My kids love art and craft, however, I have not signed up my kids for any art and craft lessons as I have been hearing stories that such structured lessons kill creativity. Then, I saw a free deal for free art lesson and really jumped into it. Now I have a good excuse to let my kids go for a trial class (and it’s free!)and see for myself how killing it can be.
It was a bank account promotion to sign up trial art lesson at WowART Learning Studio. We went there on a Sunday late afternoon. XX and YH were excited especially they have been watching children’s tv show that taught art and craft with an art class background shoot. And not to mention all kids love art and craft.
The class was a comfortable size of 5 kids age ranging 5-8 years old. That day’s topic was on Sunflower. The kids were briefed by a friendly teacher who showed them a big stalk of Sunflower and photos showing different angles of Sunflowers. After that, they were given a black sheet of paper and taught to draw a circle in the middle. They were given short oil pastels to colour their own ideas of how the flower looks like. The oil pastels resemble broken pencil ends and the kids were taught to use them in “sleep” position and they gave amazingly beautiful colour strokes!
For the next part of the art, the kids were given two 8×8 cm square Styrofoam boards. On them, they use pencils to carve out sunflowers in different views, one lateral and one top view. This was a little hard on YH as he tried his best to carve out the picture using the right strength without spoiling the picture. XX could do this better. After that, they chose their own colours to paint over the 2 sunflowers. Then, using the Styrofoam as a stencil, they stamped hard onto 2 pieces of white paper.
Voila! Here’s the final masterpieces of XX and YH!
(By the way, did you see that YH wrote his name on his masterpiece in gold letterings? I am amazed he has such neat handwriting and he is only 6 and is a boy!)
While the kids happily brought their pails, palettes and brushes for washing, the teacher pasted their artwork on a black piece of paper with cardboard frame. All the while, I was peeping through a window with baby YT and kel outside the classroom. I thought that it was thoughtful that the big window satisfied the curious parents while not disturbing the class. I was able to flick out my camera as and when and take photos through this window.
When the masterpieces were presented before me, I exclaimed with much pride and admiration, so much so that I think other mummies were casting a critical look at my direction. Well, I must have looked like a country bumpkin or super drama yummy mummy with exaggerating praises for my kids’ masterpieces! Well, sorry mummies, I love to give lots of praises when it comes to my children’s artwork. I simply love their art and drawings even from their toddler days! I could even admire their art pieces for minutes at a go! (it has to be minutes, couldn’t be hours yeah?!) I do not think I could have come close to what they have done when I was their age. So, please bear with me while I savour their little masterpieces…
The kids enjoyed their first art lesson very much. And they have been bugging me to sign them up for the June holidays art classes. I think the myth of art classes killing creativity may not apply to all, depending on the philosophy of the art school. Our one-time experience shows that art classes fascinate children and they were taught much attention to details on the subject that otherwise they would never had paid much attention to. Also, the techniques used in bringing an otherwise boring drawing to one with much colour and life to it, couldn’t have been taught at home nor explored on our own. Besides, my sister-in-law took her lovely girl to another art school which has similar philosophy, i.e., teaching details on subjects with art and craft. (You can read it over here.) It further confirms that art lessons are fun and have lots to learn from!
I am happy the kids enjoy and so do I!
