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Summer Camp and Activities Fair
Mark your calendar to attend the 11th Annual Summer Camp & Activities Fair! The day of family fun is presented by Treasure Valley Family Magazine on Saturday, April 24 from 11am–3pm at the Boise First Community Center (on Eagle Road, just north of Ustick Road).
Here’s your chance to learn about programs and activities for kids and help them plan a fun-filled summer. Pick up brochures, watch camp videos, and meet with camp and summer program directors from overnight camps to local day camps and classes. Check out area kids’ passes too, for nonstop summer fun!
Over 50 exhibitors will be there with hands-on activities for kids, offering on-site camp registration, too. It’s a day of family fun with inflatable jumps, clowns, face painting, and more.
Another highlight of the day is the Treasure Valley Family Magazine Cover Kids Search. Bring your child, with a candid photo and a completed registration form (available on page 55 of this issue) to the Summer Camp and Activities Fair and register to be a Cover Kid! Judging and selection will be divided into three groups: 0–24 months (for Treasure Valley Baby), 2–6 years and 7–12 years (for Family and Resources). Winners will be notified by mail by June 18, 2010. There will be a $10 entry fee per child, with net proceeds going to Corpus Christi House.
For more information about the Summer Camp & Activities Fair and the Cover Kids Search, visit treasurevalleyfamily.com.
Music for Little People
For over 25 years, the award-winning Music for Little People label has been a leader in creating vibrant and engaging recordings for families. Specializing in music that parents and children can enjoy together, it has joined in harmony with some the most acclaimed musicians of our times. Love & Peace: Greatest Hits for Kids includes some of the most magical musical moments from their rich musical history with unique performances such as Brian Johnson (AC/DC) performing “If I had a Hammer” with award-winning kid singers, Faith Hill singing a heartfelt ballad to her daughter, and Willie Nelson joining a bunch of friends to cover Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land.” The diversity and spirit in this historical tribute to the wonderful world of children’s music contribute to a musical experience that your family won’t want to miss!
Trade in Screen Time for Green Time
The National Wildlife Federation (nwf.org) recommends these tips to keep your kids active and healthy.
• Lead by example. You are a role model for your kids. If they see you plop on the couch and watch TV, they will be inclined to recline as well. If they see you dig about in the garden or go hiking, they will be inclined to dig and hike as well.
• Think outside the box. Give a child an expensive gift and they promptly rip it open and start playing with the gift paper and box. Skip expensive toys and break out glass jars to catch and release insects. Use gift boxes and shoe boxes to display and stow keepsake shells, rocks, dried leaves, and other found treasures. It’s often said the best toys are 10 percent creation and 90 percent imagination.
• Watch and listen. What do your children enjoy doing outside? What activities do they talk about doing? Encourage those activities and build on them.
• Share. What are your favorite childhood memories of outside play? Share them with your family and then go on a night hike, build a tree house, or run through the sprinklers to create new family memories.
• Sculpt. By providing your children with opportunities to move and create, you are sculpting their brains. Play fosters new neural connections and prunes existing ones. As kids sculpt snow and sand, they sculpt their futures.
• Meet. Safety is one of the major reasons parents are hesitant to let their children play outside. Organize a play-date that really is about play.
• Create opportunities. Don’t over-schedule your children or yourself. Leave open little windows of time—even if only for ten minutes—just to goof off and move around and explore outside. Any outdoor activity is much better than sitting inside staring at a screen.
• Resolve. Make a resolution to join the National Wildlife Federation’s Be Out There Movement and take the pledge to get your kids outside, beoutthere.org/resolution.
For local ideas, event listings, and information visit the Idaho Children and Nature Network website at www.visitidaho.org/children-in-nature.
National Financial Literacy Month
Developing healthy money habits early on can set your child’s financial compass for life. Threejars.com Founder Anton Simunovic has six tips for handling allowance:
1. EMPOWER YOUR CHILDREN. Responsible experience is the best teacher, so let your kids practice with real money. Truth is, when the kids spend their money and not yours, they get thoughtful—and fast. And if “mistakes” are to be made, isn’t it better they are made when dollar amounts and consequences are low? So let them practice with money, just as they practice sports or instruments.
2. KEEP IT BALANCED. Allot a portion of every dollar your child earns to three jars: one for saving, the other two for spending and sharing. Fifty percent to the save jar, 40 percent to the spend jar, and 10 percent to the share jar is a good rule of thumb. This establishes healthy money patterns before they leave the family nest.
3. BE CONSISTENT. Pay the right amount on time! Allowance may seem trite to an adult, but to a young child, it’s their source of independent income. Give allowance the proper respect and attention it deserves. It’s a parent’s best tool to teach kids about money.
4. HOW MUCH? Consider the age of your child, your expectations of what the allowance will be used for, and what your family budget can afford. Before high school, kids are often paid their age or half their age in dollars per week.
5. EMBRACE TECHNOLOGY. This generation responds well to the modern uses of technology and it has revolutionized the way they learn. The internet allows kids to connect the dots between earning money, understanding the tradeoffs between spending and saving, and developing a balanced relationship with money by sharing some of it. Tracking decisions gives kids a picture of how money works.
