The Kids Today

If you’re like a lot of parents with school age children, you’ve
probably spent a lot of time in 2020 juggling your career with
taking care of your kids, who were off school, and then helping
them with online school. Perhaps it’s given you a better
appreciation for what educators and people who otherwise wrangle
children, go through every day. On this edition of Out to Lunch
Baton Rouge, Stephanie talks with two local entrepreneurs who
have built successful businesses taking care of our kids and
teaching them valuable creative skills.


Tessa Holloway is owner of Kidz Karousel, a Baton Rouge-based
chain of childcare centers with five locations along the
I-10-/I-12 corridor, and two others in the planning stages. 


Tessa founded the business with her husband, Derek Holloway, in
2006, opening their first location in Port Allen. In the years
since, they have expanded throughout the Capital Region and into
Mandeville, where they provide full-time child care services and
educational programs for children ranging in age from 6 weeks to
5 years old.


Kidz Karousel also provides before-school and after-school care
services for kids aged 6 to 12, as well as holiday care and mom’s
day out programs. And now with the uncertainty about school and
the days on/days off schedule many schools have implemented, Kidz
Karousel is proving to be an invaluable resource for parents who
are trying to figure out how to hold down a job and take care of
their kids in the middle of a pandemic. 


Joy Keown Bedillion is Co-Owner and Director of Grace Notes
School of Music, a music school that teaches strings, piano and
music composition to students from throughout Baton Rouge.


Joy is a professional cellist who plays with the Baton Rouge
Symphony Orchestra. She came to Baton Rouge in the mid-2000s to
get her MFA in music from LSU, and never left.


Initially, Joy started teaching cello lessons at Grace Notes to
earn a little extra money at the then recently-opened school, in
2007. When Grace Notes' founder relocated out of state a couple
of years later, Joy bought the business and has since grown it
into a multi-instrument music school with a faculty of 13
teachers and classes and camps year-round.


Photos from this show by Jill Lafleur are at our website.


Here's a conversation with another Baton Rouge music educator,
Jacques Hopkins, who can teach you to play piano in 21 days. And
here's a glimpse into the mindset of educators and economics at
the outset of the pandemic.


 


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