2017 Golden Teddy Awards — Camps + Classes

Winner: Music Together at Music Center of the Northwest 

Seattle’s Music Center of the Northwest is a community music school with the mission of engaging everyone in music. To this end, the school offers instrument instruction and a range of music programs for all ages. You sent in a pile of votes for its Music Together classes. These mixed-age parent and tot classes develop natural music appreciation in young children, and you like how the program integrates singing, instruments, movement and play. Different classes welcome youngsters from newborn to age 7, along with their grown-up, and there’s even a guitar class for adults whose kids are in Music Together classes.

Finalists

Your votes flowed in for Creative Dance Center and the studio’s signature BrainDance. This dance stimulates and connects the body’s nervous system, which can aid a child’s learning. But if that sounds academic, rest assured, students are having boatloads of fun in dance class with instructors who are, according to one voter, “great teachers that let kids be kids.” 

Ripening young minds are soaking up language over at Sponge, which received a bundle of your votes for its classes in Spanish, Mandarin, French, German, Hindi and Japanese. Sponge offers classes for babies up to age 4 along with their grown-ups, and “just kids” classes for ages 3–5, among other programs. The teachers are tops; you called them “awesome” and “amazing.” 

The mission of Woodinville Toddler Group is to help build healthy families through learning, support and community. Your votes show it’s succeeding for you. Cooperative programs incorporate age-appropriate learning and development for little ones, and parent education for the big ones. One pleased parent said, “The classes are so engaging for children, and the parent ed for the parents is awesome!”

You appreciate the way Miss Charlotte’s Music & Movement for Kids engages your little ones — and you — in singing, dancing, creative movement, languages and more. Miss Charlotte’s “Little Wings” parent and tot classes aim to foster a life-long love of music.