21 Apr Creativity in our Homes
If there’s one thing our children look forward to during their school break, it’s the free time they have with their brothers and sisters to do things they enjoy outside of school. We love encouraging our children to pursue their passions and get their creative juices flowing, especially when they have a great time doing it. Over the last few weeks, the children in Kitalale and Kikuyu have spent their afternoons diving into creative projects, and the outcomes of these projects have us beaming with pride.
The children were all smiles when they showed us their creations, and our hearts were filled with joy. Our children have great talents, and with God’s blessings, they have the opportunity to highlight and hone these talents in our homes. Today, we’re excited to share some of our children’s creations with you.
A Game of Checkers
Blessing from our Kitalale home has always loved playing the game of checkers, and so he decided to make a board that he could play on. Blessing used a scrap board that was left behind after our recent home renovations. He cut the board to make it a perfect square and then painted out checks using black and white paint. Then he went ahead and used bottle caps from two different brands of soda to differentiate the teams on the checkers’ board. Lastly, Blessing nailed some abandoned frames on the bottom of the board to stand it up properly.
Since this spontaneous innovation, our staff and children have enjoyed playing each other at Checkers, and conversations around the picnic table have been ‘heated’. It is so lovely to see all our children enjoying the game and taking part in strategic collaborations. All thanks to Blessing and his creativity!
Science starts early in our Home!
Ever heard of the fact that a toy launched the flying obsession between the Wright Brothers, America’s Aviation Pioneers who changed the world completely? This is why we welcome creativity with open arms in our homes. We love to encourage our children to play and be creative in their environment.
Uncle Sam, our Houseparent at the Kikuyu Home is nurturing our childrens’ inquisitive minds, helping them explore their creativity by making toys, such as cars and other toys using waste materials like old cartons, bottle tops, wood, wire, and strings.
Some of the children who are most intrigued by mechanics include Okoth, Mark, Dennis, Fabby, Michael and our babies (Jesse, Jonathan and Joshua). They used their creative minds to make toy cars out of recycled materials.
Every part of the toy vehicle was made systemically. Here’s a breakdown of what our children used to make their toy cars:
- Wheels – The wheels were made using bottle tops from waste containers
- Steering Rack – The steering wheel and gears were made using a wooden stick
- Body: The body of the car was made out of wires which were carefully strung together to look like the shape of a car or a bus. The children then used cardboard to cover the wired frame and painted over this using crayons and colored pencils. To top it off, they even made a license plate labeled “KDF-078D” to represent our Kikuyu vehicle.
Our children were over-the-moon with their creation. They spent the rest of the day driving their new car around the home, while bonding and strengthening team building. Our children treated their car with a lot of care, making sure that the parts were intact and no damage was caused to the car.
We feel so blessed and grateful to see our children thrive in their creative environments.
Taking Creativity to Another Level: Making Play Phones
Josephine from our Kikuyu home has always had a fascination with mobile phones. When she’s playing with her brothers and sisters, Josephine makes it a point to have make-believe conversations on the “phone” with her hands by her ears. She looks at our aunties and uncles, mesmerized, when they use their mobile phones. As a result of her love for phones, Josephine came up with the idea of making one for herself.
Josephine made her play phone out of an old cell phone cover from one of the aunties. She cut out paper neatly in the shape of a mobile phone and drew out the keyboard, volume buttons, and a screen. She then went ahead and painted the phone to make it more colorful. Since its creation, the play phone has become a house favorite. You can see our younger children carrying it around and pretending to have a conversation on the phone with someone. But, the most touching moment was when Josephine gifted her play phone to playmate and sister Vivian Njoki. When Vivian received the play phone, she was absolutely delighted, and has been carrying the phone tucked in her pocket with her everywhere.
We’re so proud of our children for taking these strides and making such innovative toys to share with their brothers and sisters. Creativity is one of our core focus areas and seeing the children come up with such original, environmentally-friendly ideas is really heartwarming.
With God’s grace, our children have grown up to love, care for, and support one another in our homes unconditionally. Seeing it come to life on a daily basis is such a blessing.
Easter Decorations
Elaine, our Chief Operating Officer at Children of Hope, is thrilled to be currently visiting our children in Kenya. Elaine is close to children in both homes, and knows the children love doing art in their free time. So during Easter week, Elaine sat with the children and aunties to create Easter decorations for the home. To celebrate Easter in our homes, Elaine and the children used crosses from older art projects to trace onto new paper and create decorations. The children wrote “Happy Easter” on one side of the cross, and colored the other side with bright, fun colors to make the decor stand out. This was a great activity that not only allowed our children to showcase their creativity, but also reminded them about Easter and the significance of the cross.
We feel incredibly proud to see the children in our homes showcasing their creative talents in such a beautiful way. None of this would have been possible without your constant support. We are eternally grateful for our community.