That outlet is art journaling. You can find a lot of amazing ideas out there to inspire you if you go looking. You can even take a peek at my pinterest board (see board here ) for some of the random things that have caught my attention along the way. Some of them are pretty amazing and way beyond what I'm doing, but this is the kind of thing I have time for right now, not the super detailed amazing stuff. Basically, I try to find some way to turn the things I'm thinking about into a visually, whether through doodling or sketching, and often add some scribblings of my thoughts.
I also got to thinking about getting my children started with this, and remembered a school course for art and penmanship that Mom used when my brothers and sisters were young called - Draw Write Now. It combined a step by step drawing and some penmanship practice. The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that this was something I wanted to incorporate into my school program for them this year. Instead of going out and buying a set of workbooks, I decided to run out to Michael's and grab them each a multimedia book of blank pages. On these pages we will draw, color, and paint a picture related to their science and history lessons and copy some words for penmanship practice. I may also allow them to do some art journaling of their own on subjects that inspire them.
Here is a collage of their first project.
Even Edward wants to be involved in this. I probably should have bought him a scribble book too!
