About the Creators
Rie Sinclair
Emmy-Nominated Songwriter, Music Producer & Creator of The Wonder Club.
Rie had 2 imaginary friends as a child & would take them to an imaginary library to sing songs.
Originally from the US, she now resides in Liverpool, England.
Lucy Irving
Creator of the images for The Wonder Club, which encourage puzzle-solving and exploration of negative space. Lucy is an artist, illustrator and author living on the sunny southeast coast of the UK.Frequently Asked Questions
What is the science behind Nursery Rhymes?
In Defence of Nursery Rhymes, 2017 Ofsted inspector Baroness Spielman spoke on their value, saying children who can sing a song and know a story by heart are better prepared for school.
Nursery Rhymes are a crucial tool for language development, motor skills and awareness. The Literacy Trust also promotes Nursery Rhymes for development and communication. They emphasise the power of the imagination, integral to our ecosystem, fostering a sense of community. Sunday Times journalist India Knight wrote about how they help children make sense of the world, build a moral framework, and explore concepts and emotions freely. Author and teacher Sue Crowley finds they also develop coordination and increased knowledge about the world. However, many have outdated or problematic content. BBC published 10 of the Darkest rhymes in history.
The Wonder Club is a new collection of musical rhymes that reflect our world, incorporating STEM learning and the humanities, aiming to spark curiosity and learning in fun, engaging ways.
How can this project help my child's development?
If classic nursery rhymes laid a foundation for emotional intelligence, The Wonder Club aims to also foster inquisitiveness and reasoning without the fear of value judgment.
We are naturally better learners when connected to our learning experiences. By fusing art and science to spark curiosity and critical thinking, we create a meaningful exploration, the seeds of philosophical inquiry. Inspired by research such as Dacher Keltner’s transformative Science of Awe (scientific consultant for the Pixar films Inside Out), The Wonder Club promotes a STEAM approach to make learning more accessible. It emphasises lifelong, interest-led education using artistic expression to bridge the gap between education and entertainment, as aligned with educational expert, Dr. Ger Graus.
What is the function of Negative Space
Early exposure to negative space composition builds imagination and intelligence and allow us to explore boundaries and embrace the unknown.
Absence is often at the heart of Philosophical inquiry, to help us better Reflect and be more Open, keys to empathy and overcoming bias. Mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell argued refelction is fundamental to a meaningful life. Understanding the balance between presence and absence can powerfully shape pattern recognition and how we relate. Thinkers such as Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari often explored the dynamic fluidity and interconnectedness of the world around.
These analytical reasoning skills shape how we learn, and can bridge communication differences. A study from 2023, reinforces the vital importance of critical thinking in elementary education for self awareness and self – directed study as groundwork for informed civic participation in an ever-changing world.
Isn’t critical thinking too advanced for Early Learners?
Conflict / Resolution Skills are fundamental to survival for adaptation and negotiating our environment. Our ability to think critically and creatively begins before we start speaking. And given a nurturing environment, we can better interpret and synthesise knowledge.
Initiatives like the UK’s Early Education resource for Creative and Critical Thinking in early learners, OECD studies, and UCL research highlight the importance of teaching these skills early.
The Wonder Club desires to see future generations become adaptable problem-solvers rather than passive consumers of information. By cultivating a deeper cognitive experience through immersive-imaginary play, the project aligns with Montessori values and Iain McGilchrist’s “four pathways to understanding” (science, reason, intuition, and imagination) which allow children to flourish.
My child listens to these songs on REPEAT. Should I be worried?
As children, we utilise repetitive play like little data scientists, to engage the imagination through sense perception (our tools for calculating and making sense of the world). As we grow, repetition evolves into socially valued practices—habits, rituals, disciplines—that enhance skills and wellbeing, as seen in meditation, heritage crafts, and the performing arts.
In times of disconnection or loss of resonance, repetition can be grounding and restorative. It can also be associated with higher reasoning and free play with any aesthetic, such as sound, colour, geometry or kinetic movement.
Repetition is embodied in the Natural Rhythm of the universe we belong to from orbiting celestial bodies, the seasons, tides, to our sleep cycle and heartbeat.
Can you explain the importance of Maths?
Both Negative Space visuals and Counting are Abstract Concepts.
Counting, as Masha Gershman explains, isn’t just about numbers—Maths can be “a tool for mental empowerment” so that children can approach challenges in every day life. Karen Wilding promotes a better method to counting, Perceptual Subitising or, an “ability to see and recognise an amount as a whole”. The composition of numbers “being communicated without spoken language. It’s happening all the time all around you.”
