Keeping little ones busy - Creative options for Kids at home (Worcestershire Special)

We know now some kids have been allowed to return to schools. Some full time, some part time and other families may find themselves in circumstances that mean they are in need of keeping their kids at home for longer. Whether its a home schooling day or a wet weekend here's a round up of some resources specifically aimed at children and young people to keep them entertained and busy so their creativity is able to be encouraged. All the suggestions below are from local businesses or initiatives to Worcestershire (but most can be accessed further afield).

Creating Space - De-stash Kits

Creating Space (it's us!) usually delivers arts in health sessions in a variety of community settings with adults and young people.The sessions are often charity based and over the years we have amassed a lot of knowledge and materials which are perfect for home crafting! Because of Covid-19 (and thanks to a grant from Arts Council England to support continued arts in health provision) we are able to continue with our videos and blog post moving forward which contain a wealth of arts activities and suggestions for ways you can use things around your home. As part of our efforts to encourage creativity at home since the beginning of lock-down we have had various arts and crafts 'De-stash kits' available via our shop on our Facebook page. These include:Trophy kits, puppet packs, shrinkies kits as well as bracelet making. You can see the full selection here. We are going to be continuing to make our video and blog posts to with all sorts of creative well-being content so make sure you are signed up to our newsletter for regular updates.

#LookingInReachingOut

#LookingInReachingOut is a Wychavon supported project and has just released its first practitioner video from Kay Mullet of Care Ceramics CIC. Her 'Beautiful Small Things Video' is a great example of stop motion using really simple clay methods. Why not have a go at home with some playdough or even plasticine. There is also a making of video that goes with it to give you some hints and tips.

The #LookingInReachingOut project is ongoing and if you follow their YouTube page they will be releasing more practitioner videos in other themes over the coming weeks

Spare Room Arts - Pop-Up Worlds

Spare Room Arts is usually delivering face to face arts and crafts activities as part of festivals and community events throughout the UK. As with a lot of things this isn't able to happen at the moment so what Sarah has done is made some hand illustrated pop up world kits so children can do some of these activities in their own home! Hand drawn you can choose from: Twilight Jungles 🌙, Coral Reefs 🐠, Jurassic Landscape 🦕 , Mermaids & Mermen 🧜‍♀️🧜‍♂️ and Big-Top Tent 🎪 (complete with performers)! All worlds are delivered flat-packed for you to colour and build yourselves. They also all come with a small pack of easy-to-use decoration materials to get you started. You can visit their shop here. Spare Room Arts Website is great and also has some easy to follow tutorials on arts and crafts you can follow in association with Nozstock Festival.

Worcester Arts Workshop - #WAWMANTLE

Worcester Arts Workshop would normally be delivering all sorts of creative sessions to children, young people and adults face to face in studio and drama spaces, as you can probably guess at the moment it's a bit different. Mantle is a Severn Arts and Worcester County Council supported initiative that asked young people to make / draw / paint /sculpt their favourite character using any materials they would like. You can check out demonstration videos and child-led creative ideas on their Facebook page.

They have also got some great arts activities and subject introduction videos you can use and follow at home like this one one Pointillism which was created especially for The Monday Nite Club and funded by Worcester City Council...

Worcester Libraries and Learning Services are running a Virtual Coding & Computing Club to get creative with code!

They have recently opened up the group to younger children, so anyone 5-17 can now take part. To join the fun, simply register on their CoderDojo page and ‘request a ticket’.

Challenges will be sent via email. The projects this fortnight are all about ‘The Art of Coding’; you can make your own version of paint, get creative with pixel art, or make a 'Modern Art' generator! This event is available to participate in until the 17th of June 2020. #LibrariesFromHome #STEAM #STEM #Codealong

Worcester Resource Exchange (Re-Opening!!!)

We were personally really excited to find out that WRE is re-opening again. BUT please note their new rules and regulations to keep everybody safe. You do need to be a member to shop there (which Creating Space is) but its a great place to get all your arts and crafts resources to add to any of the above creative hands on activities that catch your eye. (Please note NO CHILDREN allowed in at the moment :( ) The announcement image to the right is taken from their Facebook page.

Many of the above local businesses and services are evolving and have been adapting to be able to navigate and support you in these strange times! The good thing about these online based resources is you don't have to be local to get involved or even benefit. Feel free to let us know what you've been doing at home and others we haven't mentioned (I'm sure there's many we've not heard about!).

We are really aware that as schools are motivated to keep young people up to date there is a lot of focus on 'core subjects' which can be stressful and de-motivating at times. By interspersing some of these ideas or projects in too, hopefully the learning can be varied and problem solving skills can be learnt. That's the power of being creative!

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Stay safe and be kind to each other

Claire