Kids VT, November 2018
A Supportive Program Connects Parents of Kids With Special Needs; Learning Through Nature Immersion; Creating a Family Cookbook; Good Citizens Finish the Challenge
History Lesson
Daphne Kalmar brings along a taxidermy mouse named Bob when she shares her middle-grade historical fiction novel, A Stitch in Time, with kids at schools and libraries. It’s an outside-the-box presentation, but Kalmar is a bit outside-the-box, too. She became a first-time novelist at age 63 when A Stitch in Time was released in June.…
What Should Parents Know About Eye Exams, Bilateral Vision and the Proverbial ‘Lazy Eye’?
Pediatric ophthalmologists have to be specialists in the art of the nonverbal eye exam. Their patients may be just a couple of days old, and even the older ones sometimes cannot identify the letters on a wall chart. What’s more, children may be intimidated by bulky eye exam equipment or fearful of someone putting drops…
Robin’s Nest Nature Playgroup
I love being outdoors with my 2-year-old, Virginia, particularly when it’s 80 degrees and sunny. Cold, rainy days are a bit harder to navigate. A recent trip to the Robin’s Nest Nature Playgroup at North Branch Nature Center in Montpelier challenged us to make the best of lousy weather. It also gave Virginia and me…
A Perfect Match: A Supportive Program Connects Parents of Kids With Special Needs
In 1895, the American poet, preacher and suffragist Mary Torrans Lathrap published a poem called “Judge Softly,” which begins: Pray, don’t find fault with the man that limps Or stumbles along the road. Unless you have worn the moccasins he wears, Or stumbled beneath the same load. Lathrap’s poem isn’t well known today, but most…
Congratulations, Good Citizens!
These Vermont students finished Kids VT’s first Good Citizen Challenge, underwritten by the Vermont Community Foundation. They will each receive a Good Citizen sticker, medal and T-shirt, as well as a pocket constitution donated by Phoenix Books. They will also be honored at a reception at the Vermont Statehouse in January. Thanks to all who…
Habitat: Sapling Woods
This summer, a neighbor offered Sarah and Sean Prentiss a free plastic child’s swing for their almost-2-year-old daughter, Winter. Project-oriented Sean, who didn’t want their neighbor believing “she wasted her time getting it to us,” promptly hung the caterpillar-shaped swing from a tree near their home on Turtle Cove, a private bay on Greenwood Lake…
Green Mountain Pride
Looking to buy a gift that says “Vermont” for a little one in your life this holiday season? Look no further than Vermont Tribe. Started by Moretown native Sophie Kirpan three years ago, the local company makes onesies and kids’ shirts emblazoned with patches in the shape of Vermont that are made from scraps of…
Making the Grade
All people are math people, according to the Winooski High School math teacher recently named 2019 Vermont Teacher of the Year. Tom Payeur received the honor from the Vermont Agency of Education in October. Beth Fraser, a mathematics teacher at Blue Mountain Union School in Wells River, was recognized as the 2019 Vermont Alternate Teacher…
Season of Song
Last November, Vermont PBS released the pilot episode of Mr. Chris and Friends, an original children’s television program geared to 3- to 6-year-olds starring local musician Chris Dorman. One year later, Dorman and Vermont PBS are at it again — this time with five new 30-minute installments of the farm-based musical show. The episodes are…
Autumnal Vegetable Mash: An Alternative to Plain Potatoes for Your Thanksgiving Table
Thanksgiving has always been a favorite holiday in our family. We grew up with all the traditional staples: turkey and gravy, cranberry sauce, fresh warm rolls, mashed potatoes and pies, pies, pies. But sometimes — when the garden was particularly bountiful — my father would get more creative, and we would be treated to a…
A Force for Change: Montpelier Student Advocates for Social and Environmental Justice
Name: Hope Petraro Age: 16 Town: Montpelier At 16, Hope Petraro isn’t old enough to vote. But she’s still registering others. The Montpelier High School junior is an intern in Sen. Bernie Sanders’ office, working on voter outreach ahead of Election Day. “It’s funny, because there are sometimes questions I don’t know the answers to,…
Anna Marie, Autumn & Julianna
You recently relocated from New Jersey with your husband, Michael, and two young kids and started a new job. How is it going? Anna Marie: As a family, it’s been a big adjustment, but this community has been awesome. Everything has just reinforced our decision to come here. The quality of life and the arts…
A Bounty of Books: What a Literary Gift Means to a Rural Library — and Its Librarian
Driving along a dirt road in Waterbury Center, I was sure I was lost. On my way home from work at Kids VT, I was searching for the Children’s Literacy Foundation office. I drove uphill, passing hayfields and enormous maples. Finally, convinced I’d gone too far, I pulled over, got out of my Toyota and…
Better Citizens
When I feel overwhelmed by the national news — the tribalism, the incivility, the intractable problems facing our democracy — I think about Grace Heller. The Moretown teen was one of 77 young Vermonters who completed Kids VT’s Good Citizen Challenge, which wrapped up in October. The Challenge, underwritten by the Vermont Community Foundation, invited…
The Art of… Creating a Family Cookbook
In her first cookbook, From the Cook’s Garden, Vermont food and garden writer Ellen Ecker Ogden included a recipe for apple crisp along with sweet memories of helping make the dessert when she was a child. Her version of the classic, she explained in the recipe introduction, “is inspired by one of my dearest food…
Why Is Empathy Important, and How Can I Raise Empathetic Kids?
The cafeteria is a notoriously stressful environment for kids. In rural Vermont, where I attended high school, any given lunchtime was a crapshoot. One day was all cheeseburgers and laughs; the next, a steaming pile of goulash and exclusion. One particular lunchtime memory has stuck with me for nearly two and half decades. Several kids…
The Third Space: Afterschool Programs Provide Community, Structure and Enrichment for Kids and Teens
Kids spend most of their waking hours at school or at home. When they’re not at one of those two places, many Vermont children and teens — 79 percent of whom have no stay-at-home parent — go to afterschool programs, known in education circles as the third learning space. “I think we’re hampered by a…
