Artsy Mondays

 Every Monday my sister-in-law and I get together and teach our boys a science & art block.

...I should rephrase that. Every Monday my sister-in-law teaches the children a well-prepared lesson in Marine Biology with thoughtful experiments while I scramble to think of an art project to occupy them, afterward. (Sorry Lu!)

All three of our boys are very artistic and creative and love drawing, creating and making music, so art is an easy thing to teach. Sometimes we are casual about it and just draw whatever's in our imaginations that day and sometimes we have a little more structure to things, like today.

Every year on this day we celebrate, read about and continue to be inspired by the life and work of Martin Luther King, Jr. 

This year, I thought I would entwine his legacy and story for the boys into a creative art project : a Mosaic style drawing of MLK Jr., representing all the many colours and differences in the people around us. A mosaic reminding us that we are all different, unique and yet part of one big picture, when we come together.

Colour is so beautiful and today, it really helped show the kids how different, but equal, we all are!

While we coloured, we listened to music, took turns reading about Dr.King and who he was, compared crayons to see their value despite being different colours & discussed our own family heritage.

Within our crazy little blended family, the places of origin stretch from Ireland to Italy to Denmark to the West Indies and many places in between! (Don't come at me for Geography, I'm sure I couldn't made that trip much smoother!). 

As a family, we look a lot like this mosaic; mixed, blended, bright & colourful. 

We coloured away and, as we put the pieces together, we read out some of Dr.King's famous "I Have a Dream" Speech.

"I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character."      - MLK Jr. 

Martin Luther King is a source of inspiration, for so many of us, and I am so thankful his legacy lives on to share with our children. In a world where things were black and white, and separated as such, he dared to dream of a more colourful world; a world where we are seen for more than being just one thing or the other. A world where love and compassion guide our actions, not race or status. 

MLK Jr. reminds us that we don't have to all be the same to love each other. We don't have to look the same, live the same or even think the same, to love each other.  He reminds us, as he famously said, that only love can drive out hate and only light can drive out darkness. 

Thanks for the reminder, Dr.King

✌🏽