Hello to our musical community!

Will and I own and operate Grow and Sing Studios, a small family business which was established in 2005. Since then it’s been a roller coaster but one thing has always been at the core of our motivation, and that’s passion for children’s education, passion for music and passion for independent small business. We never anticipated what would happen in 2020, and as we all know it affected EVERYONE professionally and personally.

This award is based on how many children we reach through Kindermusik. Over the last 2 years, not only did we make class sizes smaller to keep safe (therefore reducing our potential numbers), but we’ve had a complete changeover in our team. Our previous team members that were with us for years moved onto new endeavors. Will and I have spent the near part of a year interviewing and interviewing, training and training, and finally we have reached a moment in time where we have a working team again. We just finished training this team a couple months ago. So, to be honest Will and I weren’t sure if we would make the Top Program list this year. We had no idea and we were at peace with whatever happened.

I’m excited and proud to report that even through all of that, we made the list and are once again a Kindermusik Top Program. Maybe not as high on the list as we were in 2020, but still on the list! This one might be the sweetest because even through everything, we kept our heads above water (sometimes treading very very fast) and made it through. Grow and Sing Studios is pushing forward and ready to reach as many children as it can!

I would like to acknowledge all team members old and new because we ALL had a part in this award this year!

Thank you to:

Lisa Petko
Kristen Bozard
Angelyn Rhode
Marisol LaBoy
Grace Warren
Jadyn Johnson
Stefany Rodriguez

Thank you to all who have supported our mission to connect families through the magic of music over the last 17 years.

Love, Ms. Holly (and Mr. Will)

Connecting Families through the Magic of Music.
Stay Connected (and perhaps comment on our announcement on our social pages. Thank you!) facebook.com/growandsingstudios instagram.com/growandsingstudios
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LINKS:
Enroll for Summer (we’ll pro-rate if you want to join us now!)
Try an in-person class for $5
Try a FULL week of virtual for $5
Visit our website

Many classes are close to capacity but there is still room. Join us for a 5 week session filled with fun, learning, great LIVE music, talented musicians, instruments, amazing curriculum and brain igniting activities. Let’s do this!

How? Head to growandsing.com/classes/in-person/ and read about our classes, then keep scrolling and you can click on the class that works for you! Classes held this Summer in UCF/Oviedo, Winter Park, Winter Garden and Port Orange.

Looking for unlimited virtual classes (1 fee, access to ALL classes) head to https://www.growandsing.com/online-classes-menu/. You can try out an entire week for $5.

We can’t WAIT to meet you and your amazing kiddos!
Kindermusik Accredited Program
Kindermusik TOP program (15 years consecutively)
All educators background checked
EVERYONE WELCOME HERE

Greetings! I want to start by letting you know that practicing gratitude is scientifically proven to increase happiness by 25%. Simply by finding things (even the little things) and stating you are grateful will help you be happy. Not only that, but practicing gratitude also:

I wanted to start this blog post off with that bit of information because Thanksgiving is truly my favorite holiday. Why? Because it reminds us to practice gratitude, which is something we should do each and every day of the year.

It’s been a really rough year. We all know it and we all feel it. However, there are so many blessings, even small ones, that we can feel gratitude for.

Personally, I have had a life filled with a lot of loss. My father passed away when I was four years old of Leukemia. My adopted father passed away when I was in college from a scuba diving accident. It would have been very easy to give up even back then. To NOT have gratitude. To just be sad and dwell on what wasn’t good. I’m not going to pretend that every day was happy. I had some bad ones. BUT, in the journey of losing two very important people in my life, I realized even as a young child and then reminded as a young adult how GRATEFUL I am for the days I got to spend with them.  I KNOW that there are SO many people in the world right now working through this same realization. Whether it’s loss of loved ones, friends, or even a job they loved. I send you love and peace as you work towards the gratitude for the time you had.

Throughout this pandemic, which has now been 9 months long and really scary, I’ve had to go back to that space of gratitude. I’ve had to be intentional each day when I wake up. To look around, take in a breath, and be grateful for another day. Another day filled with breathing, music, laughter, children, nature, animals, amazing co-workers, and yes, binge worthy television (whew thank goodness for Netflix!).

