Tag: babysigning
Benefits of Cuddling
by Holly Lesnick (aka Ms. Holly)
My 8 year old son Aiden and I have a daily morning ritual. Before I’m allowed to even get up and out of bed, my husband cuddles him while carrying him to our room. Aiden crawls on me, and we cuddle and hug for a long time. Before that, I am always groggy, and tired and craving my coffee… but something happens after that hug. It invigorates me, and brings me a sense of happiness and peace. I’ve always had a feeling it does the same for him too.
Well today, I came across a simple article at benefitof.net, on the health benefits of cuddling, and it confirmed what I already knew to be true! Cuddling has many health benefits!
I’ve learned through this article, that cuddling reduces stress and induces oxytocin release. Oxytocin is produced primarily in the hypothalamus and acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain. This article also states that cuddling actually lowers blood pressure, along with improving mood and relationships. Well, no wonder I’m better after my daily morning hug with Aiden, then before it!
In Kindermusik class at Grow and Sing Studios, we have what we call “quiet time”. I dim the lights, grab my guitar, and asked parents to take their child to their own space in the room where they can bond together. I quietly walk around and serenade, leading these quietly bonding families in song. I spend many moments educating parents that relaxation is a learned behavior and that the earlier we learn to relax the better. Well, in addition to this benefit, in every class, families are enjoying the health benefits of cuddling as well.
So try to get in some cuddles today, and get healthy!
Ms. Holly at Grow and Sing Studios cuddling with her son Aiden.
Introducing the new WWW.GROWANDSING.COM!
We are SO excited to announce that our brand new website is LIVE. This new Grow and Sing Studios website works on ALL devices, from smartphones to tablets/ipads to computers! Check it out! It’s now much easier to navigate from anywhere and enrollment is easy!
We want to give a huge thanks to Rhubarb Productions for creating our site, and all their guidance and patience through the process. Our studio is pretty busy these days, with a lot of offerings and locations and it took a lot of work to get our page just right!
Our new Grow and Sing Studios page at www.growandsing.com lists all our class options, piano lessons, birthday parties, and SO much more. Read what parents are saying, learn about our staff, and view our gallery of pictures. We also have beautiful pages dedicated to our new programs, Simply Music Piano Lessons and New Mommy Meetup mommy and me classes.
Grow and Sing Studios
“Connecting Families Through the Magic of Music”
A picture is worth a thousand words celebration contest!
Photo by Rachel V Photography: http://rachelvphotography.com
We are celebrating a milestone! We have just reached 1000 “likes” on our Facebook page. To celebrate our amazing Grow and Sing Studios community, and thank you for all the support, we are going to have some FUN and give away HUGE prizes (and little prizes too)! :)
To participate, please share a photo or video on our facebook wall of any of the following:
Your child (with you perhaps)
- Enjoying Kindermusik in class
- Using Kindermusik materials at home
- Enjoying some music or musical instruments
- dancing/singing
- other musical and bonding activities
- funny musical moments
(you get the idea!!)
This photo contest will run through May 15th. ONE entry per family!
On May 16th the following prizes will be given away:
1) Winner of “most creative picture/video” will win a $200 Grow and Sing Studios gift certificate which can be applied to classes, birthday party, or any other Grow and Sing Studios service. This prize may be gifted!
2) Another winner will be picked at random draw for a $95 free summer semester (or if you are already enrolled in summer, you can apply this credit to another service). This prize may be gifted!
3) 10 more names will be randomly drawn to each win a 10 song download card to play.kindermusik.com (Kindermusik’s e-music site)
4) 2 more names will be drawn for out-of -towners only to each win a copy of “Connect Through Music“, our music and movement DVD created by us!
If you do not live in the Central FL area and don’t have anyone here that you think would benefit from a prize related to free classes, please note that in your entry, and we’ll enter your name only for the download card and out of town prizes.
We hope you will have a GREAT time with this contest ,and we can’t WAIT to see all the amazing photos we know you have, or will take. : )
Summer Early Enroll Discount ends May 1st! Enroll today!
We have an amazing lineup of Summer programming! From baby classes, to family style, to art and babysigning. We even have DROP OFF classes for ages 4-7 so mom can go get a starbucks and relax!!! Check out all our summer information here and join us today!
Voted “Best Music Class”
Parents picks winner 2009
We are proud to announce that we have won for the 2nd year in a row “Best Music Class in Orlando” in the Parent’s Picks awards by Nickelodeon at parentsconnect.com.
If you haven’t yet experienced a music class with Grow and Sing Studios, please come on down to our FREE DEMONSTRATION AND OPEN HOUSE EVENT on Thursday, August 20th!
10:30am – Demonstration class for Babies up to 18 months
11:15am – Demonstration class for all ages up to 7 years old
These will take place at our UUUS location near UCF / Oviedo. Directions can be found here! https://www.growandsing.com/location_kindermusik_orlando.php
We will raffle off prizes, sing songs, dance, play with scarves, keep rhythm with instruments, and much much more! Please email to let us know you are coming!
