The most important thing at Wonder Studio...
What is it?
Some might say...
the Art.
Some would say...
the Science...
Then there's the plethora of Sensory experiences...
What about creativity?
Opportunity to make a mess!
The social learning that happens when children (and adults) are in a group together.
The list could go on and on...And all of those things are very important and valuable.
But...
In my humble opinion, the most important part of Wonder Studio is...
Drum roll please............
The Clean Up.
Most of the time, at the end of my classes, the room is quite the mess.
When I begin telling everyone it is clean up time, I get lots of blank stares and looks of despair as if they were saying (and I am mostly talking about the adults here ;) "Where do we begin?"
After the initial shock and concern...A little magic begins to happen.
Folks begin to work together...
They ask for help...
They problem solve...
There is so much satisfaction for people to see such a messy place transformed back to a state of calm and neatness.
And in all seriousness, while the children do help a little, it is the work of the adults that mostly gets the place back in order.
While I would love for the children to have more time to do the clean up themselves, it's not possible with a one or two hour class.
However, as I have watched this phenomena over the years...I have begun to understand that regardless who is doing the clean up, even if children are just watching...It is of tremendous importance.
For children, and the adults who look after them, to see and understand that We can get ourselves in quite a mess...
But then...
We can also clean it up and make it "right" again.
To learn this at such a young age...and to grow up understanding that messes are temporary and if you have a community that is willing to work together...
You can ask your neighbor for help...
Honestly, I think I would have closed Wonder Studio down years ago, if I did the clean up all myself. It's too overwhelming to do it alone.
And what a loss to our children and our community...
To be creative...is to have freedom.
Freedom to be messy, freedom to have some of the Organizational ropes loosened...
As most of us have learned,
Life is Messy...
Big Whoop!
Clean it up!!!
