The founder of The Creation Station, best selling author and multi-award-winning entrepreneur, Sarah Cressall talks about why she started The Creation Station back in 2002 and nine benefits of attending a creative experience.
Sarah explains that as a mum to three she was looking for creative activities to help nurture her own three children and also to help her make new friends. Sarah talks about how tough it can be as a parent and how she wanted to her three boys to enjoy a class that would nurture their own potential and spark their curiosity for learning. Sarah developed the programmes based on the work of Montessori, Reggio Emilia, Edward de Bono and many other education practitioners and also based on her own needs and wants for her children and herself as a mum. Over five years Sarah tried tested and refined the programmes based on feedback from parents and children.
Due to demand Sarah franchised The Creation Station, and now there are over 100 friendly, trained Creation Station leaders across the UK, together we have inspired over 950,000 children and families and our classes, school clubs and workshops, parties and events are rated 5-Star by over 2,500 customers. The Creation Station continues to be passionate about nurturing creativity, inspiring imaginations and supporting you to help unleash the wonder within your child and yourself 🙂
In this short video, Sarah talks about how creative activities help your child’s development and how they are also great fun for you as a parent, grandparent or carer.
Here are nine ways Creation Station classes help to develop your child’s creativity:
1 – Journey of Creativity
Our award-winning programmes are developed to provide your child with opportunities to enjoy a creative and exciting journey, where they are free to explore, discover and develop. Each experience is about nurturing your own child’s ideas and imagination. It’s never ‘here’s one we made earlier’, but more about sparking your own child’s natural curiosity. It is this way your child will engage, own their own learning and develop their skills in a way that suits them and at a rate and pace that works for them too.
2 – Social
Working together, collaborating and sharing is a wonderful way to build confidence and gain confirmation that your ideas and input are valued. When your child is creative in a group setting, they enjoy being focused and also being part of a group – swapping ideas and having fun together.
3 – Relaxed and Caring
One of the best ways to support your child’s creative development is to allow them to experiment, explore and discover. At Creation Station, the planning, sourcing and buying of all the materials and tools, setting up the activities, providing the fun and clearing up, are all done for you. This means that you can relax and enjoy quality time with your child. Or if the activity is an after-school club, workshop or party, again you can rest assured that your child’s well-being is our highest priority. Our Creation Station leaders care about supporting your child and we will always go the extra mile to help your child enjoy a memorable and rewarding experience. At Creation Station, we believe ‘it’s not just what we make but how we make people feel’, that really makes the difference.
4 – Quality Time
We have all heard people say that before you know it, your kids will be ‘all grown up’. Making time in a busy schedule is hard. By booking a regular class you know you have allocated time in your diary. What many of the parents, grandparents and carers who come along say is that they enjoy the experience just as much as their child! Evidence suggests that your child will engage and learn more when they are doing activities with their key carer. When you share a creative activity with your child you do get that ‘warm fuzzy feeling’, positive shared time creates smiles, laughter and memories that really do stay with you for a lifetime.
5 – Peace of Mind
With every activity your child is involved in, it’s critically important that you know the activities are safe, tried and tested. At Creation Station, you can rest assured that we take health and safety and environmental impact very seriously:
- All the activities are risk assessed by our specialist Health and Safety team and by our Health and safety trained Creation Station franchise leaders.
- All the products we use are checked and have safety data information where appropriate
- Products are sourced to have the minimal environmental impact wherever possible.
- Your trained and friendly Creation Station leader is DBS checked, health and safety trained, first aid trained and child safeguarding trained.
- We comply with all data protection and legal requirements to ensure your child and you can enjoy a safe, happy and wonderfully creative time together.
6 – Educational
The Creation Station preschool programmes are underpinned by the government Early Years Foundation Stage. This means that every experience will be supporting your child’s development in a wide range of areas. Research has shown that creative activities help your child develop physiological, social and emotional skills.
7 – Great Value
Your child will be enjoying their creative journey with an exciting range of different quality materials and tools. Typically after each experience children, return home with their creations, so unlike many other classes, there is a tangible item to take home to be discussed, displayed and treasured. Purchasing all the items used throughout the programmes would probably cost you more than attending the programmes and having all the planning, delivery and tidying away done for you!
8 – Develop New Interests
With the rise in screen time and busy schedules, supporting your child to enjoy creative activities is a great way to help them develop other interests and hobbies.
Creativity is a muscle and like any muscle, it will grow and develop when it is used regularly.
9 – Fun!
What’s great about creative activities is that as well as being educational and a great bonding activity, kids love them because they are fun! Parents love the activities as they don’t have to organise, plan or clear up and they can enjoy the fun too.
The Creation Station portfolio of classes is designed for all ages and stages of your child’s development. Activities include;
- Tiny Treasures newborn to 6 months
- Baby Discover 6 months to 15 months
- Little Explorers 16 months to 4 years
- Family Fun 2 years to 11 years
- Create Club 5 to 11 years
- School workshops 5 to 11 years
- Creative Crafters creative fun for grown-ups
If you would like to find out what creative and educational fun is going on near you, visit www.thcreatiosntation.co.uk and pop in your postcode to find your local Creation Station franchise leader. Here you can see classes nearby and contact them if you would like an arty party or a bespoke event.
If you don’t have a Creation Station in your area, and you or someone you know would love to run their own flexible and rewarding creative business, find out about running your own Creation Station franchise.
