Today’s post comes from Alicia {BeanieNUs} and gives some great suggestions for encouraging creative expression in your little ones.
I have a preschooler who loves story telling and pretend play. Because of that, she showed readiness in reading and story telling early on. Having said that, Dumpling is a reluctant writer and as she is still very young (not yet 5!) so I am not keen to start her on copywork as yet. Instead, I try and engage her interest by encouraging her natural inclination towards what we term at home as “Creative Expression”.
“Writing” / “Show and Tell” can be fun and simple and easily done with just everyday items at home and even from things which you pick up from the park.
Here are 5 fun ideas!
:: Paper Scraps
With some crepe paper (or any left over paper scraps!) let your kiddos tear and paste and create anything they would like. Some children need a bit of guidance as to how to start so you can gently guide them where you can work around a theme – Garden / Monster, etc., or extend this activity from any story books you are reading.
Today’s post is from Alicia {
Here, I had some leftover crepe and twine and I left Dumpling to her own devices while I cooked. She decided on creating a flower. The “tearing” was also great in developing her fine motor skills. I then worked with her using both the phonics and sight words approach and helped her in creating a simple story around this magical flower she made. 
:: Bubble Wrap Fun!
I am not sure if you are the same but I am a hoarder through and through. :p So what can you do with Bubble wrap?
Well, I took out a few bottles of paint and let her experiment with bubble wrap painting. She had fun mixing the colours, then stamping and then finally, she said that she created Snakes! (The story goes that there are 2 snakes, a red and a silver, guarding a nest of eggs which are in the middle.)
:: Pasta Collage
All households would have some pasta so a dig in the drawers and I managed to wrestle up some elbow pasta (macaroni) and spaghetti. With that, we discussed how they can be used to create different shapes and how she can break the pasta into different lengths.
Dumpling’s version of a Lion. Can you spot the mane?
With this collage we did a show and tell instead of writing.
:: Cheese letters!
As part of my 10mins breakfast challenge, we have a stash of alphabet cutters in the drawer. Dumpling loves cheese so needless to say, these cheese activities are a hit with her.
We mainly use these for Sight Words where she’d cut, eat, present her story (based on the words she created), cut and eat some more. :p
:: A tale of leaves and twigs!
I love taking walks with Dumpling though we are not able to do it as often as we like. During such walks, we’d always end up observing something new and picking up things from the park too – small pebbles, twigs, leaves, snails, etc.
What can you do with leaves? Loads! For the younger toddlers, you can of course try your hand at leaf printing (we collected different types of leaves for this. Check out how cheerful it looked!)
For preschoolers who are older, you can try letting your children express themselves with leaves and twigs to create a scene / animal. Dumpling took her time to move the items around before inspiration struck and she ended up with a Butterfly where she placed 4 leaves together as the wings.
I hope that these ideas are useful and you have a great time with your little one(s)!
Alicia is a part-time working mum who homeschools her daughter (fondly known as Dumpling) in the evenings. Based in Singapore, this mother-daughter duo enjoy messy play and fun learning.
A caffeine addict and a reformed perfectionist, Alicia blogs regularly at BeanieNUs where she pens down her parenting thoughts, shares her love for food (and cooking) and her (sometimes) creative moments during the homeschool sessions.
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