Among all the enrichment lessons Dana attends, she enjoys Art the most. It’s not uncommon to see her doodling on the whiteboard easel and on drawing paper. My office wall also boasts a growing collection of her drawings. Being the outdoorsy, adventurous girl that she is, it came as a pleasant surprise she loves art so much she repeatedly ask for art lessons. Not wanting to dampen her enthusiasm, we decided to re-shuffle our schedules and recently enrolled her at HeART Studio.
Why HeART Studio you may ask? Why Art?
1. The Teachers at HeART Studio Rock
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| Showing Dana how to do graduated shading… |
Teacher Elma is the teacher for Little Picasso class (for 5-6 years old). A graduate from LaSalle College of the Arts with a Degree with 2nd class honors in Fine Arts Painting, Teacher Elma is patient, caring yet firm. She is able to pace the kindergarteners in their drawing during the 1h 15min class time, and knows how to keep lessons lively and interesting. Together with Teacher Gaz and Teacher Syafiq, the trio form the core teaching team and all of them are outstanding art educators. They greet the kids warmly and make them feel like part a big close-knitted creative family. It is because of this fun and loving atmosphere that Dana looks forward to her class at HeART Studio every week.
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| The talented Teacher Elma and her proud little ‘disciple’… |
2. Teaches Project Management Skills
Lessons at HeART Studio are structured into 5 week mini project basis. This instills in kids the very important values of patience, perseverance and delayed gratification. As such, children derive personal satisfaction from creating and finishing an art project over a course of 5 weeks before receiving praise for their completed artwork from people who matter – it’s a valuable life-long skill.
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| She embarked on a 5 week project on drawing water lilies where she learnt a different skill each week. |
Learning to draw and paint is just like learning how to play piano or cycling – it takes practice. At HeART Studio, the kid are given the room and space to interpret the themes creatively with an open mind as opposed to following a pre-determined template which they must reproduce blindly. As such, no two artwork are exactly the same.
When Dana sees her classmates in the art class having very different ways of painting the same subject, she quickly learns to accept different points of views. They may be different from hers but equally valuable and precious. Some of these artwork may look nicer than her own. It teaches young children the concept of diversity of opinions.
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| No two completed artwork is alike! They are all masterpieces, one of a kind! |
When presented with a topic, the teachers in HeART Studio guide the kids to examine and study the subject, describe it, remember it, analyze it and try to recreate what they see in their mind’s eye. It’s an early training to deconstruct a complex problem in real life by breaking it down into smaller, manageable parts. Various art techniques and skills are slowly introduced to the kids every week, building on their prior knowledge and level of mastery.
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| Learning how to draw lily pads and outline the painting with Chinese ink… |
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| Painting a single Water Lily on a single Lotus Pad before progressing to paint the more complex Water Lily Pond… |
6. Boosts Attention Span and Concentration
When creating an artwork, the kids have to be seated and focused on their sketching, colouring or painting for an extended period of time. This training in concentration comes in handy as it helps them to learn to ignore distractions. Even when other kids are being disruptive in class, the teachers encourage the kids to maintain their attention span on their task at hand.
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| That look of concentration and determination is something we only observe in Art lessons! |
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| Even blowing dry your artwork takes patience… |
Because there’s never a wrong way of creating art, kids feel a great sense of pride in their original artistic creations. Give any two children in the class the same art materials, the same subject and you’ll find two brilliantly different interpretations. When teachers and parents praise their efforts, their self-esteem soars! We like it that at HeART Studio, teachers make an effort to display the children’s art pieces in the studio and post them on Facebook. Hopefully in the near future, there will be other platforms to showcase the artwork on other platforms such as a mini HeART Studio exhibition!
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| The finished project! |
We all know that the human brain consists the left and the right hemisphere. The left brain is used in logical thinking and analytical processes. This is typically trained in school work that consists of math, reading and science. The right brain is used in perception, intuition and creativity. It is mainly used when a person is involved in creative process such as creating art. It is this part of the brain that our academically-driven school environment tends to neglect.
Art strengthens the connection between the left and right brain. Kids who are exposed to the arts are using both sides of the brain in tandem, thus achieving the full potential of the mind.
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| Be sure to check out HeART Studio! |
We are pleased with the intrinsic motivation and enjoyment the weekly Art lessons have given Dana so far. Do check out their December Holiday Programmes on their Website or Facebook! Enjoy early Bird discount from now till 24th November 2013.
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| December Art Holiday Camps at HeART Studio! |
For a chance to win your child a Workshop Pass for the December Holiday Camps at HeART Studio, hop over to these parenting blogs:
1. Beanie N Us
2. A Happy Mum
3. Toddly Mommy
4. Simply Mommie
5. Catch Forty Winks
Beautiful work by Dana!