Simple Machines Workshop at Edison Centre 24 July 2011

I have heard lots of rave comments on Edison Explorer but have never bother to find out more about it. So, when I knew of this workshop, I jumped at the opportunity. RM30 for a couple, 3 hours workshop. Without knowing exactly what it was all about, I came with an intention to learn how be to creative. I am not a creative person and surely doesn't equipped with critical thinking skill. I wonder if this ability comes naturally for a person or do we need to learn it?

What I learnt.
There are 6 type of simple machines and how we can creatively include them in our children's play by using methods below.

Forced Relationship.
Scamper
Six Hats
Ideal Problem Solving
Planning
Paying Attention to Detail

After the workshop, I realised how I have not known how to turn EnHui's quest with one of those above.

Have a look at the "Simple Machine Unit" photos Edison on Facebook.

Break Out of Your Mind! 28 August 2010

Saturday 230pm.
The workshop  "Break Out of Your Mind, Developing a creative learning mindset with Creativity, Innovation & Self-Expression" by Chong Wai Leng & K V Soon did make an impact on me. It inspires awe in me and hit me hard what amazing children I have.

Left -En playing at the back while we attended the workshop. Gosh, she was wrestling with Arian! 

Right- Our first assignment. We were asked to doodle with a given shape/pattern within 20seconds. The first one was a 'dot'. I paused. My mind was too tensed to think of anything. I remember I need to relax, quick! As I relaxed, the image flowed freely and I doodle a walking odd creature. Next was a 'tick'. The tick became an old-fashioned hair fringe of a man. Then, a 'smiley mouth' turned into the bottom part of juicy grapes. A 'zig zag' became my moutains. A 'spiral' is the pattern of a flower. A 'coma' became part of a sentence in a speech bubble. A 'hyphen' became a flat nose of an unhappy sun. The more I doodle, the more imagination poped up and it relaxed my mind. :)  And I recalled, how relax En could be when she draws. I must not give her a tense ambience at home. It takes away creativity.

Left - Our second assignment. Draw something with less than 20 dots. Then, exchanged it with another person. Join the dot of the drawing that we have exchanged with, and returned to the owner. When my drawing was returned, the line drawn was not the way I intended it to be.

The lesson learnt was 'Everyone look at things differently. Same goes to our children and us." This reminds me of my daily encounter with EnHui and how we view things in a different perspective and that's okay.

Right- The last assigment. Draw out the first image that came to your mind in 10 seconds. I thought of the rocket tent that See Ming had just passed to me. When the time is up, everyone passed the drawing to the person seated next to us and continue drawing the new piece we got. It went on till we received our drawing back.

My tent has become a house when it came back to me ! The black color scribbling was done by Hui. She sat on my lap and scribbled all the drawings while they were being circled around! :)

The lesson learnt was 'An original idea can change or evolve especially when you are working with other people, especially with kids'