When Seven Days bought Kids VT at the end of 2010, we redesigned the 15 year-old parenting magazine — changing the layout, introducing a coloring contest and adding more articles written by Vermont parents.

We unveiled our bold new design in February 2011. The beautifully illustrated cover showed a smartly dressed first grader unpacking a brand-new iPad, released the year before. The headline: “What Can iLearn?”

Fifteen years later, the image makes me cringe. I think a more appropriate tagline might be: “What Were We Thinking?”

Like many parents, my wife and I gave our kids a tablet to share when they were 5 and 7. The internet-enabled gizmo fascinated them and gave us a few minutes of respite. But in retrospect, I regret introducing it to them at such young ages.

As an organizer of the Vermont Tech Jam, Seven Days’ annual job fair and tech expo, I’m not anti-tech. But after years of observing kids stare, slack-jawed, at digital gadgets, I’m wary of using them as educational tools. These unregulated devices and the apps they offer are addictive, intentionally designed to keep users of all ages engaged. After becoming familiar with the Center for Humane Technology and reading books by psychologists Jonathan Haidt, Jean Twenge and Sherry Turkle, I’m embarrassed by my earlier naïveté.

That’s why, over the past few years, Kids VT has leaned into celebrating and creating in-person experiences for kids and families. We point readers toward fun activities that get kids off their screens and involved in their communities.

Case in point: Kids VT’s Spectacular Spectacular talent show for Vermont’s rising stars. This year’s showcase of young performers ages 6 to 16 takes place on Sunday, December 6, at Higher Ground in South Burlington. It’s just one of the events listed in “Save the Dates.”

Also in this issue:

  • A review of the Boardroom, Burlington’s only board game café, where visitors can choose from hundreds of tabletop games. An interview with a local board game designer is also part of the package.
  • Families seeking more vigorous options should check out sports writer Matt Crawford’s advice for embracing the ice this winter. Spoiler alert: It includes curling clinics!
  • Want to teach your kids about the importance of giving back to the community? We’ve listed 15 ways to do it.
  • Let’s not forget about the biggest screen-free initiative of all: the Good Citizen Challenge, a recurring civics project for kids in grades K-8. Taking a break from screens has long been one of the activities. You can also read about the results of this summer’s Challenge. Good Citizen participants earned a chance to win a free trip to Washington, D.C., by taking a three-day screen break, among other activities. Reading their reflections about the experience lifted my spirits. Everett Gill, 10, of Montpelier told us he enjoyed the break: “I was too busy playing with my friends to even think about screens,” he wrote.

We hope you and your family also find an opportunity to unplug this winter!

The original print version of this article was headlined “Child’s Play”

This article appears in Kids VT Winter • 2026.

Seven Days’ deputy publisher and co-owner Cathy Resmer is a writer, editor and advocate for local journalism. She works in the paper’s Burlington office and lives vicariously through the reporters while raising money to pay them. Cathy started at Seven Days as a freelance writer in 2001 and still has the Rolodex to prove it. As the paper’s first online editor, she launched Seven Days email newsletters and started the paper’s first social media accounts. Cathy has overseen Kids VT, Vermont’s...