Hi John,

Last summer I crossed paths with Missy Pepperpot, owner and visionary behind The Children's Art Factory in Guelph, Ontario (Canada). She's wildly creative and built an interactive space for children and their families to explore and express their creativity.

I had the pleasure of chatting with Missy about her space, and specifically asked if she has any tips for those of us who want to make our homes havens for making. Missy shares three helpful takeaways:

1. Don't be afraid of messes. Messes have to happen for art to happen. The more you offer messy things, the less often messes will happen.
2. Have a dedicated space for making where materials are accessible to the child for independent making whenever they choose.
3. Lean into patience: When you first set materials out, children may likely use too much and make a big mess. Be patient! The more you trust them, the more they will learn to self- regulate, especially if they know you won’t take the items away. The more trust that’s built, the more you can add messy items.

She shares more gems in this TinkerLab article: Tinkering Spaces: The Children's Art Factory. We've also partnered for an Instagram giveaway that closes in a couple hours. If you haven't seen it yet, pop over here by 5 pm PT today for a chance to win a portable mudpie kitchen kit.

Are you raising a bright child with learning, social, emotional, and/or behavioral challenges?

If so, today is the last day of the Bright & Quirky Child Summit.

Register for free and get access to talks on Coping, Growing, Self Care, Taming the Stress, Neurodiversity, Motivating Kids, and more. The summit is PACKED with tools and strategies to tame the overwhelm in these uncertain times. I just heard that they are opening up ALL the talks this weekend from Sat 8am to Sun 10pm Pacific Time. Register for free here.

Spring is in the air! Not sure how to tie the season in to your creative home? We have your mornings and afternoons covered with ideas for indoor and outdoor arts and crafts for your kids. You'll find ideas like rock painting, slide drawing, and photo scavenger hunt, and building a mud pie kitchen (a good one for Pi day, coming up this Sunday!).

Related to Pi Day, if you have a toddler you might enjoy trying this simple circle tracing activity, one of the first TinkerLab projects, and oh-so-fun to see my little toddler making circles in the photos.

Finally, I enjoyed reading this NYTs piece by artist Jenny Holzer. She asked 75 artists to open up about their creative travails and triumphs a year into the pandemic. It's an enlightening read.

Have a great weekend.

Warmly,

Rachelle Doorley is the author of TinkerLab: A Hands-on Guide for Little Inventors and TinkerLab Art Starts.