I am just amazed at how much the children are learning in Young Child. They are sharpening thier listening skills, which of course is key in learning music, but wow — also VERY important in LIFE as well! They are learning note values in the form of TEE TEE, or TA, or SHHH for rest. Now they are learning to listen as notes go up and down. As they sing, they are visually seeing the music going up and down, along with the rhythms. I’m SO impressed by this curriculum!!!! I captured this picture yesterday of Anna and Benjamin with their rhythm cards. They were mixing and matching to create new rhythms.

Young Child class – Rhythm cards

Miss Elizabeth is doing an amazing job with this class. The kids love her, and they are learning SO much!!!

Have a perfect weekend everyone!

Best,
Holly

Hi everyone!

I am currently accepting enrollments for our next Sign and Sing workshop which begins on Wednesday, November 14th and thought, this would be a PERFECT time and place to address some questions and concerns that parents sometimes have about babysigning in general. I am approaching my 7th time teaching this workshop. At the beginning of my journey with Sign and Sing, I was even a bit skeptical. I wondered if it really works or does it delay a child’s speech? As a parent of two, I didn’t use babysigning with my daughter Anna, who is now 6. She was an early talker, so I didn’t even think it was a topic that pertained to our situation. My son Aiden however, is taking his time talking. He is currently 2 1/2 and even now most people aren’t sure what he is saying. His words aren’t quite clear yet, even though he is talking. Both of my children fall into the “normal” developmental range for the onset of talking. Every baby crawls, talks, walks, etc. in their own time. Over the course of my Sign and Sing journey so far, I have learned that if I had done babysigning with Anna, it would have only helped her speech and giving her an opportunity for long term learning. For Aiden it was AMAZING! I started teaching this course at JUST the right time because I could use Aiden as my “practice baby”. My husband embraced it as well, as did Anna, and our household starting signing. Boy did we eliminate lots of tantrums with Aiden. He was able to tell us when he was “all done”, or if he wanted “more” without crying or yelling. All babies are going to communicate. Before they can talk, the only way for them to express their needs is to cry, yell, tantrum. Well, Signing is a nice, calm and quiet alternative to all of that!!

Sign and Sing Class

Now to maybe clarify some myths that are out there!

The assumption that babysigning will DELAY speech is a complete myth.

A parent once asked….“so I would think talking to them and encouraging them to speak (reading to them consistently is proven to build language), would be more beneficial to them then encouraging them to sign instead”. Parents with hearing children are NEVER encouraged to sign INSTEAD of speaking. It is SO important to note that. What we do is encourage parents to speak WHILE signing. That is why, in our Sign and Sing class, we sing our songs, while we sign. The children then associate the speech to the signs. By doing this, we are giving them another form of communicating. In no way are we discouraging speaking! All babies need to express their needs. Most babies and toddlers are not able to do this specifically with speech for quite a long time, so their instinctual response is to scream, cry or tantrum. The biggest reason for meltdowns and tantrums in toddlers are simply because the child cannot communicate their needs properly. As Dr. Greene says, “Their ideas far outstrip their language skills. The “terrible twos” are less terrible the more children learn how to get across their intense and conflicting thoughts. Baby signs are a wonderful way to do this. Shaking the head or moving the hand is far easier to learn than the intricate manipulation of the lips, jaw, and tongue necessary for each new word. Large muscle coordination is learned before small muscle coordination – at about the same time kids want to express themselves.” 

What a fun week we are having! We hope you all had a very happy and safe Halloween. I can’t believe it’s November. How can it be? My kids both loved trick or treating this year. Here’s a picture of them, just because I couldn’t resist!!

Here are some Kindermusik pictures from the past 2 days….TONS of fun!

A Kindermusik hoop tunnel in costume…

An Our Time class in costume

Toddler Art pumpkin
Have a GREAT rest of the week.

Best,
Holly

Hi everyone!
We had a great time this past Saturday with our Family Time class. This class meets once per month. Rachael and I teach it together and we just love seeing all the daddies come along, which we don’t see much of during the week! We encouraged parents to dress up their kids. This is an adorable rock star, just ready to “rock out” at Kindermusik!!

Rocker!

After our class we held a free play for all families enrolled in our program. It’s a GREAT perk to joining one of our classes. You can just come and explore ALL our instruments and props for an hour with all members of the family (even unenrolled ones!). A couple little girls decided to cover up one of the mommies with as many scarves as they could. I guess she is a colorful ghost for Halloween! :)

Scarf Ghost

Hope everyone has a very happy and safe Halloween!!

Until next time….
Holly

Hi Everyone!

