November Member of the Month

Meet Jessica and her family of six from Utah. She and her husband have two sons and two daughters between the ages of 2-12. This musical family loves the outdoors, if they aren’t outside this family is enjoying a board game or movie night.

Continue reading “November Member of the Month”

September Members of the Month

Meet the Idris family from small town Pennsylvania! Dewi, Denny and their 11 year old daughter Abigail.


Q: What’s your musical background?
My Husband (Denny) and I grew up without any formal musical education.
Denny self taught himself guitar when he was in highschool.
Actually, I (Dewi) had a piano lesson for like.. 2 classes (if this counts) with private teacher, but on the third meetup, she quit (Gasp!) Not because of me, but because she found out that she was pregnant and had bad morning sickness and (this is not related to musical background, but… anyway..) A few months later my mom signed me up for dance class. After just one class (guess what?) this teacher also quit with the same reason (I know…I know.. you must be thinking that I was some kind of a wizard-fertile-machine kid back then, me too :D). Back to music, I know one song that I can play on the piano, Beyer no.8. That song introduced Abby to piano and made her want to learn piano.

Abby has been playing violin since she was in 3rd grade, she is starting 7th grade now, so she is pretty familiar with reading music. She is also a member of the junior symphony orchestra in our county. Continue reading “September Members of the Month”

August Members of the Month

Meet the Hawkins Family! Ashley and Karen and their three children Sam (13), Allie (10), Kaili (5), Eliana (2). These Busy Kids are very excited to become pianists and love sharing their new skills with relatives.

Q: What’s your musical background?

I (Karen) took piano lessons from age 6-12, but I kept playing piano in our church and for my middle school choir.

Q: Anything fun or unique you’d like to share about your family?

A fun fact about us is that we just found out that we are related to someone who fought in the American revolutionary war! Continue reading “August Members of the Month”

May Member of the Month

          Meet Julie, Robert, Andrew and Rachel Gastler from Columbia, MO. Julie is a student in the Busy Moms program.  She is currently taking a brief  and unplanned hiatus from the piano due to injury.Last Friday she cut her right index finger with a table saw.  She still has a finger but is unable to play the piano at the moment. She says,  “That is by far the worst result of this injury.  I can manage not writing and am happy to be banned from washing dishes for a while, but my piano is calling me and I can’t answer.”   The good news is that she should be able to play again once she done healing, but it will be a while the stitches wont even come out for 2 weeks. Continue reading “May Member of the Month”

March Members of the Month

Meet the Clemons family who moved to small town in Minnesota a few years ago. Ben and Karyn have three children Olive (7), Ramona (6), Julius (3). Olive is currently enrolled in the Busy Kids program.

What’s your musical background? Continue reading “March Members of the Month”

February Member of the Month

Meet the LaClair family from Phoenix, AZ. Steph, Chris and Linus who will be turning 10 this March. Chris is on the road for work over 200 day of the year and isn’t always home for the traditional holidays. So, this fantastic family has started inventing their own unique holidays!

What is your musical background?

I (Steph) grew up surrounded by musicians. My grandmother was a jazz singer and my uncle was-and still is at age 65-a singer in a rock band. My brother joined the ranks and was the drummer for his band. Our house was often a hangout for my brother’s and uncle’s bands and my grandmother lived with us for a few years. My parents put in a “soundproof” room in the basement for the bands to practice. It was still extremely loud, but practice makes better!

Continue reading “February Member of the Month”

January Member of the Month

Meet the wonderful Williams family from Pennsylvania. This awesome family of 9 includes Mark and Kelley and their lovely children, Ben (20), Ann (19), Sam (16), Gabe (13), Jaden (10), Sarah (9), and Sol (7).

Q: What’s your musical background?

We grew up in Tennessee so the musical influence in our lives is rich and varied, from rock to worship and rap to bluegrass – we enjoy it all. Up until we started Busy Kids Do Piano, only the oldest three had taken any lessons, and only the oldest really connected with it, though everyone likes to play around on the piano and guitar and ukulele. Continue reading “January Member of the Month”

December Member of the Month

Meet the Hibbard family from Little Rock, Arkansas. Doug and Ann have three wonderful children 16 year old Olivia, 14 year old Angela, and 11 year old Steven.  It was their oldest Olivia who discovered Busy Moms and now three children participate in the Busy Kids program.

Q: What’s your musical background?

My husband and I both played in band throughout high school, and I also sang in choirs as the opportunity was available while Doug enjoyed working on the tech side of things. Although neither of us play piano well, we are very familiar with music theory and can pick out basic melodies. Continue reading “December Member of the Month”

November Member of the Month

Meet our November Members of the Month Sansha and her two lovely children Hazel and Linus from Melbourne, Australia. Hazel is 8 years old and is currently enrolled in Busy Kids Do Piano. Eight year old Linus is not enrolled in piano but is currently studying the trombone.

What’s your musical background?

I learned piano for a number of years as a child, but wasn’t terribly committed and rarely practiced but despite this, I think it was a very valuable experience. I did always enjoy music and belonged to the school choir and orchestra. Continue reading “November Member of the Month”