a brand new episode on Monday morning. 01:40.774 --> 01:42.316 [SPEAKER_00]: So I am thankful that you are here. 01:42.456 --> 01:43.357 [SPEAKER_00]: I hope that you have. 01:43.798 --> 01:59.509 [SPEAKER_00]: I've been having a good start to your homeschool if there is maybe a rough patch or you have some questions or you're rethinking things, there are a ton of episodes so I encourage you to go back, scroll back and find some of you have not listened to and maybe some topics that are just really going to help you right now. 01:59.650 --> 02:02.792 [SPEAKER_00]: I think there's probably an answer to most any question that you have. 02:03.132 --> 02:06.194 [SPEAKER_00]: But I am glad that you are here for today's episode and 02:07.455 --> 02:13.124 [SPEAKER_00]: It's September, and officially we are beginning the fall season, and I'm like, way to 2026, go. 02:14.005 --> 02:16.208 [SPEAKER_00]: But this school year is going to be a really good one. 02:16.288 --> 02:18.251 [SPEAKER_00]: And again, I hope it is off to a great start. 02:18.352 --> 02:21.877 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, let's go ahead and get into today's episode topic. 02:23.309 --> 02:29.915 [SPEAKER_00]: When you hear the word creativity, you're probably your first thought usually is to think of the arts. 02:30.556 --> 02:32.317 [SPEAKER_00]: And yes, that is true. 02:32.677 --> 02:42.947 [SPEAKER_00]: But hopefully today's episode encourages you in that in thinking about the arts, but also opens up new possibilities of creativity. 02:43.587 --> 02:49.553 [SPEAKER_00]: I think hopefully we're starting to see that creativity isn't something that has to be just put into a box. 02:50.053 --> 02:52.075 [SPEAKER_00]: We can be creative in many different realms. 02:52.595 --> 02:54.016 [SPEAKER_00]: I am doing this podcast episode. 02:54.397 --> 02:56.178 [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's kind of a little creative. 02:56.278 --> 03:00.622 [SPEAKER_00]: It's an idea that not many people do, so it does have a creative element. 03:00.682 --> 03:02.684 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, think about just even the cover art. 03:03.065 --> 03:03.925 [SPEAKER_00]: Somebody designed that. 03:03.965 --> 03:07.248 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, I have been kind of designing it myself until 03:09.450 --> 03:13.476 [SPEAKER_00]: somebody go ahead when I partnered up with Christian parenting podcast network. 03:13.637 --> 03:17.663 [SPEAKER_00]: They, uh, I gave this into the picture and they went and did it and I was like, okay, good. 03:17.963 --> 03:22.971 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's, you know, we kind of need to know our limits with some creativity as far as our time and our abilities. 03:23.011 --> 03:24.713 [SPEAKER_00]: And I was like, let me check out and see what they can do. 03:25.314 --> 03:39.785 [SPEAKER_00]: But I hope that today's episode does help you see how the arts are important, but also how you can encourage creativity in a lot of different realms within your children because not everybody is going to be really creative in the arts and that is okay. 03:39.865 --> 03:44.428 [SPEAKER_00]: But I think that art is something that is good for every child to at least dabble in. 03:45.449 --> 03:49.151 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, the episode titles that how to add and embrace. 03:49.752 --> 03:54.134 [SPEAKER_00]: So you might be a homeschool mom that needs to add creativity. 03:54.554 --> 03:57.456 [SPEAKER_00]: And you might be saying, I don't want to put one more thing to do. 03:57.836 --> 03:59.157 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know where to start. 03:59.557 --> 04:01.458 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if this is really beneficial. 04:01.478 --> 04:05.021 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, I'd encourage you that last part there to look at the benefits. 04:05.081 --> 04:09.783 [SPEAKER_00]: And hopefully by the end of this episode, you have heard some of the benefits of creativity. 