Art can be so beautiful!

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.

 kids at artwork

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!

XX masterpiece

YH masterpiece

(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.

kids washing up

 

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…

kids' masterpieces May 2013

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!

A simple and relax birthday celebration for a 6 year old

Most mums will celebrate their kids’ birthday with much fanfare.  In our family, only the 1st birthday is a bigger party to celebrate our kids’ first year’s milestone.  For all birthdays after that, we prefer to have a simple celebration with our close families, which often may seem more of a family gathering for the adults and fun play time for the young ones.
 
I am not a party person, but I love to organize and plan parties for the little ones.  I usually leave the food part to my husband, and activities part to myself.
 
Early this month, we held a simple birthday celebration for YH who turned 6 this year.  Prior to the celebration day, I printed a crown from picklebums for YH to decorate and wear on his birthday.  I printed a tiara for XX too, so that she can join in the fun.  Almost everything I do for one kid, I have to think for the other 🙂 
 
7 kids
 
The party started with a steamboat dinner fully prepared by my dear hubby, kel.  The kids sat on one small table and finished their food pretty fast, while the adults ate for a full 2 hours, eating and chatting away.  After the dinner, it was art and craft time!  All the kids (6 of them, including my XX and YH, the other 4 are their cousins) sat around 2 small tables and started making a turtle which they would be bringing back home. I gave them each an egg carton as the turtle’s shell.  One pompom and 2 eyes for the turtle’s head.  4 pipe cleaners for the turtle’s legs. And each a paint brush and paint to decorate the turtle’s shell. 
 
Making Turtles
 
YH painting turtle shell
 
Gluing the turtle legs
 
Voila!  Here’s the end product of the cute little turtles the 6 kids did!  Of course, I helped them along in gluing the pipe cleaner legs to the shell.  As some of the “legs” did not glue on properly, I used a stapler to do the job which I believe could better tolerate the kids’ rough playing of the turtles especially for the boys.
 
The turtles!!
 
While waiting for the turtles’ legs to dry, the kids played with Lego Duplo blocks.  After that, each kid went home with a small gift and the turtle they make.  But not before 2 birthday songs (one in English and one in Chinese) and a piece of KungFu Panda cake each.
 
Happy 6th Birthday YH 
 
Among the kids, the oldest is a 13 year-old teen and youngest is a 4 year-old kid.  I was glad that the teen (my beloved niece) joined in the art and craft and enjoyed painting her own turtle.  The youngest managed well with help from the older kids. 
 
This was a simple birthday celebration cum family gathering.  No fanfare, no wows, no rules, no stress.  Yet, I feel is the perfect celebration I wanted for everyone.  Relax and simple.  And then, there’s a Part 2 to the celebration.  On the actual day of YH’s birthday, he was treated to a SPECIAL day of fun with just kel and me and him.  No other kids.  So that all attention is to be showered on him and just him!
 
What’s your preferred style of family celebration?