Kids VT, October 2020
Tips for an Eco-Friendly Halloween; Songs for a Spooky Playlist; Easy Apple Cake Recipe; Head Start Shifts to Virtual Visits
A ‘Hybrid Mom’ on Being OK With Imperfection
A month into Gov. Phil Scott’s initial stay-at-home order, I scrolled through social media to see some friends posting about thriving in the remote-learning world. They had “never felt more bonded to their children,” and they wished that this could be “the new way of life.” For me, this was crippling. It wasn’t my story;…
Vermont Visionaries: Author and Adventurer Jan Reynolds
What follows are distilled quotes from a conversation with Stowe-based writer and photographer Jan Reynolds, who’s proven she’s willing to go to the ends of the earth to get a story. Reynolds, now 64, holds multiple records, including the world record for women’s high-altitude skiing. She was part of the first expedition to circumnavigate Mount…
Yoga Pose of the Month: Legs Up on a Wall
Benefits: Relaxation: settles the nervous system Relieves low back tension Stretches the hamstrings and lower back muscles Steps: Bring your mat to the wall or simply sit next to the wall. Sit with one hip toward the wall, with knees bent. Roll down onto your back and lift your legs up to lean them against…
Finding Fall
On the last Sunday of September, I found myself stuffing a 7-foot-tall bunch of dried corn stalks into the trunk of my car — an “impulse” buy that my 10-year-old son Theo had convinced me to make at Whitcombs’ Land of Pumpkins and Corn Maze in Williston. We also packed in an assortment of squash…
An Easy-to-Use App Lets Kids Explore Magical Realism
Last month, I shared some of the surrealist art projects I do with my students and described the strange, bizarre and often symbolic qualities of surrealism. Now, we will venture into the similar — but slightly more restrained — realm of magical realism. While surrealism pulls from the depths of the unconscious mind — with…
Two New Books by Vermont Authors
Three years ago, Angela Kunkel — now the school librarian at Vergennes Union High School — saw a video of José Alberto Gutiérrez, a garbage collector in Bogotá, Colombia, who salvaged books from the trash, beginning with a copy of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Using this scavenged collection, Gutiérrez created a free library for the…
How to Encourage Kids’ Resilience Amid a Pandemic
COVID-19 has created prolonged and unprecedented levels of stress, which children respond to it in different ways. For parents, it can be hard to know what a “typical” response should look like in an atypical situation. Joelle van Lent is a Georgia, Vt.-based clinical psychologist. For the first 15 years of her career she had…
Places to Spot Snow Geese and Hawks This Fall
This summer my family went on a mid-week camping trip at one of Vermont’s state parks. We had a great time, but when we emerged from the wilds on a Friday afternoon, we found ourselves packing up our car in an extremely crowded parking lot. As we traipsed back and forth with stray pieces of…
Tips for a Festive and Eco-Friendly Halloween
Where do you fall on the Halloween-appreciation spectrum? Does your love for the holiday spur you to start decorating and planning on September first? Or maybe you slightly dread it and drag your feet until the last minute. Over the years, I’ve landed all over the map but trend toward liking it because I’ve always…
Junior League Diaper Bank Sees Soaring Demand
The pandemic has exacerbated economic instability for many families. One of the items they need most? Diapers. Since March, the Junior League of Champlain Valley Diaper Bank has given out more than 266,000 of them, said league member Amanda Herzberger. In the diaper bank’s first year of operation — it opened in March 2019 —…
Mealtime: Easy Apple Cake Recipe
Fall in Vermont means many things — leaves changing colors, chilly mornings that are harbingers of colder days to come and, of course, apples. There are so many things you can do with apples, besides just eating them plain. You can make pies, tarts, sauce, butter and many variations of cake. This particular version of…
Mom Takes Notes: Rock Collecting
Since my daughter was born three years ago, there are many things she has taught me. Some of the lessons feel profound. I have learned to be less rigid in my vision of what parenting should look like. I have learned to wait at least three days, preferably a couple of weeks, until declaring that…
What Makes Music Scary (Plus Bonus Halloween Playlist)
As the nights grow chilly and the green leaves become tipped with harvest yellows and electric oranges, one can almost feel Halloween in the air. Whether you’re already building a boo-worthy playlist or decking out your porch in fake cobwebs, the October holiday is all about creating fun, spooky moments. And nothing brings out the…
How to Manage Parental Anger
“Play ‘So Long, Farewell’ from The Sound of Music, my 4-year-old daughter, Coraline, demanded from the backseat of the car. Penelope, 23 months old, chimed in with her own sounds of displeasure as she dropped the rock she was holding. “Hold on, let me focus on backing out first,” I replied, as I attempted to…
Head Start Shifts to Virtual Visits
On a Wednesday morning in September, identical twins Faeryn and Raeyln pinballed around their house while squealing gleefully, exhibiting the kind of boundless energy any parent of a 2-year-old would recognize. The upbeat voice of Champlain Valley Head Start home visitor Lisa Bessette piped in. “Do we need to do something that’s moving? Wanna see…
