"Finding Flow" Creative Curriculum Guide

Let’s kick off the new school year by creating our own routines and rhythms in order to help children find flow. Learn this month what it means to get into flow and about the importance of creating opportunities for young children to get deeply engaged, guide their own experience, and explore meaningfully. While each child gets into flow differently and with different materials or experiences, we can think about how the environment (at home or in the classroom) supports these extended periods of creating and playing. We have lots of new features in our guides this season, like organizing your environment, helping children find flow, and suggestions for extending an invitation over the course of several days or weeks for children to return to and develop creative confidence. You’ll also be happy to see some of our favorite features such as our monthly picture book list, mindfulness routines, artist spotlight, and of course the easy-to-prep art and play invitations that spark lots of joy, curiosity, and of course flow.

Our curriculum is inclusive and honors each child’s individuality and way of thinking and working. Consider each guide like a beautiful magazine where creativity meets education. They are more than a collection of art ideas, they are the KEY to a cohesive, child-centered, manageable creative practice for your family at home, or to integrate with your homeschool or classroom curriculum.

Our guides are 25 pages and include:

• Each month is based on a theme or “Big Idea” that ties to every offering in the guide

• 20 creative invitations using everyday, low-prep materials that are either recycled, collected in nature, or already on hand

• 2 extended art projects that can be worked on over a longer period of time to build creative confidence, either collaboratively or individually in the classroom

• Master supply list

• Mindfulness routines to help nurture connection and physical and emotional development, build in opportunities to self-regulate, and feel grounded throughout the school day

• Tips on organizing and designing the classroom environment to nurture independence

• Guidance on extending invitations through the use of stations to inspire more creativity and innovation and for children to return to independently

• Curricular connections within the guide’s creative offerings in math, literacy, science and social studies

• A rich, teacher-approved picture book list with an emphasis on diversity, inclusion, earth stewardship, and kindness

• An artist spotlight that connects with the theme and nurtures a child’s curiosity, provides them ways to notice and appreciate diverse perspectives, and establishes an early foundation for art appreciation

• A one-page calendar of the month’s invitations for easy reference and planning