Finalists announced for The Creation Station franchise awards 2017

We are thrilled to announce the list of inspiring and talented franchise owners who have been shortlisted for a prestigious award at The Creation Station Inspiring Imaginations conference 2017. The winners of the awards will be announced at the 15th annual ‘Creation Station Inspiring Imaginations’ Conference at Cadburys House Hotel, Bristol during a Gala Dinner and Dance on the evening of Friday 21^st April.

“Our whole family of franchise owners make such great positive contributions to their local community and really help children, families and adults to be creative and have fun together” says Sarah Cressall Founder and Managing Director. “I am very proud of all of our team, so judging the awards is really tough. Each year our franchise owners are becoming more and more successful and the calibre is really high.”

The Creation Station Franchisees shortlisted for the “Best New Franchisee” include:

• Kat Gillespie from The Creation Station Guernsey
• Joanna Cameron from The Creation Station Lancaster
• Tina Harris from The Creation Station Wirral Greasby
• Abi Cutler from The Creation Station Worcester
• Sharon Fisher from The Creation Station Harrogate
• Vicky Wood from The Creation Station West Berkshire
• Helen Narraine from The Creation Station Sutton Coldfield
• Sarah Burnett from The Creation Station Bromsgrove

The Creation Station Franchisees shortlisted for the “Franchisee of the Year” include:

• Emma Theunissen from The Creation Station Isle of Wight
• Melanie Dawson from The Creation Station Wimbledon
• Nicki Smith from The Creation Station Bath
• Kirsty Hickson from The Creation Station Driffield
• Sue Hammond from The Creation Station Frampton Cotterell
• Suzie Smith from The Creation Station Grantham
• Ruth Morris from The Creation Station Aberdeen
• Rebecca Dickinson from The Creation Station Kent, Faversham
• Lisa Hagg from The Creation Station Bournemouth

The Creation Station Franchisees shortlisted for the “People’s choice” include:

• Louise Richardson from The Creation Station Fareham
• Emma Winterbourne from The Creation Station Oxfordshire Thame
• Sue Hammond from The Creation Station Frampton Cotterel
• Penny Gilbert from The Creation Station Oxford
• Emma Theunissen from The Creation Station Isle of Wight
• Nicki Smith from The Creation Station Bath
• Katie Love from The Creation Station Cannock
• Nicole Norman from The Creation Station Stevenage
• Kevin Kerridge from The Creation Station Leicestershire
• Suzie Smith from The Creation Station Grantham
• Ruth Morris from The Creation Station Aberdeen

The Creation Station Franchisees shortlisted for the “Create Club Champion” include:

• Kirsty Hickson from The Creation Station Driffield
• Jann Thorpe from The Creation Station Macclesfield
• Nicki Smith from The Creation Station Bath
• Fiona Burn from The Creation Station Southsea

The Creation Station Franchisees shortlisted for the “Best Can Do Attitude” include:

• Yat-Chen Lee and Yat-On Lo from The Creation Station Herts St Albans Welwyn Garden City and Hatfield
• Ruth Morris from The Creation Station Aberdeen
• Louise Richardson from The Creation Station Fareham
• Kirsty Hickson from The Creation Station Driffield
• Suzie Smith from The Creation Station Grantham
• Sarah Burnett from The Creation Station Bromsgrove
• Emma Winterbourne from The Creation Station Oxfordshire Thame

The Creation Station Franchisees shortlisted for the “Best Retailer” include:

• Claire Darnley from The Creation Station Halesowen

For more information on your fantastic local classes, parties and events give us a call on 01395 239700 or visit http://www.thecreationstation.co.uk

Clare and Arty’s Creation Station Journey

Following Clare and her 2-year-old son called Arty’s experience of Creation Station classes. To read Clare and Arty’s first and second week at their Creation Station Classes- click here and to find out how they get on in future classes follow our blog.

Week 5 Little Explorer Classes: 

“Arty was on holiday this week and so we missed ‘Creation Station’ today.”

