1. Music and Singing
i) The serenely mesmerising Maestro Bebe are back with three beautiful performances for babies, packed full of colour, sounds, puppets and wonderfully silly ideas, and very little in the way of talk. Enjoy the episodes here: https://youtu.be/6tdlWmUVZ1g, here https://youtu.be/f0hMLDRmQRw and here: https://youtu.be/8aDSRf8vmPo.
ii) In a similar vein, Babigloo creates non-verbal music for babies 0-12 months. Using sound, baby conversation and listening skills, they aim to build on babies’ sensory perceptions through pitch, vibration, rhythm and tone. Join in with their fabulous weekly sessions on Mondays and Thursdays at 11am or afterwards on YouTube: https://www.facebook.com/babigloomusic.
iii) Curly Cath takes your little ones on a musical, dancing, playing adventure in her Curly House, or simply select one of your favourite nursery rhymes to sing and dance along to: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCY5LI65RSXq2Zak3aC_-3kQ.
iv) Community musician, Stephen Grocott, is sharing five wonderful musical stories from his album of children’s music – listen for free up to three times: https://stevegrocott.bandcamp.com/.
v) Playsongs create their favourite Playsongs and Rhymes for babies and toddlers. New song movies are specially made and posted for the very youngest viewers, and they relate stories from contributors and followers about their favourite songs from childhood. https://www.playsongs.co.uk/blog.
vi) The Bouncing Boogie Mites are running daily free online live music and movement sessions for under 5'S, with different half hour sessions by different Boogie Mite musicians throughout the day. Check out timetable and join in with your little ones here: https://www.facebook.com/BoogieMites/
2. Art, Design, Materials and Mixed Media
i) Writer & illustrator, Pippa Pixley, loves to create beautiful picture books and share her experiences with children, parents and teachers. On her site you’ll discover amazing Storybook Projects, including how to paint a landscape with your little ones: https://pippapixley.co.uk/2020/03/30/paint-a-long-landscape/
ii) Printmaker and artist extraordinaire, Helen from ArtLab, shows how to create your very own art books by hand, including simple book binding techniques so your beautiful art or journaling books last forever: https://artlabworkshops.wixsite.com/artlab/post/manage-your-blog-from-your-live-site
iii) The National Association for Gallery Education, Engage, encourages hands-on exploration with objects, materials, music and collections, and shares its super resources for early years here: https://engage.org/resources/early-years/
iv) Uplifting illustrated goods for young souls of all ages. Inspired by nature, play & mindful living – contemporary designs and activity ideas, free to download for those who can’t pay: https://www.joblaker.com/
v) Creative Steps magazine, providing fun craft and creative play activities for anyone looking after young children, is offering the full Spring issue FREE via the online link: bit.ly/CS65Spr20 to help out families/teachers at this time. Grab your copy and a whole bunch of new ideas while you can, many making use of recycled household materials, and all designed to promote creative learning.
vi) Crafts magazine are offering one month’s free access to their digital magazine collection. Full to bursting of amazing designs, ideas, patterns, wearables and shapes by live artists and craftspeople, these magazines are an amazing place to start for inspiration with your little ones: https://ocean.exacteditions.com/magazines/21416/issues/. Enjoy!
3. Dance and Movement
i) Wriggle Dance Theatre has produced a series of daily, online bite-sized creative dance sessions for children age 2-5 and grown-ups. Get ready to have fun exploring clowning, balancing and being butterflies with Wriggles: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLExi8pFA9jWkQoXJEOGv2bkFQGCpKxwA2
ii) Dance artist, the lovely Liz Clark, explores on her website, Our Creative Adventure, how young children have an innate ability to express the world around them through their bodies. Enjoy her superb films and be inspired with new ideas for expressing movement with your children here: https://vimeo.com/178867853 and here: https://vimeo.com/173155821.
4. Museums and Galleries
i) Colchester’s Firstsite Gallery has collated this super Artists Activity Pack with ideas from UK artists including Anthony Gormley, Annie Morris, Gillian Wearing, Grayson Perry, Harold Offeh, Idris Kahn, Jeremy Deller, Michael Landy, Ryan Gander and Vanley Burke. Download your free pack here: https://firstsite.uk/art-is-where-the-home-is/.
ii) One of the more stunning virtual tours is this one of the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. The intricate detail of human life and relationships would fascinate most young children. Plenty of opportunities to guess what’s going on. This and several other beautiful Italian masterpieces are available for free, right here at your fingertips: http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en/collezioni/musei/tour-virtuali-elenco.html.
iii) Or if you fancy exploring some of the more contemporary insights of Picasso, Lautrec, Daly, Vasarely, Van Gogh and several others, then why not choose from one of 51 virtual tours at Madrid’s national museum, Thyssen-Bornemisza: https://www.museothyssen.org/en/buscador/tipo/Visita%20virtual.
iv) Tate Kids present some excellent insights into living artists, identifying the inspirations, materials, and processes are behind some of the more weird and wacky art works. Alongside these are a series of engaging activities with the same sorts of arts and crafts materials used by their artists. What better way to learn, play and create at the same time? https://www.tate.org.uk/kids.
5. Story and Role Play
i) The Ministry of Stories have put together this excellent Top Ten Tips for writing stories (as well as other activities for recording audio stories and making sound effects): https://www.ministryofstories.org/get-writing/.
ii) Drew Lorenzo’s wonderful musical theatre with his children bringing everyone joy with their daily story, based on space, monsters, jungles and dinosaurs. Get out your dressing up stuff and join in!: https://www.facebook.com/Little-Musical-Voyages-314512722690547/
iii) The lovely Holly from Travelling Tales Stories is bringing some of our most loved writers to life in her daily readings of stories and tales on YouTube – get the popcorn out! https://bit.ly/3bG44yO.
iv) Claire Barker launches Read To Your Pet as part of the Libraries Unlimited campaign: https://bit.ly/3bAGH9y. Take a picture of yourself reading to your pet and post it on the Exeter Libraries facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/ExeterLibrary/posts/3067182156674136.
v) Enjoy spontaneous and adventurous bedtime stories by Mhairi Grealis of @ClipTheatre on https://www.instagram.com/cliptheatre/ (click on arrow on IG icon when live) or on https://www.facebook.com/cliptheatre. Each story streams live on IG and facebook at 6.30pm every evening as you get your little ones ready for bed.
Don’t forget you can download a free pack on Den making from Earlyarts’ Nurturing Young Children’s Learning series by signing up to the quarterly Earlyarts Ebulletin, along with our pack on Ten Techniques for Creative Teaching (also great for families!). This way you’ll get notified of each new list of creative ideas.
Please help other families and pass this on using the share buttons below.
In this strange old time, I am gathering some strange old resources - ones that are a) lovingly made by artists and cultural organisations, b) for early years and c) encourage creative processes. These will hopefully add a little spice, ingenuity and curiosity to yours and your children’s lives in the coming weeks.
I’ll try to publish on Sundays to give you time for planning the week ahead (those that can think that far!). Meanwhile, please do let me know if you come across excellent, non-commercial arts resources that need an airing this spring. We can get through this - together.
Ruth Churchill Dower - Director, Earlyarts.