Fall Semester Art Classes at Yellow Bird Studio!

Kids love creating at Yellow Bird Studio!

What a busy summer of joyful art at all three of our locations! We want to thank every family who sent their child to our camps this summer. We introduced a new favorite, Teeny Tiny Rooms, and said goodbye to an old favorite, The Art of Harry Potter, and had lots of students in our perennial favorite, Fashion Camp.

But now it is time for us to switch gears and prepare for a new year, with THREE studios this time! Already we have tremendous interest in our classes for our fall semester with several classes beginning to fill up.

One big change that returning families will notice is that we have moved to a 12 week semester format. We will have a Fall Semester, a Winter Semester and a Spring Semester. The Fall Semester is the only one open right now. You will be able to enroll any time during the semester, and your class will be prorated for the weeks left (depending on availability). You can opt to do one single semester payment, three payments or four payments, depending on when you enroll. Some classes have a drop-in option, but that is only if the class is not full. We only accept 8-10 students (depending on the age and type of class), so when the class is full, you will have an option to go on a waitlist for the semester or sign up the following semester.

We have signed up with Sawyer, an online booking and class management platform for businesses like ours, that acts as an assistant for us, and we think many of you will also appreciate it's customer friendly interface. This was a decision that we took seriously and decided it was the best thing for our growing business. All administration is run by us, Ms Florie and Ms Pamela, and we also teach classes, so moving to a semester billing and using Sawyer frees us up to teach and take care of our studios, instead of the hassle managing a few hundred accounts every month.

Our prices have largely stayed the same, but you will see that instead of the supplies being included in the total cost of the class, as in years past, we felt the need to break it out separately so we can better allocate funds to a specific studio. It also helps us keep track of our expenses, which are pretty high! Our rent is our biggest expense, and with the increases in insurance and taxes our landlords are getting, we are having it passed down to us- such is the life of a small business owner!

As for our classes, Art Lab 2, 3 and 4 are now 1.5 hours instead of 1.25 hours. You may see some age range differences and overlaps, and this is because after years of teaching, we know that students don't fit neatly in a grade or even age level range, so we want to be flexible for our students and have them attend the class that is a good fit for them, rather than them fit the class. And, most of our classes have a free trial option, but that does not hold your spot unfortunately! We keep our classes small so we can give them lots of meaningful guidance and instruction.

Schedules at each studio have changed slightly to accomodate the new time and even new classes. Go to the tab in the menu for your specific studio, and click on that. Once you are on that page, you will see a button you can click on for the calendar, which will also lead you to class descriptions. If you wish to enroll, just follow the prompts to create an account! You can also see all the entire calendar for all the studios on this page: https://www.yellowbirdstudiotampa.com/calendar-and-registration

At the heart of it all, our philosophy has never changed since opening with just a half-dozen students back in 2017: We are driven by a passion to create thinkers and use the power of creativity for personal growth. We have found, with a combined 60 plus years of experience working with children, that process art in particular creates children who can think. Our students not only excel in their art making, but also in the classroom, and more often than not, are at the top of their class in grades. Art is good for the soul, but it is also excellent for the brain!

Art teaches children so much more than colors, etc. They learn to plan, use tools, problem solve, work with others, listen to others, think outside the box, appreciate and respect differences in style and different approaches, think about their own thinking (metacognition), reflect, not aim for perfection and instead aim for progress and process, process emotions, be responsible, learn about the bigger world. We could go on and on!!!

If you are a returning family from last year, email the studio before registering for a 10% off code for your first semester. If you are a homeschooling family, you can use Step Up for Students funds (they are in process of being verified as of this writing) and defer your tuition using the code stepup26! at checkout. Then, check the Step Up portal to see when our classes are available to be approved for disbursement.

So if you KNOW your child wants to come to the Fall Semester, grab your spot soon!

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the studio you are interested in through the email listed below for each studio.

We hope to see you in August, and again, thanks for a wonderful summer!