"It is only with the heart that one can see clearly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
The Aldous Huxley Centre's children's philosophy, literature, and art club for children aged 7-14 began in autumn 2024.
The club activities aim to encourage children to read books, paint, and express their thoughts, thereby developing
cooperation between different senses. We meet in a small, friendly group in the fifth-floor atrium space of Estonian
Business School. The entire activity is voluntary and conducted on site with the children. There is no homework and no
obligation to read a book.
We meet to learn to act together and help one another – so that we enjoy it and so that something good is born from it:
children's joy in their own creation.
During one season, we meet eight times and discuss one book. Together, we think and discuss what the author wants
to tell us, what feelings the text evokes, and what philosophical questions it raises. We converse and interpret what we
have heard through hands-on activity. The club instructor is Kaie Metsla, who also conducts small, simple painting
exercises with the children. By the end of each session, pastel or watercolour paintings are created. We conclude the
season with the children's joint painting exhibition.
The first book whose meaning we sought together was Antoine de Saint-Exupéry'sThe Little Prince. It was followed by Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, Winnie the Pooh by A.A. Milne and The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien.