Happy New Year! Today’s segment was focused on activities and events geared towards children of all abilities. Here are the posts referenced during the segment:
Click to watch the video here.
January on TV
Fun Events for Kids of all Abilities
I love that we have such an inclusive community here that offers great programming and activities for all children. There are two events I want to highlight that are especially geared towards kids with special needs and they sound great!
The first is the Utah Opera and Utah Symphony’s concert on Thursday, January 22 at the Capitol Theatre. You can register at the link above and here is their description of the event:
Utah Symphony | Utah Opera offers an annual concert for children with special needs and their families. We present this concert because we know that many families cannot attend cultural events together because their special needs child acts in distracting ways. We feature our Opera Resident Artists with the Utah Symphony on the Capitol Theater Stage in a special concert where everyone understands the difficulty of keeping these children quiet in their seats. This concert is FREE but registration is required.
I also recently learned about a monthly sensory-sensitive movie screening that is sponsored by AMC Theatres. The local theatre that participates is the Layton Hills 9 theatre and you can find a list of dates and movies at the link above.
As always, I believe in exposing kids to as much art and theatre and film as possible and to have these venues encourage this for all families is so refreshing and wonderful.
New York City Adventure
We went on a family trip to New York City last week and it was Theo’s first time there! It is one of my favorite cities in the world and I was excited to share it with Theo and experience it through his kid perspective. We found a great deal on JetBlue (nonstop: redeye on the way there [Theo slept through it all] and late evening on the way back) and decided to go at this time of year since we would be able to see all the Christmas decorations and the city all decked out for the holidays.
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| Macy’s Store Windows |
We had a great time and Theo was a trooper to walk many, many blocks and ride the subway and go along for the adventure. We also got to try some new things like waiting in a line around the block to get into FAO Schwarz, which was definitely something I had never experienced before. 🙂 We went to the American Museum of Natural History and saw the big dinosaur bones and the huge whale replica.
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| Enjoying Central Park on a sunny day. |
We bought weekly subway passes for each of us that gave us unlimited rides. Towards the end of our trip, we discovered that Theo actually didn’t need one. A fellow rider said that he was free, and when I went to double-check with the subway attendant (ever the rule-follower), they told me that there wasn’t an age restriction, just a casual height restriction, meaning that as long as the child could duck under the gates easily, they could just pass right through. Well, that was a tip we wish we had known earlier!
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| Big Floor Piano at FAO Schwarz |
Before our trip we had looked at some architectural pictures of famous buildings in the city and Theo had fun seeing the real life Empire State Building and Chrysler Building. He also got to experience getting jostled around on the streets (the busiest I’ve ever seen it was trying to see the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center; I held onto Theo’s hand so tight).
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| Pro subway rider |
The trip was so fun but the best part was coming home and having refreshed understanding and gratitude for everything we have here: our beds, our house, our cars and wide, non-trafficky streets… There are benefits of every place, and being able to travel and see for ourselves what those benefits are is one of the best things in life.
A Puppety Day
Today we had all sorts of fun encounters with puppets. We went to see a free movie at the downtown main library sponsored by the Utah Film Center’s children’s Tumbleweeds series. It was adorable! It is called Emmet Otter’s Jug-Band Christmas and was made in 1977 by Jim Henson, before he started working with his famous Muppets. It was short, funny and a nice holiday movie to add to your Christmas-themed catalog. We all loved it and especially the opening song, “The Bathing Suit She Wore” about Grandma Otter’s generously-cut swim suit. So clever and heartwarming.
This evening we headed to the Christkindlmrkt at This is the Place Heritage Park. It kind of felt like a wintery farmer’s market and they had all sorts of shops and food stands set up around the market. One of the stores featured was Golden Touch Puppets, which encouraged the children to put on the puppets and play around with them. The owners were so nice and Theo got a kick out of using a puppet much like the ones we had seen in the movie earlier today.
December on TV – Holiday Activities!
Can’t believe it’s been a year since I first was on KSL talking about Holiday Kids Activities for 2013… here we are a year later and with a new list for 2014! Happy Holidays to you all and thanks for reading and watching!
Click to watch the video here.
Holiday Kids List – 2014
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| Santa’s Arrival at City Creek Mall |
Enjoy the Annual Holiday Kids Activity list for 2014!
Theo and I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season!
