/bɪ ə gʊd gɜ:l/ n. moniker of she who blogs here [also known as, bie]; adj. personal awesome advice to all female kiddos

meet the fam #thechennies

meet the fam #thechennies

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Art Speaks Studio :: Trial Class

With the June holidays around the corner, I have been trying to think of ways to occupy Bielet's time sans school. Definitely not short on suggestions: thanks to the plethora of parenting magazines, websites and blogs around! The problem then turned to finding something suitable for my Duracell Bunny ;))

Between music, art and sports stuff, I decided on art because altho Bielet shows interest in musical instruments (we went past the music schools in Parkway and she exclaimed that she wanted a guitar, a piano and a set of drums), she probably can't stay still long enough for that. She blows her toy trumpet for like 7mins at the most, and that's when she's running after and terrorising Mitten with the blares. [Note: I might also be biased because I do not have a pleasant memory of my weekly paino, oops I mean, piano lessons.] And Papa can be the sports coach lah, no need to waste money on that.

After sieving through so many art holiday programmes, this one seemed like something Bielet would like:


She hearts animals, plus she would have just wrapped up the recent school term learning all about animals! On the suggestion of the studio though, we brought her for a trial class first (as Bielet is slightly younger than the suitable age group of 3-5yo).

Bielet all psyched up for her art class (with a banana in hand as she had too good a nap and didn't have time to munch on her tea-time snack before that!)

Welcome to Art Speaks Studio! (The lady hovering over a table in the pic on the right is Bielet's teacher, Mardiana. She was showing Bielet how to use different brushes for each individual paint colour when I left.)

Super love the brightly coloured animal mural wall in the kids classroom!

While it wasn't a parent-accompanied class, I hung around for a few minutes to make sure Bielet warmed up okay - alright, and also to take a few snaps. Lol. She was slightly apprehensive in the unfamiliar classroom but still rather willingly donned the paint apron. Teacher Mardiana told Bielet that they would be making a crafts project of flowers, then led Bielet to choose a bottle of paint from the shelf (Bielet just selected the first bottle, I suspect, which was blue) and got started tentatively on the background of her craft project. Short while later, she was brandishing the brush around the paper happily, not realising when the brush had no paint, so the teacher had to remind her to continuously dip the brush into the paint palette. Hee.


Returned to pick Bielet up at 6pm (the class was supposed to start at 5pm but we drove the wrong way and came only at 5.15pm), and she was just finishing up on her project - pasting red & green beans onto her flower petals and stamping green triangles at the bottom of the paper to form the grass :))

Look mama! Your favourite tau sar!

Having a ball of fun squishing the hard beans around in the tub, plonking them onto the petal then squishing again!

Getting her to show how messy a painter she is. This is what creativity looks like, people ;))

She led me to the wash basin while her teacher was arranging and putting together the pot of flowers. (That's the only part when the teacher did the work - all the painting, pasting and stamping were done by Bielet okay!)

Teacher Mardiana and the other student (different lesson/project, very much more advanced!) at the end of the class. *Sorry for the blur shot, was a bit slow in capturing this cuz I was busy sending pictures to ZX*

If like ZX (I sent him the pictures of Bielet's class and final product as he was stuck at work), you're wondering how come Bielet is alone in class, it isn't a group lesson. Well, for the trial class, you pretty much just choose a time you like and arrange it with the studio. For the actual programmes, you get to select from a set of different timings but it's really up to you, not like you have to come for only Wednesdays at 5pm slots everytime. I suppose it is a first-book-first-confirm basis as you have to inform the studio at least 2 working days in advance, and they will probably suggest an alternative date if there are too many students in one session.

As Bielet's trial class was on a Wednesday (towards closing time of the studio too), there was only one other student in the kids class. Surprisingly, I spotted quite a few adult students in other classrooms and a slew of very impressive portraits around the studio. If any mamas or papas are interested in honing your artistic talents, check out the studio's adult programmes on their website too. They even offer portrait lesson programmes - just imagine drawing a life-like portrait of your kiddos yourself! Way cool.

Back to Bielet's class, here is the final piece from the budding Picasso (or should I say Van Gogh, since it is a flora piece. Hee.)

See her little fingers possessively pinching the painting. Can't even let Mama take a proper picture!

My friends commented on fb that Bielet looks pleased in this snap, and also that the painting is quite impressive! Woohoo. I think so too!!!!!!!! #proudmama

I also showed this photo to Mrs Eppie (Bielet's assistant teacher) and she said the kids all enjoy painting, especially with their hands! Bielet's friends crowded around my hp to peer at her painting that all I could see were heads! Lol. I love these kids, they are so hilarious.

And yup, Bielet really did enjoy herself! She was all smiles after the session and told me she liked "art class". Everyone who came home was treated to a proud flourish of her painting (during which one or two beans would drop off from the petals because it hadn't fully dried yet...). Even as she prepared for bed, she was still raving about what she did - green leaves, beans, paint blue and white and purple.

So you can guess that altho Bielet is slightly underage, we signed up for the Crafty Safari holiday programme after all! Yayyyys can't wait to have Bielet's safari creations! Side note: the teacher commented that Bielet is quite attentive (aka can sit still) and can follow instructions rather well too :)) I'm so lucky that Bielet is such an angel ~ that she can entertain herself doodling for minutes on end at the table (hours on end is a bit of a stretch). Hope she continues to enjoy the art classes during the holiday too!

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