Kids and Their Animals

Kids and Their Animals

It is clear to us that animals teach us many lessons, if we are willing to listen and learn them. Children are WONDERFUL in this regard because they know so well that you don't have to speak the same language to communicate perfectly. Adults, with all of our rational nonsense forget this all too often.

This magnificent past weekend, the first in Spring, reminded me of how amazing the relationships between kids and animals can truly be. Yes of course we all hear the horror stories in the news about troubled children who torture and kill animals...but that is an extreme abnormality. Most often we see amazingly loving relationships.

Of course, at Lillunia we love to expose babies and children to animals that they might not otherwise see- like Tigers and Monkeys and Polar Bears. But just to watch the magic between a girl and her pony or a boy and his dog or any endless number of loving and respectful relationships between our kids and their animals is true magic.

And the magic works on so many levels. "Pets" teach our children responsibility to be sure, but they also teach kids how to share, how to play "together", how to think about the needs of something other than oneself...and ultimately how to appreciate the diversity of life that is enjoying the world with us!

We love watching these relationships and fostering them whenever possible. We hope you, and your kids do too!

www.lillunia.com

On Nurturing Communities You Keep

On Nurturing Communities You Keep

The founders of Lillunia were fortunate to go to The Chapin School in New York together. Besides being an extraordinary place to learn and to grow and to evolve, the community at Chapin has served us long after our tenure ended, fostering an unparalleled alumnae community that is endlessly supportive, receptive and nurturing.

On March 2, 2010 Lillunia visited Chapin in order to give a talk to an Upper School Art class called Pencils to Pixels. Characteristic of our experience with the school, the head of the art department who is teaching the course was a dearly beloved teacher of ours when we were in school and a very special person who we have kept in touch with all of these years.

We had a blast to be sure, and were reminded of the fundamental...in fact, essential value of communities like Chapin; communities that teach children to constantly learn and to be inquisitive, to follow their dreams and to believe in themselves.

We are so grateful to the school for all that they have given us, and to our parents for having had the wisdom to send us there.

We hope that we will have the wisdom to put our children in environments that foster such positive growth and enduring relationships. These are truly the types of communities that make humanity such an interesting thing to be a part of!

In some small way- we at Lillunia are trying to foster a community as well; a community of like-minded, responsible children who learn early in their lives all that they have to give to our planet and their individual communities; nurturing being at the heart of this all...

Embrace the Unusual: Animals outside the Box

Embrace the Unusual:

Animals Outside the Box

Don't be afraid of strange! The

world is filled with extraordinary creatures big and small...and our experience tells us that for our little ones- the more unusual the better!

Nurseries are filled with little lamb and bears and giraffe and monkeys-- and we love these creatures- they are the stuff baby dreams are made of.

But there are thousands of unusual creatures- that our little ones may NEVER meet (except perhaps in the Zoo) - but they are just as important to their understanding of their own place in this big beautiful shared world.

Anyone who has watched "Meercat Manner" http://animal.discovery.com/fansites/meerkat/meerkat.html has certainly fallen in love with these smart and complex little mammals whose nurturing and endearing family relationships make them an ideal example of for our children of how other families work in the wild.





Our Meercats will be on our website any day now. If you are interested in them (and we can change the polka dot boarder to any color scheme you would like- blues, greens, yellows etc) please let us know at info@lillunia.com.


Love your Babies! Love Your Animals....

Embrace Strange!

Green Babies

How young is too young to raise green children? And what exactly does this mean?

As parents we have an endless stream of information about behavior, food and products in order to live very healthy and proactively environmentalist lives; and this is true for us, and of course our children.

Yes, this means waisting less, recycling & reusing, trading our "disposable everything" habits for more sound practices (clothe diapers, wooden toys...). But it also means reading books with ecological messages, reading books about "real" animals in the wild world, about nature and environmental preservation. They are NOT too young to understand we all share one precious home called earth.

