Spoonful of Imagination

Add it to a Family for Something Beautiful

How to Support your Teen’s Creative Endeavors

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Watching my kids create has always been something I love. Before they could even hold a paintbrush, I was letting them play with paint. We would smash a footprint on something and I would turn into something else. We have all turned a handprint into a turkey around Thanksgiving at some point in our lives. As our kids grow and their interests change, their creative process may change. Teen’s will experiment in new creative endeavors, and I believe it is just as important to be present in these efforts, as we were when they were young. We can support our teen’s creative endeavors!

It may look different in the how we support.

When kids are young, some simple ways to encourage their creative efforts may look like…

  • Listen to their stories
  • Hang up their art
  • Watch the amount of screen time they consume
  • Make boredom possible, so they have to tap into their imagination
  • Provide supplies from paper and drawing materials to blocks or legos
  • Plan a project with steps
  • Get them outside to explore the woods and dirt
  • Be present in showing and demonstrating.

When our kids were younger, I had these frames that I could easily switch art out of. It was a constant changing museum in our home.

As they began to grow, they would have their own projects and ideas.

Once they start dreaming up their own ideas, you begin to become a little more of a questionnaire than the one leading the charge. Asking lots of questions gets them processing. Not all their ideas will work, but by asking questions and letting them start to play with an idea, allows your child to figure out on their own if something will work or not. That is embracing the process and letting them grow as confident decision makers.

I will never forget how Caleb painted a cityscape at our studio. It led into us hosting several cityscape sign workshops. He even lead one! Letting his idea develop into something that then inspired other artists and peers was pretty special.

I have to believe that supporting his creative endeavors at this new stage helped encourage him to keep experimenting and doing art.

We all remember when we started feeling like our art wasn’t good enough.

Do you remember that moment that you stopped creating for the process and fun of bringing an idea to life? You started creating and working towards a finished product only if you knew it would be amazing and it would be useful? So many stop creating because of the pressure they feel in creating and lose the freedom to tinker, learn, make mistakes, develop and take a risk.

One of our jobs as parents is to keep encouraging the process and supporting their creative endeavors as they grow.

As Caleb has grown, his love for basketball and shoes has only grown as well. He started drawing shoes, designing shoes, filming shoes and even painting his own custom shoes.

What began as an interest slowly grew into a hobby, and now it is a full blown business.

As Caleb’s dedication to this interest grew, we saw him investing time and his own money into it. Those are all signs that this is something that really matters to him.

My encouragement to you is to not necessarily buy the next piece of equipment the minute an idea is born from your growing teen, but keep asking questions and grow in the interest as they do.

We helped loft Caleb’s bed, so he would have more work space. It didn’t happen over night, but one step at a time.

Caleb says on his website, “I did my first custom a couple of years ago and loved doing it. Back then I had a cheap battery powered airbrush and a couple of colors. I’ve been working hard to upgrade my skills and my gear to professional grade tools. Every sneaker is an exciting new opportunity and I’d love to create some for you. Hit me up on the contact page or check out my Instagram.”

I still love to watch this kid of mine create.

Now, it’s not as much of me setting up a creative project and inviting him in. It’s more of me wandering to his room and watching him do it. The how we support our teen’s creative endeavors can change, but not the why.

A lot of the ways you support your young artists still matters as they grow.

Let them hang their art. Be present in the journey and listen to the stories. There are new ways to encourage their creative endeavors as well. My two biggest encouragements would be one, help invest in the equipment if you can. It can be lofting a bed, sharing your computer and camera, or even buying a stencil machine and spray gun. You can always get creative in how you give it. For example, wrap it up as part of their birthday present. Caleb got one of his paint guns as a Christmas present one year. 

Find a way to connect your interests together.

It’s important that your teen feels supported in their creative endeavors to feel the freedom to keep developing. The second way I think it is important to encourage your artist is to combine your interests and theirs together. Find it. It might not be obvious at first. That’s ok, keep looking. My latest way to connect Caleb’s interests and mine is taking the pictures he took of his shoe designs and turning them into greeting cards.

I have been on this greeting card creation journey, and what a fun way to connect his art with mine for a new card design. Not everyone may want a pair of custom shoes, but they may know someone who is a shoe fanatic and would appreciate a fun card so I listed them in my store.

We can support our teen’s creative endeavors.

The heart behind encouraging your artist, growing teen, and child is that you want them to believe that their ideas matter and the world needs what they got. Maybe those interests turn into a job someday, like they did for Caleb. We just don’t know, but the beautiful impact of embracing this creative journey together is you grow a deeper connection with someone who matters most to you.

