Editor's Note: Ready for a Change 

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• Cathy Resmer
• Snowdrops blooming in March 2022.

Spring is my favorite season. I love watching the world wake up after winter: The ice melts, the sap starts running, familiar birds return, green shoots and flowers pop up in my yard.

The timing is always unpredictable. This year a subzero freeze in early February made national news, then a burst of weirdly warm weather caused our snowdrops to bloom on February 15 — a new and somewhat unnerving record. Who knows what March will bring? Whenever it happens, spring always makes me more aware of and grateful for the changes happening all around me.

When my kids were little, we would spend time together outside noting these shifts. Today those conversations often happen in the car — sometimes after my son shifts the car into gear and drives us on an errand.

This spring issue of Kids VT is meant to help you savor the soon-to-arrive season, whatever your kids' ages. Want to know what to look for on walks outside in March and April? Environmental science educator Heather Fitzgerald offers some tips in "Early Signs of Spring." 

Parents of toddlers who'd rather avoid a muddy mess will appreciate Julie Garwood's review of five popular indoor play spaces in Chittenden County. Astrid Hedbor Lague suggests a delicious and unusual maple-themed recipe that involves radishes.

Burlington musician/cartoonist/dad James Kochalka has a new kids' book coming out March 14, the latest installment in his Glork Patrol series. Kochalka has developed cartoons for Nickelodeon and won an Eisner Award for his 2018 children's book Johnny Boo and the Ice Cream Computer. Seven Days music editor Chris Farnsworth talked with him about why he loves drawing kids' comics.

Parents of middle and high schoolers might be interested in Cat Cutillo's dispatch from a robotics tournament at Champlain Valley Union High School in February. It was one of two state championship events supported by the new nonprofit FIRST in Vermont, which helps establish robotics programs across the state.

And everyone who's ever wondered whether they could get another season out of last year's winter boots can relate to Elisa Järnefelt's comic about keeping kids clothed during Vermont's perpetually shifting seasons. The struggle is real!

We're in it with you. We hope you enjoy this issue — and get a few moments over the next couple of months to pause and appreciate this time of transformation.