On May 31 Kyiv hosted a ceremony to conclude “My Native Land,” a competition of children’s art works. The contest is an unusual one, as all the participants were preschoolers from every Ukrainian region — approximately two million young children from 15,000 kindergartens.
It would never occur to an uninitiated observer that all this beauty was created by children. Among the 100 or so competing works are models of churches, fortresses, palaces, rural courtyards, plasticene, clay and stone-paved city streets with scrupulously crafted people and animals, and amazingly glued-together trees and fences. This is our real native land, with all the best-known nooks and crannies of Ukraine made out of dough, millet, macaroni, stone, coal, coconut shavings, mashed apples, ordinary paper napkins, and many other improvised materials.
“When the works began to arrive, we were probably more excited than the teachers,” says Oksana Chornovil, editor of Piznayko, the Ukrainian magazine for young children. “The first works were remarkable for their quality and creative approach of both the children and their teachers. I don’t think a single person could be indifferent to these creations. We are now convinced that our children are creative and their teachers-concerned.”
Naturally, teachers had some part in fashioning the mockups, but their limited role boiled down to showing examples to the children and telling them about our homeland’s history. Both children and educators made a priceless contribution to fine art as well as the methodology of raising the young. Each project was accompanied by carefully-developed plans, explanations, and technologies. The educators’ findings will be published soon in professional journals.
The jury was basically guided by criteria, such as the most original approach and presentation of Ukraine’s traditions. It took three selection rounds to select the winners. The contest was organized with support from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and the children’s magazine Piznayko. These two institutions will send valuable gifts to the prize-winning kindergartens: toys, intelligence-boosting games, and children’s literature. Although the overall conclusion is that talent and friendship were the true winners, the main prizes will go to Chernihiv, Luhansk, Mykolayiv, and Vinnytsia oblasts.
