Is a ferris wheel made of marshmallows? Did dinosaurs wear sweaters when they felt cold? Do Princesses ride in spaceships?

Anything is possible in the active and fertile imagination of a child!

Children, by nature, are incredibly imaginative and curious. Their minds do not see boundaries and limitations, only endless possibilities and vivid creations. As parents and educators, we know that it is important to encourage and nurture a child’s imagination, but we often don’t know how. But before we get into the “how”, let’s understand the “why”. Let’s take a look at why it is important to nurture a child’s imagination.

Develops Valuable Social Skills

When children engage in role play or imaginative play activities, they are, in essence, actively experimenting with actual life roles. When children play pretend, they come up with their own wonderful worlds and characters, and through these imaginary characters and places, they emulate the social skills that they’ve observed in the real world around them and figure out how to apply these skills to any given situation. While playing with their friends, children learn about the importance of cooperation, communication and compromise. It also encourages children to enthusiastically take part in social activities and enables them to understand the nature of various social relationships.

Helps Build Self Confidence

Allowing children to exercise their imagination without judgment or restrictions, helps them appreciate their skills and instincts. They are more likely to trust their own thoughts and feelings in other areas of life. Though a child’s enthusiasm for imaginative play derives from pleasure rather than the search for a boost of self confidence, the two go hand-in-hand. The more a child is allowed to play freely, the more they gain confidence to challenge themselves with more complex toys and exploration activities.

Supports Cognitive Development

By playing out imagined situations, children learn a great deal about problem solving, the use of language & gestures, and how the real world around them functions. By imagining themselves in creative and outlandish situations, and working their way through them, children sharpen their skills in information processing, understanding the possibilities and limitations of resources, develop their perceptual skills, and much more.

Helps Them Deal With Their Fears

The monster under the bed or the ghost behind the curtain suddenly don’t seem very scary when a child has created make-believe monsters in their play time and had a fun time with them! Without a tangible point of reference, a child’s imagination can cause their minds to spin dream up unwanted fears, which have the potential to quickly spiral into larger, lasting fears that become more difficult to overcome as they grow older. When given a chance to role play out their fears, children slowly gain a sense of control, and are able to plan out ways to deal with these fears in a way that makes them seem less scary. 

Piques Their Curiosity

When children indulge in creative play, they get a chance to disassociate themselves from reality, and allows them to stretch their imagination and explore endless possibilities. They are encouraged to explore and investigate a varied range of promising outcomes, while acquiring more knowledge and developing many skills along the way.

How We Do It At Abrakadoodle

At Abrakadoodle, we embrace the method of “Process Art”, which places a stronger focus on enjoying & learning from the actual process that goes into creating a piece of art rather than the final product itself. Process Art is all about the experience you have while creating.

Here, kids get to explore art through various mediums, such as painting, sculpting, drawing, collage making, paper and fabric art, mosaics, anime, studio art, and also experiment with varied styles ranging from Pop Art to Pointillism and everything in between.

Our Beloved Art Camps For Kids

Our themed Art Camps are extremely popular among children because they use the power of imagination to keep them engaged and excited as they explore the full potential of their creativity. We regularly come up with new themes for our Art Camps for kids, but here are a few of our most popular ones.

Artosaurus! STEAM Camp  – In this camp, children get to experience a uniquely fun approach to STEAM learning, by diving into the fascinating & wild world of dinosaurs and other reptiles. They learn about prehistoric animals, make dinosaur eggs, create fossils and habitats.

This camp blends the fun of art with the intrigue of science, where children get to experiment with a variety of art techniques while they learn about science, technology, engineering and math concepts that are used to study extinct animals. 

Kids On Canvas – This fabulous camp is all about painting, where children use a variety of brushes and learn about different brush strokes, mixing and layering colours, and create wonderful masterpieces on canvas.

The camp inspires kids to create art that is unique to them, which makes them feel empowered to be creative and expressive. It’s truly amazing to see what kids come up with when given the freedom to explore and express themselves creatively!

AmYOUsement Park Art Camp – In this unique Art Camp, kids get to create their very own amusement park using a wide variety of materials. They create a theme park that is unique to them – with a roller coaster, a ferris wheel, and whatever else their heart desires. 

It’s a truly magical ride, where they get to explore different art materials and art techniques to create the amusement park of their dreams!

So what are you waiting for? If you’re looking for unique art classes in Singapore, pick an Abrakadoodle Art Camp that you think your kid will love most and sign them up for a fun & creative learning experience like no other!