If you are reading this, I want to say THANK YOU. If you are reading this, you are somehow tied into the incredible musical community we have created at Grow and Sing Studios, or tied into me personally. It hasn’t been easy keeping our studio going over the last 9 months and it would be SO easy to find the bad things and dwell on that. However, instead, we are currently serving over 100 students between our Kindermusik classes and private lessons and classes. Now that is something to celebrate and be grateful for!!

THANK YOU for believing in us.
THANK YOU for making music with us.
THANK YOU for being in my world.
THANK YOU FOR YOUR ENERGY, INSPIRATION, AND CREATIVITY.
THANK YOU FOR SHARING LOVE.

Happy Thanksgiving!

With gratitude,
Holly Lesnick, Owner/Director
Grow and Sing Studios

Hi there, I’m Holly, founder, owner and director here at Grow and Sing Studios. 15 years ago, when my son was 6 weeks old, I created my studio which offered a very simple TWO Kindermusik classes per week total. I had previously taught Kindermusik and worked as a music therapist but had been on a break to have my second child.

I began my Kindermusik journey because I yearned for connections with other parents. I discovered Kindermusik through my first passion, music therapy, and it seemed like the obvious fit because Kindermusik is about how music affects a child’s development. I found Kindermusik to be a happy, smiley, positive place, and I wanted to create that for as many families as I could.

Even during the 2008 recession, Grow and Sing Studios thrived. It not only thrived, but won awards. Lots of awards. Through the years, I’ve added various classes, a wonderful staff, birthday parties, piano lessons, voice lessons… frankly, the list is VERY long because not all things I tried stuck.

Yet, throughout it all, the goal was simple.

Though I’m not sure I saw it for a long time. On the surface it was to have a career and support my family. I wanted to be the best I could be in my field. But it was also to make music and inspire my own children. However, it took many years to realize that the ultimate goal was to help inspire laughter, smiles, and connections.
So, I finally figured it out. It’s the constant Kindermusik joy guarantee in a life full of variables.
And boy has 2020 thrown us some major life variables!

I am always trying new things, testing the waters, figuring things out. Due to Covid-19, I’ve had to think WAY outside the box so that the laughter, smiles and connections didn’t stop.

That is where our Kindermusik Virtual program comes in. Back in March, I had NO idea what I was going to do. I had to take a step back, breathe, and remember that the ultimate goal was to create joy through music. Thankfully, we have an incredibly talented and DEVOTED team of teachers who were ready to try anything I put in front of them.

You know what? It worked!

Our Kindermusik Virtual program has been a complete success over the past several months. A community of families from ALL OVER have embraced this new way to learn with their young children. I can’t express enough how heartwarming it is to witness! Friendships are being made between parents, between children, and even closer connections are forming between our teachers.

I’m starting to realize that if you can find a constant that makes you the happiest, you WILL succeed even in the middle of a pandemic. So, I finally figured it out. HAPPINESS is my dream. LAUGHTER is what I long for. CONNECTIONS are what I strive to create each and every day.

Mission accomplished.

So, what’s your story? I’d love to know more about YOU!

May your day bring you much happiness, peace, and many giggles.
Thanks for reading.
Love, Holly

CLICK HERE FOR YOUR UNLIMITED TRIAL WEEK

October 5, 2020

Hello Families,

We want to check in with you, our community, to update and assure you that we are continuing to take the health and well-being of our community, customers, and teachers very seriously.

We miss seeing you in the classroom, we really do. We feel it’s important to take a moment in an open and honest way, to discuss as a studio where we are coming from as of today. There are 2 strong aspects that have us continuing on in a virtual setting.

