The interesting thing about Parallel Learning is that the parents don’t just watch their kids go through the learning, they get to enjoy the process as well! I think it’s such a cool idea. Having gone through the same process, the parent can also have a more fruitful post-event evaluation with the kid.
The kids settled down into their class (without my Joey of course! If you don’t remember why, please read yesterday’s post.), while the adults settled down into ours. We’re privileged to have the Principal take us for the class herself.
The 1st exercise we were told to do was to draw several objects listed on the board. Some of objects include grass, house, tree, butterfly, mountain and bicycle, etc. This is drawn by yours truly. =)
The teacher then drew observations from our drawings, and she was trying to explain to us that everyone of us would have certain formulas and structures in our minds about how to draw certain things. Regardless of our background or upbringing, we would usually draw houses in the same way- with a triangle & a rectangle with square windows that come with crosses in them (ha!), trees always come with a centre trunk and a fluff of green cotton-looking crown, and our people are often stick figures! Very true!! Haha!
She explained that in order to harness creativity, we have to un-learn those formulas in our minds, and seek to draw what we want to, and not what we were taught to. That is why, if we want to nurture our children in the area of creativity, we should never impose upon them the ‘right’ way to draw a certain object and just let them flow freely. =)
Edmund, fellow Daddy blogger who was there as well, with his drawing! =D
The next activity we did was clay moulding! =D
Just check out this lump of black charcoal-like clay! Doesn’t look very interesting, isn’t it? But it’s super moldable! Heee..
We were given a black board, and told to fill the whole board with the clay..
Popped over to check out what the kids were doing, and indeed, they were doing the same thing as us!!!
Joey came to join the adults and she did the clay moulding as well! Hard at work pressing the clay..
We were told to use different tools to create textures on our board in any manner we want with no specific theme in mind.
And this is what my board of clay looked like after some texturing!
The teacher then told us to put colours onto our artwork once we are done with the moulding & texturing.
And this is what my board looked like before I put on the colours! Wooohoooo!
Joey couldn’t wait to start painting! That was the part she enjoyed the most!
All my friends hard at work! =D
And this is MY FINAL ARTWORK!!! So proud of myself! =D
How about Joey’s??! This is HERS! Very artistic and futuristic, isn’t it?? =D
Take a look at the rest of the artwork of the kids & the adults!
You can see that kids generally have a more vague idea about what they want to do. They just go along as they do and it’s all very free-flowing and natural. For the adults, there’re always some structures and formation, and the use of colors is also planned and thought-through. =) But isn’t it amazing how great all the art pieces turned out to be?? From ugly-looking black clay, they became beautiful art!
That’s our teacher comparing the artwork of the kids & the adults, and pointing out the differences. This is the main idea of a parallel learning class.
What a great time of learning & sharing!
Thank you, Wow! Art once again for the wonderful experience! =)
