BABY BOOGIE
Age Requirements: 2- 4yrs
Why Preschool Dance?
Every person can learn from dancing. Not everyone will grow up to be a professional performer, but every child deserves the opportunity to dance. For babies and toddlers, creative movement offers a range of experiences that facilitate natural, easy play and proper development of alignment, neurological coordination and a fundamental exploration of baseline concepts that are the building blocks for future learning. For preschoolers, children about 2 1/2 to four, movement play in a creative dance setting can help to provide an essential educational experience. Through movement, songs, games and rhymes, children not only flex their muscles as they gain strength and endurance, but they challenge themselves emotionally and cognitively as well.
Benefits
of Creative Dance for preschoolers:
- Increased body awareness, kinesthetic comfort and ease
- Improved alignment, flexibility and neurological patterning
- Emotional and social growth and development
- Greater self-esteem and autonomy
- Linguistic and aural (listening) skills enhanced
- Beginning understanding of academics such as math, reading, spelling and
science
- Approaches 'classroom skills' necessary for school experiences, such as taking
turns, following directions, listening, sharing and communicating needs and
feelings
- Develops an early creative spark in individuals and groups
What can I hope to see from consistent attendance?
When children dance together, something amazing happens. Creative dance is a
tremendous learning modality for the individual, but what's thrilling to see as
a teacher and parent is the way children begin to embrace new ideas that foster
community building and social connections. Under the care of a dedicated
teacher, even the tiniest dancers can look at and appreciate each other's
choreographic efforts, applaud each other's determination and zeal and work
together to solve problems. While they're just having a great time singing and
dancing and being silly, they're also addressing important meta-cognitive
learning needs. Simply put, these small dancers can begin to see the differences
in the way they think and feel compared to other people, to accept and celebrate
these differences, and to have the necessary vocabulary to sort out their
experiences. This level of objectivity about other people is something that will
serve any child well as he or she encounters the larger classes and variety of
experiences that loom in early educational experiences. The creative dance
method offers children and their caregivers tools for learning for a lifetime.
As with any enriching educational activity, consistency is key. You and your
child can play at the pool once or twice over the course of a few months, and
have a great time. But if your goal is to have your child become safe and
comfortable in the water, you're probably going to want to take regular lessons.
That's why it's recommended that children be involved in a regular creative
dance class, so they can get to know the teacher and his/her classmates, so they
have the chance to build on the conceptual vocabulary that has been worked with
in previous weeks and so they can gain a greater understanding of the material.
But most importantly, consistency and the repetition and affirmation it affords
will provide your child with a wider launch pad for their own creativity both in
and out of class.
