Oh Creative Lady: Meet Cara Florance

The Interwebs is a busy and noisy place, right? But you know that magical feeling when occasionally you stumble across a new-to-you person who BLOWS YOUR SOCKS OFF?! That’s Cara Florance.
Every time I visit Cara’s feed, she blows my mind. Just this week I liked a post where she flippantly mentioned that she thought she’d set up a laser table for her girls to play with. Who *just* sets up laser tables during naptime? Cara Florance, that’s who!
Cara is a scientist and author who is passionate about raising scientifically-literate little humans. She shares play ideas that are firmly rooted in science and eloquently explains the science behind them in a way that is so easy to understand.

Through blogging and Instagramming, I’ve been introduced to an amazing Virtual Sisterhood of Creative Ladies.
The Oh Creative Lady series is your chance to meet these incredible, kind-hearted, inspiring <insert ALL the happy, positive adjectives HERE> women.

Meet Cara Florance.

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A post shared by 🧬🧪 Play Ideas! 🔬🧫 (@cara_florance) on Sep 19, 2019 at 4:47am PDT

I am… a mother of two girls, a wife, a scientist, and an author. We live in Boston, Massachusetts, USA while my husband is finishing school after a career change. Currently, I’m a stay-at-home-mom during the day. At night, I write and illustrate children’s books about science. I am eternally antsy. I love moving (both my body and my home), I love new projects, and I love not having a routine. When my children are school-aged, I plan to go back to work as a research scientist, but until then, I am embracing the cray cray of being at home with kids.

I find inspiration… in my kids. I like to share projects we do on Instagram and a lot of them are inspired by my children’s play. I think they are super creative and I love being able to see their minds work and manipulate toys and art in ways I would have never thought of. My books are also inspired by them. I want them (and everyone) to be scientifically literate. I don’t care if they become scientists or doctors or whatever, I just want everyone to be empowered and knowledgeable in our increasingly science and tech-based world.

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A post shared by 🧬🧪 Play Ideas! 🔬🧫 (@cara_florance) on Nov 3, 2019 at 4:01am PST

I’m excited about… everything! I have some new books coming out in the next several months, one just came out on November 5th. We are moving, and I’m excited to see where we will be assigned to (for my husband’s job). We are currently deciding if we will have another baby so I’m excited about possibly having another one or possibly closing up shop (how do you decide?!?!).

(These are affiliate links.)

When I’m in a creative slump I…work on another project. I have several side-hustles, most of which are not pressing, so when I have a mental block I just pick one that I’m interested in at the moment, then go back to the things that I have deadlines for.

I’m really proud of… my babies. I know I should be proud of work accomplishments or something, but my babies are kind and creative and wonderful and it makes me the happiest I’ve ever been.

Someone once told me…do what you love and you will never work a day in your life because no one is hiring. It always makes me laugh and reminds me not only that no job is perfect, but that it is up to us to make the most of our free time to feel fulfilled.

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A post shared by 🧬🧪 Play Ideas! 🔬🧫 (@cara_florance) on Oct 10, 2019 at 5:26am PDT

My advice to you is…don’t be afraid to learn something right along side your child. Have you ever wanted to learn to code? Or learn to sew? Or learn to knit? I bet your kid would love to do it with you. Showing them that learning is a lifelong quest- one that is fun, exciting, and rewarding- is one of the most powerful things you can teach someone. And, you get to learn something too! It is so important to show that not knowing something is fine and natural, not something to be ashamed of. Show them that it is ok to ask questions, to not understand a concept the first time it’s explained, to want to learn more. If we instill this comfort and confidence in our children now, it will pay them dividends in the years to come.