Cool Gloucester: Arts and Crafts for Little Ones

One of Gloucester's underrated gems is Colleen Apostolos-Marsh's Arts and Crafts for Little Ones, an hour-long art class for preschoolers and young school-aged children. A former Montessori preschool teacher and mother, Colleen's classes are well-loved by local moms and kids alike. She uses a variety of media with young children to bring out a sense of wonder and involves them fully in the artistic process. She is an artist herself, and her passion for her work extends into her classes! She is a very talented teacher, and her students end up learning a great deal from her, as well as learning cooperative play, and socialization. The classes are a good mix of teacher guidance but also self-direction on the part of the children, which leads to great results and a love of learning.

Most of Colleen's classes involve a story time segment where she reads a book that ties in with her art project of the week. Sometimes external items are used as well - for instance, fresh edible honeycomb wax from a local beehive was given to her young students during her art project on hexagons - using bee stickers, and sponge-painted beehives, and flowers from her garden were given to her students during a flower-painting project. Her young kids love the tactile feel, and enjoy the classes immensely, talking about them hours and even days or weeks later in some cases! The art that her little students bring home is remarkable, and well worthy of hanging on the fridge or framing!

Colleen's classes previously took place at Island Art and Hobby until their recent closing, when she moved to a new home-based program in her beautiful, spacious "art kitchen" located on East Main street in East Gloucester. It's a convenient location with plenty of parking at nearby Espresso's for easy pickup and dropoff.

Colleen's classes run year-round, which is perfect not only for the school year, but also for finding things for your little ones to do during the slow summer months. If you're a parent or grandparent of a preschooler in the Cape Ann area looking for activities for your little ones, make sure to take a look at Colleen Apostolos-Marsh's class offerings. She runs several classes each week from 10:15-11:15 AM. Each class is $12 (cash or check payable to Colleen Marsh) if your child attends weekly, or $15 for a drop-in class (when available). The cost of the class includes all the supplies your child needs, which makes the class a bargain! The suggested ages are 3-6.

To reach Colleen for questions or to reserve class space (they are popular and can fill up so don't delay) you can email her at [email protected] or call her at 978-648-0601.