Hun, this is what I do for a job... and have done now for 16yrs... what they're asking is absolutely wrong, wrong, wrong... at this age, its all about being comfortable with themselves, in a group AND ESPECIALLY with the teacher - only then will they relax enough to listen to a rhythm... and thats ALL you're expecting at this point in time.
I teach preschool aged children... and have done big sized groups, and smaller sized groups.
The MOST important thing you must know to be able to work with little people is that they are all DIFFERENT.
The strategy working with one child will be different to the next, and then the next, and then the next.. and so on.
Obviously, there are basic rules about the care of instruments, etc - but they have to be in sync with the fact that they are still only babies
I have some children that want to crawl all over me and some children that want to sit far away in the corner.. you have to be flexible enough to do what works with the individual child.. and build on that.
My suggestion (if I were the teacher there) would be to have you sit with your child in your lap and play the instrument together... I'm not sure about why they have this policy, but who am I to question I guess??
There are MANY wonderful programs around for early introduction to music for little ones... my advice would be to try out a new one.
Your little one may only be 2 and a half, but confidence with any adult in a teaching position is imperitive as early as possible.. if this scars her now to have an impact to make her hesitant, you may find that she will carry that through to any tuition later down the track.
If she does private piano lessons etc later on, that can be a real worry
PLEASE feel free to PM me if you want to chat further
Drop the lessons. Music should be FUN, as you point out. An old (-er than your DD at any rate) man forcing you to sit on his lap when you don't want to isn't fun.
I'd be making a BIG stink about that too - why force children to sit on laps when they don't want to? Very dodgy.
DS loves playing the piano. If we go out and there's a piano, he sits and plays. OK, not well, but at least individual notes and a tempo now. This has come about by letting him sit with his mother and have fun with a piano, us both playing together, him copying some basic tunes from me (some Dvorak, a bit of Mozart, very little Beethoven, although he loves listening to that...) and he can sit and "play" up to 5-6 notes of a tune now, enough to recognise it. But it's fun, not learning - a 2-3 year old doing scales? Nah. Fun, then technique. That's how I learnt with no associated downside (OK, a slight problem with sight-reading the low end of the bass clef, but I'll introduce that to DS earlier than I was introduced).
As somebody who has trained as a classical musician (trained being the operative word), rigid compliance to a musical doctrine, whether it be technique or learning to read music, can be stifling to creativity and in many ways is counter-productive to developing an understanding of the concepts of melody and rhythm.
Without knowing much about the specifics of the program I may be premature in commenting, but such concern about technique in a general toddler music group, and rigidity to a teaching method suggests that they teach music by rote rather than creatively. A refusal to be flexible to accommodate the personality of a student in favour of developing technique on instruments that at this age should really only be used to give an idea of different timbres implies to me the 'play your scales right or we'll hit you over the hands with a ruler' method of teaching.
There is never going to be a situation where i am cool with forcing DD to sit on ANYONE'S lap. And if i were a parent in your situation i think that, however cruel it seems/feels, id be pointing out how deeply inappropriate that is! I would tell that that i intended to force neither unwanted physical contact nor dogmatic musical doctrine onto my TODDLER (FFS - if a kid is 11 i can see the value in scales, but then the desire to have them sat on your lap would be entirely another thing of course...) and that i was having serious doubts about their school and wanted to speak to someone in authority.
NO WAY! The first lessons we teach kids about child protection is to recognise that feeling of 'not being comfortable' and that it's right to act on it!!!! Go somewhere else and give them the web links to the Bravehearts website in QLD....they may not even know they are doing the wrong thing!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!
Yep, I am with the general consensus here! I would be MAJORLY peeved if someone - who I didn't even know either mind you - was saying he HAS to sit on MY lap.... ummmmm no, he doesn't HAVE to at all!! As many have said, music is about expression, about fun and exploring the world through rhythm and sound. Oskar LOVES playing guitar and we just let him pick and strum and he can do different tempo's when he feels like it. He's having fun, exploring. If I was in your position, I would be saying NO WAY and personally, finding somewhere new. Let us know how you get on.
and some children that want to sit far away in the corner.. you have to be flexible enough to do what works with the individual child.. and build on that.
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