December 8, 2008 | Mama Smith
MINISMITH GIVEAWAY #2!!
If you’re in the mommyblog world, I’m SURE you have come across Amanda Blake Soule of SouleMama. And more recently, her amazing book The Creative Family, that has been inspiring all kinds of creativity and offering a renewed energy for us tired moms to actual enjoy our kiddos and explore life with them. I actually had to stop reading her blog for awhile because I felt like such a crummy, uncreative mom. But that was my issue, not hers. This book really does give perspective on how to enjoy and engage your kids wherever you’re at in life. Even if the most creative thing you’ve done this week is hide the Dora video and make your kids find it…before watching it over and over the rest of the day. Not that I’ VE done that recently.
I’ve loved this book and wanted to share an extra copy I received with one lucky reader. Even if you already have it, it’d make an awesome gift for one of your mommy-friends :)
Leave a comment by midnight EST on Monday, December 15th, 2008 letting me know either (1) your favorite memory being creative or imaginative as a child or (2) a favorite time you shared creating with or being imaginative with a special child in your life (doesn’t have to be your own kid). A winner will be announced on Tuesday, December 16th and your new copy of “The Creative Family” will be sent out asap. Hopefully in time for Christmas, if you plan to share it.
I’m particularly excited about reading these comments as I have oodles of crazy childhood memories and can’t wait to hear yours :)
alina said,
Fun! Thanks, AC. I used to make up all sorts of fun games with my siblings. My favorites were probably turning our house into a hotel/restaurant. We’d make food out of play dough and outside material (rocks, sticks, roof shingles…that one was kind of odd). Anyhow, we even set up tables and had our neighbor over and he ordered filet mignon off the menu. It was a blast.
charity said,
My great grandmother taught me how to make dolls and pot holders out of old clean panty hose and animals out of old egg cartons. And she taught me how to make a chandelier with chistmas lights and plastic cups. I remember her sitting at her old dining room table helping me string the lights through the cups or gluing little eyes onto an egg carton owl. I somtimes stare at old stuff I want to repurpose and wish she was still here. She died 6 years ago.
She also taught me about composting and which food scaps should go near what plants in the garden. She’d make me carry a bucket of scraps out to her garden and I would drop the scraps into the hole that she dug. I’ve forgotten what scraps go where, but I am an enthusiastic composter. My garbage inmpact is a lot smaller becuase of her, and anything creative I accomplish I attribute to her.
jen said,
just the other day zady and i made salt dough ornaments. we had so much fun, and i was pleasantly surprised by how well they turned out. also the whole thing went just as i hoped it would… you know how sometimes you have an idea in your head of something that will be so fun and it doesn’t quite turn out that anyway – like when i spent way too long making an elaborate fort in the living room out of sheets, blankets, stools and chairs and zady played in it for about a minute?
Liz Rego said,
Hey Amy,
I loved making fairies out of things that I found in the woods. I would try not to use any man made items like glue or tape, which sometimes turned into disaster. All and all though this type of play helped to create some of my favorite childhood memories! Great idea for a giveaway. I am inspired just by looking at what other people have made…
Love,
Lizzie
the Daniel Halls said,
I have kind of always had a secret desire to be an architect and enjoy designing floorplans. When I was young, I would sweep pine straw in our backyard into lines and create elaborate houses w/ spaces for doors, windows, angled walls, etc. When pine straw wasn’t available, I would draw floorplans in chalk on the driveway and then decorate the inside of my house by drawing furniture, dishes, etc.
We don’t have any pine trees in our yard, so I have introduced Jackson to the chalk “houses” in our driveway. Of course my lazy kid only likes to lay on the pretend bed, take a pretend bath, or insist I draw a remote so he can turn on his pretend tv. Oh well, at least we’re outside.
karen hines said,
gosh amy…i am now a “full time” grandmother in that jim and i have the grandchildren for an undisclosed amount of time,i am going back 18 or so years! i can barely remember what i used to do with the kids. i was real good at taking them to the library and checking out tons of books and reading ALOT.i had gardens in which the kids planted their own stuff, and we played with play dough,i also used to trace their bodies on the sidewalk with chalk, and then we would draw the rest in…maybe GOD is giving me another opportunity to be able to be creative in other ways…K
Julie said,
I’ll go with the creative memory from my childhood as recent attempts to do creative stuff with my children haven’t gone so well (eating paper gingerbread men, turning the would-be garland string into power lines)....
I remember making a felt snowman in probably the 2nd or 3rd grade, decorating it with ribbons and scrap fabric. I know it’s hiding in my parent’s house and hope to find it one day. I realize now that the clothing was very much inspired by Richard Scarry’s Busytown world.
anna said,
I loved Little House on the Praire. Sarah and I would take my dad’s saw horse put it on top of our red wagon, drape a blanket over it and stuff half our rooms into it. Sarah got to be Laura and I got to be the horse that pulled the wagon all over the yard until we found the perfect spot to set up camp. Ahhhh….the good o’l days of pure imagination!
Amy said,
I’m going WAY back to a birthday party at your old house here in good ole Cedar Bluff. I vividly remember decorating gingerbread houses your mother had made, but my favorite thing was sneaking and eating the “glue” for the sweets. I was on a sugar high for at least 24 hours.
I’m attempting a gingerbread house with my 2 year old this year, and expect about the same results… lots more snacking than decorating, but at least we will have fun.
Anne Deeb said,
love this idea, amy!
when we were small it was a ritual every night to do “chores”. my dad would assign us each a task and set us to it. we had to work at the job until it was completed. most nights my brothers and i were cleaning our playroom right up to bedtime. one reason it took us so long, is that we spent the majority of the time making up games to add fun to the chore. one game i specifically remember was simply called “train”. one of us would pretend to be the engine and drive very fast around the room putting toys back in their places. somewhere along the way, the engine would begin to loose steam and s-l-o-w d-o-w-n. “oh, no, hurry, quick the engine needs more fuel!” one of us would rush to the bathroom for a cup of water and pour it into the mouth of the engine. this usually resulted in a lot of laughter, and even more mess. the engine would regain it’s strength and chug-a-chug-choo-choo many more toys back to their homes before it lost steam again. like i said before, games like this usually made clean up time last all evening, but we were having a blast, and my parents were getting some uninterrupted kid-free time! i’m sure they were very thankful for the “train”, “bulldozer”, and “ragdoll/wiredoll” that visited our playroom each night.
Julianne said,
My grandfather was somewhat of a packrat. He kept everything. Every piece of junk had a purpose. He would pick up “trashed” big wheels left on the side of the road and repair them so his grandkids could ride on them around his driveway. He definitely helped us see the treasure in a piece of junk. We would spend hours down in his workshop creating “works of art” out of scraps of wood, screws, nails, and a little imagination! We’d make little dolls and doll furniture. I remember making a heart out of wood and writing, “I LOVE DEDE,” (that’s what we called my grandfather). My younger brother had a boat he made…and he kept it on his desk throughout high school. Dede’s creativity left an impact. An impact that I can only hope to leave on my children….and grandchildren!
Jeannie said,
So I couldn’t remember any fun stories, so I just caved and went to Amazon and bought a copy for my dear neighbor with 3 kids under 5. :)
Thanks for recommending the book, Amy.
commenting closed for this article
