Avon Life Article

Featured Business Article From May 2009 Issue of Avon Life

CreativeWorks Program Connects Children with Nature

Written By Natalie K. Pollock

Angela Antonelli, director of CreativeWorks for Children, now has a new program for children ages 8-10 designed to tear them away from electronic stimulation and return them to the simple pleasures of nature.

Pioneer Girls is an after-school enrichment program, scheduled to run for four weeks initially, until Ms. Antonelli can gauge the level of interest in the program.

"When children spend too much time plugged in, their ability to function successfully in society is impacted. They are less able to concentrate on a single task and their ability to focus for extended periods of time decreases," she said.

With her new program, Ms. Antonelli hopes to entice young girls to leave behind their iPods, text messaging and computers for an hour a week to focus on a single, simple task each time they meet. She will teach them to cross-stitch, make homemade ice cream from natural ingredients, and play old fashioned outdoor games, such as hoop rolling with a stick, among other simple pleasures.

"They are used to multi-tasking now. With this program, they will be asked to focus on one project at a time, requiring their full concentration," she said. "We will see what this program turns into. If their is an interest, I will continue it through the summer and add other activities along the way."

The program will take place on the lawn of her CreativeWorks for Children center a 3 Canal Court, in the former Ensign-Bickford complex of offices. With trees, grass, and a babbling brook running through the property, her location is well situated to bring the beauty and tranquility of nature closer to children.

"Kids are now deprived and its epidemic. They have no freedom and no interest to go outside and play. We should reverse things now. Tell them they can't have computer time, but instead they have to go outside and play," she said.

At CreativeWorks, Ms. Antonelli has been offering enrichment classes for children from infants to age 12 since 1997. She has currently expanding her gardening classes and offering Suburban Safari, an opportunity to acquaint children with their natural surroundings and to teach them to distinguish among the flowers, trees and other plants.

"Everyone is worried about the stranger on the corner. We need to find some kind of balance," she said.

"I am now noticing that people are concerned that children do not have enough time outside and play time with their friends. Their time is always structured."

In addition to the Little Sprouts gardening class, CreativeWorks offers Cooking Around the World cooking class, Creative Yoga and half-day programs for kindergartners, as well as themed birthday parties for children of all ages. She founded the business 11 years ago as Creative Hearts, a concept she reorganized and expanded in 2001.

She was always drawn to arts of all forms and especially enjoyed writing and sculpture growing up. While in high school, she realized that she also enjoyed working with children when she assisted with an aerobics class at a community center in Minnesota.

After she moved to Connecticut in 1897, Ms. Antonelli first worked in a day care center, among other positions, and then took a job in the corporate world with the Aetna Insurance Company. "At the end I was depressed, so I knew I had to leave and I realized something was missing. I had to do something with kids," she said.

In the beginning, she went on the road from schools to libraries to day care centers with a car full or art supplies and a mind full of creative play ideas. She also set up an enrichment program at Bishop's Corner in West Hartford with the help of her fiance' and mother.

She has since married David Antonelli and they have made a home together in Canton.

"David has helped with some programs and he has developed and maintains our web site. He freelances as a three dimensional designer from home," said Ms. Antonelli.

"He is so artistic. He makes many of the decorative things for our birthday parties and he has a natural way with the children," she added.

She also has other helpers with her programs and birthday parties. Dawn Monague has been teaching children's Spanish classes at CreativeWorks for one and a half years to children ages 3-6.

Ms. Monague has two children of her own. Lily, who is now eight and a half, has been taking classes from Ms. Antonelli since she was two and a half.

"Angela is the first person I left Lily with and it was harder for me to leave than for Lily. She was in the fairy and ballet programs and the weekly thematic programs for preschoolers," she said.

Ms. Monague is certified to teach Spanish on the high school level, but for now, with two children in elementary school, she is enjoying teaching a younger group.

"They have no anxiety about learning a new language, unlike high schoolers. After the first day, I am able to conduct the whole class in spanish and they just do it," she said.

"Parents tell me at home the children will ask for this or that in Spanish, or a word will pop out here or there, or they will sing a Spanish song we have learned together."

The Spanish classes are a hour long, broken into eight eight-minute activities, such as singing or playing games reflecting the theme of the day. On butterfly day, they might play Butterfly, Butterfly, Caterpillar instead of Duck, Duck, Goose, which allows them to practice their new vocabulary. Each session ends with a hands-on craft activity.

Ms. Monague happened upon CreativeWorks when she saw a flyer at a West Hartford Library, shortly after she had moved to the area with her family from Boston. She feels lucky to have found Ms. Antonelli and her programs.

"Angela has a way of speaking to kids that is open and encouraging. With affirmative sentences, she say positive things without making judgments," she said.

"My daughter responded well to her approach and I learned how to do it. Lily transitioned well to elementary school because of the programs."

One of the reasons Ms. Antonelli had such success with children is because she loves what she is doing. "I do everything, from soup to nuts, but it is rewarding and worthwhile," she said.

Many customers found her through her birthday parties. She offers a choice of over 40 themes from princess and pirates to mermaids, trains and more.

"We transform the space with decorations so that children are transported into a different environment. We run games related to the theme, with music and creative play activities, entertaining them the entire one and a half hours, until they have cake at the end," she said.

The majority of her programs are offered during the day for infants and preschoolers. Then come the after-school programs and the half-day programs for kindergartners.

For more information about programs at CreativeWorks for Children, or to attend a free trial class, call Ms. Antonelli at 677-7910, email her at CreativeworksForChildren@yahoo.com or visit www.CreativeWorksForChildren.com.