1. Music and Singing
i) The Sofa Singers bring together hundreds of people in real time for 45 minutes of simultaneous singing, smiling and sharing songs and stories. This might just restore some sanity for parents after a long day…
ii) The Royal Opera House will be offering a free programme of curated online broadcasts, musical masterclasses and cultural as well as a unique look behind the scenes at one of the world's most famous cultural institutions:
Peter and the Wolf, The Royal Ballet – 27 March 2020, 7pm GMT
Acis and Galatea, The Royal Opera – 3 April 2020, 7pm BST
Così fan tutte, The Royal Opera – 10 April 2020, 7pm BST
The Metamorphosis, The Royal Ballet – 17 April 2020, 7pm BST
iii) Sound Connections with music education expert, Sue Nicholls, bring some super ideas for making your own recycled percussion instruments that sound wonderful and can even be washed clean!
2. Art, Design, Materials and Mixed Media
i) Think with Things Island is a community playing towards a shared goal of learning, designing and sharing practice in play based learning and working with found objects.
ii) Curious Arts Activities by Dr Louisa Penfold - scholar, artist and play-in-museums expert - who shares her delightful imagination with the world in a series of awesome arts activities over the next few weeks.
iii) Fun Palaces connection revolutions ideas include practical suggestions to help local communities connect a little more or simply pass time creatively in self-isolation.
iv) Out-of-the-ordinary, home-made creative ideas for kids (and adults!), cheap and easy to make with most household materials.
v) From the wonderfully adventurous 64 Million Artists comes a series of creative challenges for creative minds! A million and one ideas.
3. Dance and Movement
i) Anyone who was inspired by Itay Yatuv’s infamous movement video with his daughter, Sophie (and thought, ‘Yikes! I could never do that!’) will be delighted to find he is offering free training for teachers and parents with their little ones through his facebook videos so that YES, you CAN do that!
ii) Northern Ballet’s Early Years project introduces young children to dance through music, storytelling and multisensory play, with three different resource packs to help you explore the concepts of colour, Going on a Bear Hunt and Where The Wild Things Are.
4. Museums
i) Join in with the Google Cultural Institute to explore artists from around the world or take a walk around Machu Picchu as if you were right there, with Google Arts & Culture.
ii) Sit back and enjoy twelve famous museums that offer virtual tours you can take on your couch.
iii) Dip in to the Museum of London’s Early Years Toolkit to explore a universe of subjects from how to create learning spaces to messy play to how creativity supports early brain and body development.
5. Story
i) Discover Audible with thousands of books for you and your little ones to cuddle up and to listen to when nothing else will do (now free).
ii) Get lost in the British Library’s beautiful maps, illustrated manuscripts, sounds, histories, herstories, artists interviews, photographs and hundreds of online collections across all historical subject areas.
iii) Cultural ideas from the RSA that might just change the world.
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! Email or use the share button 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.