The world of a parent is often split up into very specific seasons:
• Winter means decorating for the holidays, entertaining family and Christmas shopping.
• Spring requires registering for summer camp, driving to sports and tying up loose ends before school is out.
• Summer is part camp, part camping, part “when the heck do these kids go back to school?!”
• Fall is probably the most clearly defined season for caregivers. It’s all about “back-to-school.” Early bedtimes, packing lunches and helping with homework.
However, autumn doesn’t have to be all academic. It is also one of the most colourful seasons we experience in BC, and it lends itself to creativity, imagination and self-expression.
Back-to-school brings with it a certain expectation of “getting back to work” but there are ways to incorporate creativity and imagination into all parts of your life this season.
Reinvigorate a room in your house, like the playroom or office, so it inspires innovation and originality. Get creative in where you explore this fall. Research a new area to hike in, take the dog a different way for your daily walk, go autumn camping, discover a playground you have never explored before. While you are outside, challenge your kids to find leaves that are every colour of the rainbow and then create a gorgeous collage (and hang it in your revamped room!).
Not all creativity or art can be found on a canvas; listen to some new music; dance like no one is watching; start a journal; write, direct, act in and film a play. Learn a new skill, make your own videogame, bake a cheesecake—try something new!
Although fall is traditionally seen as the time to hunker down and learn, we say there is no reason you can’t find new, creative, inventive, imaginative and extraordinary ways to do so.
– Stacie Gaetz