For the weekend!!!

Here's the scoop (and I will try to get this out again next Thursday instead of putting it off until Friday morning):

This sounds fun: tonight, Friday Jan 30 at 7 p.m. is the Richfield Springs Lions Club Winter Carnival torchlight parade, in Richfield Springs at Kozaks Field (weather permitting). Info: (315) 858-2639.

Also Sat from 10 a.m. - 2 p.m. is the Girl Scouts-Indian Hills Council junior sports day at the State University College at Oneonta Alumni Fieldhouse. For info, registration: 432-2910.

From 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. on Sat enjoy the children's trains exhibit at the Greater Oneonta Historical Society History Center 183 Main St. Oneonta, featuring activities, books and hands-on fun sponsored by OWL! Info: 432-0960.

The Bullthistle Model Railroad Society Inc. Museum in Norwich (33 Rexford St) will be open Saturday and Sunday Jan 31 and Feb 1 from 1 p.m. - 4 p.m, Info: 334-4522.

Looking Ahead:

Celebrate Groundhog Day, Mon Feb 2, in Cooperstown at TJ's Restaurant, 124 Main St, with a special appearance by Oscar the Groundhog and storytelling by Claire Beetlestone. I'm unclear on the time: the daily star community calendar lists 7:30-8pm and 4:30-5:30pm. Call for info 547-4040.

Now get out and have some fun!

Students need less work more PLAY!

According to an article on Yahoo, children aged 8 and 9 have "better classroom behavior" when given "at least a 15-minute break during the school day."

As adults, we all take breaks (or at least I do) and when I return to work, I'm more focused on the task at hand. But recess is also a time for children to practice developing social skills and learn to manage their own behavior, so recess is even more important for them. View the article at: Kids need recess.

It's amazing that a mere 15 minute break can produce a measurable improvement in behavior. I wonder if getting outdoors is a part of the equation or is it increased physical activity? I've been taking a piano lesson at lunch two days a week. I don't play well, yet when I return to my desk, I feel refreshed, enlivened, and invigorated--in a way no cup of coffee can recreate.

I've decided to steal more of these 'moments' from now on. Maybe there isn't time to snow-shoe around our hill, but we could step out to make snow angels or a snow man. Almost time for work? Still time to put on some tunes and march around the house a few times. This morning we drew pictures before putting on coats and heading out the door. We even put one in an envelope to mail to Nona. Instead of turning to email whenever there are a few minutes to kill, I want to focus that time on what's most important.

Math and reading software: is it making a difference?

According to the NCEE report to congress, first through fourth grade classrooms that used math or reading software did not fare better than their low-tech counterparts. According to the report:

"Test scores were not significantly higher in classrooms using the reading and mathematics software products than those in control classrooms. In each of the four groups of products-reading in first grade and in fourth grade, mathematics in sixth grade, and high school algebra-the evaluation found no significant differences in student achievement between the classrooms that used the technology products and classrooms that did not."

Instead, smaller student teacher ratios and more use of study materials were significant players.

My conclusion? Computer skills are a must-have in today's marketplace--social and otherwise. Yet computers are no replacement for teachers and good old fashioned study habits.

View the article at The National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE)

Another chilly weekend approaches:

Check out my ice-skating post for the scoop on Neahwa and Fortin Parks (Oneonta), as well as Norwich and Cooperstown. We went to the all-free ice skating rink in Norwich last weekend and they had TONS of skates to loan. They found skates to fit both my toddlers as well as my husband, and even had some size 11 women's skates for hard-to-fit me. The staff was wonderful--so helpful, even offering me a cup of their own coffee. Their daughter volunteered to help my three year old get around on the ice for the first time.

What else is going on?

Fri Jan 23 from 7 p.m. - 9 p.m. is a Teen talent show at the Asa Allison building, 4 Academy St. Oneonta. The show is open to sixth- through 12th-graders and is presented by CNY Youth for Christ and Oneonta Community Gospel, Info: 432-0594.