04:09.803 --> 04:10.344 [SPEAKER_00]: You're like, you know what? 04:10.984 --> 04:28.523 [SPEAKER_00]: let's go ahead and give it a try and those of you then that are to say okay there is creativity within our home within my kids but it kind of drives me a little bit crazy and I'm gonna raise my hand right here all of the things that go along with creativity. 04:29.023 --> 04:37.430 [SPEAKER_00]: Again, whether that is in the arts and it means a lot of art supplies, it might mean a little bit of mess with some paint or maybe its creativity when it comes to other areas. 04:38.090 --> 04:50.940 [SPEAKER_00]: Some areas of creativity my kids have gotten into has been in the realm of maybe technology of like building robots of making their own games or building their own remote control cars and there's just parts. 04:51.280 --> 04:54.423 [SPEAKER_00]: There's little pieces of things that are cut if they're building a remote control car. 04:55.163 --> 05:16.239 [SPEAKER_00]: There's little pieces of wire and there's just all of the things so yes There can be what we might say what we as moms would consider a mess when it comes to creativity I'm going to encourage you to let that go a little bit This is coming from someone who really enjoys a tidy home who enjoys things to be cleaned up, but 05:17.521 --> 05:20.403 [SPEAKER_00]: It won't always feel like there's a ton of little things. 05:20.704 --> 05:30.393 [SPEAKER_00]: My kids are all older, they're still living at home, so there is a little bit of a mess, but not as much, they kind of keep their messes contained to their own bedrooms, and you know what? 05:31.034 --> 05:40.463 [SPEAKER_00]: I look back now, and I'm like, I remember taking pictures of some of their creative, like just the mess of the areas, because I was like, I want to remember this, because this is just a moment in time. 05:41.224 --> 06:00.799 [SPEAKER_00]: and it was and those messes will go away and the kids will grow up while first they grow up and then they can start to go away and you'll be like oh I wish I wasn't so hard on myself so I'm going to encourage you to let it go just a little bit maybe a little bit more maybe a little bit more but I do think it's okay to have boundaries 06:02.203 --> 06:05.406 [SPEAKER_00]: One area that we had was a couple of houses back. 06:05.426 --> 06:09.489 [SPEAKER_00]: We had a finished basement and my husband and I created a art center. 06:09.849 --> 06:10.990 [SPEAKER_00]: We just called it the art corner. 06:11.290 --> 06:12.331 [SPEAKER_00]: If the kids were like, where are you going? 06:12.351 --> 06:13.151 [SPEAKER_00]: We're going to the art corner. 06:13.171 --> 06:15.293 [SPEAKER_00]: If I didn't know where they were, they're probably in the art corner. 06:15.653 --> 06:19.316 [SPEAKER_00]: And he built small little tables for them. 06:19.336 --> 06:20.357 [SPEAKER_00]: So they had their own space. 06:20.677 --> 06:21.417 [SPEAKER_00]: So it wasn't like... 06:22.238 --> 06:22.878 [SPEAKER_00]: She's over here. 06:22.918 --> 06:25.800 [SPEAKER_00]: She's pushing her papers in my space and he's doing this. 06:26.160 --> 06:27.121 [SPEAKER_00]: They had their own space. 06:27.521 --> 06:32.263 [SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, what was on their desk, on their little table, that was theirs, that was their mess. 06:32.924 --> 06:38.387 [SPEAKER_00]: And we had just stacks of just those plastic containers that were tall. 06:38.407 --> 06:44.050 [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what they even called, but they had lots of drawers and they would be full of all kinds of things and 06:44.990 --> 06:45.811 [SPEAKER_00]: There were some seasons. 06:45.851 --> 06:46.732 [SPEAKER_00]: We put stuff down. 06:47.332 --> 06:48.393 [SPEAKER_00]: The room was carpeted. 06:48.453 --> 06:55.418 [SPEAKER_00]: So there were might have been some stuff down on the floor to be able to catch some of maybe the paints and that kind of stuff not wanting to ruin the carpet. 06:55.498 --> 07:00.062 [SPEAKER_00]: And there were many days, weeks, that it was just a bit of a disaster. 