The Back to School Issue 2013
School Choices: Why We Love Our ‘Failing’ School; Back-to-School Tips From a Vermont Food Blogger
How can parents help prevent or reverse childhood obesity?
Last month brought some rare good news about childhood obesity. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that obesity rates among low-income preschoolers dropped in 19 states for the first time ever. Vermont was not among them, in part because the state’s percentage of overweight kids is already relatively low: 12.9 percent. Still,…
Family Court
The timing of Wimbledon and the U.S. Open suggests tennis is a summer sport, but empty courts and cooling temperatures make fall an ideal time for Vermont families to pick up their rackets. My own children, ages 5 and 6, are just starting to make contact with the ball. But they’re no Venus and Serena…
Book Review: Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood
Librarian: Lindsay Grattan, Fletcher Memorial Library Book: Glory Be by Augusta Scattergood Age range: 8 and up Grattan’s summary: It’s the summer of 1964 in Hanging Moss, Miss. For Gloriana June Hemphill, better known as Glory, summer is all about backyard baseball games with her best friend, Frankie; reading Nancy Drew books; playing junk poker…
What’s your favorite story to read aloud to your kids?
Liam Griffin, Bolton Valley Job: Owner/founder, event consulting company Supergoodthingmaker Son Milo, 3 My favorite books to read to Milo are Down by Jim Long’s Stage and One Wonderful Fine Day for a Sculpin Named Sam, both by Al Pittman. Al wrote these stories because there were no children’s books about Newfoundland, where I grew…
The Art Of… Circus
Sixteen-year-old Mariah Fraker waved her hands wildly as she described the moment seven years ago when she realized she wanted to be a circus performer. She was a fourth grader, hanging upside down from monkey bars with a friend. “We were like, ‘I wonder what trapeze is like,'” recalled the Washington, D.C., resident in hot…
Super-Cool Preschool
“When you enter this classroom, you are scientists. You are explorers. You are artists. You are mathematicians. You are authors.” So reads a sign on a door inside Heartworks School in Shelburne. Within the building are six pre-K classrooms — colorful, comfortable spaces designed to support young students’ adventures in education. Giant murals of Vermont…
Framed Chalkboard
Smartboards are standard in classrooms these days, but good old-fashioned chalkboards are still handy at home. Kids can use these easily erasable surfaces to practice their ABCs and improve their artistic skills. Start the school year with a clean slate by repurposing a thrift-store photo frame for this simple, speedy craft. It’ll be ready to…
Lots to Learn
As kids all across the state return to their classrooms, it’s an appropriate time to think about education — hence this back-to-school issue of Kids VT. But a good education is about more than academics. One of my favorite things about going back to school as a kid was seeing my friends again. My grade…
