Home school parents: Your opinion on creating a group violin class?

Question

I am a certified violin teacher with many years of experience teaching private lessons and public school strings classes. Currently I stay home with my small children and teach lessons just a few hours per week. Since I have become interested in home schooling my own children when they are a little older, I have come up with an idea for creating a beginning violin class for home school children - initially those in the 4th - 7th grade range, and possibly expanding from there. Essentially it would be a semester-long exploratory violin class for groups of 8-12 children, meeting during school-day hours. It would be similar to what I taught the first semester of classes in the public school, but more in-depth. We would meet for 1 hour and 15 minutes once per week, with homework assignments. At the end of the semester there would be a performance. The cost would be about $225 for 4 months, plus instrument rental (approx. $20/month).

Answer 1

We're in Oklahoma, and have something similar both for orchestra and band. I think we're paying band $35 a month for once a week, and orchestra is $40 a month, so about what you're expecting.

I wouldn't do equipment rental, not only do you have to get your hands on the violins, rather than allowing parents to do it, but if they get damaged, you have to undergo retrieval of costs for repair. There are plenty of music stores where parents can rent instruments.

Answer 2

I like your idea and the pricing structure seems reasonable. However, many of us are often strapped for cash, so it may not be that easy for some to come up with.

You could possibly offer a scholarship for reduced rates for some who may not be able to afford it, if it doesn't seem as if you are getting a lot of students.

All in all, I think it's an excellent idea and I believe you'd have some interest.

Answer 3

Its a great idea over the usual recorder classes offered. I play violin myself and would have love to had that offered somewhere for my kids. However, when I homeschooled my kids we were pretty tight on money and mostly looked for next to free classes. Maybe cutting your price in half might be more reasonable. Don't forget,most people would have to pay at least 30.00 rental fee on top of paying you. Consider lowering your price. I think you will have a better shot at it.

Answer 4

Hi fellow-violin-teacher!  

If you'd like a short cut to how to do group lessons, you might consider taking the first set of Suzuki courses, the "Every Child Can" and book 1.  You don't have to follow every prescription of the Suzuki folks, but you may find the information useful, here and there, and -- as I'm sure you know -- group lessons are an integral part of the Suzuki method.

A lot of teachers take these first two courses in order to find out what it's about and to register with the SSA.  Can't hurt, and you can still remain an "eclectic" teacher, which is what I am.

I'd like to invite you to the following:

Teachers Directory

http://beststudentviolins.com/Teachers.h...

string_teachers_support

http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/str...

Answer 5

It sounds great!  I know the violin lessons near us for homeschoolers are often very popular.  Your pricing structure seems very fair, I would be willing to pay it if my son asked for violin lessons.

One thing - you might want to look at offering monthly payments as well as "up front" payment per semester, or breaking it into two payments.  Many homeschool families are on one income, and cash gets a bit thin at different points during the year.  If you offer different payment structures, you'll get more takers :)

It sounds awesome though - makes me wish we lived in Orlando :)

Answer 6

Sounds great.  I know that our support group tried doing that during co-op classes - just didn't work out.  Instead, the violin teacher offered private lessons.  Parents of the student would babysit her young children during the lesson.  In this way she cut us some slack on the lessons (she charged $8 a week) and we had to provide our own instrument.

For us, this proved to be a launching pad for our daughter to switch to the viola.  When our home school violin/viola teacher was no longer able to teach (she home schooled more as her children got older) our daughter was able to take lessons at the Music Academy (part of the University of Texas).  Price was about what you are wanting to charge.  2 years of this and she was invited to join the University orchestra and was offered a 4 year music scholarship.  She is now the principal violist.

I think what you was wanting to do is a great idea and think your fees are reasonable - I just know that where we live (Tip of Texas) many parents would be economically strapped to pay.

Good luck!

Answer 7

Our local group has weekly beginners French classes because one of the mums is a French teacher. In this case she's doing it for no profit and the cost is only that of renting a small hall in which to hold the class ($6 per week per child). It's going well, my 4 year old daughter is enjoying it. The idea is that the classes will continue as the children (now aged 3 to 7) grow older and more fluent, and it'll be the same group and the same teacher all the way through.

From that I'd recommend a few things. Offer the classes on a week by week basis or at the very least the first one. HS kids often are given a lot of say in their education so need to be allowed to try something before being asked to commit to it for a whole semester and you're asking the parents to pay out a fair amount. for something they don't know that their child will want to stick at.

You could consider doing a general music introduction course for younger children, say 30 minutes once a week, both to provide that introduction if they don't have musically gifted parents, and to act as a feeder to the violin classes.