07:00.742 --> 07:03.604 [SPEAKER_00]: And I knew that if we cleaned it up, 07:04.445 --> 07:26.266 [SPEAKER_00]: that it wouldn't feel so overwhelming because yes it does become too overwhelming for kids if there is too much of a mess so I would say okay we are cleaning up the art center tomorrow and that would be a big project that we would do that next day just kind of give them a little bit of a warning but you know what would happen when things are cleaned up straightened up and maybe all the garbage was thrown away all the little snippets of paper on the floor picked up and things are vacuumed 07:26.927 --> 07:36.834 [SPEAKER_00]: They felt a renewed sense of freedom to be able to be creative and to have just a clear space to be able to kind of get some of those ideas out. 07:36.914 --> 07:40.176 [SPEAKER_00]: So yes, art is definitely a part of the creativity. 07:40.216 --> 07:47.421 [SPEAKER_00]: So let's start with if you are feeling like I don't really let my kids be creative or I want to encourage more creativeness. 07:47.841 --> 07:50.283 [SPEAKER_00]: Let's start with the obvious of the arts. 07:51.675 --> 07:55.356 [SPEAKER_00]: If you have really young kids, I would encourage you to start them young. 07:55.596 --> 07:56.596 [SPEAKER_00]: That is the best way. 07:56.976 --> 08:00.056 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes if we wait too long, our kids can get scared. 08:00.517 --> 08:07.818 [SPEAKER_00]: They can be worried about being judged based upon their drawing or their painting or whatever art medium that they are doing. 08:07.938 --> 08:10.038 [SPEAKER_00]: And so it's kind of like with writing. 08:10.458 --> 08:14.799 [SPEAKER_00]: Kids, they often, doesn't mean that they necessarily are a bad writer at all. 08:15.099 --> 08:16.159 [SPEAKER_00]: They just don't want to write. 08:16.179 --> 08:18.219 [SPEAKER_00]: They just say, I don't like to write. 08:18.259 --> 08:19.960 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm a bad writer and they'll make up excuses 08:22.081 --> 08:27.826 [SPEAKER_00]: the way that maybe they'll be judged or what you'll say about what they wrote. 08:27.866 --> 08:30.469 [SPEAKER_00]: And the same thing comes to what the arts is. 08:30.689 --> 08:32.571 [SPEAKER_00]: They draw a picture or they paint a picture. 08:32.771 --> 08:35.594 [SPEAKER_00]: And they're worried because there's just this personal connection. 08:35.934 --> 08:37.556 [SPEAKER_00]: It's them being creative. 08:37.856 --> 08:44.866 [SPEAKER_00]: and just letting that out and it's in on a paper or on a canvas and it feels very vulnerable. 08:45.507 --> 08:47.049 [SPEAKER_00]: So if you can, start them young. 08:47.670 --> 08:52.898 [SPEAKER_00]: Young kids, they'll just be creative and they just, I mean, I have some picture hanging up by kids of drawn. 08:53.378 --> 08:56.839 [SPEAKER_00]: and they're just, they're self-portraits, and it's just, I love it. 08:56.859 --> 09:07.682 [SPEAKER_00]: They got the big head, they got the square body, and these like long, twiggy arms, like it's just one line, and like, you know, the circle, and then the fingers come out from, from that, the circle is a palm, I just love it. 09:08.102 --> 09:13.043 [SPEAKER_00]: But start them young, so that they lose that inhibition, that fear, 09:13.563 --> 09:15.545 [SPEAKER_00]: that worrisome about being judged. 09:15.965 --> 09:17.206 [SPEAKER_00]: Things like coloring. 09:17.327 --> 09:21.971 [SPEAKER_00]: It's kind of an obvious thing with kids that are first showing, they don't know where they know how to draw, but start them with coloring. 09:21.991 --> 09:24.273 [SPEAKER_00]: Get some coloring books and just let them color out. 09:24.293 --> 09:26.995 [SPEAKER_00]: They're not going to color in the lines and that is okay. 09:27.656 --> 09:28.717 [SPEAKER_00]: Then move on to drawing. 09:29.157 --> 09:30.058 [SPEAKER_00]: about some painting. 09:30.438 --> 09:33.319 [SPEAKER_00]: There's lots of different mediums when it comes to painting. 