Sat Jan 24 between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m, Oneonta's History Center has a children's hands-on train exhibit (courtesy of OWL), with train toys, crafts, and books. Also enjoy the center's working electric train set. The address is 183 Main St. Info: 432-0960. My boys spent an hour and a half there in complete happiness last visit.

Also Sat at 10 a.m, the Rogers Environmental Education Center on state Route 80 has organized a snowshoe outing at the Adams Farm property. Call 674-4017 for details and carpooling.

Sat or Sunday this week, you can rent snow shoes at the SUCO college camp between 10am and 4pm. Call 436-3455 or visit oneonta college camp.

Looking ahead:

Mon Jan 26th is a partial solar eclipse: wikipedia.

Going a little stir crazy? Oneonta's Huntington Memorial Library is still a great place to hang out (assuming your toddlers are fairly well behaved.) The library in Sidney has A LOT of room for kids, including some toys and TONS of puppets to play with. They even have room enough for you to pull out the over-sized children's books and read them. Check out Event Keeper for a fairly comprehensive events calendar for the Four County Library System.

The Oneonta Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) group is meeting the 1st and 3rd Wednesdays of every month during the school year at the Main Street Baptist Church (333 Main St). Call 432-5712.

Family Values

How do you teach values to your children? Do you go to church? Volunteer a lot? Lecture them? Heekya's blog suggests that “An excellent way to share important principles and values is through storytelling.”

He refers to Dr. Paul White's article, suggesting that family values can be “embedded in these types of stories:

• Memories you have about your grandparents — things you used to do with them.
• Character qualities or talents you remember about your parents or grandparents.
• Something special you remember getting or doing on your birthday when you were growing up.
• Vacations you went on as a child and any memorable events that occurred on them.
• What Christmas was like when you were little — what were the traditions at your grandparents' homes?
• How you met your spouse; about your dating / courtship / engagement; the early years of your marriage — where did you live, what kind of work did you do?
• Some jobs you had when you were younger — including positive lessons and negative experiences.”

We do storytelling at our house, usually starting with my three year old. He tells us of the Green Planet, a utopia where nothing ever goes wrong and you have everything you could ever need or want. No asteroids ever hit the Green Planet, for example. Out of milk? There is always milk at the Green House on the Green Planet…

Science Saturdays!!!

(Drum roll please...) The Science Discovery Center and Oneonta World of Learning present:

Science Saturdays: a series of "hands-on" workshops for children aged 5-13 led by SUNY- Oneonta faculty and students.

Each workshop will feature a different science discipline. Workshops will take place on February 14, March 21, April 25, and May 2. The hour-long workshops will be held at the Oneonta Science Discovery Center on the Campus of SUNY College at Oneonta . There will be two sessions on each Saturday; the first begins at 10:00am, the second begins at 11:30am.

In addition, the Oneonta World of Learning (OWL) will provide science related activities and take-home projects for children ages 2 and up. Admission and workshops are free of charge, however a $5 donation to support the student clubs and OWL is encouraged.

Pre-registration is recommended at 436-3177 or online at oneonta.edu/academics/sdc/ or gallagha@oneonta.edu .

2/14/2009 Earth Sciences
3/21/2009 Physics
4/25/2009 Chemistry
5/2/2009 TBA

For directions to the center (their new website is not yet 100% functional) visit oneonta.edu/ACADEMICS/SCDISC/index.html

photo editing fun

If you want to have some fun with your photos, you might try Picnik.

According to our tester (well, Andrea): "Picnik is a great free on-line photo editing tool. See a quick (and geeky) neon filter effect above from ExhibiTricks-- http://www.picnik.com/app".

