Facilitator: Evelyn Davis
Everybody knows the apocryphal story of the child at Christmas who abandons his shiny new toy in order to explore the cardboard box in which it arrived. Often, we seem to try too hard to provide the shiny, the new and the plastic and fail to appreciate the beauty and potential of ‘loose parts’.
With loose parts, children are free to create and make unexpected connections, which forms the heart of creativity. Too often toys and construction sets have a very limited range of possible assembly strategies, leaving little room for the child’s imaginative input.
This workshop offers participants the opportunity to learn ways to supplement resources and play materials without breaking the bank. It also offers a new window into the beautiful possibilities of ordinary (and cheap) materials which can be found at the hardware store, resource centres and thrift stores.
Resourceful recycling, imaginative creativity and making use of parental contacts can transform your environment into a living, colourful, interactive environment for a fraction of the cost of highly priced commercial products. I will share some of the resources I have used and made, we will make some ourselves and we will brainstorm ways to utilise resources you already have access to.
Being creative ingenious and resourceful has the potential to be as liberating and as empowering for adults as it is for children.