09:33.419 --> 09:41.403 [SPEAKER_00]: And despite like the cheap little, the cheap watercolor thing that comes from Crayola or the get the Walmart target knockoff brand and let them try that. 09:41.763 --> 09:51.528 [SPEAKER_00]: You can move on then to acrylics and gouache paint and there's just so many different options and kids that love it are going to start to realize that they might like. 09:52.268 --> 09:55.911 [SPEAKER_00]: Certain types of painting and they don't like other certain types of painting. 09:56.332 --> 09:59.835 [SPEAKER_00]: I remember doing charcoal and just so many different. 09:59.895 --> 10:19.531 [SPEAKER_00]: We I mean I am not necessarily an artistic person, but I learned a lot about art and we had baskets among baskets and jurors and bins full of all kinds of things to let them just try and express that How about clay clay is something that's really fun to do whether it just is an air dry clay or they maybe take a pottery class or anything like that 10:20.131 --> 10:23.072 [SPEAKER_00]: but start them young if you can and maybe they're not too young. 10:23.152 --> 10:24.872 [SPEAKER_00]: That doesn't mean that it is too late to start. 10:24.892 --> 10:26.553 [SPEAKER_00]: It is definitely never too late to start. 10:27.033 --> 10:31.234 [SPEAKER_00]: It might take you sitting down and doing it too. 10:31.814 --> 10:35.675 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you have an art book that you're following or a video. 10:35.695 --> 10:39.716 [SPEAKER_00]: There's just so many different resources now or maybe you just kind of come up with something on your own. 10:39.756 --> 10:46.317 [SPEAKER_00]: Some type of drawing or painting or coloring prompt or something like that and use it down and you do 10:50.419 --> 11:04.636 [SPEAKER_00]: What your result is and you can let them watch the process and maybe you might be thinking I'm not creative or anything go ahead and get creative and I think it's also okay that if this is something new to you For them to see like okay mom's doing this too. 11:04.676 --> 11:09.402 [SPEAKER_00]: She's brand new and she's not so worried about how it's going to turn out 11:09.942 --> 11:15.664 [SPEAKER_00]: And it also helps them to see that it's okay to make mistakes because mistakes is how we learn. 11:15.804 --> 11:19.405 [SPEAKER_00]: And that's not necessarily even mistakes when it comes to art. 11:19.785 --> 11:23.147 [SPEAKER_00]: And nobody is really great at maybe the painting. 11:23.167 --> 11:25.527 [SPEAKER_00]: Think of some famous painters. 11:26.108 --> 11:27.028 [SPEAKER_00]: They probably weren't. 11:27.468 --> 11:28.389 [SPEAKER_00]: Great when they first started out. 11:28.409 --> 11:30.550 [SPEAKER_00]: Some of them are like probably were pretty good probably. 11:30.911 --> 11:32.352 [SPEAKER_00]: I would say some of the really great ones. 11:32.972 --> 11:45.621 [SPEAKER_00]: If I was to draw something their first drawing would probably be better than me even taking art classes for 20 years To some people just have that creativity, but it's okay to start off and it not to be perfect 11:46.221 --> 11:54.563 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, okay, so we talked about starting up the obvious with the creativity of arts, but there are so many other places and ways for your children to be creative. 11:54.583 --> 12:14.768 [SPEAKER_00]: So I do want you to do the art stuff because I really think that is fun, and you can decide to what degree if you set up some space that you're just like, okay, this is their place to be creative, and it's not something like the dining room table, because if you've got to clean that up to be able to eat dinner, but just giving them a little bit of freedom to do that, we'll get into how to kind of add that creative a little bit more in just a minute. 12:16.208 --> 12:23.192 [SPEAKER_00]: but let's first talk about what are some other ideas and other places within their day and their life that they can be creative. 12:23.893 --> 12:26.254 [SPEAKER_00]: How about in the kitchen with cooking and baking? 12:26.935 --> 12:34.940 [SPEAKER_00]: Now cooking, I feel like you can be, I mean, not that baking isn't creative, but baking like there's chemistry, there's science to it, not that there isn't with the cooking. 