ExhibiTricks, by the way, is one of our favorite sites for generating ideas for Oneonta's Childrens Museum. At the moment, we're partnering with like minded community organizations to fulfill our mission. We've brought children and their grow-ups together for hands-on play (and learning) at Paintfest, with the Historical Society, and on New Year's. For the next four months we'll be partnering with SUCO's Science Discovery Center for Science Saturdays (look for a blog post with full details later this week). But someday, we'll have our own space--so you don't have to wait for an event. Caregivers and children will find common ground any day of the week at Oneonta World of Learning (OWL). That's our dream, and we are making it a reality.

More on ice skating

Now here's the scoop on local ice skating, thanks to Upstate Life Magazine (which also features Paintfest pictures in the same issue!!!)

Fortin Park (thanks to some energetic volunteers and the Town of Oneonta) offers ice skating in the hangars, with one rink for ice hockey and one rink for free skating. Each is surrounded by four-foot walls. The lighted rinks are open from dawn to 9pm daily.

Neahwa Park (in the City of Oneonta) offers Hodge Pond (when the okay is given) and an artificial rink next to the tennis courts. The rink is open from 3-6pm weekdays and 10am-6pm weekends with trained skate guards on the premises.

Cooperstown offers a rink at Badger Park on Beaver Street, open from 3-6pm for open skate and 7-9pm for ice hockey (weekdays). On weekends it's ice hockey from 10am-noon and open skate from 1-6pm. They do have skates available for loan.

Norwich offers skating at Borden Park on the north edge of town in an 80 by 200 foot rink. They have 200 pairs of skates for loan and a warming shelter. Weekdays they are open from 4-9pm and on weekends from noon-9pm. Ice hockey is from 9am-noon on Saturdays. Donations are accepted.

Upstate Life Magazine also features some wonderful pictures from The Joseph L. Popp Jr. Butterfly Conservatory this month. The conservatory offers warmth and beauty year round. Additionally, the magazine has a brief guide to area skiing.

Go ice-skating!

Hodge Pond at Neahwa Park has been cleared off and the ice is reportedly 8 inches thick. There is also a small skating rink, next to the parks building. Unfortunately, Oneonta lost its store of skates in the record flooding of 2006. You'll have to bring your own. Call the rec department at 432-0680 or check your local papers.

Reportedly, Fortin Park also offers ice-skating.

Weekend update

It's not just going to be cold this weekend... there aren't many events on the calendar.

However, you can still enjoy the History Center's Railroad Exhibit--open from 10am-4pm Saturday, Jan 17. Stroll in and try your hand at operating their working electric model train set. Younger kids will LOVE the Thomas the Train table, with an extensive collection of pieces and cars (generously on loan from a local family). Make some signal flags with your child, cuddle up on a pillow with a good book, and just have fun, courtesy of GOHS and Oneonta World of Learning (OWL). Address: 183 Main St. Info: 432-0960.

Also on Sat, from 9am to 12:30pm, snowshoe at Brookfield with the Rogers Conservation Center. The Charles Baker State Forest offers many scenic and historic sights. Call to register and for details, 607-674-4017 Ext. 623.

Alternatively, the Science Discovery Center of Oneonta will be open from 12pm-4pm on Sat--if you haven't been in a while, I think you be pleased with the changes that have taken place. Located downstairs in the Physical Science Building, State University College at Oneonta. Call or email for details: 436-2011, scdisc@oneonta.edu.

The Little Delaware Youth Ensemble will be performing Sun, Jan 25th at Hartwick College's Anderson Theatre, 1 - 6p.m. Info: clarkl@hartwick.edu

Looking ahead:

Mon Jan 19, 2 PM until 5 PM Celebrate education and literacy at the premiere of the brand new Electric Company! A free event brought to you by the Education Department of WSKG and the Broome County Public Library. WSKG will be on hand offering literacy-based stations featuring games, storytelling and activities. The event will culminate with a 4:30 live premiere of The Electric Company as shown on the big-screen of the library's Decker Conference Room. Info at www.bclibrary.info or 778-6456.