I am going to be sharing more ways to connect with yourself and those you love most real soon. If you are interested in learning more, join my newsletter today so you are the first to hear about it! 

Family Paint Night Activity

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Playing as a family is one of the essential ways to build a connection with one another. Do you know what are some of your favorite ways to play together? For our family, having a family paint night is something we all enjoy. As the kids get older, it might not be what they suggest anymore, but if I do the work to set it all up, they still get into it.

Do you feel like your evenings can be a mash up of running kids to their activities, someone working late, homework, filming projects, school board meetings, and it’s rare to be all home on an evening together? That can’t be just me, right!?

It’s been a bit crazy over here. As I saw a night approaching where we would all be home (and knew we had all been carrying a lot), I wanted to create a fun moment for us to connect, play and recharge together. Here I give you our family paint night!


I love a good collaborative project.

When we all start with the same base shape or project, it’s fun to brainstorm and see the similarities and differences each of us comes up with. This is a fun way to see how each other’s mind thinks, portray individual interests into the project, and see the different styles and techniques emerge. The energy given off is usually lighthearted and playful, as the goal is to just have fun.

This egg garland project allows us to each have our own project, but they will be strung up together. It’s always fun to work towards something as a ‘team’.


The set up is part of the fun for me.

It’s been a while, since I have set up a paint workshop. I had so much fun picking out paint colors and pulling everything together. I have learned that although art can be freeing and messy, we still have a lot of power and control in what supplies we break out.

I choose to use just paint and only certain spring colors of paint. Even though my creative heart thought of glue and sequins. I decided to not break those out, and keep it more simple. As a result, it was…

  1. Less intimidating for artists to decide what they want to do.
  2. Less clean up for me.

Reagan did end up pulling out the black paint. Her creative heart needed it 🙂

Having the set up ready to go is helpful when you are inviting and asking for participation. It makes the start easier and you don’t lose any way-ward artists to distraction while you gather it all together.

The goal is to have fun.

We laughed and painted that night. I know the moods in our house were more uplifting, light-hearted and connected after this playful activity. It was a break in the fast pace of life. We slowed down and did something intentional together. It’s important to remember the goal is to have fun. If we put too much pressure on the results then it becomes stressful and we didn’t need anymore of that.

After all the eggs dried, I strung them up and added some fabric and yarn for extra texture fun. I love looking at it hung up now.

  • I see my Caleb and his forever love of basketball.
  • I see my Jeremiah in his blending and mixing of all kinds of colors to make his “perfect” purple shade.
  • I see my Reagan having a vision and searching up how to paint a jellyfish and bunny.
  • I see my husband putting so much care into his focused pieces, as he slows down from a busy day.
  • I see my simple designs, because I had more fun watching and connecting everyone else.

 

 

 

 

Having a physical piece as part of this night’s memory makes the memory and connection that much stronger. If you haven’t played by a having a paint night with your family recently, I highly recommend it!

If you want to do this project, I may have a few of the kits I created left for sale in our store. It’s worth jumping over to check!

In summary, these are a few tips that help guide our family paint nights. I hope they can help you too!

We had so much painting.

Occasionally, we still reference jokes from that night, as we enjoy our new spring decoration together.

Having this activity right after dinner one night, made for a fun evening. After all the eggs were painted, I used the leftover paint to paint the paper that had been a part of our set up. I painted big swirls and smalls dots, as Matt told me about his day and the kids got going with the rest of their night. Having my hands creating, while talking has always been something I enjoy!

Those scrap papers became their own creation, as you can see below and snatch up in the store as well.

Now, what about you? Will you have a family paint night soon?

Remember, the most important part is to have fun. Protect your table, embrace the process, and watch your artists unplug as you connect together. It will be an experience you tuck away in the long term memories.

If you love this little imagination starter, you might enjoy my list of 30 Ways to Play as well. Enjoy!

Fireside Chat #1: Encouraging Creativity in a Family with Matt and Erica

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Creativity can be tricky in a family. As we talked about family values in a previous post, this conversation got Matt and I thinking more about the ways we prioritize creativity in our family. Join us for our first fireside chat, where Matt and I have a conversation about this and so much more. This is a new series we will be rolling out on Facebook, sharing on our YouTube and circling back here with more pictures. We hope you like it as we are excited to have this natural, connection to encourage you to imagine the possibilities with us!

What is a fireside chat?