12:35.260 --> 12:37.201 [SPEAKER_00]: With the cooking is a little bit more, you 12:37.481 --> 12:41.203 [SPEAKER_00]: you can have a little more liberties as far as the seasoning that you put on the chicken. 12:41.463 --> 12:50.808 [SPEAKER_00]: But the baking, if you're going to bake a cake, you can't really have the liberty of how much baking soda or baking powder or flour to put in it because it's going to turn out completely different and maybe not turn out well at all. 12:51.228 --> 12:55.991 [SPEAKER_00]: It might turn out just completely flop or it could be something that's like hard as a rock. 12:56.471 --> 12:59.532 [SPEAKER_00]: So in the kitchen, cooking and baking, you can get creative in that way. 12:59.973 --> 13:00.693 [SPEAKER_00]: How about building? 13:00.773 --> 13:04.375 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe just giving them just some basic supplies of things. 13:05.095 --> 13:09.278 [SPEAKER_00]: My boys loved just basic building supplies. 13:09.398 --> 13:30.253 [SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't anything even necessarily that was supposed to turn out in any type of way or even when they did get Lego They'd be like, oh, I want the Lego airplane and so they would get that Lego airplane for their birthday They'd put it together one time as the Lego airplane and guess what it never was it didn't stay like that We were not the house where Legos were put together and put up on a shelf 13:30.673 --> 13:41.824 [SPEAKER_00]: know, they would build the airplane, follow it through the directions, and then they would sometimes tune afterwards, take it apart, and then use all those pieces to build whatever kind of other stuff, Lego towns, and whatever else they wanted to. 13:42.024 --> 13:44.346 [SPEAKER_00]: They never once again built the airplane. 13:44.386 --> 13:47.509 [SPEAKER_00]: I remember holding on to all of the instruction books. 13:47.849 --> 13:50.191 [SPEAKER_00]: We had a container that had all of them in there, and 13:51.032 --> 14:05.906 [SPEAKER_00]: when we ended up moving I was just like they haven't followed these in years and I was like what I paid good money for these instruction books and I was like no just throw them away guess what they didn't even care never asked for it and so they were just recreated in building so just giving them maybe just 14:06.406 --> 14:14.869 [SPEAKER_00]: playing building supplies, instead of having toys that have to be played with in a certain way, how about toys that they can play with in a creative way. 14:14.909 --> 14:17.671 [SPEAKER_00]: They get to come up with the story line for it. 14:17.751 --> 14:20.352 [SPEAKER_00]: Kids can be also really creative outdoors. 14:20.592 --> 14:22.733 [SPEAKER_00]: I know that mud kitchens are a really big thing. 14:23.113 --> 14:23.493 [SPEAKER_00]: Now listen, 14:23.913 --> 14:38.576 [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't grow up with a mud kitchen, I didn't know anything about building that for my kids, but they just had just basic stuff outside and guess what, it would rain, they had mud, and they would therefore make their own kitchen with mud, their own mud kitchen, and it wasn't anything fantastic. 14:38.596 --> 14:39.896 [SPEAKER_00]: And I think those ideas are great. 14:39.976 --> 14:40.376 [SPEAKER_00]: I love them. 14:40.756 --> 14:42.717 [SPEAKER_00]: I wish that I knew about that. 14:42.737 --> 14:45.617 [SPEAKER_00]: I probably would have built them some type of mud kitchen, but they got creative. 14:46.537 --> 14:47.417 [SPEAKER_00]: And how they did that. 14:47.637 --> 14:50.618 [SPEAKER_00]: I would have played in mud and dirt and everything with as a kid too. 14:51.018 --> 15:00.023 [SPEAKER_00]: but it can be just things like hikes and walks and nature trails and just letting them be creative on that way and just giving them maybe raw materials when it comes to outdoors. 15:00.043 --> 15:02.664 [SPEAKER_00]: How about just building force with sticks and with branches? 15:02.684 --> 15:04.045 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's very creative. 