175+ Participants!!!

Trains! Trains! Trains! was a hit, attracting over 175 participants to two different programs last Saturday.

From one enthusiastic mom: "Thanks so much for a great time at Saturday's Trains event. It was great to see so many kids of a range of ages playing and doing so many things in a relaxing place - your thoughtfulness about this event really showed. [My son] and I had a great time, and a special shout-out to Mary, the Science and Education Coordinator, for making it so easy for us to paint trains."

I'd also like to thank Mary--she just has a talent for bringing art and science activities to life for children, a talent she shares with generosity and enthusiasm.

I hope you've marked your calendars for Science Saturdays: Feb 14, Mar 21, Apr 25 and May 2. OWL will be teaming up with the SUCO Science Discovery Center to bring more families together in a fun, hands-on learning environment. There are more details on our website, OneontaWorldOfLearning.org

Autism linked to environment

New research shows that the unbelievable rise in the number of autism cases in California cannot be fully explained by migration patterns, age at diagnosis, diagnosis of milder cases, or increased awareness of the disorder. According to Scientific American, which has reported on the story, California experienced a 600 to 700 percent increase in the number of autism diagnoses since 1990.

"Migration to the state had no effect" and "changes in how and when doctors diagnose the disorder and when state officials report it can explain less than half of the increase," according to the article. "That means the rest is unexplained and likely caused by something that pregnant women or infants are exposed to, or a combination of genetic and environmental factors." However, genetics would not be expected to change so dramatically and so quickly.

So just what has changed since 1990? The article mentions that exposure to "flame retardants used in furniture and electronics, and pyrethroid insecticides" has increased since then. Could it be "pet flea shampoos, which contain organophosphates or pyrethroids"? Is there "a link between autism and phthalates, which are compounds used in vinyl and cosmetics"? Or even antibacterial soaps that could effect the immune system?

The article further suggests that there may be a "fairly new infectious microbe, such as a virus or bacterium, that could be altering the immune system or brain structure."

The article further points to a parrellel "rise in childhood asthma, which has reached epidemic proportions for unexplained reasons."

This would seem to exonerate the use of thimerosal in vaccines, although parent groups may argue that there are other issues concerning vaccines, such as combined shots and aggressive vaccination schedules.

Trains! trains! trains! aaron loved the candy train craft.

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So simple, yet truly useful--

From the The Wakanheza Project: "Have you ever been in a public place like a grocery store ... and seen a parent struggling with their children, trying to keep them in line and well behaved? Have you watched that situation escalate? Did you wonder then ... what you could have done? Have you ever BEEN that parent?"

Well I have been that parent! Actually, for me it happened at the Huntington Library--a place to which I am reluctant to return. But anyway. The Wakanheza project (pronounced 'wah-CON-juh') "is a community-wide effort [begun in Ramsey County, MN] that provides tools and strategies to help us effectively respond in these every-day situations ... creating welcoming environments for our children, young people (teens), and families."

I can't do their principles justice in one blog post, but I encourage everyone to watch their video, Lending a Hand. You'll come away better armed to deal with the stresses of every day situations.

The project is especially geared toward organizations, such as museums, schools, and community centers (libraries too) that want to create a welcoming atmosphere, but everyone can apply these simple tactics. And you can download their materials for free.

One more thing:

The Voices of Serenity Gospel Choir will be performing on Saturday, January 10 from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM in SUNY Oneonta's Center for Multicultural Experiences, located in Lee Hall. Info: 436-2134.

And of course, you can still fit the 11am Trains! Trains! Trains! presented by Oneonta World of Learning (OWL) and the Greater Oneonta Historical Center into your Saturday.

The weekend: Jan 9, 2009

Friday, Jan 9 the Sidney Memorial Public Library hosts a Wii party from 3:30 p.m. - 5:30 p.m, open to all school-aged children.

