March Invoice - Upcoming State Assessments

I hope everyone had a great Spring Break!  It was nice having our son back from college for a few days, but as the dates for the break did not line up across the various districts I teach in, I ended up working most of the days anyway.  Oh well.  I did have some lighter days and and a couple of days off, so it wasn't too bad.

State assessment testing begins April 5, including various high school end-of-course exams and STAAR tests, and these will continue off and on through the first few weeks of May.  Different school campuses have different rules for allowing lesson teachers on campus to teach students who are not testing that day.  I will be checking on that with all the schools I teach at, and if it is possible to teach your child on one of those days, I may try to schedule a lesson.  I will be in touch with each of you individually if that is the case.

Also, April 15 and/or April 18 are school holidays for some districts.  I may move some lessons around to accommodate those days as well.  Like always, I will do what I can to make sure every student gets a lessons every week if it is at all possible.

I don't know about you, but we sure are enjoying the weather.  Here's to warmer temperatures and longer days!

February Invoice, Looking Towards March

 Good Evening!

What a February it has been!  Icy weather, snow days, TMEA, and Presidents' Day Holidays, at least for some of you.  And more icy weather in the forecast!  I don't know about you, but I'm hoping it misses up this time.

So, just going with the trend, it looks like we're just in a pattern of billing mid-month.  It not the way we like to do it, and I apologize for any inconvenience it may cause any of you.  Hopefully schedules, both from the school and in my personal life, will settle down and become a little more predictable soon.

Looking forward to March, different districts have different dates for Spring Break.  Usually I would try to work it out so that I would have a whole week off in between the two, but it doesn't look like I will be able to do that this time.  As we get closer, if I think I can make it work, I'll be in touch with any schedule changes.  For now, though, I'm just planning on keeping everyone at their regular times.

And, I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to some warmer weather, and Daylight Saving Time with later sunsets.  Bike rides anyone?

January Invoice Information

Paul, Lynne's husband here, helping with the billing...

I promise, we're trying to get caught up!

Since we were extremely late with the December invoices, and now were late into January, we are aware that there may be some confusion about this month's invoice.  As you know, we usually bill ahead for lessons at the beginning of the month, and that didn't happen last month. And, because of the way we track the payments, any payments you made for December that have been received this month wouldn't normally show on this invoice.  I understand that can be concerning, since it means even though you paid for December after you received the invoice, it appears that you have a past due balance.

So with that concern in mind, we are adding a line to this invoice to list any payments we have received this month up to now, 8:30 PM, January 20th.  Unfortunately this will still not be credited to your balance, but there will be a note there to subtract those amounts from your balance.  If you have been with Lynne for lessons for a while, you know that our database and billing system is an evolving process.  I hope that someday it will be all automated and will update your accounts in real time.  For now, please forgive me while we adapt and learn.

So please remember - 

• Subtract any payments listed as received in January from your total due
• All payments received in January will credit the balance due on the February invoice like normal

Also, if you are new to Lynne's studio, or if you have any questions about how lessons, invoices, or payments work, al least on a normal month, here are a couple of past blog posts that you might find helpful.

https://www.hudsonmusicstudio.com/2020/10/welcome-new-flute-students.html

https://www.hudsonmusicstudio.com/2020/04/how-to-pay-for-lessons-in-remote.html

Updated - December Lesson Invoice Information

Update 1/4/22

I hope everyone had a great holiday!  Many apologies for not getting the December invoice out last month.  We were all set up to get them done around the 10th, but then family started arriving for the holidays, preparations went into high gear, and the invoices just slipped to the bottom of the to-do list.  I think we cooked more food, baked more treats, and made more trips to the airport in the last three weeks than we have in the last 3 years!  It was great having our two sons home after our first semester of being empty-nesters, as well as seeing our other family members who stopped by or passed through.  I hope your time with your family was as full of love and joy as ours!

Now on to business...

The invoice you are receiving today is the regular December invoice, and payments that we received in December will not be on it as usual.  We will be sending out the January invoice as soon as we can, but there are a number of bumps in the schedule this month I have to work around, and I'm trying to work in a few more students from my waiting list, so we are shooting to have those out by the 15th.  If you would like to wait and pay for both December and January at that time, that will be fine.

I look forward to seeing all of my students soon!

November Lesson Information

 Good Evening!

I hope everyone had a fun and safe Halloween.  Like many of you, I'm sure, now we look forward to the Thanksgiving Holiday and time with family.  And with that in mind, I do have some travel plans over the next couple weeks, and I will be contacting those students who are affected by those plans.  Where possible, I may reschedule, but as my schedule is almost completely full, there will necessarily be some cancellations.  I will also be taking the entire week of Thanksgiving, November 22-26, off.

Congratulations to all my middle school students who made their All-Region bands, and good luck to those trying out for All-District and High School All-Region over the next few weeks.

And, as always, thanks to all of you parents for allowing me to share of music and flute with your child.

October Lesson Info

Hello parents and students, and a special welcome to all of the new students that started lessons this month!  I don't know about you, but I'm really looking forward to October.  Cooler weather, football games, marching contests, middle-school all-region auditions, concerts, and, of course, Halloween!

We do have a schedule interruption with the fall break affecting all schools, though slightly different schedules depending upon the district, starting this Friday and continuing through next week.  I will do what I can to reschedule lessons around those days off, but with all of the schools affected, that will be very limited.  For certain, I will not be teaching any lessons on October 11, and I'll be in touch where I might be able to move things around on the other days.

I know I have posted these links several times over the last few months.  But as I am still adding new students, I know that they are helpful to them.  So for those of you who are new, please see the following posts with helpful information about lessons:

https://www.hudsonmusicstudio.com/2020/10/welcome-new-flute-students.html

https://www.hudsonmusicstudio.com/2020/04/how-to-pay-for-lessons-in-remote.html

I hope all of you are having a good fall semester, and I look forward to seeing all of my students this week!

August/September Invoice information

I hope everyone had a great Labor Day holiday!

You should have received at this point the email or text message with invoices for both August and September.  Hopefully this won't be too confusing, but I thought I would give a more detailed explanation here to avoid some confusion.

As I have mentioned since the June invoice, we billed at the end of of the month for June, July, and August.  This is not the way it's normally done, but it allowed for the uncertainty of my schedule through those months.  We normally bill ahead at the beginning of the month, and as my schedule has firmed up with regular school schedules, I am able to do that now for September.

The amount due on the August invoice is also included on the September invoice.  In most cases, since will bill ahead, you would pay the full September amount due now.  However, I am very flexible with making payment arrangements, and some of you are already set up to pay me later.  So, for those of you to whom this applies, you need to pay the August amount due now, and then you will pay the remainder of the September amount due on the date and in the manner we have agreed to.  If you are new, and need to set up such arrangements, just send me an email, and we'll work it out.

And, just a reminder about billing ahead:  I calculate the number of lessons for the coming month with the information I have available at the time.  I will do my best to make sure every student gets a lesson each week, and will rearrange my schedule when possible to make that happen.  That means that there is the possibility that your child may receive more or less lessons than what the invoice indicates, and any over or underpayments will be carried over to the next invoice.

I hope that explains it clearly.  Of course, please reach out with any questions.

I do have a large number of new students this month, and for them and anyone else with questions about payments or how lessons work, here are a couple of my previous blog posts that may be helpful:

https://www.hudsonmusicstudio.com/2020/10/welcome-new-flute-students.html

https://www.hudsonmusicstudio.com/2020/04/how-to-pay-for-lessons-in-remote.html

I look forward to seeing everyone soon!

And, as always, thank you for letting me share my love of music and flute with your child.