Our heart with creating the Fireside Chat series is to be encouraging and open in how we view and do life. Let’s talk real and honest about life and the journey it is.

If you missed the first chat, you can re-watch the video here. We cover a lot of topics like the ones below. Feel free to jump to the topic minutes that most apply to you, if you don’t have time for the whole 25 minute show.

Topics:

  • The Spoonful of Imagination (2:13): How the brand began
  • Imagine the Possibilities (4:04): Going off path, opens up options
  • Reagan’s Room (7:15): She made her room bigger by taking away her closet
  • Learning new skills through risks (13:00): Lessons she has for life
  • The cost of creating (17:00): Learn that your ideas matter
  • How can you take a chance (18:00): Try something new
  • Create More Connection (19:45): Erica’s new course
  • Matt’s view on Erica’s course (20:14): Matt’s endorsement of the course


Favorite Quotes:

“This is our home. We get to live here. So, we need to do things that we get to enjoy.” -Erica

“Paint is one of the cheapest ways to change the atmosphere in a room.” -Erica

“She’s the healthiest I have ever seen her” -Matt (talking about Erica)

“It’s a life skill to try something, it not work out, and be able to adapt and keep going.” -Erica

Takeaway to Apply:

How can you (in your life and/or parenting) take a little risk, take a chance, and imagine the possibilities of something different and grow from it?

We are cheering you on and know that the world needs what you got. If you loved this Fireside Chat, check out my second Fireside Chat with my creative accountability partners, Jonna and Shannon. It’s all about the power in linking arms-even when on separate journeys.

What is an easy YES for you??

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Over the weekend, we were headed out on a little family walk.

Taking family walks is one of my favorite things to do together.

It’s a time to unplug, enjoy nature, get a little exercise, and connect. As we were headed out, I turned around and saw Caleb had a camera. He wanted to take pictures of this winter walk. I smiled to myself and only said, “very fun!”

What are things that are an easy yes for you? When you think through a situation or a plan and there is an obvious alteration to it, what is an easy yes?

In my situation, getting off technology, a screen, and devices is part of my heart for these walks. Yet, Caleb had a camera and I allowed it.

One of my family values

As we walked and I thought through why I allowed the camera, it hit me. An easy yes for me is creativity. I will always welcome the creative process.

For example, we can be pulling out of the driveway, running late for something and Reagan asks to run back inside for markers and a notebook….and I stop the car and allow it.

I can have just vacuumed the house and be ok with Reagan pulling out cardboard boxes, hot glue and making all kinds of little shavings on the floor in her creative project.

Jeremiah might ask for chalk markers to use on his chalkboard wall, instead of the messiness of regular chalk, and I add it to my shopping list.

I can have a sewing project out and someone wants to paint and I clear off my whole desk or table to get them started.

Caleb may want to take a camera on a walk to make this reel and in the process give me all these pictures that I have turned into this post, and I am so proud.

The creative process is something I value and always say yes to.

What is an easy yes for you?

Has something come to mind that is an easy yes for you? Here are a few ideas of things that it could be…

  • heart level talks: will you stay up later, if your kids are wanting to talk?
  • healthy food: will you say yes to a snack at any time in the day if it is something healthy?
  • sports: will you sign your kid up for a travel sport and be ok driving and giving weekend time, if it’s keeps your kid doing a sport he/she loves?

When we normally think of family values, honesty, perseverance, responsibility, character, and kindness might be some that you automatically think about. I think there are also others that you might not realize is also a value. If you start thinking about it, and process through how other families treat that same thing, you can begin to see it as a value.

These pictures help me see the world like Caleb does. What caught his eye, the angle he captured it, and even the placement of his subject is interesting to me.

I will always encourage the creative process. It’s a value to me. What is a value to you?

It’s important to know your values

Life is going so quickly, and I think it’s important to know your values so you can treat and honor it as one. Just because it’s important to you, doesn’t mean it is to everyone. So, to get you thinking more about what you may value, think through these questions:

  1. What makes you really happy?
  2. When are you most proud?
  3. What do you spend free time doing?

Maybe you already know what you value and what is an easy yes for you. If you do, I hope this is just an encouragement that it’s good to be YOU, even if you prioritize something others may not treat with the same weight.

If you don’t know what a unique value that you care about may be, I hope it gets you thinking.

Honoring your family values is a form of creating a connection that matters.

**If the idea of forming a deeper connection with those that matter most to you, sounds like something you would be interested in, I’d love to invite you to join my Create More Connection digital course. I will be back to tell more about it soon, but you can enroll today right here!