L F-H

Review of Royal Conservatory of Music

My son found the 'smart start' program (for 4 year...

My son found the 'smart start' program (for 4 year olds) extremely uninteresting--even though he loves music, dancing, playing instruments, and has enjoyed all other music classes he's taken. The classes are large, and often every child in the class does an activity--one by one--and everyone else sits to watch. This means that there's an enormous amount of downtime. Furthermore, the songs and exercises don't change much from month to month.

Given his reaction, I wasn't able to get my son to continue in the class after month 3 or so. Nevertheless, I had to keep paying for the whole year, given the no-cancellation policy at the RCM.

Though it may well work for some kids, I urge you to be extra careful before registering for the smart start program; it will only suit kids already into a slow pace, with lots of observation and sitting.