The Pantry Goods

creative spaces, tips, and extra goodies

 

April 19, 2017  by

Family Art Events On The Road

When we began planning this 3-month Airstream tour around the US, I knew right away that I wanted to host pop-up family art events along the way. I wanted to connect with families across the country and share creative activities that might inspire them to bring more art and creativity and into their lives. But how was I going to pull that off?

The best thing about being a blogger is the friendships that I have made with other art teachers and creative mamas around the world. So once we had our trip route down, I of course went straight to my community of art teacher friends along the route and asked them to collaborate on a family art event in their town.

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in Art Projects / Creative Business / Creative Projects / Homeschool / News / Party Ideas / Travel 4 comments
April 5, 2017  by

On The Road: Family travel and taking a leap of faith

About 8 months ago I decided that it was time for our family to take a leap of faith and head out on a grand adventure. The girls were 4 and 7, Aaron and I were both self-employed, and we were considering homeschooling Karuna for 3rd grade.

I was determined to begin our journey sometime in early 2017 and wanted to travel for at least 3 months. I didn’t know where we would go, or how we would make it work financially. We had some debt, no savings, and were living paycheck to paycheck. Being self-employed was a bonus, but Aaron’s business was locally based so it was hard for him to imagine how he would continue to serve his clients on the road.

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in Creative Business / Homeschool / News / Travel 5 comments
December 13, 2016  by

Less Is More!

Have you joined the pre-holiday toy decluttering challenge? If so, I’d love to hear how it’s going for you. For a little more inspiration during this challenge, I have asked my friend, Alana Chernecki of Brillante Design, to give her two cents on decluttering. Alana is the only other Reggio-inspired preschool teacher turned designer of children’s spaces I’ve ever come across and I’m so excited to introduce you to her today. Read on for her guest post and see her beautiful spaces.

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in Creative Learning / Homeschool / Indoor Creative Spaces / Playroom 2 comments
November 9, 2016  by

Art Workshop For Children: Self-Portraits

Let me introduce you to my favorite new book about process art and Reggio-inspired learning. Friends, meet Art Workshop For Children. Art Workshop For Children, please meet my friends. I’m sure you guys will get along really well.

Art Workshop for Children, by Barbara Rucci and Betsy McKenna, is a breathtaking book (the photos literally made me gasp when I first flipped through the pages) filled with unique process-based art activities for kids and tips on how to prepare your art space for creative exploration. I especially love the thoughtful reflections woven throughout the book by Reggio-inspired educator, Betsy McKenna, on how to raise creative thinkers and why this is important for all children.

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in Art Projects / Creative Learning / Creative Projects / Homeschool / News 110 comments