Thread: Mommy and me classes

Hi dancers!

I'm considering starting a “Mommy and Me” class. I've had experience as a day care and after school teacher, but not teaching in adult/child groups. I thought I'd seen threads on this topic recently and I know I've seen it before but I wasn't able to find anything when I did a search. ..c:: Could any of you give me some advice or direct me to any threads that could answer my questions?

- Do you offer special rates such as X amount for the adult and X amount for the kids with a limit on how many kids can sign up with Mom?

- Let's say an adult student wants to sign up with her child and one of her child's friends. Do any of you have an example of a “guardian agreement” that the parent of the friend could sign granting permission for another adult to act as guardian? Do any of you do this? Would you be willing to share yours?

- I've seen situations in these kind of classes where the parent/guardian uses inappropriate methods to discipline their children. I'm not talking about behaviour that's abusive, just ineffective parenting..p:: What are your policies in this matter? Do any of you have policy statements that you'd be willing to share?

Thanks!
Betsy

I will be interested to read this. i've had several people come to me asking if they'll do a mommy & me class, but they have very young kids (2-6 years) and one has an 8-9 year old. How in the world would I be able to work with that big of an age range? They keep bothering me about it though, and I do see a potential untapped market for it. I have no teaching experience - with dance or with kids. I might give it a shot with one of my coworkers, just a one-time private or something, to see how it works.

Both of my instructors offer these, full price for Mom, half price for the child. One of them also extends this offer to husband/wife dancers.

we have mommy and me too.bayla zena does them. i think she does it in privates , her , the kid and mom.
gay marie teaches the wee ones,i think she lets parents watch, but they are not part of the class. she uses a lot of rythem play .

Thank you for thoughts everyone!

Safiyah, I've been thinking of how to teach dance to a wide range of ages as well. I'm considering doing a very informal class where you only teach a few moves/concepts per class and use dancing games and circle dance like activities for a good portion of the class. I haven't fleshed this out too much yet. I'm still in the brain-storming stage . I seem to have more of a foggy brain then a stormy these days though ......c::

Zorba, I hadn't thought of giving a spouse discount – what a good idea! Also a good way to get more men belly dancing!..g.:

Zamora, I like Bayla Zena's idea of using Rhythm games. I've been thinking of doing this myself, but I don't know to many of them. Do you Bayla would be will willing to share her games with us?