What a great week of classes so far! Since we now have this blog, I was much more motivated to take out my camera today. I think the following pictures really capture the joy everyone has when they come to class.

The first picture was taken at my Toddler Art and Book Time class. The first few weeks for this little girl have been a bit shaky. She was a bit intimidated by glue and paint. BUT… today it just CLICKED! Maybe it was the pumpkin. Maybe it was that she was well rested. But, I believe it was the power of repetition. We always explain to parents and caregivers that it takes a few weeks for children to feel SAFE in their environment. Until they feel safe, why would they want to participate right? Well, today was week #3 in this class, and voila, she was excited, calm and ready to paint!!

Pumpkin Party

Today was extra special as we had invited the children to come dressed in their Halloween costumes. I snapped this picture right before class started. At the end of class, I gave all the children some Halloween bubbles to take home!

Costumes!

Finally, this is a picture of Miss Elizabeth’s Young Child class. This is such an amazing group of kids. They are learning SO much about rhythms and musical cues. They were enjoying a game of “Here Comes a Bluebird” and I just had to capture the fun that everyone was having!

Young Child class

Hope you enjoyed!

Until next time….

Holly Lesnick

I would like to welcome you to our new blog. I have created this with the goal of sharing useful information related to our program, Kindermusik, parenting and child development! We plan to post on here when we feel like sharing a magical moment that happened in one of our classes, if we have useful information to share or anything else we can think of!! We hope you enjoy and visit often.

We just returned from an amazing trip to Chicago. We attend the annual Kindermusik Convention. Kindermusik is now offered in 66 countries around the world with over 5000 educators. We feel so lucky to be a part of such an amazing network of educators.

Thanks for reading. Come back often.

Holly Lesnick

Owner/Director
Grow and Sing Studios in Orlando, FL

Holly Lesnick

Director/Owner
Licensed Kindermusik Educator
Central FL Partnership of Kindermusik Educators – Local Chapter President

Holly Lesnick has had a love for music her entire life. She is a graduate of Florida State University School of Music in Voice, and holds a Bachelors of Music in Music Therapy with a minor in Psychology. Holly is a Licensed Kindermusik Educator and Director of Grow and Sing Studios. She is also President of the Central Florida Partnership of Kindermusik Educators Chapter. She has been teaching Kindermusik classes since November, 2002 , and has loved every minute of it. She has previously worked as a Music Therapist, Activities Director and Private Vocal Instructor, sharing her high energy and love for music with high quality leadership, guidance and education.

Holly is a proud mother of 2 who sincerely believes in the value of early childhood music education. She looks forward to continuing her Kindermusik journey while spending the rest of her time at home raising her daughter Anna and her son Aiden. She is honored to be part of such an amazing program and a large international network of licensed Kindermusik educators.

Rachael Joachim

Rachael Joachim
Licensed Kindermusik Educator

Rachael Joachim’s affinity for children and their development match her love of music. She earned her Bachelor’s in Music Education and Voice from Florida State University. Rachael taught many years of elementary music in Orange County and has been a member of the Orlando Opera Company Chorus for six years.

Now she feels blessed to bring her knowledge as a Licensed Kindermusik Educator and member of Grow and Sing Studios team to teach families the value and magic music can bring to their children’s lives. Rachael has seen firsthand the impact musical activities have on such an early age by bringing her two children to Kindermusik classes since they have been infants. She has been teaching Kindermusik classes since January 2004. Rachael has the best job in the world, watching you and your child grow and learn together through Kindermusik!

Elizabeth Gerrity

Elizabeth Gerrity
Licensed Kindermusik Educator

Elizabeth Gerrity has had a life-long passion for music and learning. At age seven, she begged her parents for piano lessons and had the good fortune of finding a loving, nurturing, gifted teacher, from whom she learned for ten years. Elizabeth holds a Bachelor’s of Classics -Western thought and Civilization from Brown University, and a Bachelor’s in Music and Masters of Arts in Music from Florida Atlantic University.

In past twenty years, Elizabeth has taught music, humanities, philosophy and Latin, to age levels ranging from Kindergarten through University. Her primary teaching interest, however, became private piano lesson, where she maintained a studio of over thirty students. A new marriage and job relocation has recently brought her to the Orlando area and the discovery of Kindermusik. A newly licensed Kindermusik Educator, Elizabeth is absolutely thrilled at the prospect of joining Grow and Sing Studios and becoming a master Kindermusik educator, giving back the love of music and learning she received from her nurturing role models in her childhood. The Kindermusik philosophy of developing the whole child is the perfect match for her and she feels blessed to be given the opportunity to contribute.