Wonder or is it Wander sticks?

Something that has been on my mind for a while is how to help the girls, specifically the Noodle, tap into their creative sides.  The Noodle is already pretty good at this, especially where imaginary play is concerned.  If we're outside, just give her some sticks, the bungee cords and one of the vehicles (I'm talking the little red wagon, her bike, a scooter, etc.) and she's in 7th heaven.  She's a knight defending her castle or she's galloping down the racetrack on her thoroughbred or she's a cowgirl on her bucket horse or maybe she's playing "donations".........She also loves to take apart things and turn them into something new.  Last week, when she was at Camp Invention, she couldn't get enough!

"Fred" the horse

Interestingly enough, however, is that she's never been into the whole arts-n-crafts thing.  She could take or leave coloring or drawing, etc.  Every once in a while she'll get inspired to do some crafting, but I think, given a little coaxing, she could really learn to enjoy it, especially the more open ended stuff.  I know that I need to do a better job at making those opportunities present themselves.  And also to just "go with the flow" and allow messes to occur--ack!  Note to self--lighten up!!

So, what's a mom to do when she wants to be inspired?  Go to Pinterest, of course!  I actually started at Meg's blog, Whatever, which is all about nurturing your inner creative self.  After spending a few hours wandering around there (kidding, ahem, maybe not!) I landed on The Crafty Crow.  I found this fun activity.

We have plenty of drift wood and I had just recently scored a whole bag of various colored yarn from a garage sale so all we needed were the bells.  After showing the girls a picture so they knew what we were going to make, we dove in.  This was an easy one to start with, but both of them needed some help with the knotting of the yarn, changing colors and adding the bells.

As we were wrapping and tying, the Noodle kept saying "This is so fun!"  Mei Mei was way into exploring the yarn (read:  holding onto one end and watching it roll away from her, under the couch--live in the moment, enjoy the squeals of laughter, go with the flow...). 

When I asked the Noodle what she thought we should call them, she said "wonder sticks or maybe wander sticks".  "You can wonder about a place or a time like ancient Egypt or back when there were cavemen, and then you can go wander around and pretend it is that time".  Great thinking and creating--let's go wonder and wander!