15:04.885 --> 15:11.049 [SPEAKER_00]: They can be creative on the computer and you get to decide where does that fit in with you and your family at what age? 15:11.089 --> 15:15.651 [SPEAKER_00]: So I'm not saying you have to let your four year old be creative on the computer, but you might start to notice that 15:16.071 --> 15:36.299 [SPEAKER_00]: you have a child that's getting older, you've done the art stuff, you've done the outside fort stuff, you've done the mud kitchen, you're on the baking, the cooking and they just and maybe the building, they start to show signs of like engineering and a technical part and you're like, you might enjoy coding and I think that kind of stuff can be creative, think about coding that is behind a website and be a think of a beautiful website. 15:36.319 --> 15:38.480 [SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I think of my website, I love it. 15:38.560 --> 15:39.780 [SPEAKER_00]: I think it's fantastic. 15:39.940 --> 15:40.761 [SPEAKER_00]: I did not build it. 15:40.881 --> 15:42.361 [SPEAKER_00]: I am not creative in that way. 15:44.642 --> 15:46.784 [SPEAKER_00]: And she did it, and she did a wonderful job. 15:46.924 --> 15:48.265 [SPEAKER_00]: That is creativity as well. 15:48.586 --> 15:50.347 [SPEAKER_00]: So they can be creative and a computer. 15:51.128 --> 15:59.215 [SPEAKER_00]: Creativity can come in the form of another part of the arts, and that could be the music, that could be drama, that could be acting. 15:59.936 --> 16:02.378 [SPEAKER_00]: There can also be creativity in writing. 16:03.419 --> 16:09.345 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you have a child that wants to write a book, wants to write source stories, wants to write poems allow them that time and that freedom. 16:09.766 --> 16:11.327 [SPEAKER_00]: That is creativity as well. 16:12.188 --> 16:15.111 [SPEAKER_00]: So let's figure out how to add some creativity. 16:15.592 --> 16:17.754 [SPEAKER_00]: I touched on this one, this first one, just a minute ago. 16:18.695 --> 16:30.744 [SPEAKER_00]: but give them raw materials, instead of all of the toys in the video games and things that have to be played with in a certain way, or maybe there's only one way to play with it, have it just raw materials that they can play with in any type of way. 16:31.064 --> 16:36.468 [SPEAKER_00]: So going back to the Legos, I eventually was like, just give them those boxes of Legos. 16:36.508 --> 16:40.331 [SPEAKER_00]: I just have a ton of different Legos in that, it's much cheaper. 16:41.031 --> 16:49.734 [SPEAKER_00]: And they're never going to rebuild whatever that thing is that they'd felt that they just had to have, they had to have, I don't know, the school bus or something like that. 16:49.754 --> 16:50.654 [SPEAKER_00]: We didn't go to school. 16:50.694 --> 16:51.854 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, what do we need this for? 16:52.335 --> 16:53.435 [SPEAKER_00]: But they never built it again. 16:53.935 --> 16:56.536 [SPEAKER_00]: But they would use all those pieces for other things. 16:56.976 --> 16:58.937 [SPEAKER_00]: And so we would, I did end up getting them. 16:59.317 --> 17:02.498 [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes for birthdays or Christmas's grandparents were like, wow, what to get them? 17:02.658 --> 17:05.959 [SPEAKER_00]: Well, here's some Lego books that kind of inspires them to think like, oh. 17:06.579 --> 17:09.281 [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, that's a cool castle, but I don't really like that part of the castle. 17:09.321 --> 17:21.528 [SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to build a castle in the type of way that I want to build a castle, and I would be like, go to yard sales to my parents, but they go to yard sales, just by boxes and bins of legos from other kids, and just give them those raw materials. 17:21.989 --> 17:24.830 [SPEAKER_00]: But it could just be anything as far as the raw materials. 17:25.451 --> 17:27.152 [SPEAKER_00]: Then you have to give them time. 17:27.352 --> 17:30.474 [SPEAKER_00]: If your kids are constantly going from here to there, there isn't that time. 17:30.894 --> 17:32.375 [SPEAKER_00]: Allow them to get bored. 