Let it Snow: A Holiday Music Journey
The Light Before Christmas
Date/Time: Ongoing, various times
Location/Sponsor: Clark Planetarium (110 South 400 West)
Cost: Adults $9, Children & Matinees before 5:00pm $7
Date/Time: Saturday, November 29, 1:00pm and 6:00pm; Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 1 & 2, 6:00pm
Location: Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center (138 West Broadway)
Cost: $20
Sponsor: The Children’s Ballet Theatre
Home for the Holidays Open House & Service Project
Date/Time: Tuesday, Dec. 2 from 3:00 to 7:00pm
Location: YWCA (322 East 300 South)
Cost: Free
Sponsor: YWCA Utah
Christkindlmarkt SLC
Date/Time: Thursday Dec. 4 through Saturday, Dec. 6 from 11:00am to 8:00pm
Location: This is the Place (2601 E. Sunnyside Avenue)
Cost: Free
Sponsor: This is the Place Heritage Park
The Night Before Christmas
Date/Time: Friday, Dec. 5 at 7:00pm; Saturday, Dec. 6 at 1:00pm and 7:00pm
Location: Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center (138 West Broadway)
Cost: $12
Sponsor: Ballet Jeunesse & Salt Lake Dance Center
Date/Time: December 5-20, various times
Location/Sponsor: Pioneer Memorial Theatre (300 South 1400 East)
Cost: $54-$59
(Note: Recommended for ages 10+)
Date/Time: December 5-27, various times
Location/Sponsor: Salt Lake Acting Company (168 West 500 North)
Cost: Adults $25, Kids $15
Date/Time: December 5-31, various times
Location: Capitol Theatre (50 West 200 South)
Cost: $29-$84
Sponsor: Ballet West
Sugar Plum Party (following 2:00pm matinee performances of The Nutcracker)
Cost: $10
Date/Time: Saturday, Dec. 6 at 11:00am
Location: The City Library (210 East 400 South)
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Utah Film Center
“Frozen” Sing Along Fun
Date/Time: Saturday, Dec. 6 at 2:30pm
Location: The City Library (210 East 400 South)
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Salt Lake City Public Library
Sponsor: Salt Lake City Public Library
Date/Time: December 6-24, various times
Location/Sponsor: Hale Center Theater (3333 South Decker Lake Drive, West Valley City)
Cost: Adults $29-$32, Children (5-11) $16
(Note: Ages 5+)
Date/Time: Friday, Dec. 12 at 7:30pm
Location: Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center (138 West Broadway)
Cost: $15
Sponsor: Octappella Entertainment
Date/Time: Saturday, Dec. 13 at 10:00am
Location: Broadway Theatre (111 East 300 South)
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Salt Lake Film Society
Here Comes Santa Claus!
Date/Time: Saturday, December 13; 11:00am and 12:30pm
Location: Abravanel Hall (123 West South Temple)
Cost: $6-$18
Sponsor: Utah Symphony
Christmas Carole Sing-Along
Date/Time: Monday, Dec. 15 at 7:00pm
Location: Energy Solutions Arena (301 W. South Temple)
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Larry H. Miller Family and Robert C. Bowden
Winter Solstice
Date/Time: Saturday, December 20; 10:00am – 1:00pm
Location: Children’s Garden, Red Butte Gardens
Cost:
Date/Time: Saturday, December 20; 10:00am – 1:00pm
Location: Children’s Garden, Red Butte Gardens
Cost:
Free for Members
Non-members get half-price Admission in Dec, Jan and Feb
Adults (ages 18-64): $5
Seniors (ages 65+): $4
Military w/ID: $4
Children (ages 3-17): $3
Children (under 3): Free
Children (under 3): Free
U of U Faculty/Staff: $4
Sponsor: Red Butte Gardens
Sponsor: Red Butte Gardens
Date/Time: Sunday, Dec. 21 at 7:30pm
Location: LDS Chapel (951 East 100 South)
Cost: Free
Sponsor: The Salt Lake Children’s Choir
Date/Time: Dec. 24 and 25, Time TBA – Check link for updates
Location: Tower Theatre (876 East 900 South)
Cost: Free
Sponsor: Salt Lake Film Society
Pupcracker – A Canine Nutcracker
Date/Time: Saturday, Dec. 27 at 7:30pm; Sunday, Dec. 28 at 2:30pm
Location: Rose Wagner Performing Arts Center (138 West Broadway)
Cost: $20
Sponsor: Intermountain Therapy Animals
Date/Time: Monday-Wednesday, Dec. 29-31, various times
Location: Various downtown locations
Cost: 3-Day Pass: Adults (10+) $20, Children (3-9) $15
Sponsor: Downtown Alliance
Memory Grove – Discovery Day
We went to a great “Discovery Day” at Memory Grove Park last weekend, which was sponsored by the Utah Heritage Foundation. Inside the Memorial House, they had super fun indoor activities for the kids, all around a structure/building/architecture theme. They had cookie stacking (Theo got 27!), building out of toothpicks and gumdrops, and making stained glass windows out of black construction paper and colored tissue paper. I got really into my stained glass window project while Theo was building his gumdrop structure.
