The Dad Issue 2017
Lavar Barrino Helps Boys & Girls Club Kids Find Their Way; Father-to-Father Conversations; Papa’s First Pedicure; Paddling the LaPlatte
How Do I Stay Connected To My Teen?
During my teen years, my father would randomly announce that we were going on an adventure. We’d drive the back roads of Vermont to sample the milk shakes of various small-town lunch counters, search for bookstores, take in the scenery and talk. Once, after returning home from an especially fun day, I went directly to…
We Are Family: A Burlington Photography Project Showcases Students’ Diversity
Families come in all different shapes, sizes and colors. That’s a takeaway from the Integrated Arts Academy Family Portrait Project, a collaboration between Burlington City Arts and the diverse magnet school’s parent-teacher organization. In May, 147 family photographs, taken by BCA photographer Michelle Saffran and featuring almost every child in the school, were displayed at…
Anna Dewdney’s Legacy Lives on in New Book
When beloved Vermont author Anna Dewdney, creator of the Llama Llama series, passed away from brain cancer last September at age 50, parents, kids and educators around the world mourned her loss. Now, there’s a new book for Dewdney’s legion of fans, completed shortly before her death. Little Excavator, inspired by the author’s experience restoring…
Bethel Pop-Up Theater Wins Play Everywhere Challenge
When kids engage in imaginative play, they learn to solve problems, be creative and manage conflicts. To create more spaces conducive to this kind of open-ended exploration — especially for kids who live in poverty — the national nonprofit KaBoom! hosts the Play Everywhere Challenge, which awards $1 million each year to 50 proposals from…
Burlington High School’s Register Makes News
Look no further than Burlington High School to find New England’s best student newspaper. In May, BHS’s student-run Register beat out hundreds of competitors to win best in its class at the New England Scholastic Press Association spring conference at Boston University. “This award is truly the pinnacle for what has been a remarkable year,”…
Free Breakfast Returns to the Farm
Kids have a chance to see how food gets from farm to table at Breakfast on the Farm — two free pancake breakfasts, sponsored by the New England Dairy & Food Council. The first, on Saturday, June 17, takes place at Fairmont Farm, a third-generation dairy farm with 870 cows in East Montpelier. The second,…
Dad’s Tandoori Chicken: Spice Up Your Grill With Indian Flavors
When I think about sharing a recipe in honor of Father’s Day, I can’t help but think of my own father. He took charge whenever a special holiday came around, poring through his cookbooks and favorite recipes looking for something fun to try. He loved cooking Indian food, and one of his specialties was tandoori…
Born Performer: A Vermont Teen Spends Her Summers in the Circus
Name: Ariana Wunderle Age: 13 Town: Chester Circus Smirkus, Vermont’s award-winning international youth circus, trains kids as young as 5. But Ariana Wunderle started practicing with the troupe when she was just 3 years old. The tall, wiry 13-year-old has a special connection to the organization — her parents help run it. Over the years,…
Erik & Desi
Dad: Erik Donaldson, 50 Son: Desi, 12 What do you like to do together? Erik: We like fishing, antiquing … eating. Desi: Yeah, eating. Erik: We got invited to The Great Northern (restaurant) soft opening. Our chef friend asked us on a date. Man, we ate grilled octopus, smoked pork belly, seared cod. There was…
Daddy Got His Nails Did: A Girl and Her Father Confront Gender Norms During a Pedicure
Every February, our family spends a week in Florida living other people’s lives. We sleep in a clean, air-conditioned condo with sunset views over Sarasota Bay. We eat poolside salads at my mother-in-law’s yacht club. We poke holes in coconuts and sip the water through long, green straws. Our pockets are filled with shells. My…
Dad, Teacher — and Author
In George Patrick Leal’s The Pumpkin of Magic Woods, the character Doggie says, “the first thing you need to know about this place is … all kinds of weird and magical things happen here.” That line is a good synopsis of second-grade teacher Leal’s Magic Woods trilogy, which he self-published through the online platform CreateSpace…
Honoring Fatherhood
At the end of April, I organized a surprise party for my husband, Jeff’s, 40th birthday, which included two dozen of our closest family members and friends. A highlight of the night was watching my 10-year-old daughter, Mira, give a killer speech she had written for her dad. Besides being kind of blown away by…
Should Parents Worry About Picky Eaters?
It’s frustrating when a child looks skeptically at a dinner plate and proclaims, “yuck!” But it’s not necessarily a cause for concern, according to Dr. Lewis First, chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Vermont Children’s Hospital. This reluctance to eat certain foods is considered a normal, and even healthy, part of…
Trending — June 2017
Veteran South Carolina school bus driver evacuates 56 children off a burning bus in less than a minute, just before the vehicle bursts into flames. Superheroes walk among us. Vermont state lawmakers pass a bill entitling pregnant employees to workplace accommodations, including longer or more frequent bathroom breaks. Because when you’ve got a baby pushing…
Green Mountain Audubon Center & Birds of Vermont Museum
The fire station near our home in Burlington’s Old North End makes it difficult to pay much attention to the birds. So a recent visit to explore the trails of the Green Mountain Audubon Center in Huntington provided my family with a welcome dose of avian music. Operated by Audubon Vermont, a state program of…
Parenting Hacks: Camping and Hiking Tips
This month, parents share tips related to camping and hiking to help you through the summer. Send your parenting hacks to ideas@kidsvt.com. We love Cosmic Wimpout and Qwixx. Both are dice games so they are super easy to carry, even for backpacking trips, and don’t take up a lot of room. —tiffany tillman I have…
Father to Father: Two New Dads Talk Parenting With Their More Experienced Friends
Whether it’s on blogs, in social media comments or playgroup conversations, there’s no shortage of public dialogue between moms when it comes to parenting issues. The conversations dads have about raising kids are less conspicuous. What do dads talk about when they talk about parenting? We asked two local men who are new to the…
Paddling the LaPlatte
I was born and bred every inch a sailor. For me, it doesn’t get much better than messing about in boats. But the tides turned when I married my husband Carlton, a landlocked, Colorado buffalo of a man. Suddenly, I found myself choosing hiking trails over hiking out over a hull. Still, we’ve tried to…
Deluxe Tree House
Richard Harle was vacationing on the Jersey Shore when he caught an episode of “Ultimate Treehouses.” The Animal Planet show provides an up close look at impressive arboreal dwellings around the world. Harle had always wanted to build an outdoor abode for his three kids but didn’t quite grasp the logistics of integrating the structure…
Positive Pressure: LeVar Barrino is the Boys & Girls Club’s Go-to Guy for Helping Kids Shine
It’s shortly before 3 p.m., LeVar Barrino’s favorite time of day. School has just let out, and he stands in the lobby of the Boys & Girls Club of Burlington greeting each kid by name before they run off to their favorite after-school activities: ping-pong, the teen music studio, the cyber café, the basketball court.…