17:32.855 --> 17:33.375 [SPEAKER_00]: sometimes. 17:33.536 --> 17:35.857 [SPEAKER_00]: And then that's when creativity can come out. 17:36.757 --> 17:38.478 [SPEAKER_00]: Encourage them in their creativity. 17:38.598 --> 17:39.859 [SPEAKER_00]: Admire their work. 17:40.239 --> 17:42.160 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you display their artwork. 17:42.420 --> 17:49.064 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you display the clay that the air dry clay things that they had made. 17:49.244 --> 17:54.187 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe you show people the computer or program or the website that they designed with their coding. 17:54.407 --> 17:57.749 [SPEAKER_00]: You share their cooking and their baking and whatever it is. 17:58.049 --> 17:59.850 [SPEAKER_00]: So encourage and admire their work. 18:01.214 --> 18:04.975 [SPEAKER_00]: Also, connect them with resources that are going to maybe help promote that. 18:04.995 --> 18:05.755 [SPEAKER_00]: Now, not in the beginning. 18:05.775 --> 18:15.917 [SPEAKER_00]: When they're really little, let them color, let them just, whatever, cut things, cut shapes to all kinds of things, but as they begin to get older, maybe really interested in things, connect them with other resources. 18:16.117 --> 18:20.558 [SPEAKER_00]: I think that classes and specific people are the best ones to do. 18:20.938 --> 18:25.699 [SPEAKER_00]: My daughter and I were talking about her taking some pottery classes for a while, because she was really interested in it. 18:25.719 --> 18:28.680 [SPEAKER_00]: So I found it like, through maybe the parks program or something, 18:31.160 --> 18:32.381 [SPEAKER_00]: eight, nine, ten years old. 18:32.661 --> 18:33.341 [SPEAKER_00]: But loved it. 18:33.361 --> 18:36.062 [SPEAKER_00]: The boys had absolutely no interest in such a thing. 18:36.343 --> 18:40.825 [SPEAKER_00]: They had other creativity and other creative endeavors that we pursued for them. 18:41.105 --> 18:45.047 [SPEAKER_00]: But connect them with people and classes, maybe books, maybe videos to encourage them. 18:45.867 --> 18:47.048 [SPEAKER_00]: Another thing I thought of is that... 18:47.688 --> 18:54.451 [SPEAKER_00]: when you read creative and inspiring books to them, it gets them thinking as well. 18:54.771 --> 18:58.433 [SPEAKER_00]: When you read books, then that inspired the characters are inspiring to them. 18:58.493 --> 19:01.574 [SPEAKER_00]: It'll then foster that as well. 19:02.275 --> 19:05.016 [SPEAKER_00]: We were also just talking recently about my daughter and I, 19:05.436 --> 19:22.482 [SPEAKER_00]: about the Tara Bithia, I don't know if you know the book, Bridged the Tara Bithia, and so the last house we lived in, we had some woods, and she went up in there, and she just created her own, Tara Bith, of course the boys had to go join Tara Bithia, and help her she had made a sign, and I knew she was up, 19:23.182 --> 19:24.743 [SPEAKER_00]: You know, up in the woods doing something. 19:24.763 --> 19:29.024 [SPEAKER_00]: So I kind of could peek and see a little bit of something, but she's like, you can't come yet until I'm completely done. 19:29.064 --> 19:30.324 [SPEAKER_00]: But the book inspired her. 19:30.844 --> 19:36.506 [SPEAKER_00]: Obviously didn't look just like that, but inspired her to create just that own the own area. 19:36.526 --> 19:38.386 [SPEAKER_00]: So just again, that was combined in the outdoors. 19:38.607 --> 19:39.987 [SPEAKER_00]: That was combining reading to them. 19:41.405 --> 19:44.946 [SPEAKER_00]: But before we close out, and I talk to you in the beginning about look at the benefits. 19:45.246 --> 19:50.548 [SPEAKER_00]: So I want you to think about creative people that you know in all those different realms. 19:50.628 --> 19:54.749 [SPEAKER_00]: It could be in the arts and it could be in music, it could be in drama and acting and writing. 19:55.149 --> 20:02.931 [SPEAKER_00]: But it could be in building, it could be an architecture engineering, it could be encoding, it could be maybe their creative in sports. 