Our Approach

Nurturing a creative future

Kids learn best when they feel safe, respected, and when learning feels like play. Parents feel confident in the process when they and their child feel heard and communicated with appropriately.

Yanai Morris, our teacher at TIK, enjoys working with the energy of young kids. Parents notice and appreciate how respectful, kind and patient – as well as highly experienced and knowledgeable – he is with his students. These are all vital qualities in a teacher.

Children are engaged, supported and extended to be their best selves. This happens through our low-pressure process of learning how to play the instruments we offer.

Why start with Ukulele? We could write a book – or at least a paper! In brief, it’s because the uke offers young learners so many benefits as a beginning instrument.

The 5 Cs

Tuned In Kids has identified five key qualities which work together to foster a deeply embedded resilience in children.

Curious Calm Confident Connected Creative Kids is our motto!

Inviting curiosity, fostering calm, nurturing confidence, facilitating connection and celebrating creativity sets kids up for deep learning for life.
Parents want their child to be able to confidently make positive choices through their childhood and teen years. To figure out who they are, make good decisions and discover what they want to do with their one life.

The 5 Cs are essential for kids to succeed – to navigate challenges more easily, and develop positive relationships with themselves, with others and the world around them.

Which of the 5 Cs comes first? It differs for each child. Classes, and the teaching approach, are flexible and agile, adapting to the students in the room.

Tuned In Kids has identified five key qualities which work together to foster a deeply embedded resilience in children.

Curious Calm Confident Connected Creative Kids is our motto!

The 5 Cs are essential for kids to succeed – to navigate challenges more easily, and develop positive relationships with themselves, with others and the world around them.

Which of the 5 Cs comes first? It differs for each child. Classes, and the teaching approach, are flexible and agile, adapting to the students in the room.

The Get Awesome Learning Framework

The Get Awesome Learning Framework™ developed by Tuned In Kids, is how our approach to teaching and learning happens in the classroom.

It is the practical application of the 5 Cs, and an essential aspect of the Tuned In Kids pedagogy.

Good ideas and a great curriculum are even better when they are supported by a strong teaching and learning process.

Get Connected

Learning happens by connecting new knowledge to what is already known. It has to make sense. Concepts can be challenging to grasp – by connecting to known information the new learning is made possible.

Get Connected also means supporting kids to connect first to their own feelings, thoughts, and purpose – to work out who they are. This connection with self enables kids to connect with authenticity and empathy with other people and the world around them.

Get Physical

Movement and Music go together!

A combination of counting, stepping, clapping and jumping is a fun and effective way to embed beat and rhythm patterns.

Moving while playing music supports neurological development and builds more activity into a child’s day. The vestibular system needs resetting frequently in kids – moving stops the restlessness which can inhibit kids from engaging in the class activity.

Get Messy

Children are encouraged and supported to take risks and try new things, even when it might mean ‘messing it up’. Kids are supported to manage any feelings of failure or needing to ‘get it right’ straight away.

Valuing mistakes and having express permission to ‘colour outside the lines’ creates a highly respectful space for greater learning, self-expression, awareness, new ideas and self-compassion.

Get Curious

When a child knows how to be curious, they are able to think about things differently, learn new things and tap into their innate creativity.

We encourage students to ask lots of questions and think about things in new ways. Having permission to say “I don’t know” can be powerful.

Get Expressive

This is where the magic happens. Kids need to feel safe and respected to express themselves.

Playing music is a simple and powerful way for kids to express their feelings. When we play with feeling music sounds so much better and is much more engaging.

Making up songs in class using a child’s own experience is a favourite activity.

Get It Down

‘Getting something down’ means being able to do it without any problems.

Mistakes can highlight a problem needing to be solved. Children learn that problems are good things to have. They learn to solve problems in a way which increases the effectiveness of their efforts which in turn helps them feel successful.

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Yanai’s Approach to Teaching

As well as being respectful, kind and patient with his students, Yanai teaches in an age-appropriate way guided by each child’s physical, emotional and neurological development. This is true for both group and 1:1 classes.

TIK is not a cookie cutter program in any way. Every class is it’s own experience, adapted to meet the needs of how the kids are ‘today’.

New concepts and technical skills are only introduced when each child is ready to move ahead.

Fun, child friendly & safe music material is used in our classes – most is original material created by our teachers and students. It’s really important kids enjoy the music they are learning.

The Outcomes

The 5 Cs together with the Get Awesome Learning Framework, creates a rich teaching and learning environment for children. One in which kids both learn how to play their instrument well and are nurtured to develop vital life skills.

Bringing a curious mindset to a situation enables a child to engage and respond, rather than react. It helps them be calm, and open to finding out more.

This builds confidence in themselves, their ability to regulate their behaviour and to navigate challenging situations.

Children are supported in connecting with their own feelings and thoughts. This then makes it possible to connect with the people and the world around them.

When kids can do all these things, they feel confident in risking stepping outside the box, in finding their inner creativity and expressing this through playing their instrument. They know they can work out innovative solutions to problems.

All of this when applied consistently over time builds a deep resilience in kids. They can trust themselves to get through tough times – ride the bumps with more ease, and bounce forward into a stronger, more capable self.

The Tuned In Kids approach nurtures the 5Cs in children, creating a strong foundation for building resilience in young kids. There are a lot of negative stresses and influences in children’s lives today. The TIK approach helps parents with that important job of building more resilience in young kids.

Through the process of learning ukulele with Yanai, my son Liam developed a deep capacity to connect with and name how he is feeling, and ask, “What might be useful for me to do right now?” This enables Liam to independently make a more healthy choice about what to do next.

This is a remarkable capacity to be building in young kids, and one that I certainly didn’t expect to come from learning to play the ukulele.

– Michael Hann, father of Liam who started with Uke4Kids, now TIK, as a preppie at 5. Liam is now 13, with his own uke teaching business. Yanai is still his mentor.
Michael is a Consultant Paediatric Dietitian, Paediatric Dietitian Clinic, and founder of Nature Smart Kids.

We believe… parenting and childhood is more challenging now than ever. It really does take a village. It is our belief that through empowering this generation with curiosity, confidence and creativity, we equip children with the inner world required to build a life they love living.

It is truly our privilege to be part of nurturing your child’s creative future.