Can I tell you a secret? During my teenage years (until now actually, so paging all talent managers!), I wanted to be an actress. I didn’t want to be the star though. My dream role was to be the best friend of the star. I always thought, why not right? I was a good dancer. I took ballet, tap and jazz lessons since the age of 3 and stopped when I was 12. I could blurt out a few lines; I didn’t know how to cry on cue though. But, I didn’t think I was a good enough singer. My mom enrolled me for singing classes with Ryan Cayabyab, at the time Smokey Mountain was a huge hit, but I only attended 5 classes I think and skipped the rest.
Even if I didn’t get to be an actress, I am thankful that my mom enrolled me and encouraged me to love dancing and singing. I believe that music really makes ones life more colorful! With Zeeka, I will really help her appreciate music, but I think she’s already very musically inclined. She loves dancing and singing! But I know that my role as a parent is to encourage and further enhance this skill.
I was really happy that we, as mom and daughter, got to experience going through the Music Together Class of The Great Leap Academy. Have you heard of this really wonderful program? They were actually part of the Work-at-Home Weekend Expo where they gave a demo class. For those who are interested to learn more about the Music Together program of The Great Leap Academy, I’d like to share our experience.
We went to their branch at Playschool International at the 2nd floor Kensington building. We were the first to arrive. In the class we attended, there were two other children with my daughter. According to their site, they usually keep the class small (6-12 children) so that they can give proper attention to each of them.
Each class is led by a fully trained, registered Music Together teacher. Ours was teacher Rylie and she was really nice and really very good. She really got the attention of the children even if the children were of different ages. The class started with her leading all of us in singing a welcome song. In the picture above, teacher Rylie was making firecracker sounds with hand movements.
We had a lot of dancing, where the parents and guardians where also encouraged to join. Zeeka and I loved the dancing part. We were used to dancing together. We would dance together at home in our sala, in our bedroom, in the kitchen — everywhere, so this was really fun for us! The children were also introduced to different kinds of musical instruments, instruments that I myself have not seen before. I hope Zeeka gets to learn how to play one. I don’t know how to play any, so I hope that she doesn’t take on after me. Haha!
I love that they class had a feeling of structured play (if that makes sense to you). I loved that it was fun and it really seemed like playtime for my daughter, but I love that all of these had a purpose of teaching the children to appreciate music. In their site, it says, “The relaxed, playful, non-performance-oriented classroom setting respects and supports the unique learning styles, developmental levels, and temperaments of all participants, creating a strong sense of community,” and I love that!
I also received two new CDs—one for home and one for on-the-go. It came with an illustrated songbook that’s filled with music-making ideas for spontaneous music play beyond the weekly classes.
I really enjoyed the class that we attended and we are really looking forward to attending more classes with The Great Leap Academy. I know that they have other classes available too like Might Math, Mighty Science and their Helene O’ Grady drama classes. You can join a free demo class by going to this link: FREE DEMO CLASS
We have great news from The Great Leap Academy and Manila Workshops! We are running a post-event giveaway for the Work-at-Home Weekend Expo which is open to everyone who’ll read this. They are looking for 7 winners who will receive these:
2 Winners who will each receive Php 1500 GC for the Music Together Program
2 Winners who will each receive Php 1500 GC for the Mighty Math Program
2 Winners who will each receive Php 1500 GC for the Mighty Science Program
1 Winner who will receive Php 1000 GC for the Helene O’ Grady Drama Academy Program
The giveaway will run from today to November 28, 2014. This is open to all the parents who have a Metro Manila address so that we can ship the GCs to your home. All you have to do is follow the steps in the Rafflecopter widget below.
Good luck! 🙂 Hope you win!
