WHY we combine academics & fine arts...

The entire program is four hours per day and is offered in either the morning or afternoon. Each child rotates through preschool, music, drama and dance every day. The children stay focused and involved as they move from one room and teacher to another.

The early childhood years are the important years when it comes to musical development. Children who play or sing music regularly perform better in reading and math when they begin elementary school.

Since playing, singing and dancing to music increases both fine and gross motor skills and helps develop hand-eye coordination, these children are better able to control their bodies. Those actively involved in music also tend to have high self-esteem and are better at playing with others.

Just 15 minutes a week of private keyboard instruction, along with group singing at pre-school, dramatically improved a kind of intelligence needed for high-level math and science, suggests a new study. Music lessons appear to strengthen the links between brain neurons and build new spatial reasoning, says psychologist Frances Rauscher of University of California-Irvine.

"Music instruction can improve a child's spatial intelligence for long periods of time - perhaps permanently, " Rauscher told the American Psychological Association.

Her study compared 19 pre-schoolers who took the lessons and 14 classmates enrolled in no special music programs. After eight months, she found:

• A 46% boost in spatial IQ's for the young musicians
• 6% improvement for children not taught music.