The fastrack program is a two year weekly curriculum, and my son is now in the 2nd year. He started when he was 3 years and 4 months old. It was the first structured class setting he was in, and I was concerned if he could actually sit in a chair for 2 hours. It took a few weeks for him to get acclimated, and Rucci, his teacher was very patient in helping him to calm down and settle into the class.
My son looks forward to his weekly class, and he adores his teacher, Rucci. He wants her to come home with him.
Parents have the opportunity to watch all the activity going on in the class, as there is a large monitor screen in the waiting area. Their program is completely transparent, so parents can see exactly how their child is behaving and interacting with the lesson and fellow classmates. The fact that fastrack allows you to watch everything, speaks volumes?they have nothing to hide. Most parents don't sit there for the entire 2 hour session, but I always do. So, I feel I am a pretty good judge of what is going on in there.
I'm quite surprised to read the other review accusing the owners, Rucci (his teacher, and Dave her husband), of being money hungry and deceptive. This is just absurd. Rucci, and Dave, and their son, Jay, who helps out there sometimes, couldn't be a more nicer, kinder, or lovely family. I think the cost is fair for the quality of the program.
I know another parent whose daughter was in the weekly program with my son, and her daughter did the summer camp 09, and she loved it, and felt her daughter learned in a few weeks at Fastrack what they couldn't teach her all year at a private school in Forest Hills.
It's not easy to teach young children and she keeps them controlled for 2 hours. I think that is a credit to her caring and organized teaching style, and to the program with its interesting interactive lessons.
You can sign up for a trial class which is what we did, and then see if you think it will be a good fit for your child. What I like about the program is that it isn't dumbed down for children, neither in content or approach.
They are teaching real subjects such as biology, communications, speech and drama, commerce, etc..and doing so, with practical art projects and an interactive video board. I disagree that the art projects are being done for the children. This is not true, and really shows a complete lack of understanding of Rucci's use of the art projects in class.
I am a Professor of Art teaching at CUNY, so I would think my opinion as an expert in this field, would hopefully be more reliable. Since my son was the youngest in his group, Rucci and her assistant would certainly help him along with coloring or assembling his project, but the older kids were working mostly independently. This is not an afterschool art program, it is an alternative learning program, that is simply using the art projects to help illustrate the ideas from the lesson. They are using creative materials as tools to make the information more accessible, that is all, nothing more.
I think the success of the program is best measured long term. I really started to see a difference in my son's ability to concentrate and remember the lesson content and apply it to later observations, towards the end of the first year program when he turned 4 years old. For example, my son learned about condensation and steam in a lesson, and about a month later, we were driving in the city, and he saw one of the coned cones covering a manhole with steam coming out, and got so excited and went on and on all about steam and condensation. It was a real, ah ha moment for him. He was thrilled and so was I! It was obvious he was happy going to class, but I was able to see that the program was working. I was happy to see him learning and applying that knowledge in an abstract way.
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