Where Do You Get Your Inspiration?

I have had several people ask me the question:  Where do you get your inspiration?  Where do you come up with what you write about?

I created Inspiration Laboratories as a place to share my inspirations and hopefully inspire others.  I mostly blog about things my son and I do.

Sometimes I’ll see an activity on a fabulous blog like one of these.  Aiden and I will do the activity and one thing may lead to another and we have a completely new idea.  My Pinterest boards are full of amazing ideas I am wanting to try out.

More often than not, I am inspired by my son’s own actions.  A walk through the park becomes a great list of ideas I think other people might want to try.  A walk with Daddy becomes something sweet and precious I want to share.  When I find books Aiden adores, I write about them because I love  great book recommendations and hope you do, too.  I get bored with playing trains the same way over and over {although repetition is good for learning}, so I have to mix it up and add something new.

I am inspired by my friend, Karen’s efforts at going green.   I am passionate about environmental issues and would love to have time stay up on the latest green news and ideas for making small changes in our lives that have huge consequences on our world.  I asked Karen to start a series here at Inspiration Laboratories to help us do just that.

I would consider myself a creative person.  Being a teacher and writing curriculum helps unleash your creative self.  I have original ideas and plans along the way like this Hidden Maze idea I shared at A Mom with a Lesson Plan.  Aiden really liked that activity, but he turned it into this idea and liked playing with an empty box better.

The goal of this site is to encourage learning through creativity and play.  I don’t have any set lesson plans or scripts that I follow with my son.  (He’s 2 and a 1/2.)  I do have a great “bag of tricks” so speak that I pull from every day.  At his age, learning will naturally happen.  My job is to facilitate the learning and provide him with experiences that allow him to learn.

This means being attuned to his interests.  Asking him questions.  Setting up situations for discovery.  Giving him the freedom to explore.  Answering his questions.  {He asks “what’s that?” quite often right now.  If I don’t know, we go investigate.}   Thinking on my feet – “oh that makes me think of this…we should add this to what we are doing.”

Have you noticed that many of my science posts give you sample questions to ask your little ones?  My hope here is to inspire you to take a step further in your play.  Asking questions helps foster learning.  It helps your little ones make connections they might not make on their own.

All in all I would say my inspiration comes from all around me.

What about you?  Where do you get your inspiration?