Week 6 Little Explorer Classes:

“Final week and sadly we were unable to attend due
to ill health. Arty was so poorly and I had so wanted him to go but in the end he just wasn’t well enough and I didn’t want to give his germs to the other children. This was our last session of the 6 week block, but we will be
definitely attending more sessions when the new term starts.”

                 

Summary

As a family, we’ve really had a great experience so far at Creation Station. We really enjoy being around Helen as she is such an easy, relaxed person to get along with and always has a smile for everyone. Arty is a really energetic two year old. Whilst the other children were happy to sit and do some art activities, Arty enjoyed them for a short time and then would be looking to run around and we often had to keep bringing him back to the art, but once focused and concentrating on something, he would be fine. Even for energetic and restless children like Arty, there was still much to glean from the experience and he would always finish something and be very proud to bring it home. He has 4 pieces of Creation Station art around his room and he loves it. We often see Helen around town at events and promoting Creation Station in some way or
another and we pop over and do some art and say hello. I think she is a face of the ‘promotion of creativity in children’ in Haverhill now, and that’s so nice. We do still go to some sessions and enjoy it. I think Arty gets so much out of it developmentally, his fine and gross motor hand and eye co-ordination, maths with colours and shapes, literacy – paintbrush strokes and language and communication, listening to the music. The emotional benefits are tremendous as he gets complete autonomy to express himself through the medium of art and creativity, he gets a sense of self-worth and pride in his accomplishments and of course, he benefits socially, by interacting with Helen, the other children and other parents.

I would like to say thank you so much for the gift of Creation Station. I’m so glad it’s come to our town and I can see it being a big part of children’s events and on the clubs timetable for many parents and little artists alike. I hope you like the blog and photos, all that’s left to say is thank you and best of luck for Creation Station!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Love from,

Clare, Arty, Poppy (who has done art activities with Helen at town events) and sometimes daddy!) 🙂 x

Classes are designed to help inspire your little one through journeys of exploration discovery and development.

Creation station has the following classes and events available:

If you would like to come along and enjoy the fun with your little one pop your details below and we’ll let you know the details of local classes and events.

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Follow our blog for more exciting activity ideas to do at home to help inspire your child. For local award winning classes, parties and events visit your local creation station for hands-on inspirational classes.

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Clare and Arty’s Creation Station Experience- Week 3 and 4

Following Clare and her 2-year-old son called Arty’s experience of Creation Station classes. To read Clare and Arty’s first and second week at their Creation Station Classes- click here and to find out how they get on in future classes follow our blog.

Week 3 Little Explorer Classes: 

“Arty discovered the colour yellow this week. So sunny and bright! Everything was yellow, shapes, paint, bricks, balls, lots of different textures and interesting toys and other things to use in making a wonderful ‘creation’. Arty was a little bit hyperactive this morning. He enjoyed doing some painting and then he enjoyed running around the room much to my horror, but Helen was great, she put me at ease and told me that it’s okay, he’s just being a little boy and lots of children are like this. Not a problem at all. Phew! We painted our feet and made sunflowers. It was a lovely session and even though Arty was on the move a lot during this one, he still got lots out of the art on offer :)”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Week 4 Little Explorer Classes: 

