“This is an innovative and refreshing approach to teaching 3-year-olds. I would and have recommended this to student teachers or those commencing their student to teacher qualifications. At student level, though possibly quite competent at passing on dance choreography or running a class for their own level or slightly younger, many are not used to working with this young age group and find them difficult. Also they often don’t have the basic music knowledge to make the ideas fit to the music or knowledge of child psychology to reach such young children. They also find it difficult to bring themselves down to the child’s level.
I find that, in this curriculum, everything is covered from simple, but interesting ideas which are immediately appealing to this age group, through to the ‘how to’ stage and the final little dances. Also very important is the correct structuring for the younger dancer, which is often the biggest gap in a young teacher’s knowledge. He or she has perhaps a university qualification, rather than one from an official dance organisation, which does provide a structured training and offers a recognised syllabus to teach, whereas a university doesn’t offer this.
But these syllabi, though brilliant and full of teaching material, don’t include the things in this curriculum such as 1) How to, 2) What to, and 3) What do I do if they misbehave or don’t listen?
This is brilliant and will look further at the next levels to see how they follow through.
Well done, Ruth, for producing a much needed teaching tool!”
