Thread: Mother-daughter class IDEAS?

I have been speaking with the local parks and recreation department here in my city, where they have lots of karate lessons, aerobics, etc. offered to the community.

I teach adult belly dance classes at another location, but I have been discussing with them the idea of teaching a short mother-daughter course for them. I am wanting to target mothers, and their daughters in the 6-14 age range.

I would love to hear your ideas on movements that you think would be nice, activities or games perhaps for the class, or anything else you can think of. I want to offer something really special for the moms and their daughters taking the time to do something together.

Hi Ambriehl!
I'm really pleased to see you wanting to do this. It's how I got into belly dancing waaaaaaay back; my mom and I took classes together until she was too pregnant with my baby brother (now 36) to continue. Now I always offer a 2-4-1 deal with mothers/daughter sign-ups if the daughter is less than 18 to try and entice them to come in together. It's been a wonderful bonding experience both to feel and to watch happen. One area that seems to work really well here for a number of different ages is a duet veil routine. Coordinated turns, traveling and level changes work well too (with practice). Amira Mor has a good dvd out with mother/daughter choreography, you might want to check it out to get some ideas. The veils for little ones of course need to be sized accordingly. Seems obvious, but you know... I've seen a lot of obvious things get overlooked sometimes. Just remember to take it slower than usual, for there will be an additional interaction between the mothers and daughters that will result in a slower moving class.
Have fun, and thanks for keeping this idea going!

I teach a mother/daughter class and the one thing I find the most challenging is the natural abilities of the girls and how they handle it. The younger ones have a hard time with moves they don't get and some start to have a meltdown. You really have to watch them and make sure to keep them happy and positive. With that in mind, I have limited the age range between 6-12. Even 12 is a bit old but I don't get too many in the upper range. Most are between 6-10. That helps with the learning curve of the girls.

I also teach a simple choreography to them to a song they love. Right now it's Shakira's Hip's Don't Lie. They also love Tarkan's Simarik (Kiss Kiss) and Walk Like an Egyptian. I know the songs are over used for us but they really respond to them. Giving them a choreography gets them excited for class because just drilling is too much for some of them to handle. Keep the choreo simple but be prepared to make it even simpler for the ones who are struggling. For the fast learners, challenge them with a layer on the same move or really get them to work on their arms. They tend to let their arms go when they get bored.

I love my class and it's a joy to see the little ones having fun and enjoying it.
One of my most memorable classes was when a little 6 year old was struggling with the moves and the dance. She would go and sit down durning class when she couldn't get things. She started making friends with another girl who was struggling and together they started helping each other out. By the end of the session, they both were gettig the dance and she even jumped up and down clapping and hugging her mom after one of the run-throughs. She was so proud of herself. We had an opportunity to perform the dance at our local festival and all of the girls wanted to perform! i was so proud of them. Just use a lot of positive encouragement and be prepared for anything. (like the little girl who only wanted to spin in class and spent every class spinning in the corner)

Be ready to be firm with your age range. I did a mother-daughter series with kids 8-14, where a couple of moms begged to be allowed to have their 5 year olds in class, and then it was awful...they were cranky, crying, with the moms chastising them,, they could not stay focused...the material was just too difficult for a 4-5 year old to handle, and if I'd totally dumbed it down, then the 9-13 year olds would be bored, and that was the majority of the group for me.
If I did another series with young kids only I would have structured it very differently, and built in "play with veils" time. Probably I would also break it up into groups to have younger kid-mom pairs work on single steps and older kid-mom pairs work with a layered step or a turning step.

I do like the idea of teaching a mini-choreography, as it gives them a goal.

Thank you so much for the input so far, I am definitely taking notes. You ladies are fantastic, thank you! *hug*

My oldest daughter is 10 now, and I am hoping that she will come along to the class WITH me as well.