Using dough and clay for creative play at school and at home

Play. A word we inherently associate with childhood. An activity that should foster children natural creativity. However, in this day and age, with the advent of gadgetry, video games and so on, play isn’t what it used to be. It breeds one dimensional thinking. As is so often the case, a child receives a gift from his parents: the newest prefabricated toy in the store. Perhaps it’s the latest super hero or some funny animal he saw in a movie, cartoon show or a game he cherishes. So he takes it out of the box and begins to “play” with it. Only that’s not play, because it’s a reenactment of that show. The little one is using someone else’s story, not making up their own. Needless to say, this does not encourage creativity and it’s the way the world works these days.

Fortunately for your children, there is a way out, one that school and family can use to encourage creative play. Using the same example, let’s presume we give the child some coloured pencils and a pad, or some play dough or clay. He will have endless possibilities to express his creativity, and his imagination will roam uninhibited. This is multi-dimensional thinking, through which children can literally build their world, and enhance it by adding (or moulding, in the case of play dough / clay) characters that inhabit it. They are encouraged to be inventive, to use their mind but also their hands, to make connections then turn them into something that can be seen and felt.

Nowadays, the Earth seems to spin at a higher pace. Our schedule is so hectic, and our children's too. We’re talking school, sports, club activities etc. They have less and less time to explore, to discover, to make mistakes and learn from them. Therefore, it is more important than ever to encourage your children to express their ideas and feelings, to experiment and be spontaneous. Thus, they will develop into confident and self-reliant individuals.

Ways to nurture a child’s creativity

Studies have shown that environment is more important then heredity where creativity is concerned. Therefore, school and home should complement each other in providing a creative atmosphere. Here are some ways to do just that:

Make creative materials readily available to the child: play dough, clay, objects to make sound with and blocks. They’re great because they are unstructured toys and materials, so they can become a variety of things. They answer the developmental needs of the child, stimulate his curiosity, engage his intelligence, imagination, and creativity. Encourage children to lose themselves in daydreaming, which is an imagery process.

Let him build with sand, mud and clay. All of these materials can be used to build structures and shapes, ensuring not only mental stimulation but also physical activity, developing the child’s large and small muscles and eye-hand coordination. Sand structures can be built in a sandbox, on a table or better yet, at the beach on a day off with the family! Leave clay creations to air dry.

Create an object piece by piece. It is a good idea, as it is involves vision and promotes problem-solving skills. The results don’t have to be perfect, they just have to be, so relax supervision and show appreciation for your child’s efforts

3 reasons modeling with play-dough / clay is good for children

As mentioned before, play-dough and clay are great for creative play at school and home. It is a great sight watching children working quietly on their modeling clay and proudly sharing their creations.

1. Calming effect. Moulding clay in your hands is therapeutic for humans of all ages, let alone toddlers or children. Manipulating the dough / clay allows children to express their emotions.

2. Sensory development. Children need to fine-tune their motor skills and dexterity, and these materials are perfect for the task, involving rolling, squeezing and forming structures. For a toddler, the changes in clay are magical: they are naturally attracted to poke it or pound it down. The fact that the clay adjusts is all the more compelling.

3. It’s fun, but also a learning tool. Play-based learning is awesome. Children think they’re having fun, which of course they do, but while playing with clay they are also busy figuring out their next creation. It is a challenge dressed in a pleasant activity. More importantly, when the dough or clay changes, it teaches children that their actions have consequences. It is not only the clay that takes shape, but also the child’s brain.

How to make play dough at home

Below you can find two recipes for making your own play dough at home. Your children are sure to appreciate it!

Store it in a covered container or bag, and use it warm or cool for sensory variety.

•  Coloured Play dough

1 cup water

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

1/2 cup salt

1 tablespoon cream of tartar

Food colouring

Saucepan

1 cup flour

Combine water, oil, salt, cream of tartar, and food colouring in a saucepan. Heat until warm. Remove from heat and add flour. Stir, then knead until smooth. Store in container. This dough can last 6 months or longer.

• Salt Play dough

1 cup salt

1 cup water

1/2 cup flour plus additional flour

Saucepan

Mix salt, water, and flour in saucepan and cook at medium heat. When it is thick, remove from heat. When it cools, knead in flour to make it workable.

•  Oat Play Doh 

 Note: This play doh is for tactile stimulation. Young children love it. It has a rough texture and is great for exercising hand muscles. You should use this dough the same day you make it, as it will get moldy within a day or two.

2 cups water

1 cup oatmeal

1 cup flour

Cinnamon

Heat water until boiling. Combine boiling water and oatmeal in mixing bowl. Add enough flour to make it dough. Add cinnamon for smell if desired.

• Easy salt dough:

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4cup salt 

3/4 cup water

Mix all ingredients in a bowl, add more water if needed. Knead into soft ball of dough. Have fun playing with it.

