My child's birthday happened before the Summer Term. Shouldn't they move to the next level/age group?
Summer Smart Start is a stand-alone program designed to consolidate learning at the end of a term for current students or give new students an introduction to the program. As with all Smart Start classes, the program is organized by birth year to allow us to plan appropriately for the learning needs and experience level of the children. Current students remain in their own cohort to prepare for the next level of Smart Start in September.
In this class, children learn foundational musical skills such as tempo, meter, pitch, and volume together through educational, movement-based games and multi arts activities.
By age 3, children are beginning to develop their singing voices, and as such, singing a wide range of songs is a vital component of the Smart Start curriculum. By age 3, children's basic cognitive skills are in place. Smart Start is designed to work with these skills through activities such as recognizing musical patterns, focusing on the most important aspects of music, and understanding connections across artistic representations. Children work in musical and artistic collaborations designed to foster basic musical knowledge and spur on individual and group creativity.
Socialization and personal growth are strengthened via group engagement. For the first five to six classes a parent or caregiver must attend with the child until they are ready to attend class independently. This decision is individual and flexible.
For summer programs, attendance with or without a caregiver is an individual choice. In general, caregivers often stay for the first class, or part of it, before leaving their child, but this decision is entirely up to the family, in consultation with the Smart Start teacher.