Did You Know That We Often Include Stories and Fairytales in Our Kids’ Art Classes?
We love to tell the children a story before they paint to awaken their imagination.
Rather than reading from a book, the teacher learns the story and tells it from the heart, creating a more meaningful and magical experience. Before the story begins, we light a story candle and make a gentle sound with a bell or instrument to signal story time and create a calm atmosphere. Once the story is finished, one of the children gets to blow out the story candle.
We also repeat the same story over several weeks so that its themes and values can gently sink in. Often, the children notice different details each time they hear it. Repetition can be very calming, and it allows the story to live in the child’s imagination for a while. Telling a different story every week can sometimes be overstimulating. We love slow living here at the art school.
We tell seasonal stories that are connected to the children’s surroundings and contain meaningful values. Last week, during the final week of autumn, we shared a lovely story about a farmer who discovered a giant pumpkin on his farm. The children loved it, and when it came time to paint the pumpkin farm, they were full of excitement and had so many wonderful ideas inspired by the story.