This is an absolute waste of money! I tried the class out at a friend's house and thought it was poorly organized and inappropriate for the age group. We ended up requesting a different instructor (who was barely better than the first) and feeling generally disappointed. It was a consensus between all of us that it was a waste of time and money.
Fast forward half a year later.... another opportunity arose to try the class closer to my home. This time the owner, Octavia was going to be the instructor. I foolishly thought that it would be a far better experience. Boy was I wrong. I'm just going to list the things that I found to be unpleasant/upsetting.
-Repeated lateness and on several occasions not showing up at all (albeit with a morning of notice). Turns out that Octavia is also a midwife (which I think is fabulous). However, if you can't keep a commitment to paying customers, you should think twice about teaching.
-Poor quality of instruction. Honestly, there was no teaching going on. All materials are Lakeshore purchased and she rarely even would get up off her behind to interact with the children. Instead, she'd have someone else pass out materials. The epitome of laziness. Perhaps, there was some disability going on but again, then don't teach. The class mostly entails her pushing a button on a cd player and screeching at the kids.
-Which leads to her grating voice. I'm really not trying to judge something a person can't control. But Octavia's normal speaking voice was not irritating. However, whenever she addressed the kids, she turned into a screeching banshee. Totally irritating and quite difficult to sit through.
-Inappropriate request for materials. With the price of the class, you'd think that any materials needed should be supplied. But, no. For the last class, she requested that each person bring hot pasta to the class. What? Why in the world would you even attempt to bring a toddler, diaper bag, and a hot container of pasta to a children's class. Of course, so they could strip down and get in the pasta. Now I'm all for sensory exploration but you supply the materials!
Really, you could just go to Lakeshore and buy a bunch of packaged stuff, a cd, and if you like children and have a good attitude, you're already well beyond where Outside the Box could ever hope to be. Truly, truly disappointing!
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