The Wonder Studio: What is The Wonder Studio?

Friday, July 13, 2012

What is The Wonder Studio?

Enrolling Now for Classes beginning September 10!!

Email: tot.wonder.arts@gmail.com

The Wonder Studio, an Arts and Science based Toddler Program, is a place where the children are NOT getting ready for school! The teachers and parents who participate are NOT teaching their children colors, shapes, and ABC’s. There are no themes… Dinosaurs this week… Sea life next week. You will not see the children sitting in chairs making recognizable Monkeys with google eyes. Even Sharing is discouraged here!?!?

So what are the children doing? What are they learning?

Shannon Lipan, owner and teacher at The Wonder Studio believes that young children and their caregivers need a place where the children are the Protagonists in their learning experiences.

A place where squeezing an entire bottle of Elmer’s Glue onto paper is not only OK with the teacher it is strongly encouraged!

A place where playing in a baby pool with 50lbs of flour is just one of many choices.

Shannon, an experienced Early Childhood teacher with a Master’s in Education from the University of Florida, sets up experiences for children that provide opportunities for Creative play.

She explains that, “A studio environment instead of a classroom, indicates to the child (and caregivers) that this is a place that can get Messy…there are no recipes to follow, no goals to be met. Being creative means inventing NEW ideas, not simply repeating what others have done in the past.”

The studio offers many different collections of “loose parts.” Art materials like a 25lb block of Clay that children can actually climb, take apart, stick beer caps and popsicle sticks into. A block of clay that will never see the fire in a Kiln! As a matter of fact, the parents are strongly dissuaded against showing children the idea of sculpture…Instead the children are invited to come up with their own way of manipulating this Art medium.

“We are not teaching children Facts or doing flashcards…Actually, we are taking children and parents away from the idea of simply Knowing information but instead the value is placed on the Journey to Understanding.”

Shannon spends hours preparing the environment making sure the experiences offered are truly creative and allow for many different possibilities. “As I get to know the children, I am able to change or tweak the experiences, always making sure I am not only meeting the needs of the Group but the individual as well.”

The Wonder Studio, named from Rachel Carson’s book, The Sense of Wonder, strives to be a place where children and their caregivers Senses can be “aroused”. A place where a child can have questions without answers, A place where caregivers can learn about children, and above all a Place where children’s ideas are respected and listened to.