1. As you most likely know, our classes are group interactive classes with babies, toddlers and preschoolers. Typically these classes are held in a room, with various props and instruments. When, for example, 6 children are enrolled, it means that at the very least 13 people are in the room because of course our classes include loving caregivers. We know that you, the adults, can remain socially distanced with masks on. However, it’s virtually impossible to require these things of your children. Babies and toddlers naturally explore by putting objects in their mouths. They want hugs and they want to explore with all their senses including touch. When we do return back, we’ll have to consider this aspect so everyone is safe.
2. The other aspect is our reality as a small Kindermusik business. Without of course getting into all of the ins and outs of running a studio, we hope we can help you, our community, understand our challenges. Typically for a class to run we have to pay our rental fee and our teacher fee. In addition to those, there are administrative fees, insurance, and operating costs. If we were to hold a class at half capacity which is 6 children, we are actually losing money to hold the class. We typically do that because we have faith the class will grow over time. But in this scenario, there is no room safety wise for class growth. As a very small local family owned business, we just don’t have that money to spend in this covid climate. To hold a class past break even would essentially put a large group of people together in too small of a space which compromises safety. For example, 8 children, would be 17 people in the classroom… you get the idea.

As of right now, due to those main reasons, we must continue virtually. As the weather becomes a bit more dependable, and not quite so hot and rainy, we are considering offering some programming outdoors which could eliminate rental fees. We are currently brainstorming that idea.

Here’s the thing though. We’re having a BLAST with our families via our online classes! Our Kindermusik Virtual+ program is NOT a lesser program, but simply a different one. Consider this. For now, instead of enrolling and paying for 1 class per week, you are enrolling and paying for 12 classes you can come in and out of at your leisure throughout the week. We know it’s not the same. We totally do. BUT, we do know (because parents are telling us) that children are learning from our program. Laughter, smiles, bonding… all the things that Kindermusik typically provides is still happening. In fact, there are children meeting other children, and at the end of class they tell each other “I love you!”. Also, we want you to remember that in the end, the goal of Kindermusik is for YOU the adults to lovingly engage with your children. Whether in person or virtual, THAT is the goal. So if you need to put your device up high out of sight and let it guide YOU as you interact with your child, that is great. If you want to interact visually with us too that’s great, but not required.

We do ask that you strongly consider us. We are a small local business who needs you so we can keep this amazing program going. Our focus right now is to keep all our teachers in work so that when it’s safe, they can return back to doing what they love in person. Your registration means SO much, and contributes so much to keeping us in business so we can provide loving classes for years to come.

We invite you to try an unlimited week for $15 to see what you think. In addition, a new online Bilingual Birdies unit (Jungle Animals) begins this week if you are interested in Spanish music classes. The Bilingual Birdies route also includes the 12 Kindermusik Virtual+ classes. You may know that we have our private online piano and voice lessons but did you also know that we have adult self care Yoga and Tap classes? New 5 week sessions begin this week!

We are all in this together. We will continue to monitor the COVID-19 situation and make adjustments and changes along the way.

One more thing, we are nominated for Best Music Lessons in the Playground Family Favorite Awards. Could you take a moment to vote here, and click on Grow and Sing Studios on page 4? Let us know when you vote so we can give you a big “thank you!”.

All the very best,

Holly and Will Lesnick
Owners, Grow and Sing Studios

Kindermusik Virtual+ | Bilingual Birdies+ | Online Birthday Parties | Online Voice Lessons | Online Piano Lessons | Online adult beginner tap classes | Online adult yoga | Online Store

 
 
 
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Hello amazing families far and wide,

It’s Ms. Holly. I woke up this morning and had a realization that it was time for me to open up with you about how things are going over here at Grow and Sing Studios. Here’s what’s on my mind, I’m going to keep it real. Here we go.

Over the last bunch of months I have had to make tough decisions. There were times when I thought maybe, perhaps, we could go back to in person in a safe way. Time and time again the answer to not return in person quite yet was very clear. The most recent was the harsh reality of one of our educators turning up positive for Covid. First of all, she is okay. I just wanted to be sure I told you that! BUT, the reality is that if I had made a different choice, I could have been responsible for passing the disease along to a Kindermusik family. They could have brought it home to a loved one who then may not have been okay. The answer was clear to me that we must wait.