“This week, Arty was a lot more settled and eager to see what was in Helen’s box. He sat with the others and did the ‘Creation Station’ song with Helen and he did all the actions as well. Love the use of words like ‘creation, station, imagination and develops’ in the song. It sets the mood and lets the children know that it’s time to settle in and get ‘creating’ for the next hour. Then, of course the familiar Creation Station CD is played and this always sets a lovely tone for
the whole session ahead. Right, down to business and today’s theme is the colour… Blue! Arty is excited. He sits straight down in his little red overalls and gets to work, smearing large splodges of blue paint all over a huge piece of wallpaper. He rolls blue balls through the paint and he paints blocks with letters of the alphabet raised on them, then prints them onto the paper and we say each letter as he does it and encourage him to have a go too. Helen tells us to ask him what colour the sky is, what colour the sea is and then we start to make ‘sea’ and watery scenes onto smaller pieces of paper for what will be our aquatic picture scene. Arty is given tissue paper and we roll it into little balls and use PVA glue to stick them onto the paper as well. We cut little pieces of coloured paper, triangles, circles and then we also stick them onto the picture. Arty is encouraged to have a go. He loves cutting and sticking now and he didn’t know how to do this before. He is really keen to try now and is better every week. We went home with a very nice, colourful ocean scene picture. And a very proud two and a half year old. I love how Creation Station encourages parents to get involved and sees the importance of developing parent creative skills and confidence in doing Art with their children. We also, feel a huge sense of pride and building bonds with our children and understanding their individuality and needs.”.

Clare Reeve- Artys proud mummy

Classes are designed to help inspire your little one through journeys of exploration discovery and development.

Creation station has the following classes and events available:

If you would like to come along and enjoy the fun with your little one pop your details below and we’ll let you know the details of local classes and events.

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Follow our blog for more exciting activity ideas to do at home to help inspire your child. For local award winning classes, parties and events visit your local creation station for hands-on inspirational classes.

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Clare and Arty’s Creation Station Experience – Week 2

Following Clare and her 2-year-old son called Arty’s experience of Creation Station classes. Here’s Clare’s story of their second shared weekly class.

To read Clare and Arty’s first-week click here and to find out how they get on in future classes follow our blog.

Week 2 Little Explorer Classes: 

“We are into week two and Arty is eager to get started! Once again he puts on a red all- in- one messy suit and sits down to see what Helen has in her treasure chest this week. Squares! So we get down to explore making squares with various materials such as tissue paper, paint, maize and lolly sticks.

Helen encourages Arty to print squares using the sides of wooden blocks, we make picture frames using flat sticks (lolly sticks) and Arty paints his feet and hands on paper and we position them inside the frames. A lovely keepsake to take home and put on his wall. In the background there is Imagination Station music, it really makes the room seem rather magical, with a happy, buzzy energy! Again, Helen got down with Arty and encouraged him to take part in everything and was good to anticipate what he might like to explore next, jumping up and grabbing a bottle of blue paint or more lolly sticks. Really generous with materials, there are no boundaries here and imagination is stretched and explored without limits or restraints on anything. Very relaxing environment where our pretty lively toddler can play through art and we can get involved, feeling included and recognised as an important participant in our child’s learning and play. Roll on week 3”.

Clare Reeve- Artys proud mummy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Classes are designed to help inspire your little one through journeys of exploration discovery and development.

Creation station has the following classes and events available:

 

If you would like to come along and enjoy the fun with your little one pop your details below and we’ll let you know the details of local classes and events.

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Follow our blog for more exciting activity ideas to do at home to help inspire your child. For local award winning classes, parties and events visit your local creation station for hands-on inspirational classes.

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Clare and Arty’s Creation Station Experience

As parents, we want to know exactly what we are signing up for when it comes to children’s classes and how it can benefit our children. Clare was one of those parents. Clare had won The Creation Station “Why do you think creativity is important?” competition. Her competition entry was the following:

“My son is called Arty  We come from a family of creativity, my hubby’s mum is a music teacher and his dad, a keen artist. Children need art now more than ever, in an age of electronics and gaming. It’s all too easy in our hectic lifestyles to just sit kids in front of tv’s, phones and tablets to be ‘babysat’ whilst parents get on with chores. That’s why it’s fantastic to have discovered #CreationStation, you don’t have to set up activities or plan or get messy at home, plus there are no flashing lights or other electronic distractions! Its been proven that children can benefit so much from art activities, just a little bit every day, or week has been known to help children grow and flourish in so many areas and gain confidence and pride in their achievements. It also helps to calm and soothe those with behavioural difficulties as well as help children who are struggling to cope in a world of SATS and long school/childcare hours, our children are simply not allowed to be children anymore. Exercise and creativity. As crucial to children’s well-being as food and air. And love, of course.  I’ve not been to a session yet but would love MY Arty to try it because he needs something like this in his life and loves to be creative. We’ve been waiting for you… #CreationStation. Bringing children’s ideas and visions to life “ 

