natural family living, natural home,  natural home magazine, natural parenting, natural family

Featured Advertisers: Natural Products Guide | Birthstone Jewelry

Why the changes to the site?
We look a bit messy while make some extreme changes to the look and the way we publish the website.
 
Scroll down to continue to enjoy our great articles!

We're your "how-to" resource for natural family living, natural beauty, natural home, health & wellness, and natural parenting. No matter what your personal or parenting style, we offer tips, tools and information everyone can use!
Why do we have advertising on our site?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
NFO Home
Bookmark us
NFO Chat Groups
Can't find what you need? Use our web search function near the bottom!
Subscribe to NFO's free eNewsletter!
Natural Living
Natural Living
Entertaining & Holidays
Natural Beauty
Natural Pets
Product Reviews
Book Reviews
<empty> 
Health & Wellness
Health & Wellness
Children's Health
Natural Soulooooo
Vegetarian Lifestyle
Food 
<empty> 
Parenting
Attachment Parenting
Babies & Children<empty> 
Breastfeeding 
Natural Family Living
Pregnancy & Birth
<empty> 
Free Baby Website - Affordable Baby Web Site
FREE safe and secure baby & toddler websites!
<empty> 
Shopping/Info.
Buy Books!
Mountain Rose Herbs
FREE Baby or Child Website
Balter Catalogue Co.
Shopping 
Resource Links
<empty> 
<empty> 

Contact
Contact & Reprints
NFO Staff & Contributors
Advertise with us
Writer's guidelines
<empty> 
Google ads are not personally selected by our admin team.
Find out more.

Attachment Parenting Article
Join our newsletter for new article updates!


Encourage Natural Expression


By Anna Stewart

Five-year-old Jasper doesn't look up at the people watching him as he studies the mandrill's colorful face and picks the right colored pencil. He takes his time sketching the long red nose of the unusual monkey. He shuffles through his fanny pack to find the blue pencil he wants and finishes the face with yellow. Then he's ready to move on to the orangutans, whom he has sketched before. With only inches of glass separating them, he shows the finished portrait to the great ape, who grins at him, much to the audience’s delight.

My three kids and I rarely see much of the Denver Zoo on our visits, but what we do see we really look at closely. We draw at the aquarium, too, and at the natural history museum. My 3-year-old daughter's sketchbook is mostly scribbles. My 7-year-old draws fewer, more detailed pictures, and Jasper fills the pages with monkeys, fish, hippos and deer prints. I even have my own sketchbook that I draw and write poems in with my kids. It's a regular family affair.

Capturing the natural world
Drawing, painting, writing or making things from the natural world is … well, natural. Carving animal shapes on cave walls or wearing feather amulets are ancient forms. The desire is the same: to express our connection to nature. And when we enter into a conscious relationship with nature, we tend to want to protect and preserve it, becoming stewards as well as artists.

There are many ways to encourage this natural expression. Sketching at the zoo, aquarium or on a trip requires only a sketchpad and drawing tools. I've found colored pencils work the best; markers are messy and crayons break. Since kids’ drawings aren't always recognizable, I often write the name of the animal or thing on the drawing.

On some hikes, we collect a few things such as dried grass, fallen twigs or spent pine cones to make collages, glue around a simple frame or make into a mobile. I never take living things or take many things – it’s part of being a good steward.

Creating things from nature can also take a different form, such as doing a butterfly dance after watching butterflies in a meadow or doing a puppet show about the night animals of the forest. Learning about the animals around us can deepen the experience. When we understand that an elk has great strength and stamina or an opossum is master of pretending, you can take on these qualities as you need them. Sometimes we all need to hibernate like the bear!

Whether you draw the office buildings downtown, the T. rex skeleton at the museum or the giraffes at the zoo, discover the artists within your family. You might be amazed by your own natural expression. Here are some supplies to get started:

• pocket-sized spiral-bound sketchpad

• 12-color set of quality colored pencils

• pencil sharpener

• plastic bags for collecting

• watercolor pencils, for more advanced drawing

• small paintbrush for blending watercolor pencils

• pen or pencil for writing and identifying kids' drawings

© Anna Stewart


Anna Stewart, B.A., C.M.T., C.H.T., mothers three young children, one with special needs. In her classes, workshops and services, she weaves her expertise as a professional writer, creative artist and student of rhythm dance. Anna offers a number of classes in the Boulder, Colorado, area. She can be reached at (303) 499-7681 or via e-mail at [email protected]. Her web site is www.motherhands.com.

<empty> 
<empty> 
<empty> 
<empty> 
<empty> 
<empty> 
Google ads are not personally selected. Find out more.
 

Google
 
Web www.naturalfamilyonline.com

Natural Family Online Home Baby Care Feeding Baby Solids Parenting Teens
FREE Baby or Child Website Baby & Kids' Teeth Flu Articles PMS Articles
Free NFO eNewsletter Baby Sleeping Gentle Child Discipline Positive Parenting
NFO Chat Groups Babywearing - Baby Slings Homeopathy Articles Potty - Infant
Balter Baby Breastfeeding Information How to Use Homeopathy Potty Learning - Potty Training
Balter Catalogue Company Breastfeeding Problems Homeschooling Articles Pregnancy Health
Balter Wholesale Company Breastfeeding Milk Supply Healthy Body Pregnancy Homeopathy
Balter Catalogue Blog Breastfeeding - Other Healthy Home Pregnancy Morning Sickness
NFO Shopping Pages Breastfeeding in Public Healthy Mind & Mental Health Pregnancy Nutrition
Natural Family Resource Links Breastfeeding & Thrush Health & Wellbeing Pregnancy Problems
Natural Family Online Blog Breastfeeding Weaning Herbalism Pregnancy & Relationships
Blame Mama Zine Children & Healthy Eating Internal Cleansing Pregnancy Articles
Blame Mama 411 Circumcision - Circumcise Kid's Education Reading to Kids
Disclaimer and user agreement Cloth Diapering Kids & War Sleep Articles
<empty> Co-sleeping & the Family Bed Natural Cleaning Stress Articles
<empty> Dad Articles Natural Family Lifestyles Unschool Articles
<empty> Diaper Rash Natural Family Meals Vacation Articles
Natural Family Article Index Do it Yourself Gardening Natural Family Planning Vaccination Articles
Alcoholism & Homeopathy Do it Yourself - Home Natural Labor & Delivery Vitamins & Minerals
ADD - ADHD Do it Yourself - Hygiene Natural Parenting Winter Health & Family Articles
Attachment Parenting articles Do it Yourself - Kid's Crafts Natural Soul - Home Articles Women's Health
What is Attachment Parenting? Emotional Intelligence in Kids Organic Food Articles Yoga Articles
Baby & Child Natural Remedies Exercise Articles Parenting Stress <empty>

© 2003, 2004, 2005 Blame Mama Media All Rights Reserved. Web Hosting by Blame Mama Media. Most Graphics by .