There are also some really specific business things that are contributing to this choice as well that I know most people don’t quite think about. Each time we hold a class out in the community, we have to pay our teacher (who deserves to be paid well), and we have to pay rent. There are many other expenses too, but those are the big ones. In order to even “break even” we have to have a larger number of families per class than we are comfortable with in these conditions. In Kindermusik it isn’t just the kids, it’s the parents with the kids. So even in a small, barely break even class with 5 kids, we have at least 10 people plus the teacher in the room. Then there’s the conversation of how to keep everyone separate and protected. There are babies who are just starting to walk, toddlers who don’t know how to slow down, and young children who are putting things in their mouths (which is developmentally GREAT). It’s all so much and all opposite of how to keep Covid from spreading. We have considered doing some outdoor classes, but currently we are in the deep heat of Florida Summer, mixed with random rain and thunderstorms at every turn. How do we plan and schedule anything right now for outside without a strong possibility of needing to scramble to cancel? We can’t.

Okay, so the biggest thing that is on my mind outside of the fact that we miss seeing you in person, is my staff. What can I say about them? They are amazing! My hubby Will, Angelyn, Kristen, Marisol, Lisa, Jasmin, Aidan Amato and even our daughter Anna who does some of our social media. We care about them so much. This may sound really dramatic, but each day I wake up just praying I can keep them all in work with our online classes so we can easily bounce back from this when we can get back to “normal”. So far, Will and I have found a way to keep them all going and remain a strong unit. It has come at a cost because our enrollments have been lower than normal which means lower pay. Even with that reality, they have stayed loyal, strong, committed, and dedicated to keeping our little Grow and Sing ship afloat. Huge thank you to all of them. I honestly couldn’t be more blessed to have such an amazing group of people to work with.

So where are we now? Today is the day before we begin our school year program. It’s a day when I would already normally be nervous, but today I’m REALLY nervous hoping that many of you will consider taking a leap of faith with us and sign up for one of our online programs. I can say that our online experience isn’t less quality, it’s just different than what many families are used to. Is it exactly what you want? Perhaps yes, perhaps no, but it’s still Grow and Sing! You may not realize it, but each registration means the WORLD right now. Each time one comes in, I let out an exhale because it means that maybe my small business won’t become a statistic in the many businesses that have already had to shut down.

I’ve noticed in our communications with families that there are about four different responses we’ve been getting.

1. There’s the family that has been having the time of their lives in our Virtual Classes. They’ve been asking if we would continue virtual even after the pandemic ends and we return to the classroom.
2. There’s the family that believes in what we are doing, and knows even though virtual may not be the optimal option for their child, they are committed to our program and their child’s learning. They know that keeping connected with us online for now is still an amazing way to learn. They look forward to our return in person, but are thrilled to connect with our educators virtually right now. This is the family that believes in what we do and wants to keep the amazingness going!
3. There’s the family that is on the fence. They want to sign up but don’t know if their child will really be into it, or really learn much.
4. The family that just wants to wait until things are back to normal. This could be for many reasons including financial. If you fall into this category, there isn’t any judgement from me. I completely understand.

So, I just want to make sure you know a few things. The first is that our enrollment is never a contract. If you sign up for one month and realize it’s just not working for you, you’ve paid either $68 (for Virtual+) or $80 (for Bilingual Birdies+), received home resources, downloadable music and tried. On the other side, you may sign up and realize it’s what will become the best thing for routine and ritual in your home. Our programming is unlimited. I like to think of it like when you go on a cruise, you get your schedule under your door each day, and can attend whatever you want. We’ve never done that before and people LOVE it! Our programming also includes all children in the family. So again, using that cruise analogy, it means if you have a baby, toddler and preschooler, everyone can go to their own activity! So while yes, it’s very different, there are some definite perks to being online. Paying $68 to give our program a try doesn’t seem like a big risk, but on our side, it’s a HUGE message to us because you are helping keep this Grow and Sing ship sailing.

If you haven’t been keeping up with what we’ve got going on, be sure to view our menu above. As you can see we have two tracks for families which include all the children in your home. We have online private lessons. We also now have some classes for the adults (Yoga and Tap Dance) because self care is crucial. Finally, we have online Birthday Parties!

Being a small local business owner has never been easy but now it’s one of the hardest things I’ve ever done. I am not giving up, in fact, I’m more committed than ever to connect families through music. It’s just in a different way for a while. Consider us. Thank you.