• Fun clay

1 cup cornstarch

2 cups salt

1 1/3 cups cold water

Paint

Put salt and 2/3 cup water in a pot and bring to a boil. Mix cornstarch and remaining 2/3 cup water in separate bowl and stir well. Add salt mixture to cornstarch mixture in bowl. Knead dough. Model or mold dough and let it dry for several hours. Paint when dray if desired. Keep unused clay in airtight container or Ziploc in refrigerator.

• Basic Art Dough:

4 cups flour

1 cup iodized salt

1 3/4 cups warm water

Mix all ingredients in bowl, squeeze dough for 10 minutes. Model as with any clay. Bake sculptures at 300 degrees until hard. Let air dry for few days.

• Modeling Clay

1 box baking soda (16 oz.)

1 cup cornstarch

1 1/4cups cold water

Food coloring, if desired

Microwave

In a large mixing bowl, combine baking soda and cornstarch. In a two cup measuring cup, combine water and food coloring. Pour colored water over baking soda mixture. Stir until smooth. Microwave on high 4 to 8 minutes, stirring after every minute until mixture is firm. Cover with a damp towel until cool. Knead until smooth. Store in airtight containers or Ziploc bags.

• Shampoo Dough:

3/4 cup flour

1/3 cup white glue

1/4 cup thick shampoo

Mix all ingredients in a bowl. Knead dough. Add more flour as needed for right consistency. Model or roll and cut as desired. Let air dry. Paint as desired.

Warning: Could be toxic if ingested

The process is as important as the result

An old proverb says that “the end justifies the means”. But not when we talk about children, about to acquire knowledge and moral values. Learning the children have to be as complex as it can lead to all the senses, to be active and playful. Do not cheat and do not skip steps. The result is important, but the trip to the result is even more important. Along the way you discover other hidden talents, knowledge and skills of the children.

We hear parents say that no matter how they learn this or that. So the most common question when children come home from kindergarten or school is: “What did you learn in kindergarten today?” instead “What did you do to kindergarten today?”. The child has learned more in kindergarten, but can not conclude, he can not say that the drawing of a house he realized is about proportions, shapes and colors.

Therefore the process itself to result is quite serious, sometimes difficult, but well-intentioned. We can not speak of bad "road" or bad results.

Children have sensory capacities from the womb: they smell, hear, sight, taste and feel. Feel, smell and taste of mother's breast, and then reveals the movement. Grab everything, turn the things on all sides and put them into the mouth. Instinct! Only in this way everything around him comes to a shape, color, smell, sound, taste. Experiences are beginning to make sense and are becoming more complex with increasing age.

Until children can talk with words, adults have the job to describe what they see, what they catch, what they taste.

Children imitate a lot from adult behavior and language. Never a result will be satisfactory and both children and we want more. All the time. The results are not an end point. It’s a point from where we start to find other unknowns. Children learn colors, we want to know how to draw properly; they learn the name of animals, we want to know "how they do", what are benefits that they bring us; they learn letters, we want to know how to read and write themselves, then read many books; they learn numbers, we want to know how to count and increasingly with complex terms. Thus, the result is only a period and we are moving to other destinations.

Speaking of children, the results are often measured in smiles, in their stories and experiences with all their senses in excitement. You know you've reached your goal with them when others talk about them in a positive and superlative way.

Therefore, the results come sooner or later, but the journey to them will always be accepted. So, the adult’s job is to guide children to as many "result" as is necessary because these are never ending.

Play - the simplest and most effective method of learning

Child laughs: "The wisdom and my love is the game"

Young sings: "The game and my wisdom is love."

Old silent: "The love and my game is wisdom"

- Lucian Blaga "Three faces"

The most powerful and lasting knowledge is assimilated when we don’t make a goal of this. And the first age of early life this is what we are talking about. The easiest and best way is to play. Childhood games are full of lessons that we stored in ourselves. Education and psychology specialists argue that the most important characteristics on a human being are developed to 6 years. So, let’s take a look at the games of childhood and their benefits.

Indoor or outdoor, alone or with others, with toys or just in his imagination, quietly or in a hullabaloo indescribable, games have the greatest effect on children's learning: enabling children to discover things, to develop language, to get out of situations, to develop social and cognitive skills, develop emotionally, to take risks, to gain confidence, learn from mistakes, to rule and to obey certain rules, to think creatively and to implement their dreams. The game gives meaning to their world. Everyone needs a daily play time and a diversification game.

Probably we can’t aware of, but the simplest games of childhood develop in kid’s brain an automatism that will have a sense later. Take the “peek-a-boo” game. It is not only to make the child laugh or to hide. It is about cause and effect learning, about reaction time and imitation.

Therefore it is essential that sometimes – almost imperceptibly – adults have to expose children to as many gaming experiences in which they learn how to relate to the environment, with a situation, with a context and with people. They have to suggest activities that are based on knowledge gained till now and can add some new, with a more difficult level. The people around children and their environment (community, culture, society) have a great influence and dictate the direction of development.

