Amanda Blake Soule - The Creative Family: How to Encourage Imagination and Nurture Family Connections

Embraces a new way of living that will engage your childrens imaginations, celebrate their achievements, and help you to express love and gratitude for each other as a family.

Living Crafts Magazine

Give your family an injection of creativity with this inspirational book.

Kindred Magazine

The Creative Family will make life with your children rich, full, imaginative, and fun beyond measure. This book is a recipe for joyful parenting and a joyful life. Its a gift for both your children and yourself. I loved it!

Zoe Weil, President, Institute for Humane Education and author of Above All, Be Kind: Raising a Humane Child in Challenging Times

Amanda Soule has created a wonderful guide that nourishes the wellspring of creativity already inherent in the family dynamic. She encourages discovery, ingenuity, sharing, and celebration in a way that helps each family member grow, while simultaneously bringing the whole family closer together. A truly meaningful book for and about that which we hold dearest.

Jeffrey Yamaguchi, author of 52 Projects: Random Acts of Everday Creativity

ABOUT THE BOOK

When you learn to awaken your familys creativity, wonderful things will happen: youll make meaningful connections with your children in large and small ways; your children will more often engage in their own creative discoveries; and your family will embrace new ways to relax, play, and grow together. With just the simple tools around youyour imagination, basic art supplies, household objects, and natural materialsyou can transform your family life, and have so much more fun!

Amanda Soule has charmed many with her tales of creativity and parenting on her blog, SouleMama. Here she shares ideas and projects with the same warm tone and down-to-earth voice. Perfect for all families, the wide range of projects presented here offers ideas for imaginative play, art and crafts, nature explorations, and family celebrations.

This book embraces a whole new way of living that will engage your childrens imagination, celebrate their achievements, and help you to express love and gratitude for each other as a family.

To learn more about the author, Amanda Soule, visit her blog at www.SouleMama.com.

AMANDA BLAKE SOULE is the creator of the popular blog www.SouleMama.com. Amanda spends her days with her four young childrenmaking things, thrifting, exploring and being inspired by their coastal Maine surroundings. Learn more about her and find her blog at www.amandasoule.com.

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T h e C r e a t i v e F a m i l y

how to encourage

imagination & nurture

family connections

text and photographs by

Amanda Blake Soule

illustrations by Betsy Thompson

Boston & London 2011

Roost Books

An imprint of Shambhala Publications, Inc.

Horticultural Hall

300 Massachusetts Avenue

Boston, Massachusetts 02115

roostbooks.com

Text and photographs 2008 by Amanda Blake Soule

Illustrations 2008 by Betsy Thompson

Cover photograph by Jessie Fields

Cover design by 3+Co.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA

Soule, Amanda Blake.

The creative family: how to encourage imagination and nurture family connections / Amanda Blake Soule.1st ed.

p. cm.

eISBN 978-0-8348-2204-7

ISBN 978-1-59030-471-6 (pbk.: alk. paper)

1. Handicraft. 2. Creative activities and seat work. 3. Family recreation. 4. Creative ability in children. I.Title.

TT157.S636 2008

745.5dc22

2007030147

Dedicated to Adelaide, Ezra, Calvin, and Steve

Logic will get you from A to B.

Imagination will take you everywhere.

Albert Einstein

To Linda Roghaar, my agent, for sharing her wisdom, patience, foresight, and humor.

To Jennifer Brown, my editor extraordinaire, for making this process truly a pleasant one; and to everyone else at Roost Books for their belief in and dedication to this project.

To Betsy Thompson, illustrator and friend, for sharing not only her beautiful art but her family as well.

To all the blog writers and readers of SouleMama, who inspire and encourage me every day.

To Jessie and Rachael, for their everyday encouragement, love, and laughter.

To Judy, for her open home, heart, and spiritual guidance.

To my familyBethany, Michelle, Katie, Mom, and Dadwhose support, love, and sense of adventure with my little ones made it possible for me to write.

To Dorothy, my Nana, for sharing her talent and love of the craft; and to Mildred, my Meme and first reader, for her gentle and loving roots in which to flourish.

To my children, who teach me so much each and every day simply by being who they are: Calvin, for stretching, challenging, and inspiring me more than I thought possible; Ezra, for reminding me to imagine, dream, and laugh every single day; Adelaide, for the joy, strength, and light that she shines.

And my deepest thanks to Steve, an amazing papa, my dearest friend, my balance, and my rock.

Thank you all for the many ways you have made this book possible, and my life richer.

In gratitude.

Amanda

May 2007

A Creative Journey

At the heart of every mindful and loving family lie the seeds of endless creativity. With patience, support, and just a bit of guidance, that creativity can flourish and grow in beautiful ways. In our modern lives, its all too easy to get swept up in the busyness of the day-to-daymeals, cleaning, school, work, and other life details often stand in the way of the time we need to pursue our creative endeavors. As parents, it is both our responsibility and our privilege to be sure that our familys creative spirits have all the room and tools they need to soar freely.

Fortunately, we dont have to teach our children to be creativeinherent in the very core of childrens beings is the embodiment of creativity. To think of something in a new way, to inquire about something that others dont even question, to come up with something truly unique and new is what children do best. When we give our children the space and encouragement to explore their own creativity, they can become our most inspiring of artists, our most inquisitive of scientists, and our most original of philosophers.

As their parents, we are blessed to have these amazing teachers. Im reminded of this each and every day as I watch my children in the simple and small, but fully creative and dynamic, things they do: Adelaide, our one-year-old, finding pure delight in a basket of fabric from which she can recover her favorite piece of purple silk and start a game of peekaboo; Ezra, our three-year-old, lying on a riverbank and examining handful after handful of the earths rich clay, which he later portrays in a painting; Calvin, our five-year-old, rushing out of bed to draw his dream before he forgets ita gigantic half-pipe with a dozen or so skateboarders, kids on scooters, and in-line skaters spinning around in circles, all with gigantic smiles on their faces. These seemingly simple acts of childhood are small, yet full of wonder, appreciation, and imagination.