Wishing you health, safety, and beautiful musical moments together,

Holly Lesnick, Director/Owner

Kindermusik Virtual+ online program | Online Bilingual Birdies | Online Birthday Parties | Online Voice Lessons | Online Piano Lessons | Online adult beginner tap classes | Online All Levels Yoga Flow

P.S. Please share this blog post with your friends far and wide.
ONE MORE THING: if you don’t have children, but want to help, you can enroll in a class, and we can gift it to a family in need. Just contact us and we’ll get that set up. xo

Happy Throwback Thursday everyone! Today’s close-up reflection is sort of a “throw back in order to move forward” sort of post. As a mom of an almost 18 year old and 14 year old, business owner and wife, it’s incredible to look back and not only realize how far you’ve come, but how things evolve over time. In the case of today’s post, an evolution of a room. One single room.

We run our main operations of our business from home. In our home we have a 4^th bedroom that for most would have been simply the “guest” bedroom. For us, as business owners and parents, it’s been something else. Though it did have a beat up sleeper sofa and extra mattress to go on top when a guest came, in 2003 this room was filled with countless VHS tapes and machines, labels, printers and college students working for our then video production company. The shelves were covered wall to wall in VHS masters that our clients would order copies of. To some of you, this probably doesn’t even make sense! Then, slowly but surely, the VHS items turned into CD’s and multiple computers in which to make copies with.

As time moved on, the word digital was introduced. Digital. It’s something you know is there, but you can’t see. And so, those shelves started to empty of VHS and CD’s, and began to fill with children’s books. These books were the Kindermusik library we were creating as we started growing Grow and Sing Studios, our second company. These books were also of course for our children who basked in the large amounts of choices for story time each night. As the video production items started slowly moving out, more Kindermusik items started moving in. At about this time, the recession came. Our little video production company couldn’t keep up with the demands of quickly growing video technology so we went all in on Grow and Sing Studios and added our Funbox Photo booth Service. This meant, filling spare shelves with photo booth props and a new kind of production equipment. As our children grew and making “play videos’ became a popular hobby, this room became an explosion of toys and You Tuber equipment including tripods, ring lights and backdrops.

For 15 years, we couldn’t really ever welcome our family or friends to stay comfortably in our home as a guest. Keyword is comfortably. We finally did something about it. We dove into a ton of old memories and even some failed work projects, donated many items, and threw away many as well. As we enter into a new phase of the evolution of this room we have found a healthy balance between work and being present in our home life. Our little touches of “past work” are still there, still showing the evolution of the last 15 years, it’s failures and successes. Our shelves are filled with Kindermusik goodness, but now this room is ready to welcome in guests with whom we can be present, enjoy the little things and remember what it’s all about in the end which is a little bit of hard work, tons of passion, and a whole lot of quality time together.

Thanks for reading and happy evolving!

Holly Lesnick is a Licensed Kindermusik Educator and Studio owner at Grow and Sing Studios, a Bachelor of Music Therapy, mom of 2 and has been married to her husband Will for 21 years.  Holly is the Kindermusik International Brand Ambassador for the U.S., and always happy to collaborate with brands and businesses she believes in.

Hello friends, I thought it would be the perfect day for our weekly close-up picture. It’s amazing how Easter weekend (and Passover weekend) make everything feel lighter, brighter and renewed. If you look around (at least here in Florida) things are greener, more colorful. The flowers are blooming everywhere! This flower is at our home studio. It’s a symbol of a new season. It reminds me that time moves on and we really should embrace and enjoy each season, each moment.

If there’s a moment that isn’t so enjoyable I like to say that it’s part of life. If it doesn’t serve us, we can accept it, let it go, and know we are learning and growing during those rougher times too. They make the sweeter times even sweeter, don’t they?

How we handle all of it, I believe, is in the gratitude.

I hope you enjoy our little symbol of renewal and as we head into our final few weeks of our school year of classes and into Summer. I am grateful for YOU.

Happy Earth Day!

All the Very Best,
Holly

Holly Lesnick is a Licensed Kindermusik Educator and Studio owner at Grow and Sing Studios, a Bachelor of Music Therapy, mom of 2 and this past September celebrated 20 years of marriage with her husband Will.  Holly is the U. S. Kindermusik International Brand Ambassador, and always happy to collaborate with brands she believes in.

www.funboxphotos.com
www.growandsing.com