They also provided a “scavenger hunt” worksheet that had pictures of different aspects of the various buildings around the Park. You had to go outside and match up the pictures with the buildings on the worksheet, which took you around the whole park. We went to the Meditation Chapel which I had never been inside, and they had a tour guide there to allow the public to see the interior. It is tiny and so beautiful with stained glass windows commemorating the four services of the US military, and a small bench and altar. The entrance gates look out over the park and line up exactly with the cupola of the Capitol building. I could totally imagine sitting inside and being meditative and peaceful.
We ended the outing with Theo and his dad exploring the pathway that leads from the park up to the Avenues, where we live. I met them all the way up the hill in our car and we vowed to one day walk all the way from our house down to the park again. Such gorgeous scenery so close to downtown/Capitol/Avenues and we are glad that this Discovery Day activity brought us out to enjoy it.
Our Current Favorite Show
My friend Hilary told me about the show MasterChef Junior over a year ago. She said that her kids loved watching it and that the show was pretty entertaining. We finally got a chance to watch the shows (available on Hulu) and this was a parenting milestone moment for me: Theo and I basically binge-watched the entire first season and we both had a blast. Nothing like sharing the anticipation of “okay, just one more episode…” with your child.
I had never watched the adult version of MasterChef, but from what I understand, the celebrity chef judges (including Gordon Ramsay) can be pretty tough. They are much less harsh on the kid version of the show which means no bad language and no abusive behavior. Also, it is genuinely impressive what the kid contestants on the show can do. They are aged 8-13 and are cooking at a level beyond many adults — like truly talented kids here, not just making “kid food” or easy dishes.
The current season (Season 2) is airing on FOX right now and the episodes become available on Hulu about a day after they air. Check it out and see if you and your kids love it as much as we do. My hope is that my super picky eater will become inspired by the wide variety of foods shown and maybe become more adventurous in trying new things (so far it hasn’t happened yet!).
November on TV – Voting and The Children’s Center
Tomorrow is Election Day! Remember to vote and bring your kids along! Here is my post about Election Day with more info on registering and finding your polling place.
Also, check out this great lecture series being offered by The Children’s Center this month and throughout the next few months.
Get in the holiday spirit by taking your family to the Santa Claus and Friends Holiday Special concert on November 15, 2014. There are two shows (one matinee and one evening) with different prices and different activities included. This show is sponsored by The Children’s Center as well.
Click to watch the video here.
Halloween Candy Removal Technique
Doesn’t the title of this post sound like the most curmudgeonly thing ever? I’m not a Halloween Grinch, but I always feel like the trick-or-treating haul is way more than any one child (or family) can eat. A few years ago, a “kill-two-birds-with-one-stone” idea came to me and we’ve been using it ever since.
In 2012, Hurricane Sandy hit the East Coast around the time of Halloween. We have a lot of friends and family who live in those areas so it was a frequent topic of conversation in our house. In his post-trick-or-treating candy-sorting bliss, I told Theo that he could separate out which candies he absolutely loved and keep those favorites, and then make a separate pile of “giveaway” candy. Then, for every piece he gave away, we would match his donation with $1 towards the Red Cross to help the people affected by Sandy. He ended up donating $61 and we made the donation in his name online.
I feel like this kind of exercise demonstrates to children the act of philanthropy in a nutshell: you give up something of worth to you and that sacrifice benefits others who are receiving your good intention. I find that money is sometimes a really abstract concept to kids and this way the candy is a tangible symbol of that.
That year we just gave my husband the haul of giveaway candy and he brought it to his office (just wanted to get it out of the house!) but I have since learned of this program that dentist offices can participate in: Halloween Candy Buy Back. You can enter your zip code and it will tell you which offices are accepting candy donations, which they will then send to an organization that organizes and sends it to military personnel to enjoy. So now it’s a win-win-win scenario!
Have a very Happy and Safe Halloween!!!
Adventures with Theo 