Every child deserves to walk into any room and feel like they belong there.
The Magnolia Method teaches children and young adults the social skills, confidence, and grace to navigate any situation — with warmth, poise, and authenticity.
Serving the western Twin Cities suburbs.
Summer Classes Coming Soon!
Summer class dates and times are being finalized and will be announced soon for Bloom and Grow classes.
Confidence is a skill. Poise is a practice. Both can be learned.
Your child is bright, kind, and capable. But somewhere between the classroom and the real world, there’s a gap — the unwritten social rules that shape how others perceive them, and how confidently they move through new situations.
– How to greet someone with genuine warmth
– How to hold a conversation without looking at a phone
– How to sit at a formal table or write a thank-you note
– How to walk into a room full of strangers and feel at ease
These aren’t small things. They’re the skills that open doors — and the confidence that keeps them open.
Rooted in tradition. Ready for anything.
The Magnolia Method is a small-group social skills program for children and young adults in Edina and the surrounding western suburbs. Inspired by the Southern tradition of teaching grace and confidence as life skills — not privileges — our classes are warm, engaging, and designed to build children up from the inside out.
We don’t teach rules for the sake of rules. We teach children why grace matters — so it becomes part of who they are, not just how they behave when someone is watching.
Every session is intimate — just 6 to 8 students — so every child is seen, encouraged, and genuinely guided. No lectures. No embarrassment. Just real skills, practiced in a safe and beautiful environment.
One method. Four foundations.
Presence
How you arrive before you say a word — eye contact, posture, and the confidence to enter any room.
Conduct
How you behave — at the table, as a guest, as a host, and in the digital world.
Connection
How you engage — conversation, listening, and the rare ability to make every person feel genuinely seen.
Character
How you show up when it matters most — with gratitude, grace under pressure, and integrity.
A program that grows with your child.
From first introductions to college readiness, The Magnolia Method offers four distinct classes and workshops that meet every student exactly where they are.
Bloom
Ages 7–10
Grow
Ages 11–13
Rise
Ages 14–17
Thrive
Ages 18–22
This isn’t a classroom. It’s an experience.
Every Magnolia Method session is designed to feel like an event. Students arrive to a thoughtfully set space, a printed agenda at their place, and an instructor who greets each of them by name.
Lessons are interactive, warm, and always led by demonstration — we never ask a student to try something we haven’t modeled first. Correction is always private. Celebration is always public.
Every child leaves with a small takeaway — a handwritten card, a personal “phone promise,” a place setting guide they decorated themselves — that becomes part of a quiet portfolio of everything they’ve learned.
At the final session, every student is celebrated with a snack reception and presented with a certificate — formally, with a handshake — the one they’ve practiced just well enough to do perfectly.
Classes are small by design — which means spots fill quickly.
If you’d like to reserve a place for your child or simply learn more, we’d love to hear from you.
Grace was never meant to be kept to a few.
The Magnolia Method was founded by Hollie Gaines, a Twin Cities-based professional trainer, mom, and lifelong believer in the power of social confidence. Hollie grew up in South Mississippi, where etiquette and hospitality weren’t formalities — they were the language of genuine human connection.
She brought that belief north — and spent years as a corporate trainer, team leader, and curriculum designer watching the same truth play out in every room: the people who thrive aren’t always the most talented. They’re the ones who know how to connect.
The Magnolia Method is her way of making sure more children get that foundation — early, intentionally, and joyfully.
The Magnolia Method 