6. ALLOWANCE AND CHORES. Kids who live in the house have to help manage the home. That’s what it means to be part of a family—case closed. To ensure follow-through on chores, consider revoking TV, internet, or cellphone privileges. This way kids are still given the chance to work on their all important money management skills.
Boise Museum Pass
Visit seven of Boise’s museums for a fraction of the combined regular price. Save up to 47 percent off regular ticket prices. Each pass provides one free admission to each of the seven participating museums. Four additional museums are providing gift shop discounts to pass holders. The Boise Museum Pass is valid for seven days after first use. The pass is not valid with any other discount offers, group rates, or advance ticket sales.
Participating museums include:
Basque Museum and Cultural Center
Boise Art Museum
Discovery Center of Idaho
Idaho Botanical Garden
Idaho Historical Museum
Old Idaho Penitentiary State Historic Site
World Center for Birds of Prey
Museums with gift shop discounts:
Idaho Military History Museum (free admission)
Idaho Museum of Mining & Geology (free admission)
Morrison Knudsen Nature Center (free admission)
Zoo Boise (20 percent off gift shop)
Adult passes are $19 and child passes for ages 3–12 are $9. Boise Museum Passes can be purchased at idahotickets.com and Boise Convention and Visitors Bureau. For other purchase locations and general information, visit www.boisemuseums.org.
Wonder-Filled Activities
Toad Cottages & Shooting Stars: Grandma’s Bag of Tricks (Workman) is a magical guide to 130 activities for grandparents, parents, teachers, and children of all ages. Sharon Lovejoy’s latest book is full of imaginative ideas that will instill a true sense of wonder as readers learn how to create a pumpkin patch in a pot, make leaf rubbings, turn an aquarium into a worm hotel, create a firefly lantern, and so much more.
The book offers endless opportunities to enjoy the wonders of the backyard and beyond.
Nonie Clarke’s No-Bake Nests
These feather-light cookies are not only tasty, but also beautiful and whimsical.
Ingredients
34 large marshmallows
½ cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon pure vanilla
4 cups cornflakes
¼ cup toasted coconut
Candy eggs
In a large saucepan, stir the marshmallows and the butter together over medium heat. Add the vanilla to the melted marshmallow mixture and stir. Remove from heat. Fold in the cornflakes and the lightly toasted coconut, and mix. Drop 1 teaspoonful of the mixture into each cup of a greased muffin pan. Form a small nest by carefully sticking thumbs into the ball and pinching gently around the edges to make a cup shape. Once the nest is formed, remove and place on a baking sheet. Nestle a pair of small, colored candy eggs inside each one. Cover with plastic wrap and let harden overnight on the countertop. Store nests in a single layer in a tightly covered container.
Idaho Voices for Children (IVC) is a statewide organization that develops and promotes a policy agenda that improves child health, education, safety, and family economic security.
Many people think ordinary individuals can’t make a difference, that it is hard to change laws or policies. But in can be done. Advocacy can start with one person working to initiate change, that one individual finds others who share their passion and desire to make a difference. As these individuals work together they can create a synergy and accomplish great things. Mothers Against Drunk Drivers was formed by individuals that have now convinced states to toughen drunk driving laws. Changes don’t always happen quickly, in fact they usually take time to achieve but that is the heart of our democratic system.
Join Idaho Voices and help make Idaho the very best place for a child to grow up. If you want to support IVC’s work or view the legislative outcomes from the 2010 Idaho Legislative session, visit www.idahovoices.org.
March for Babies
The March of Dimes helps to fund research that focuses on putting an end to premature birth, infant mortality, and birth defects. Their primary goal is for all women to deliver healthy babies. In order to achieve this goal, the March of Dimes reaches out to communities to raise money for much-needed research, education, and community programs.
The largest fundraiser of the year is March for Babies. This 10K walk is an opportunity for individuals, corporations, and families to make a substantial impact in the fight for healthy babies. Each person or team collects pledges before attending the walk. The walk is a day filled with faces of the cause. There will be families walking in memory of babies they lost and families walking in honor of premature babies who have grown into healthy children.
The day of the walk becomes a celebration with music, food, kids’ activities, and of course the walk itself. This year, the Boise March for Babies is Saturday, April 24. You can join an existing team or create your own team. Simply register online at www.marchforbabies.org. If you have questions or want more information, please contact
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Boston Pops Contest
America’s Orchestra, the Boston Pops, is celebrating its 125th Anniversary this season with a special contest to bring a family of four to Boston to celebrate with the Pops. Airfare, accommodations, and ground transportation to and from Logan Airport will be included. Each Pops season culminates with the nation’s largest Independence Day celebration—the Boston Pops Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular on the Charles River Esplanade, broadcast nationally.
To enter, contestants must submit a 125-character or less message describing why the Pops should choose their family for a trip to Boston’s famous July Fourth celebration this year. Entries can be submitted via text message, by cellphone, on the Pops Facebook and Twitter pages, or on the Boston Pops website. All submissions are due by May 15. For more information about this contest, visit www.bostonpops.org/125.
To inspire your contest entry, attend the Boise Philharmonic concert A Salute to Ballet Idaho, Robert Franz, Conductor. Dates are April 23 (8pm) at Swayne Auditorium on the NNU campus in Nampa, and April 24 (8pm) at the Morrison Center on the BSU campus. Go to www.boisephilharmonic.org for tickets and information.
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