But something was holding me back, and I recognize now that it was my own need for order and flow. My brain's desire for activities to tie to a central theme, and my gut churning because it felt that something in the winter session of the Birds of Prey Club just didn't get wrapped up. This, of course, is okay. There was plenty that we didn't get to, partly due to our brief need to bring some self-imposed order to our meetings, partly because of illness, and partly because I lacked energy to do the preparation needed to get to that end point I so desired. Perhaps I was also reading that the group just wasn't into learning about the potential threats to the Arctic.
Somehow, inspiration came in the form of Inuit art, and opening the possibility of marrying an ancient craft with ancient navigation techniques. We would briefly explore Inuit culture (including the role of Inuksuks and carvings) and finish with carving soap in whatever form the children chose.
I have never carved soap before, so I headed straight to the internet to learn more. My first couple of finds made me reconsider the wisdom of this project. For I saw a gentleman sawing away pieces of soap, and another using what looked like a very large carving knife. This was not what I had in mind, and panic briefly struck me.
Fortunately, narrowing down my search to "soap carving with children" provided some much more kid-friendly results, which I'll share tomorrow.
For today, though, we prepared and practiced. We brought out some craft sticks and some sandpaper to make some rudimentary carving tools. We cracked open a couple of bars of soap to see if our tools would work, and to learn some of the hands-on "do's" and "don'ts".
Here's looking forward to tomorrow, knowing that at least the craft part of our afternoon is ready to go.
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