The second arts and crafts idea that Stephanie recommended takes inspiration from the artist Andy Goldsworthy. He creates art out of nature, using twigs, leaves, stones, flower petals, seeds, grasses but strictly avoids using man-made materials such as brushes, glue or tape.
Andy Goldsworthy-inspired flower and leaf pictures
For this activity, I prepared a set of small cards with with different places written on them, for example, ‘beach’, ‘supermarket’, ‘restaurant’, ‘school’ etc.
We then took off for the park, settling ourselves on a picnic bench (any flat patch of earth with no grass would also work). I fanned the cards out and each child chose one. Zoe got ‘airport’, Alice got ‘pub’. I admit – these places did make my mind wander to other summer time activities! but I then refocused.
The girls had to collect a load of natural materials and from them, make either a 3D scene or a picture of their chosen place.
I advised them to look for pebbles, different-shaped leaves, fallen flower petals, twigs, and anything else from nature that they could find that didn’t involve pulling apart living plants. Zoe came back with an armful of green and brown things, and empty Red Bull can.
‘I want to use it for one of the planes in my airport,’ she said.
‘Andy Goldsworthy probably wouldn’t approve,’ I said.
‘If we see him, I’ll hide it,’ Zoe replied.
The girls enjoyed doing their pictures so much that the three of us then made ‘café’ together. As I probably could’ve predicted, this venue, once created, led to them persuading me to take them to a real café for a piece of cake. I felt like it’d been well-earned.
For more information about Andy Goldsworthy, visit Andy Goldsworthy Art and Images.