Difficulties .....

There are always difficulties when working with children. One of them being motivation. Motivating kids to keep doing something they like with so many distractions in their lives isnt always easy. Especially when you add distractions.

Samba is like a sport. It takes a team that works together and practices. A team that is motivated and dedicated. Focus is the Key to Samba and world music. We care about these children, so much so that we want to see them pursue anything with out giving up. We understand that often times we might come across as mean or tough.  That it starts to become too much. What most do not see is that these kids are learning music that is not very easy to play. They are not just learning how to play music by sound but they are learning how to read music as well. It takes time and hard work to play the kinds of rhythms and breaks that our children are learning to play. These children also play more than just one instruments most of our kids can play up to 3 to 4 instruments which is not easy to do. Our little kids are learning to listen to the rhythms and beats being played and put it to movement. Some of our dancers have contributed to dance routines.

We understand that a big frustration with our families is homework. Please be assured that ALL the Samba Kids are given time to work on homework after Samba. A typical samba day starts off with students and mentors taking out the instruments and laying them in playing order, we then stretch and warm up. We review and learn new music. On Wednesdays, we start with stretches , warm up and then we review and learn new steps.at last we close with a our samba circle where we recite In Lak'ech. We then join the rest of Cub Club and have snack. During and after snack ALL samba students are given the time to work on homework.

We want parents and families to know that we value education. We know and understand that home work is important and needs to be completed. The kids are asked if they have homework, and most of the kids let us know if they have home work that needs to be finished.

part of our commitment is to work close with families. To help each other in the development of the students lives. To work together to help them succeed.

Happy New Year!

Happy 2012 Samba family and friends! We are really excited for this semester.  Last semester was filled with so many exciting events. We’ve said it before we’ll say it again, we love getting to work with our community.  Thank you to all that invited us to participate in the various events throughout Tucson.   

This semester we will be trying some new things and learning some new rhythms, breaks and dance moves. It is very important to us to get input from our kids and to hear their ideas.  For them to feel like they have a say and that we value their opinions. The kids came up with so many ideas it would take years to get through them all, but we think we have figured out what to focus on.  We will also be giving our Jovert mentors the opportunity to step up and teach a song of their own. They will be teaching and directing. We feel it is very important for our mentors to feel like they have a voice and that we trust what they bring to the table.  

With all that being said, we feel it is important to take you all on our quest.  We have approached members of Batucaxe with the hope of being able to work together. Mr. Alfie was a member for many years and would be amazing to get to work together.  Also, Mr. Alfie has joined the Ochoa Elementary School family. He will be teaching music there and we hope to collaborate with kids from Ochoa as well.  So if you see him be sure to congratulate him. Its very exciting and we are all very proud of him! Don’t worry while Mr. Alfie is NOT leaving Samba. He is fully committed to CCS and has no plans to leave.  The Jovert mentors and I have committed to help him balance both things right now as he gets settled in at his new job and prepares.  This promises to bring nothing but positivity to community! Just think more kids to play music with! Its really exciting.

Mr. Alfie and I have big dreams for this group. We know and are fully aware that it will take a lot of hard work and time. Many do not know that this group is primarily funded out of our pockets. It gets expensive and have been looking for ways to get help. 

Thank you again to everyone that supports us helps us and believes in our vision.  We are very passionate about what we do.