Art and Soul

The Flourishing Families team are very excited to have completed our very first Art and Soul project- a weekly craft and coffee morning where parents can enjoy some much needed time to themselves whilst discussing the joys and challenges of family life.

After breaking the ice with a Michael Macintyre sketch and some introductory stories, our first session was focused on celebrating the positives of parenting and forming strategies to combat the negative thoughts and doubts that can so easily catch us off-guard. To help us do this we drew family trees, with each branch representing something we considered a strength in our family.

We were really pleased when one of the parents in the group told us that she added more branches to the tree with her daughter at home, and how this was a really positive experience for them both.

In the subsequent weeks we covered themes such as communication, active listening, words of affirmation, authoritative parenting, routines, co-operation, family traditions, and finding ways to relax. A mixture of discussion questions, videos, stories, activities and crafts made for an engaging and creative space, where everyone was drawn into the theme and felt able to share thoughts and contribute ideas.

Much as we love running clubs whole families, it was very precious to have the chance to get to know these parents in a calm and peaceful setting with no excitable children in the room! We look forward to partnering with more schools next academic year to run Art and Soul and are very excited to see where things develop from here.