The prize was six free sessions at her local Creation Station in Haverhill & Surrounding Areas. Clare then asked if she could share her experience to tell you first hand what it felt like as a mum to go to The Creation Station Classes:

Week 1 of the Little Explorer Classes:

I have to be honest, I didn’t know what to expect when I walked into our first ‘Creation Station’ session. My 2 and a half-year-old is very lively and I wasn’t sure if the group would be for him, even though I desperately wanted him to do some art and crafts as I believe it’s good for nurturing and developing a happy and wholesome little human being! I needn’t have worried however. Helen, the group leader is so lovely and friendly and immediately put us at ease. My son, Arty, got into his special red splashproof all in one, (there are many sizes available) and he got down to business straight away. Helen got the children’s interest by asking them to sit with her and guess what is inside a big, Creation Station treasure chest. Then she reveals that week’s theme. This week, it’s circles.

Arty was able to use various media to learn about circles and he painted and printed on a large sheet of paper that covered the middle of the floor! So much space and paper to go wild on, lots of different coloured paint and circles made from paper and card and circles to print with, whilst I didn’t have to worry about paint on his clothes or on my furniture or floor! Hoorah! I think I enjoyed taking part and having this special creative time with him as much as he did.

Helen encouraged the parents to speak to their child whilst they were taking part in the activities and it really made such a difference. Big plus points for that!

After painting his feet and hands and half of his face, Arty’s work here was done and we went over to stand in a basin of water and take his overalls off. The paint washed off easily and then we went over to the next task on the table. There is always a large painting activity on the floor, followed by a second activity at a table. This week the children made paper plate friends (making faces on paper plates, with pipe cleaner ‘arms’ and ‘legs’ threaded through holes, plus an extra one for hanging).

Arty was very proud of all his ‘work’ today and we went away with a sense of satisfaction and happiness. Looking forward to week 2.

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Why Imagination And Creativity is Important For Your Child

As one of the founders of the children’s activity association and having achieved the gold standard, we understand the importance of safe, positive and engaging activities to support your children’s development.

With the squeeze on creativity in our education system, it’s even more crucial that we support our children to be creative and imaginative. As a parent, we want to ensure our children have a solid foundation to help them grow develop and blossom. Starting creative activities at a young age and continuing through childhood, can support your child in all the key areas of their development. That’s what we are passionate about at Creation Station. providing your peace of mind and your child positive and engaging activities to help them explore, discover and develop at a rate and pace that sparks their own imagination and creative journey of learning.

We were approached by blogger Jennifer from arTeacherJB who loves what we do here at The Creation Station and has kindly written a blog for us about the importance of creativity and how it can help with your child’s development.

Every parent wants to ensure that their child gets off to the right start in life. Starting at a young age and continuing through their childhood, we should try to encourage children to be imaginative and creative. This will help your child with their learning development.

Every parent wants to ensure that their child gets off to the right start in life. Starting at a young age and continuing through their childhood, we should try to encourage children to be imaginative and creative. This will help your child with their learning development.

Imagination is something we all have and is essential in our lives whether it be at work or home. Children develop an imagination very early on and it is the start of the process that will define them as a person. Raising Children list the key benefits learnt through imagination as: fostering creative, expressing emotions, communications skills, coordination and motor skills, and problem-solving. How a child develops these skills is down to time dedicated to being imaginative and creative.

