Classes Use Playful Approach to Put Young Minds to Work

The story was about a lazy man who made a monster do his chores. The tale captivated the imaginations of nine youngsters in the city’s Create A Story summer recreation class, and they set to work dramatizing it.

With cardboard masks and handfuls of multicolored tissue paper, they created their own versions of the monster.

Joanna Stapleton, 5, used balled-up newspaper to form cheeks on her mask. Tommy Grandy, 8, drew square eyes, making his monster resemble a robot. Jessica Knox, 8, glued a unicorn-like horn on her monster: “It’s his brain,” she explained.

Create A Story is one of several Laguna Hills summer classes designed to stimulate the imagination of children and raise their cultural awareness.

“Nothing is pre-cut, nothing is pre-done for the kids,” said Kim Mahoney, city recreation supervisor. “It’s all up to their imagination.”

Among other classes are Masterpiece Makers, in which children from 6 to 12 years old study the works of great painters such as Monet, Chagall and Picasso, then create their own masterpieces.

Teenagers may take part in a project called Mural A Masterpiece. And in the Build A Fort program, youngsters make their own playhouses.

Stimulating the imagination is the common goal, Mahoney said.

“Every mind, no matter what the age, has its own interpretation,” Mahoney said. “Whatever a 6-year-old conceives is just as important and beautiful as what a 12-year-old can create.”

Several programs are new this year to Laguna Hills, which began introducing local youngsters to art three years ago with Messy, Muddy Hands and Toes.

Children may still enroll in some of this summer’s sessions, Mahoney said. There is a nominal fee. Information: (714) 707-2600.