My Art Studio

Since H is no longer going for his edudrama class, I thought it would be good for him to try out art lessons. When I told Hubs about this, his reaction was, "we need to be smart about choosing the programmes for our kids cos weekends are precious, and art isn't a priority!" Why not? I totally disagree. Art is not just about sketching and colouring, it's more than that but most people just don't see the value in it. Anyway, I was quite adamant about H taking on art. I asked H if he wanted to go for a trial lesson and he said yes. He was actually quite excited about going to the art class (perhaps it's more to do with being with his cousin who's also attending the same art class).

I must say I'm really happy with My Art Studio. For the first time, H was actually keen to participate. I had no problem getting him into the class, he went in on his own. I also had no problem leaving him there on his own (I can't be sitting there waiting for him for 2 hours). Perhaps it's really cos his cousin is there, but they aren't in the same class so it's not like they get to interact during the lesson. But what I'm really happy about is that the teachers are really engaging. You can tell that they really adore kids, which is perhaps why H took to the teachers quite readily.

One point to note about choosing the right art school is to look at the children's work. In some schools, kids are taught how to draw and colour (almost prescriptive) so the work produced by the kids are almost identical. For me that's a big no no! The reason for sending H to an art school is to nurture his creativity and confidence in expressing himself.

Last week, the kids were told stories about Duan Wu Jie (Dragon Boat or Dumpling Festival) and were shown actual images of the different elements related to the festival (e.g. dumplings, dragon boat race, etc.). They were then asked to create their own masterpiece based on their interpretation of the festival. When I went to pick H up, I was pretty impressed with the masterpieces created by the kids. They were all so different, and so creative. H drew daddy and him among dumplings hanging from the top. The girl sitting next to him drew a colourful dragon. The drawings are all 'kid like' and that's what I like cos you know they are really their original masterpiece.

* Disclaimer: I speak only from my experience with one particular My Art Studio outlet