We Wrote A Book! “Counting Through the Seasons”

For the past few years, I’ve been writing educational songs to help my clients meet their goals in our individual and group sessions.  This includes writing TONS of new material for our Listen & Learn for Little Ones Groups. Last fall, Rachel wrote our first counting down from 5 style song (Little Red Apples) that used visual aids to help children work on counting in every group.  It was a major hit!  So as our classes continued and the seasons changed, we went from Apples to Pumpkins to Leave to Trees and so on.  We developed 2 new songs for each season until we had a full set of seasonal counting songs. We know how much our families have loved this music.  SOOOO…. to make it the best resource for YOU, we took all of those song and turned them into a book! Counting Through the Seasons is a digital download that includes: 8 Original Songs with Lead Sheets & Full Lyrics Song recordings Printable Templates for Visual Aids Helpful Videos with Tips and Tricks on Using the Materials and Photos and Read More

2016: Simplify, Streamline, Self-Care (part 3)

STOP!!!!  Stop what you are doing right now! Take a deep breath.  How did that feel?  Pretty great, right? Take another one. A slow, deep breath.  Remind yourself to simply breathe and take a second to step away from everything. Close your eyes and take another deep breath.  You’ve got this.  When I feel myself starting to tense up and my shoulders slowly creeping toward my ears, I remind myself to stop, take a moment. Breathe. Remember, to breathe. Previously, I’ve talked A LOT about self care in a series called “Love Yourself”.  However, it’s soooo important that I’m going to rehash it now. Take at least a little time out of every single day to…you guessed it… Do something (literally ANYTHING) for yourself. We get so consumed in the tasks we “have” to do every day that we simply forget to take care of ourselves.  We forget that in order to care for our families, help other people, or be successful at work, that we first have to take care of our selves.  We have to make sure our proverbially batteries Read More

2016: Simplify, Streamline, Self-care (part 2)

Welcome back!!   In my previous post, I divulged the 3 major words Rachel and I elected to describe our goals for the new year that I have also adopted personally. I took on simplify in my last post.  Streamline is a little trickier. It’s not a terribly fun or pretty word, but it is definitely essential in both the future of our company and my future personally. streamline (verb): to make (an organization or system) more efficient and effective by employing faster or simpler working methods. There aren’t many extra hours (or even extra minutes) in any given day.  A lot of things get done at the last minute (or never) because there feel like there is no time.  There are a lot of ideas that never even get started because I’m always playing catch-up. By taking a little time to find the methods/systems that work best for me and my company, I can become more efficient and effective thus creating more time and space in my life to do more of what I love and start on some Read More

The Weather & Whether or Not to Cancel

Living in Illinois (or anywhere in the midwest) often means coping with unpredictable weather: the kind of weather where one day it is 52 degrees and sunny and the next we have an ice or snowstorm leaving the roads basically impassible.   Over a foot of snow is usually a pretty good sign to cancel lessons/sessions, but what about those times where the weather isn’t awful, but it isn’t great?  What then?   I have a couple ways to cope with situations like these: 1. Let the Family Choose – When in doubt, you can contact them to see what they are comfortable with.  If you can make it to work but don’t know if families what to make the trek or go out in the -10 weather, simply ask them what they want to do.  I find that families sometimes appreciate a phone call or text message to check-in when these circumstances arise.  2. Listen to Your Gut – Do you feel safe on the roads?  Are you uncomfortable going to work in those weather conditions?  If you don’t feel Read More

Listen & Learn for Leaders! – Launched TODAY!!!!!!!!!!

I am SO excited to share this news with you today! Since you are reading this, YOU are probably a leader in some fashion and this new series of resources is just for YOU! Over the past few years, I have spent countless hours creating, crafting, recording, and putting into practice my own songs, materials, and session plans.  This past year I partnered with Rachel Rambach and together we have been producing even more quality materials and using them in our Early Childhood Groups. Every few weeks,  Rachel and I sit down and plan the next session of our Listen & Learn for Little Ones classes. This is one of our favorite parts of the job — we both love brainstorming new songs, choosing how we will address specific goals, and then recording the new music we’ll put to use with our kiddos. But we know that not all leaders like doing that same work. Maybe you are passionate about marketing but not songwriting. Perhaps putting together your curriculum together completely stresses you out, but you are passionate about putting songs into action Read More