In the book Einstein Never Used Flash Cards, five elements of children’s play are listed:

- Play must be pleasurable and enjoyable.
- Play must have no extrinsic goals; there is no prescribed learning that must occur.
- Play is spontaneous and voluntary.
- Play involves active engagement on the part of the player.
- Play involves an element of make-believe.

Other seven common features of the game are listed in Playing and Learning, by Beverlie Dietze and Diane Kashin: Play is active, child-initiated, process oriented, intrinsic, episodic, rule-governed, and symbolic.

The game is a serious thing. And so we must treat.

The benefits of being bilingual

Being bilingual (or even multilingual) has become extremely important and useful in our globalized world. And the sooner the process of learning a foreign language starts, the better. That’s because children are like sponges: they absorb information superbly in their early years, and they have the mental capacity to learn more than one language.

The obvious advantages of bilingualism are conversing to more of the world’s population and expanding your horizons, but also having better job prospects. These are not, however, the only advantages. First of all, being bilingual makes you smarter. Studies have shown that bilingual students generally academically outperform and score statistically higher on college entrance exams than those who only speak one language. Research also shows that bilingualism is a form of brain training. Speaking two languages profoundly changes the brain and how the nervous system responds to sound. It keeps the brain active and alert.


Individuals who are fluent in more than one language tend to have quicker response rates than those who only speak one, as well as heightened concentration.

Bilingual children also have better literacy skills. They have a deeper understanding of the structure of language. They tend to be creatively gifted, as bilingualism is proven to develop “outside-the-box” thinking, useful for problem solving and innovation.

More importantly, a bilingual education gives students the opportunity to become bi-cultural and to truly understand the values and the society of more than one culture. Children grow to understand, accept and appreciate the differences between cultures.

Bilingual education, particularly through studying at an International school, helps children to become global minded citizens suited for the global, multicultural society we live in.

Here are some more advantages of being bilingual:
» Ability to learn new words easily
» Ability to use information in new ways
» Ability to come up with solutions to problems
» Good listening skills
» Connecting with others. Improved social skills
» Improved attention to detail
» Improved memory
» Improved control
» Growing up bilingual is beneficial well into an individual’s senior years. It offers protection against illnesses like Alzheimer’s disease
» Bilingual children are less likely to develop anxiety, loneliness or low self-esteem
» Reduced stress
» Reduced risk of depression
» Bilingual children are less likely to become involved in dangerous habits such as alcohol use, drug use, overeating, and risky behavior
» Bilinguals lead the way in international business, creativity, problem-solving and health

A leading International School in Bucharest, InSPE (www.inspe.ro) focuses on providing a balanced and rich education, using English and a hands-on approach at the core of its curriculum.

Explore more infographics like this one on the web's largest information design community - Visually.

Why early childhood education is key to success in life

“Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”, according to Nelson Mandela. Early education, in particular, shapes the development and the future of a child. Research in the field of education has shown that a child’s earliest years of development are the most critical. At age three, children’s brain hits peak capacity to retain new information. However, not all the education systems in the world take notice of this and nourish children’s receptivity at a young age.

Nowadays, we know that taking in new sights, sounds and information is paramount in the formation of active neural pathways.


85% of who you are - your intellect, your personality, your social skills - is developed by age 5.
As childhood, and especially early childhood, comes with learning at a rapid rate, these are the years when a child should be most engaged in learning. Childrens need our attention and require the best teachers, and teaching methods, they can have!


Let’s take a look at some of the benefits of Early Education:

- more likely to graduate from high school
- a reduction in behaviour problems throughout the school career
- longer attention spans and better retention of information
- improvement in the social skills of children
- better grades
- your child will not have issues with math or English later on
- pre-school has proven beneficial from youth to adulthood
- your child is more likely to end up in college
- various and very engaging activities
- according to a study, exposure to as little as one or two years of preschool and intensive early childhood experiences accounted for an increase of motivation, intellectual skills and social adjustments
- the estimated cost per child for 18 months of nursery school is 9000 $.... But the benefits come to 90.000 $ per child, in terms of increased earnings in later life, less criminal behaviour and reduced mental health costs
- according to the same study, 80% of the preschool group finished high school, compared to 75% of the other group which did not attend nursery
- Average annual income for the preschool group was about 11.600 $ compared to 10.800 $ for the others

Additional research shows that:

• » 2-year olds in nurseries demonstrated higher cognitive skills than children in exclusive care of parents
• » They also had higher motor skills, compared to childrens in home-based care and children in care of a babysitter
• » 4-year olds in center-based care were more inclined to develop early reading, expressive vocabulary, math skills and color knowledge, than those cared for exclusively by their parents or babysitters

There you go. Hope you enjoyed this briefing on the importance of early education in life. For the best daycare, nursery, primary school and after school programs in Bucharest, visit www.inspe.ro and learn more about our aspirations to help your child succeed.