While maths can become incredibly complex in higher education, there is still something fundamental to basic numbers. Metaphysics is the study of unchangeable phenomena as British Academy’s Prof. Timothy Williamson writes, and “without understanding the metaphysics of numbers, we cannot properly understand the role of mathematics in science.” For the metaphysic enthusiast, I’d recommend a fantastic book called Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea an “unexpected bridge between mathematical theory and real life”.
What's unique about The Wonder Club?
The Wonder Club is designed to be sonically appealing to parents and children by supporting a standard of musical quality with Analogue production and Non-AI Content, to enrich development and well being.
“Music is the expression of Human Experience” and can play an influential role on our growth and development. The intentional human-based (non AI) crafting of lyrics and melodies becomes a vital aspect, offering a sonically soothing and culturally relevant experience, incorporating children’s instruments like ukulele, glockenspiel, and a toy piano. We also believe in producing music which considers safeguarding vulnerable ears from the impact harsh frequencies can have in a world becoming increasingly louder.
Short catchy Melodies: Once a stepping-stone between gibberish and adult-length folklore, nursery rhymes were less overwhelming to young minds than a full 3 and ½ minute song. These 12 jingle-length tracks are designed to resonate with early learners who might be singing along with the chorus of a Disney theme or a few lines from The Beatles. While an abundance of nearly forgotten rhymes might secretly dust used book stores, short verse and poetry are having a bit of a resurgence, with new and old rhymes to be found at the Poetry Libraries in London, Edinburgh and now Manchester.
Can you share more on the impact of Music?
Music is integral to our being!
We can find a great deal of evidence on how music impacts the growth and development of our brain from birth. Music is a language itself, and a powerful means to transmit a thought, idea or message. A football chant can be a “binding agent”, and music fans such as Swifties, have even talked about a spiritual experience or altered state of consciousness, as it can build community through emotional empathy.
Music is said to activate our full brain, and play a dynamic role in neuroplasticity, sleep quality, human connexion and overall health. This study explores the transformative power of music through neuroplasticity and language processing, enhancing memory, focus and learning. Music we enjoy can grant easier access to certain brain functions.
Music listening is shown to improve “cognitive functions such as memory, attention span, and behavioural augmentation”, improving our psychological being. An article in Brain World explores the role of music in emotional regulation and how it’s intrinsic to our being human. In the same journal, Dr. Daniel Levitin explains how music naturally excites pattern – recognition, and when we “listen to music together [our] neurons and brain waves synchronize.” Both listening and playing music can even stimulate the immune system!
Inclusion: Normalising ‘Divergent’ thinkers and Gestalt Learners
Raising awareness of Human Diversity is at the heart of the of the music written and produced for The Wonder Club. To normalise the potential of certain Divergent thinkers and learning styles such as:
- Pattern-seeking (aka Pattern Recognition)
- Gestalt Processing
- Bottom-Up Learning
- Multi-Sensory learning through Hypersensitivity
The Ogden Trust has created resources for developing Pattern-Seeking in young children year 1 – 6. Also know as Pattern Recognition and Inductive Thinking, it’s necessary for scientific discovery.
Autistic Village reexamines misconceptions around Autistic Play as playing to learn, and an inclination toward pattern – recognition skills within the physical (rather than social) milieu. Focusing on the mechanics in the world, and further explaining interruptions can “smash up the patterns we are exploring”, meaning one will have to “to start again, from scratch”. Interruptions are kryptonite.
However, as therapist Jonathan Decker explains while breaking apart the psychology of Pixar’s Inside Out, all children need slow transitions. Autistics may need more time, with a more natural ability to hyper-focus, and engage their ‘slow thinking’ deeper knowledge with a thing.
As children, we learn by pretending to ‘adult’ as Dr. Peter Grey often discusses. Autistic play is often dismissed as nonplay, even though it is sometimes the same multi-sensory immersive experience which produces neatly manicured gardens or the organised structure of museums and shops. We can easily find a rainbow of paint samples at a DIY store, car lots lined up, or the taxonomy of plants and mushrooms. One could also say, these are future World Builders rather than Social Story Tellers, who stumble upon the interconnectedness of our (meta)physical world.
Gestalt processing is a way of understanding a-thing-in-context, and similar to Continental Philosophy is concerned with the impact of relationship. Learning through a song, or reciting a rhyme is a form of echolalia, gestalt language processing. What was once deemed as a deficit in 1985 when Schuler and Prizant exhumed Kanner’s 1940’s observations, is now better recognised as an oversight and a perfectly valid, if not normal learning style.
How can I connect with you?
Please feel free to reach out on any of the platforms via the Linktree button. We’d love to hear from you!
