LAA Open House: Opening Up New Doors

After much preparation and anticipation, the LAA has officially opened with a successfully conducted Open House from 20-23rd November.

I went down along with my fellow coursemates from NIE to assist in the running of this event and the event was an eye-opener for me.

Brother and sister reading after badge-making

I interacted with the two kids in the picture above earlier when they were making the badges. They are brother and sister and came along with another sister. The three kids struck me as being very outspoken, bright kids. They told me how they enjoyed the workshops they had attended they day before. They also started to tell me about who ate faster than who, what their favourite food was and other random but very interesting facts. It was the opportunity to interact with these kids that I really enjoyed.

More kids hard at work at badge making

I went on later to help out at the Tote Bag making competition and was really amazed at the works that these kids came up with. At the workshop, a parent started to speak to me and she told me that she was truly thankful for the opportunity for her children to come and explore their interest in the arts. As I saw the kids in the workshop do their totebags, it was truly inspiring to see how much effort they put into it and how simple yet personal their totebags were. There were kids who just went from workshop to workshop continuously, from totebag painting to percussion then High School Musical and drama. Children indeed have endless amounts of energy, as I can testify to having to play with my six year old nephew at times, and it was great to see their energies being channeled to something positive and useful.

Both volunteers and children enjoying tote bag making

The "letter-writing" exercise was indeed an activity that left an impression on me too. I remember Adelina mentioning at the Little Arts Academy, they believed that the arts has something to offer to everyone, that the arts is a means and a channel to inculcate values and to teach the children something about themselves. The letter writing exercise was truly a testament to that as the children channelled their creativity towards being effective 'ambassadors' for Singapore. They had to think about how to convey a warm greeting and how to represent Singapore through their works.

As a literature teacher and a strong believer in the arts, I too believed that the arts has a lot to offer to each individual as a means of self-exploration, reflection and discovery. The Open House indeed bodes well for the work that the Little Arts Academy is going to do for all the children that enter into its gates. Thank you LAA for this opportunity to be a part of your work for us to learn more too about how we can help our students in the future!

Andrew