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Katie,

I signed Lisa up for Sunshine Generation when we first moved here and she
was 4, bc she loved to sing. I don't know if it's the nature of the
program or the woman running it, but it was terrible! She made a big
deal out of kids following her every order and if a kid didn't they
wouldn't get a sticker at the end and "don't you want to get a sticker bc
everyone else is going to, but you won't if you don't stand on that
spot". When we quit after a few sessions, dh had a problem bc he was
worried that she would become a quitter if not made to "finish things".
Also, she was (and still is) my Velcro kid. We tried a few other classes
(gym, etc) and I would literally have to peel her off my leg to go into
the "mom's waiting area", before it occurred to me that she wasn't ready
for such activities and stopped signing her up.

Of course this was all before I was unschooling or even homeschooling.
Lisa still loves to sing and dreams of being a performer (Britney Spears
is her current idol and she is on pins and needles for her movie to open
next week). So we just sing. It's normal in our house to push the
replay button and play the same song over and over. The girls use
various kitchen utensils as "microphones". I would LOVE to have a karoke
machine! We sing along in the car. We have several of the Wee Sing
cassettes and song books and they like those. We borrow music CD's from
the library. We also love a lot of sound tracks from movies to listen
and sing along too. When listening to the radio I will talk about the
artists and things I know about them. We have a small collection of
musical instruments including a drum, piano, lap harp, banjos, and
recorders. This all helps to fulfill Washington State's homeschool
requirement of "development of an appreciation for art and music", by the
way.

If you do want to try a music class for her, I would suggest Linnea
Hiljestrand's music classes. She is very gentle and just loves music
herself and loves bringing it to little children. There is lots of
moving around in the class. But I would not say that a class is
necessary by a certain age. I think if children are allowed and
encouraged to express themselves musically and truly do have a talent,
that classes will be more beneficial when they are ready to commit to
serious practice and direction, when they recognize themselves that they
can utilize professional help to improve their skills.

Mary Ellen