Children love to pretend that they are something they see on television or read about in books. Events such as the recent Olympics are a great way to fire up a child’s imagination and for a parent to encourage them to perhaps take part in something new. Here on Creative Fun we wrote a post on creating a children’s crafty medal. This is a great activity to do with your children to use in role-play such as winning the Olympics. This combines a child’s imagination with real-world goals and could inspire them in the future. Creative Fun recognizes that children need to have their creativity and imagination nurtured.

The Creative Fun helps inspire children by running fun creative classes that help them develop their imagination. We even organize events such as the kid zone for the Olympics at Hyde Park where hundreds of families came to have fun and learn. These types of events help improve child’s creativity because they get involved with other children who are also involved in the experience. Visit The  Creation Station website to find local classes, book group events or learn how to get your child inspired to ignite their creativity.

As parents, we want to encourage our children in the best way we can. Bright Horizons state that parents can often intentionally or unintentionally hinder their child’s imagination. The example they give is if your child says that they drank purple milk from a purple cow the natural reaction is to correct the child because we are afraid that they don’t understand what is real. What the parent might not understand is that the child knows that a cow is not purple and is instead enjoying their imagination. The site goes on to quote Susan Engel Ph.D. who informs that children aged two and a half understand the distinction between real and pretend and that when in play mode the real becomes unimportant.

Child Care Quarterly believes that parents should tailor their child’s creativity to their age. For example, toddlers are still learning about shapes and colours so it is best to encourage them to do activities that involve drawing and colouring. Pre-schoolers are more engaged with symbols and sequences. This includes activities such as dance and collaboration with other children. All creative work for children is beneficial but it is possible to help your child’s development by engaging them in certain activities based on their age.

It is important that children are encouraged to be creative in different ways. Toosta believes that children’s clothes and activities should not be separate at a young age as they believe that the gender stereotypes are not beneficial and that girls benefit from football and boys from sewing. By broadening your child’s activities beyond what is considered the normal, parents will be broadening their child’s creative capabilities.

One of the best ways to get your children to be creative is to join in with them. Help Guide states that not only will playing with our child help their development it will also make the bond between parent and child stronger. One tip they suggest is to make your child take the lead in the game. This will let them use their imagination in different ways, as they have to explain to you the rules or the world they are imagining.

Imagination is fundamental for your child’s development. All children have imaginations but it is up to the parent to make sure that it is encouraged. A child needs to be guided in life and sometimes this means accepting that they drank purple milk from a purple cow.

Exclusively written for The Creation Station
by arTeacherJB

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Follow our blog for more exciting activity ideas to do at home to help inspire your child. For local award winning classes, parties and events fill in the boxes below and we will get you in touch with you local creation station leader for hands-on inspirational classes.

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The Creation Station Christmas Countdown -Day 4

Enjoy this simple step by step video and make your very own reindeer using your hands!

You will need:

• Coloured Pens
• Paint
• Wiggle Eyes
• Gems
• Card

Q. Where do you find reindeer?

A: Wherever you left them!

For more “How To” videos go to our YouTube Channel and click Subscribe. Share your awesome masterpieces with #creationstation on The Creation Station Ltd Facebook  or Twitterpage for your chance to win one of our monthly craft giveaways. For local classes, parties and events visit www.thecreationstation.co.uk

Children In Need Fundraising Fun

At Creative Hub we have been busy planning how we are going to raise money for Children in Need. We decided that we will be making cakes and going around our local area to sell them to our hungry friends- but to make this a little more fun, we will be wearing pyjamas, something yellow or something spotty! What exciting activities have you got planned to help raise awareness and funds for BBC Children in Need?

Download your own Pudsey activity sheet here

We would love to hear all about your fund raising adventures! So please share your images awesome pictures with #creationstation on The Creation Station Ltd Facebook or Twitter for your chance to win one of our monthly craft giveaways. For free fun craft videos subscribe to The Creation Station Youtube channel. For local classes, parties and events visit www.thecreationstation.co.uk

 

We Will Remember…

Remembrance day is fast approaching, so we have created this fun activity sheet for your child to colour in and decorate. How will you commemorate Remembrance Sunday?

