Canta is a mixed-age, parent and child program for children ages 0-5 that teaches Spanish through music and movement. Music effortlessly awakens children’s eagerness to use language, and helps with memory retention, syllable recognition, and pronunciation. The first few years of a child’s life are a crucial time for both language acquisition and musical development, and Canta offers children the opportunity to explore both!

A variety of Latin American folk songs and contemporary songs are used to teach age-appropriate vocabulary like colors, numbers, animals, body parts, weather, food, occupations, chores, and feelings.

Canta uses singing, dancing, instruments, props, and puppet shows to make our classes a richly musical and playful way to introduce Spanish to your family. It is not necessary to know Spanish to follow along. Posters with lyrics, and the simple and repetitive song selections allow everyone to participate regardless of your familiarity with the language. Fully fluent families will enjoy sharing quality musical time with their child while reinforcing their Spanish.

Our classes are held once a week for 45 minutes in an intimate setting, with no more than 12 children per class. We invite parents, grandparents and/or caregivers to participate, and to learn fun ways to incorporate Spanish at home. Our classes provide an engaging and nurturing environment for children. We honor all kinds of learning styles which means children are welcome to experience the class as observers, active participants or explorers. Children are amazing learners and pick up so much about the world around them by simply being present.

Each semester of Canta explores one of our three song collections. Each collection has approximately 24 songs, and we rotate our song collections so families can take three full semesters of class without repeating the same songs. Our selections are sung by a variety of artists, all of whom are native Spanish speakers.

Registration includes a cd and a beautifully illustrated songbook with lyrics and translations for families to sing, enjoy, and further explore the songs at home.