REGISTRATIONS ARE CURRENTLY BEING ACCEPTED FOR CLASSES WHICH BEGIN NEXT WEEK!
To register click here: https://www.growandsing.com/register_kindermusik_orlando.php
Downtown Summer Classroom Details!
Hi everyone,
As we move into the HOTS months of Summer, we had to evaluate what would be best for our summer classes. The FUCO location classroom that we had been using is in an older portion of the campus, and the air just doesn’t work very well when it gets hot outside. It’s perfectly fine when its cool outside, but hot temps = hot classroom which isn’t good for dancing and moving about! :)
So.. we are taking a little move over to their main hall for summer and they are graciously letting us use their library! This is still on the same campus as before, just in a different building. It’s a WONDERFUL space, and we are really really grateful and excited for the permission to rent and use it!
It’s a VERY cool room, and we can adjust the air levels ourselves, so there is NO concern about it being too hot! Everyone will be quite comfortable. It’s a fully carpeted room as you can see below, and bigger than the other classroom.
I wanted to be sure to share this info with those who took classes downtown in the Spring session, as this could most definitely influence your decision to join us for Summer since it was starting to get hot in the other classroom towards the end of the session. :) Also, wanted to be sure those who are currently registered for summer know where you will be going!
We are VERY excited about this move for summer and we think you will be quite pleased! Because this classroom is bigger, we have decided to change the schedule a bit by removing the 1:30pm music class. The schedule can be viewed by clicking here. Downtown classes are listed as FUCO (First Unitarian Church of Orlando).
To join us for summer click here to REGISTER ONLINE
DIRECTIONS:
This classroom is in GORE HALL.
From Hampton Road, Make a left onto the campus and Gore Hall is directly on your left after the office. Go in the main glass entrance, and the Library is on your left.
From the Robinson entrance, go straight to the back parking lot and make a right. Gore Hall will be on your right. Go in the main glass entrance, and the library is on your left!
and now some pictures to get you even more excited!!!!
Summer classroom downtown
Enter here!
Amazing parking right in front!
We hope to see you this summer. If you are already registered, we look forward to seeing you for class #1 on June 12th!!
Best,
Holly Lesnick
Owner/Director
Please Vote for Grow and Sing Studios!
We were once again nominated for Nickelodeon’s Parent’s Picks awards! Please help us keep our title!! :) You can vote once per day. Click on the link below and vote vote vote!!!
http://gocitykids.parentsconnect.com/parents-picks/orlando-fl-usa/best-orlando-music-class
THANK YOU EVERYONE!!!!!!
Holly
Maestro again!!!!!!!!!!!
Maestro Award
We proudly received the following letter yesterday:
April 1, 2009
Dear Maestro,
Congratulations on earning Maestro status for the 2009-2010 license year, which begins today, April 1, 2009! This recognition is for the educators who serve the most children, are the most masterful teachers, or distinguish themselves through outreach. This is an “august” group – the best of the best.
This mission, that we collectively call Kindermusik, couldn’t possibly have the breadth of benefit for children without you. I know you have made great sacrifices and applied liberal amounts of elbow grease to get to this level. I appreciate you and your efforts and will do everything I can to help Kindermusik serve your continued success.
Thank you for all you do on behalf of music and children.
Most sincerely,
Michael G. Dougherty
Chairman & CEO
We are excited and ready for Summer. Registration is underway. Click here for the link to the Summer page on our website!
All the best,
Director / Owner
Licensed Kindermusik Educator
Registered Music Therapist
Local Representative for the Central FL Partnership of Kindermusik Educators
https://www.growandsing.com
Summer camp information is posted!
Hi everyone!
We have had tons of inquiries about our summer camp offerings. They are now posted on our website! Online registration will be available soon, but you can currently read over the offerings, and print out our registration packet.
CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR KINDERMUSIK SUMMER CAMP INFORMATION!
Sign and Sing : Some Questions Answered
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.”
Compared to developmental norms, Signing Smart children have enriched language and communication skills:
- While the average 8 month old will have no spoken words, the average Signing Smart child will have 5 signs and 1 word.
- While the average 12 month old will have 3-5 spoken words, the average Signing Smart child will have 25 signs and 16 words
- At 18 months, the average child will have 10-50 spoken words. In contrast, the average Signing Smart child will have 79 signs and 105 words.
- In addition, a majority of Signing Smart children begin combining signs and words or signs and signs together to form little sentences at 11-14 months. Compare this to non-signers, who do not begin to combine words into short sentences (e.g., “Da-da car”) until 20 months old on average!
These results indicate that ASL signs, used in combination with Signing Smart strategies, facilitate both overall communicative abilities as well as spoken language skills in hearing infants and toddlers.
Here are some links to answer even more questions: