City Harvest Children’s Church team whipped up a whole line of exciting programs during the June school holidays.
Contributed by Regina Kam
The goal of City Harvest Children’s Church is to provide a supportive learning environment where children are encouraged to display initiative, maximize their potential and have fun while doing so.
With that in mind, CHCC started a curriculum series in 2006 to provide a holistic, quality program for the stimulation and development of multi-intelligence in every child, incorporating activities that encourage the children to discover their strengths at a young age and to have the confidence to express themselves.
During the school holidays in June, CHCC organized a series of programs for the holidays, which included Guitar For Kids, Amazing World Of Animals, Doodlechamp Workshop, Imagination Express and Circus Tricks & Treats. A total of 100 young participants registered for the various programs.
Guitar for kids
Guitar For Kids was a four-week program that taught aspiring guitarists basic techniques, chords and easy strumming that would enable them to practice and play simple songs at home. Children who joined the program had the privilege of meeting and interacting with City Harvest Church’s worship leader, Teo Poh Heng, who has trained many church worship bands in Asia.
Teo, CEO of Riffs Music School, is a well-known figure in the local music arena, having graduated from the Yamaha Music Academy in 1996 with a Diploma in Music as well as the School of Creative Arts in 2001. In his 15 years as a professional musician, he has been a contributing songwriter and producer for more than 12 music albums.
According to Teo, practicing 30 minutes a day on the guitar would help the children learn how to be more focused and disciplined, a trait that would come in useful in their studies.
For now, the kids were happy to be able to play an entire song by themselves.
Jeremy Goh, 7, said, “I learned how to play simple songs like ‘Superhero’ and ‘Happy Birthday.’ I enjoyed the class very much and hope we will have it again during my December school holidays.”
Artistic and creative workshops
For the artistically-inclined children, Doodlechamp was a series of art-related workshops inspired by celebrity artist, Bob Einstein, known for his famous cartoon drawings out of doodle scrambles shown on the television program Adventures of Super Einstein on Okto. Einstein uses his imagination to create paper crafts, mural paintings and sketches out of random materials or doodles on a paper.
Children aged 4 to 6 were introduced to an Amazing World Of Animals where they got to express their imagination through creative drawings and making interesting paper crafts. The activities served to increase their knowledge on color composition, space awareness and picture composition.
Concurrently, older children were involved in a combined workshop of Doodlechamp and Imagination Express. These two activities aim to enhance mental development and problem solving skills by using observation, critical thinking, expression of thoughts, as well as creativity.
Though challenging, many of them were surprised by their own level of creativity and ability to think out of the box.
When asked about the lessons learned through the two-day course. Samuel Tzeng, 10, said, “I felt a sense of satisfaction when I managed to create interesting drawings through my imagination. It was very fun!”
Circus Tricks And Treats
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| PHOTOS: Regina Kam |
To wrap up the June holiday activities, the children enjoyed an exciting day of Circus Tricks and Treats in collaboration with Circus Outreach, an organization that aims to teach life skills through circus acts. With the belief that the circus is a great melting pot that transcends race, ethnicity, class and cultural background, CO aims to “break down walls and build humanity.” Since 2001, Circus Outreach has worked with at least 1,000 students from various schools in Singapore.
Knik Pang from CO taught the children some fun and simple circus tricks.
During the four-hour program held at the end of June, the children mastered simple circus tricks, including juggling with three balls (hand-made by themselves), the diabolo and spinning plates on sticks. One of the participants, who was mentally-challenged, persevered and refused to give up, eventually mastering some of the tricks.
Ruth Ong, a Circus Outreach trainer said, “She is a very brave girl, who managed to do all the activities even though it was difficult for her. She never gave up and followed through every single one. Many of the children were very encouraging and kept cheering her on. This is something we can’t learn in classrooms.”
In the upcoming months of July, August and September, CHCC is planning a whole line-up of programs to keep the little ones on their toes. These include photography lessons, excursion to the art museum and even making simple meals for Mommy and Daddy.
For more information, please call Joanna Sin at +65 9127 9144 or Wendy Wong at +65 9431 7441 during office hours or e-mail children@chc.org.sg.