 

Share your awesome masterpieces with #creationstation on The Creation Station Ltd Facebook or Twitter for your chance to win one of our monthly craft giveaways. For free fun craft videos subscribe to The Creation Station Youtube channel. For local classes, parties and events visit www.thecreationstation.co.uk

Ten top benefits of how creative play can help your child’s development.

Play-Doh is great fun and maybe you’ve wondered about the other benefits of playing with Play-Doh? Well, wonder no more – we’ve identified 10 amazing benefits of getting stuck into Play-Doh.

1. Improves self-esteem

You can poke it, pat it, squash it and squeeze it. There is no right or wrong way to use Play-Doh. This helps to develop your child’s self-esteem, as they can’t ‘get it wrong’. Whatever your child produces is a positive achievement.

2. Stimulates imagination

As Play-Doh is a sculpting material, your child has free rein over what their imagination creates. Your child can create whatever you want with Play-Doh – a sausage, a seal or a spider. Then, they can play with ‘toys’ they originated and made themselves.

3.  Encourages experiments with pressure and texture

The tactile experience of playing with Play-Doh works on many levels with a child’s sense of touch. They can create and feel the textures they make, then explore applying varying amounts of pressure to create these textures. Play-Doh responds to even the lightest of touches.

As children increasingly use mobile devices and tablets, the ability to build their sense of pressure and perform screen gestures becomes more important as part of modern life.

4. Strengthens motor skills

Play-Doh strengthens both fine and gross motor skills and allows children to experiment with gentle and powerful touch. In our classes, we see lots of children strengthening their hands, through the range of textures and tools that are used. The Play-Doh sessions give children a great opportunity flex their creative muscles in many ways.

5. Develops self-expression

Play-Doh is all about self-expression, so it can be really therapeutic for children who may not be able to express the range of feelings they’re experiencing, in words.

6. Promotes stress relief

Rather like one of those squeezy stress balls, Play-Doh can be stress-relieving for children.

7. Improves hand-eye co-ordination

Using tools like the extruder, cutters or scissors supports a child’s development of hand-eye co-ordination, which benefits them in all kinds of activities from sports to brushing their teeth.

8. Enriches your child’s education

A fun way to build on your child’s education is to experiment with mixing colours, making shapes, letters or numbers – the possibilities are limitless.

9. Develops social and communication skills

Once your child is creating or has completed their project, discussing it with an adult or child, develops their social and communication skills.

We are very proud of our partnership with  Play-Doh and will be running ‘Play-Doh Imagination Classes’ to help  foster co-operative play, as children share colours or work together to build a creation, such as layering or decorating a cake.

10. Encompasses a wide age range

Play-Doh also appeals to a wide age range of children and our classes cover ages 2-8 years old.

To enjoy all the amazing benefits of playing with Play-Doh, sign up to the Play-Doh Imagination Classes at a Creation Station near you and you’ll get:

• free Play-Doh
• to take home your child’s creation
• a Play-Doh activity booklet
• to enter our Play-Doh competition
• to know that your child is experiencing these benefits

During 17^th to 28^th October 2016, we will be running Play-Doh ‘Open A Tub Of Imagination’ classes for children, at 800 locations around the UK. Join in ‘The Great British Play-Doh Tea Party’ classes and inspire your child with their own unique ‘Cake-Off’ creations.

Plus, you can enjoy ‘Squishy, Squashy, Spooky Halloween Fun’ classes – inspire your child with their own spooky monster creations.

To find your closest class all you need to do is leave a comment, email us here, visit our website and put in your postcode, or call Creative Hub Head Office on 01395 239 700.

And remember – you could be a winner! Enter our Facebook competition to win yourself a Play-Doh Ice Cream Castle and some tubs of Play-Doh. Like our Facebook page and post a picture of your Play-Doh creation using the #PlayDohCreation – we’re looking forward to seeing what your child creates!

 

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