The Tech Issue October 2016 (Kids VT)
Geocaching Adventures; The Best Tabletop Games; Are Vermont Kids Ready for Kindergarten?
Kickstarting Chris Dorman’s Homegrown Programming
You’ve probably seen local musician Chris Dorman singing and strumming his guitar at Bread & Butter Farm’s Burger Night. Or maybe you’ve taken one of his playful Music for Sprouts classes with your little ones. Soon you may be able to see Dorman someplace entirely different: the TV screen. In collaboration with Vermont PBS, Dorman…
Sketching the Future for Doodle 4 Google
Self-milking cows? Recreational space travel? Google is asking kids to imagine what the future holds in its annual Doodle 4 Google competition. Students from kindergarten through 12th grade are invited to submit a doodle — made with crayons, clay, graphic design or even food — incorporating the letters G-O-O-G-L-E, inspired by the open-ended prompt “What…
Flavors From the Past: Greek-Style Lamb Patties
Certain smells can trigger memories. For me, the tantalizing scent of my dad’s lamb patties — fragrant herbs and rich and earthy lamb — remind me of one year when I came home from college for my birthday. After a three-hour car ride, I was greeted by the aroma of mint, oregano and rosemary. I…
Behind the Camera with Maia Vota
NAME: Maia Vota AGE: 15 TOWN: Burlington The film starts with a teenage girl with long brown hair and braces looking directly into the camera. “My name is Maia. I’m a filmmaker,” she says. The three-minute documentary chronicles her budding career, which, despite its infancy, has already had some made-for-Hollywood moments. And no one is…
Over the Rainbow: A Mom Fights to Save Her Babies After a Heartbreaking Loss
My first set of twin boys were born as the first-quarter moon rose outside of my hospital room window. It was October 1, 2014. I had called the hospital 24 hours earlier because something didn’t seem quite right: At just under 21 weeks pregnant, I noticed an unfamiliar discharge after showering. It was probably nothing,…
Screen Doors: Five Tech Programs Opening Up New Worlds for Kids
It seems like everyone is pushing educational technology lately. All Vermont schools have Wi-Fi, students use iPads and Chromebooks, and entrepreneurs push for STEM initiatives and coding classes. But not every kid wants to be an engineer or computer programmer. What if your child wants to learn more about local history? Become a better writer?…
The Maker Spirit
At the end of September, my husband, Jeff, and I took our kids to the Champlain Mini Maker Faire at Shelburne Farms, an annual celebration of creative, do-it-yourself projects and innovation. Mira, 9, piloted a drone, helped create computer code that turned vegetables and fruits into electronic instruments, and used hot glue and recycled materials…
The Art Of… Tabletop Games
Scott Gemignani has always loved games. Growing up in Bristol in the ’80s, he played Risk, the classic game of world domination. When his older sister wouldn’t let him join in Dungeons & Dragons, he created his own version. In April 2015, Gemignani’s dream of making a living in gaming came true. He and his…
Making Space: A Conservationist and Generator’s Executive Director on Parenting a Teen in Their “Urban Box”
Relaxing on his porch on a warm September evening, drink in hand and black Lab at his feet, Lars Hasselblad Torres is a happy man. Last November, he and his wife, Cathleen Maine, and their teenage daughter, Isabel, relocated to Montpelier from rural Cabot, where they’d lived for more than a decade. The couple wanted…
Halloween Reads
In October, families plan costumes and stockpile candy in preparation for Halloween. It’s also the perfect time to have something spooky to read on the bedside table. We asked Diane Grenkow, youth librarian at Hardwick’s Jeudevine Memorial Library, for some fun and fearsome book recommendations. Georgie’s Halloween By Robert Bright, Ages 4-8 Georgie the ghost…
Navigating Kids’ Food Sensitivities — in School and Life
When today’s parents were growing up, food sensitivities were more about choosing chocolate or rainbow sprinkles than about serious health decisions. The dietary landscape is more complicated now. Peanut allergies in children rose threefold between 1997 and 2010, according to a 2010 study by food allergists at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. And…
Burlington International Airport
For many adults, airports evoke stressful memories of lost luggage and prolonged layovers, so it’s easy to forget the intrigue they hold for a child. To them, airports offer expansive corridors to run, elevators and escalators to ride, and floor-to-ceiling windows for watching massive jets arriving from and departing to exotic locations. When you’re not…
Measuring Up? How Vermont Assesses — and Addresses — Whether Kids Are Prepared for Kindergarten
It’s the first week of kindergarten in Maggie Plante’s class at the Integrated Arts Academy at H.O. Wheeler (IAA) in Burlington, and students are enjoying choice time. The kids reflect Burlington’s ethnic and cultural diversity and boast a cheerful mishmash of personal styles. There are boys with long hair and girls in sweats and high-tops.…
Geocaching
My kids won’t join me for a walk, but if I mention that it involves my smartphone, they’ll race me to the door. I discovered as much this summer during the Pokémon GO craze, when we wandered the neighborhood with my phone, looking for virtual critters. Once that fad faded, I turned to a different…
Sociable Scarecrows
Eighty-nine-year-old Shelburne resident Maedean Birmingham spends autumn afternoons sitting in the enclosed front porch of her little white house, watching the activity on Falls Road. She’s particularly pleased by the passersby who stop to admire the display she’s set up on her manicured front lawn every fall for the past two decades — dozens of…
Connected Classrooms
Got Wi-Fi? Vermont schools do. Results of the Vermont Agency of Education’s Annual Technology Survey released at the end of August show that, for the first time, all of the state’s public school buildings have wireless internet access. Peter Drescher, education technology coordinator for the Vermont Agency of Education, credits the E-Rate Modernization Order, a…
Literary Lamb Sweet Pea Returns
When Vermont couple John and Jennifer Churchman self-published a sweet, true tale about their injured lamb, Sweet Pea, they never imagined what would happen next. After Flying Pig Bookstore co-owner Elizabeth Bluemle wrote a rave review of their book, Sweet Pea & Friends: The SheepOver, on the Publishers Weekly blog, bigwig book agents came calling.…
