Writing this book of creative ideas and school-readiness lessons for preprimary and junior school learners is the result of years of contact with young children and their artistic, mental, and physical development. I am charmed by children’s natural ability to spontaneously create wonderful art when given the material and opportunity to do so. Their astounding physical and mental abilities and play activities led to my lifelong interest in and involvement with small children and their growth toward adulthood.
Over the years, I put together a collection of themes and ideas for promoting children’s creative abilities and thinking, as well as their physical and emotional development. Some ideas worked; others did not. Some ideas work for certain children and not for others, and some work for everyone. Many of these ideas I shared with or learned from fellow preprimary schoolteachers; most are my own ideas. All the ideas were adapted to suit the learners needs and also to the available materials.
The ideas in this book are exactly that: ideas only. There is no right or wrong way to do anything. Creativity is open-ended; it forms an integral part of the personality of the person creating an artwork, game, or anything new. Therefore, the ideas in this book must be adjusted and explored to suit the moment, such as it might be. Every idea has to be adapted to suit the availability of materials, the groups or individual child’s learning needs, their teachers creative ability, their surroundings (life world), their level of development, and their physical and emotional needs.
Each one of these ideas can be changed; they are guidelines, not prescriptions. Prescriptive teaching - particularly in art, language development, and free play - destroys creativity and creative thinking because it does not allow for individual creative exploration. Creative thinking, not only in art but also in all spheres of life, forms the highest level of cognitive development, namely, problem-solving thinking patterns. Allowing children to explore their creative ideas through the media of free but guided art, play, and language development helps them develop creative thinking patterns.
This book is dedicated to all my friends and colleagues who shared their ideas with me and, in particular, to all the children whom I’ve taught and who taught me to see life through their eyes with their clear and honest perceptions of the world. Their artistic play and verbal expression gave us a direct glimpse into their joys and sorrows, which opens the mind to a plethora of new concepts and a new understanding of the world we live in.
Every one of the lessons is aimed at school readiness, but the creative activities and developmental-play activities are also suitable for use in junior primary school classes. My hope is that this book will bring joy and happiness to all who use it and, in particular, that it will help the little ones for whom it was written to explore their world successfully and prepare them for the challenge of growing up.
