We are very aware of the many choices of classes that are out there for you to choose from when thinking about what to do with your little ones, and we wanted to just outline a few of the benefits of Little Splodgers classes and why we believe it is the best choice you can...
CommunityCreativityLearningFun! It’s a serious business.
September 15, 2024by Little Splodgers
We are very aware of the many choices of classes that are out there for you to choose from when thinking about what to do with your little ones, and we wanted to just outline a few of the benefits of Little Splodgers classes and why we believe it is the best choice you can make for your child.
Our classes actively promote and deliver a range of developmental and transferrable life skills – aimed at giving your child a head start as they move beyond the early years and into more formal education.
Yes, it’s an Arts and Crafts class, but it’s so much more than that! We focus on fine motor skills – skills that are developed over time, that need to be practiced week after week. So skills learned whilst holding a glue spatula and pasting onto card, or folding or scrunching paper become the skills that will help them with self-care tasks such as fastening the buttons on their clothes or pulling up their zips; holding a paintbrush or squeezing clay gives them the strength to hold a pencil and write, so they aren’t on the back foot when they start school. Without the ability to complete these every day tasks, a child’s self esteem can suffer and their academic performance can be compromised. They may also be unable to develop appropriate independence in life skills (such as getting dressed and feeding themselves).
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Some people might think that maybe 12 months is too young to start classes but it’s not too early to start learning the skills of colour recognition, learning to count, learning shapes whilst also learning to focus and concentrate – even for a couple of minutes – on a simple task that will give them the confidence to trust themselves and know that they can accomplish things. They’ll be introduced to a whole range of crafting materials and ideas – Yes, the 3 yr old across the table might be producing something completely different to your 1 yr old child, but that’s ok. We celebrate everyone’s achievements in our classes – and every child is at a different stage of their own personal development, but we believe in the mixed ability setting (all our classes are mixed ages), as you can see how much all the children get from being around each other and it makes it a much more family friendly environment. Where else can you go and take a class where your 4 yr old and your 1yr old are both having their needs met?
And while a one year old is being applauded for holding their brush and managing to get some paint on the page, someone else’s four year old will be blowing their parent’s mind by threading their own needle for the sewing craft!
It’s all delivered in such a fun way that all of this ‘serious business’ of child development is lost on the children – they’re just having a whale of a time spreading paint and sprinkling sand or glitter and really enjoying themselves with other children.
They’ll be learning about the wider world through animals that we might make, they’ll be thinking of names for the cute creatures they’re making, learning cool stuff like an Octopus has 8 legs, learning social interaction, learning different ways to use ‘tools’ and how to hold them, developing their hand-strength, their focus, their concentration and their belief in their own ability to complete tasks – and you’ll see how much joy they get from that sense of pride and accomplishment from creating their ‘own’ work!
We’re not just a class, we’re a community. The people you see in your first class will be the same people you’ll see for the whole term – your children will make friends, you will make friends. We see it term after term, the beautiful friendships that are formed between the children, the nannies, and entire families that attend our classes – it’s one of the nicest things we get to witness.
In a world full of tech, moving at a million miles per hour, our class is a 45 minute oasis of ‘hands-on’ physical togetherness where you can focus on your child – one to one – and help him/her to develop not only their skills, but also their pride and sense of achievement as each week you create wonderful crafts together, sparking their imagination and igniting their creativity.
