Mustard Boat

15/09/2022

Part3: Batik. The children were so focused and invested that their works need a separate post on their own. We talked about Batik, the texture and depth of their colours and how it is different from the other art works. “It’s like watercolour. You can use food colouring too!”D exclaimed. “It runs on its own,” X said. We used acrylic fabric paint and hot glue for the wax because of the studio’s constrains .

I talked to the children about safety before we began and we understood that we should follow certain rules when using electrical tools.

We drew animals or prints that are authentic to Malaysia. There were no templates to follow and all pictures were drawn with their imagination! However there were favourites; dragons and tigers. 🤷🏻‍♀️

30/01/2022

These two artists have complete different ideas about “Nian”. DH suggested and insisted that Nian was a human… with strange ears. CL said that Nian was a furry and fluffy beast.

This activity demonstrated to me that how you start a discussion as an educator is just so important. Both of the artists here are older by age, I started off my story by repeating a few times that no one has really seen Nian. I also intentionally failed to stress that our tradition of lion dance is based on the story of Nian. This slight changes created a very different outcome for their works.

I need to stress that both DH and CL are older, and have very different interests. Perhaps this can explain the very outcomes here.

29/01/2022

There are many risks that we would eventually need to take in order to reach our goals. The risks of being wrong, failing, making decisions, making mistakes, dealing with uncertainties and many more. Children do this everyday through play. They build their understanding towards positive and negative outcomes through role playing, test their theories through exploration, and create new experiences with their imagination.

Art and play is gentle approach to build up risk taking skills, that allow children to approach, experiment and explore new experiences with courage. As educators we need to embrace these qualities as well. We need to recognise that the process is bigger than the product.

This week as we discussed more in depth about CNY, I gave the children a difficult task of painting “Nian”, the legendary lion mystical beast that brought about the traditions of lion dance and fireworks. We role played the story, and had a discussion before proceeding to our art activity. The children looked at me bewildered. “Can I looked at a picture? “ some of them asked. “I don’t know how to draw Nian,” others exclaimed. Some others started to give their opinions of how Nian looked like. I replied by simply assuring them that they can draw their own depiction of Nian, and there isn’t a correct way to draw Nian. Their works were so fun to watch.

There will be times when certain art disciplines require structure and accuracy. But art also requires taking risks to create on new imaginations and ideas.

20/01/2022

Chun Lian or Spring Festival Couplets are well wishes written over red paper pasted on the doorways to express blessings or good wishes to everyone on CNY. The children have been exploring different brush strokes, and this activity gives us yet another opportunity to explore what different brushes can do, and to appreciate the beauty of this difference.

The children observe how the Chinese brushes create different kind of strokes when they use too much force (we are accustomed to using acrylic brushes which are harder), and we discussed about it. We discussed about how Chinese paintings differ from the mainstream images we often see and portray.

A child D* pointed out how his strokes with the Chinese brush created a jagged end to one of his strokes, “This is pretty…” he said pointing to it. “It really does look like a tree branch doesn’t it?” I chimed. It’s little things like these that creates appreciation for details, art, and culture.

07/11/2021

Mustard Boat will be resuming operation from the 8th of November with some changes. We still have some slots available for Monday and Tuesday for children age 3-6 years old. There will only be a maximum of 4 children per session, so please speak to me if you are interested.

22/05/2020

The sanctuary already had to get rid of 3,000 caterpillars to save operational costs.

01/04/2020

Dear parents, how is everything at home with the kids? I suspect that some of you might be wishing school is still running as usual, as much as I am wishing that your children are here with me. I will be posting some activities ideas and possibly videos this week to challenge some of my creativity and thoughts. Please participate if you would like.

This is a page I found online. Please discuss with your children what are the things they miss the most, and what would they want to do when this is over. Draw a picture of it. This will help all of us keep positive, and help relay the message to children that this hurdle will come to an end, one day. Take a picture of your child’s completed work and email it to [email protected] . We can do this together.

Alternatively do talk to me if you are struggling as a mum or wife. I will be here to listen.

What will you do when the COVID-19 pandemic is over? We invite people to draw their hopes and plans to overcome this tough time.

11/03/2020

Indtroduction to clay through exploration, play, and story telling.

I still can’t get over how one child repeated sequences of Kong Fu moves as she hammered the clay, how a korean child communicated with me through a series of body actions as we searched for the right words to use, how animated another girl’s actions became as she narrated the story for her group, or how another boy experimented with the tools in different ways as he searched for different possibilities, and discovered new ways to create what he wanted.

Play allows children to be themselves whether a child is kinaesthetic, visual, auditory, or reading/writing learner. Because play in itself is a “global” invitation to participate, and an innate process for enjoyment, it serves as an “international bridge” for children with the presence of language barriers. They learn new vocabularies as they play and interact with others.

Instead of explaining how clay works in the first session, we choose to let the children explore and put their experiences into their own words. As they explored, we observed questions being formed, interactions happening, creativity being provoked, and ideas/thoughts becoming apparent.

05/03/2020

These are pictures from our last holiday camp where we explored the topic on “The Wonders of Nature”. The children were encouraged to think, discuss, and create around the topic. We created a playground in our imaginary jungle or garden, planted plants, discussed about global warming, interviewed and worked with an Ikebana artist, and completed a painting of the summary of our experiences. Here, we believe that art should be an extension and reflection of our experiences, knowledge, thoughts, ideas, creativity and emotions. Our holiday programme is now back from March 16-19 for RM 400. Please contact me for more details.

08/02/2020

07/02/2020

Dear parents, due to the coronavirus outbreak please be reminded to stay home if your child is unwell, has an increased temperature, or has flu. If you have travelled in the past 14 days, please look out for fever and flu like symptoms and seek medical attention as soon as possible. Due to the nature of our sessions which involve many hands on activities, Mustard Boat holds all rights to reject entry if your child has fever. Thank you for your understanding.