Children never cease to amaze with their sharp minds and generous understanding of concepts in which adults become tangled. Similar to the languages babies and young children learn with such apparent ease, environmental conservation is a language that will come naturally to your little one.

It is an interesting time in that adults are learning the language of environmentalism at the same time that we are teaching it to our children. Pretty soon, like all things digital, our children will be telling us the best practices...and as usual, we will be learning fro them.

We can and will raise a new generation of adults who do not think twice about building in environmental consequences into every decision they make...effortlessly. They will have learned very early, in the crib, in the stroller, in the park and the Zoo- what a vital role they will play in the future of our planet and its myriad and magnificent life forms.

So...no...it is never too early to lead yur babies down the road to "green-ness"- it is natural to life to want to protect and nurture one another...even little babies know this!

I get shivers thinking about it!

www.lillunia .com

*the images above can be found at http://www.lillunia.com/-FOCUS-SERIES-ART/Dierdre-s-Dolphins-p62.html and Penguins by special order at info@lillunia.com

Giving a "Little" some Big Love

At Lillunia we try to give all we can to the people, animals and issues that matter to us. Like so many of our friends and people in our social/working communities, we have so much to balance- it is a challenge.

One of Lillunia's founders, Laura Hill, participates in Big Brothers Big Sisters Workplace Mentoring program. In the program she has a "little" who she adores: a super talented, precocious go-getter from the Lower East Side in Manhattan. Together they are quite the pair- always giggling, creating and enjoying each other's company.

One program day Laura's little excitedly told her about her little Chihuahua "Rocco." Laura though her little might like a portrait of her little pup:

Voila!

We are so happy to share all we can with our favorite people: Big and Little!

www.lillunia.com

Living with Art: Children

I guess it is pretty unusual that all "the lovely ladies of Lillunia" were born and raised in NYC ("natives" as they say). With all of the difficulties associated with raising a family in the city, there are some extraordinary benefits; benefits that we are all certain we feel and experience to this day.

One of the amazing gifts of the city has been a life-long immersion in and engagement with art. The exposure and resources were staples of our childhoods and, although our individual experiences may have been different, the art in each of our lives had profound effects on who we are, what we care about and what we do with our lives.

Anyone who has experience with children and art (both viewing/experiencing and making their own art) is aware of the transformative effects upon them.

Children have wide-open, unspoiled imaginations...just ready for a spark. They learn so fast and furiously, that when they are given the chance to look at, process and make their own sense of images and sculpture and installations- the sky is truly the limit. It is a beautiful process to watch.

We feel so fortunate to have had such broad exposure to art when we were children and we feel this gives us special insight as adults; we understand the wide and magnificent world we present to our children when we expose them to art.

You don't have to live in NYC or a city at all to do this for your kids. With all of the digital resources and the library, we have so many ways to introduce art into the lives of the little.

Don't be afraid to show your little ones "sophisticated" images: even if you feel challenged by the "meaning"- let them engage in whatever way they do. I will never forget my then, 3-yr old niece at MOMA in NY viewing a Jackson Pollack- her words "I did that"...priceless!

*Picture 2 of the Ladies of Lillunia as kids in NYC- Lillunia founders Eve Gianni Corio and Laura L.M. Hill (1980s)

www.lillunia.com

Our Animals

OUR ANIMALS

Lillunia is devoted to education, art, animals and the environment. We know that animals have so much to teach us about nurturing our little ones while not upsetting the balance of the natural world we share. In countless ways they teach us to nurture the world that nurtures us.

We also know that the people we love, LOVE their animals the way we do. They are absolutely a part of the family. This is why we decided to incorporate pet portraits into our collection of work.

The unbelievable inter-species bonds between people and their animals is something that constantly amazes and charms us- from our own extraordinary interaction with our cats and dogs and horses - to our friends experiences...the stories are all different, but all share that inexplicable, magical connection.

Love your Families, Love Your Animals...

*Melvin in the Garden and many other pet portraits are currently being incorporated into our website www.lillunia.com. For ordering information, please contact us at info@lillunia.com