20:03.351 --> 20:04.652 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe they're just creative outdoors. 20:04.672 --> 20:07.133 [SPEAKER_00]: There's so many possibilities of creativity. 20:07.493 --> 20:19.859 [SPEAKER_00]: I do think the root of that, the good foundation, is in the arts and allowing our kids when they're little and they have chubby little hands and they can kind of hold on to that chubby crown and they can color. 20:20.239 --> 20:22.380 [SPEAKER_00]: And then they start to learn to draw. 20:22.520 --> 20:27.382 [SPEAKER_00]: Maybe they start looking through like Calvin and Hobbs and they start saying, okay, it's just basic drawing. 20:27.422 --> 20:28.963 [SPEAKER_00]: It's not anything that's too much. 20:29.043 --> 20:30.764 [SPEAKER_00]: They start doing their own types of drawings. 20:31.124 --> 20:43.631 [SPEAKER_00]: I remember my kids would sit during the sermons at church and they would just use the sermons and they would just draw and they would listen and sometimes they would draw what they are hearing and it just allowed them just a little bit of time. 20:43.651 --> 20:44.952 [SPEAKER_00]: I was like, okay, good, your hands are busy. 20:45.172 --> 20:48.513 [SPEAKER_00]: Therefore, your mouth is not going to be busy and you're not going to be a distraction. 20:49.714 --> 20:52.957 [SPEAKER_00]: but creativity will serve them as adults. 20:53.277 --> 20:58.161 [SPEAKER_00]: So keep this in mind and you never know where that creativity is going to leave. 20:58.181 --> 21:00.603 [SPEAKER_00]: You don't know how they're going to use it. 21:00.723 --> 21:12.193 [SPEAKER_00]: It's really as fun to have a front row seat to watching your kids and I can look back now and say, oh, now I see where that beginning of that creativity. 21:12.293 --> 21:15.656 [SPEAKER_00]: I can see where you're using it now as a young adult. 21:16.436 --> 21:20.940 [SPEAKER_00]: And I mean, my son who owns his own business, he can be very creative in his business. 21:21.000 --> 21:24.983 [SPEAKER_00]: And so just entrepreneurship will also benefit from it as well. 21:26.024 --> 21:32.489 [SPEAKER_00]: So just like the formal academics is preparing them for their next steps in life. 21:32.529 --> 21:37.794 [SPEAKER_00]: And having that knowledge and that basis that they can be able to provide for themselves. 21:37.814 --> 21:39.435 [SPEAKER_00]: They can provide for a family. 21:39.935 --> 22:04.732 [SPEAKER_00]: So is creativity preparing them and guess what, creativity and the allowing of that and the freedom to do so Really does create some very interesting people right don't you think so people who are creative are pretty interesting Again, that's creative in any and many different ways So I hope that this has encouraged you to add and then embrace creativity in your home school 22:06.027 --> 22:08.549 [SPEAKER_00]: Don't be so hard on yourself, don't be so hard on the mess. 22:08.949 --> 22:17.976 [SPEAKER_00]: I promise you, it will all work out, but you put some things in place, maybe put the plastic up on the wall where they're going to be painting, so they don't end up painting on the wall. 22:18.016 --> 22:22.479 [SPEAKER_00]: Whatever it is, it's going to make you feel better and feel like you can allow them this time to do it. 22:22.699 --> 22:27.163 [SPEAKER_00]: Listen, you can take that painting, you can do it outside, that way the paint gets on the yard, and that's okay. 22:27.583 --> 22:38.447 [SPEAKER_00]: But I hope that this episode has encouraged you if, over all, little by little homeschool podcasts is a source of information and something that encourages and benefits you and you just enjoy it. 22:38.787 --> 22:43.089 [SPEAKER_00]: I would love to be able to hear about that and the best way you can do that is to leave a rating and review. 22:43.209 --> 22:48.731 [SPEAKER_00]: It also helps to push the podcast out to other homeschool moms or potential homeschool moms. 22:49.132 --> 22:52.653 [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for listening to today's episode and I will see you back here next Monday.