Saturday Jan 10 from 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. is the 31st annual Winter Living Celebration at the Rogers Environmental Education Center on state Route 80, featuring indoor and outdoor activities, crafts, entertainment and demonstrations. Info: 674-4017.

Also Sat, offered at two convenient times: Trains, Trains, Trains! brings train-themed musical performances, crafts and activities for children to the History Center in Oneonta (183 Main St). The first performance and crafts sessions is from 11am-12pm. The program repeats from 1pm to 2pm. See you there!!! Info: 433-0160 or OneontaWorldOfLearning.org

Sat from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. is the Hobart Book Village Customer Depreciation Day throughout the village with historical re-enactment and refreshments included. Info: 538-9222.

Sun Jan 11 at 2 p.m., the Blenheim-Gilboa Visitors Center presents a free classic movie: 'Drums Along the Mohawk'. Info: (800) 724-0309.

Looking ahead:

Monday Jan 12 at 7 p.m. is the Center Street PTO in Oneonta at the Center Street School Library. Free child care is available.

And just for fun: Tuesday Jan 13, ride the Blue Light Central from your easy chair, 7 p.m. -9 p.m.: Join Mark Drnek and some colorful characters on a blues inspired train ride. You can hear the show on 103.9 WSRK every tuesday at 7pm. For info: bluelightcentral.com

An amazing muralist

"Just for fun: check out the website below for a muralist who has done quite a lot of work for children's museum and progressive libraries, etc. It is really amazing. Especially checkout the gallery and photos of Kidcity (field trip anyone?!)

http://www.tedesselstyn.com/index.html"

--from Andrea

See you tonight at the Main View Gallery for our monthly planning meeting from 7-8:30pm. 2009 will definitely be our biggest year yet!

One laptop per child:

The goal: a laptop that costs only $100, designed to make computing accessible to developing countries. They didn't quite reach the $100 goal, but read more at olpcnews.com, and find out about how 4p-computing is changing the world.

For the weekend:

Tonight, Fri Jan 2, Gilboa Breakdown performs at Stella Luna Ristorante from 5:45 - 8:30 p.m. Info: 433.7646.

Sat Jan 3: Be sure to check out the children's hands-on railroad exhibit (provided by OWL) at the Greater Oneonta Historical Society History Center, open from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Info: 432-0960, Address:183 Main St.

Also on Sat, at 10 a.m, is a "Wildlife list activity" at the Rogers Environmental Education Center, state Route 80, Sherburne. Info: 674-4017.

At 10am on Sat, Horton Hears a Who is playing at the Sidney Memorial Public Library, info: 563-1200.


Sat evening Tommy Z performs at Stella Luna Ristorante from 5:45 - 8:30 p.m. Info: 433.7646.

You might consider checking out the Bullthistle Model Railroad Society Inc. Museum in Norwich. Their hours on Sat are 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. Info: 334-4522, BMRS website. They are simply dedicated to preserving our railroad heritage.

Looking ahead: Consider dropping by the Main View Gallery at 7:00pm on Tuesday Jan 6th, for Oneonta World of Learning (OWL)'s first meeting of the new year! We are planning family friendly events for nearly every month in 2009, and it will be fun.

Website to check out: The Green Toad Bookstore, of Main Street Oneonta.

Children's Activities for New Year's Eve: another success story for OWL

About 60 people enjoyed the storytelling and craft activities on Dec 31, in spite of Oneonta's 'snow emergency!' This includes children with their grownups as well as our wonderful team of volunteers.

Storyteller Maria Johnson did a fabulous job captivating the children as well as adults with interactive stories that the children helped to create. My two year old was riveted, sitting still for almost 50 minutes of storytelling (I can't believe it either). My three year old was so happy to play the role of a 'busy old man.' The tales incorporated a golden "freedom" bird, a mother and baby's sleepless night, and a tricky fox. Everyone added their New Year's Wish to the Peace Globe, as well.

Pictures of the event are coming soon!