Fun Fridays in Boston

Last week, our friends Alicia and Kelly at Momtidbits.com shared Highland Street's Fun Fridays Program with their readers. They have been nice enough to let us repost the information on our blog. Hope everyone is able to enjoy these free activities throughout the summer at some of Boston's most popular kids destinations. See below for more details. 

Planning your summer lineup? Highland Street offers a Fun Fridays Program and invites you to visit a designated museum or attraction in the Boston area for FREE during the summer. It is open to both Massachusetts residents AND tourists! Whoohoo! No registration or tickets required.

View 2012 Free Fun Fridays destination schedule below:

June 29th
Tanglewood
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum
Peabody Essex Museum
Heritage Museums & Gardens
Museum Of African American History

July 6th
Boston Children’s Museum
Stone Zoo
Cape Cod Museum Of Art
Wenham Museum
Sterling And Francine Clark Art Institute

July 13
Franklin Park Zoo
Children’s Museum At Holyoke
Danforth Museum Of Art
Decordova Sculpture Park And Museum
Reagle Music Theatre

July 20th
Buttonwood Park Zoo
Mass Audubon Visual Arts Center
Hancock Shaker Village
Pilgrim Monument And Provincetown Museum
Higgins Armory Museum

July 27th
Commonwealth Shakespeare Company
Children’s Museum In Easton
Springfield Museums
N.E. Historic Genealogical Society
New Repertory Theatre

August 3
Museum Of Fine Arts Boston
Norman Rockwell Museum
Amelia Park Children’s Museum
Fuller Craft Museum
Arnold Arboretum

August 10th
Battleship Cove
Berkshire Museum
Cape Cod Children’s Museum
Fruitlands Museum
The Sports Museum

August 17th
Institute Of Contemporary Art
Edward Gorey House
New Bedford Whaling Museum
Garden In The Woods
Concord Museum

August 24th
Boston Harbor Island Alliance
Uss Constitution Museum
American Textile History Museum
Old Sturbridge Village
Basketball Hall Of Fame

August 31st
JFK Library & Museum
Plimoth Plantation
The Discovery Museums
Mass Moca
Ecotarium

Parent Talk Year in Review

As we prepare to start our 21^st Parent Talk year, we wanted to take a moment to recap what a wonderful year Parent Talk has had! 

• We welcomed our new Executive Director, Mary Celeste Brown in January. MC has been a wonderful addition to our organization and we feel lucky to have her! 
• We assembled over 200 night-night bags for local homeless children. 
• We hosted our highly successful 7^th annual Preschool Fair 
• We had two record breaking sales and donated truckloads of clothing, toys and gear to local charities. 
• We launched a brand new blog which allows us to provide real-time, relevant content to our members. We’ve received overwhelmingly positive feedback on the blog so far and encourage you to let us know if you’d like to contribute! 
• We had an overwhelmingly successful lecture series which included five talks on topics ranging from sibling rivalry to re-entering the workforce after a career break.   
• We hosted a Halloween parade and cookie decorating party at Avery Crossing 
• We welcomed thousands of visitors to the Playspace
• We made many new friends along the way. 

Your Parent Talk membership offers so many valuable resources, but we couldn’t do it all without our dedicated volunteers. We especially want to thank our outgoing Board of Director chairs: Ginger Bunn, Sarah Dussault, Lauren Kowaleski, Nicole Maffeo, Cathy Memory, Ryan McDonnell, Sari Musmon, and Lollie Weeks. 

While we are sad to see our outgoing board members leave us, we are excited to welcome new faces and start a new year. Joining Katie Alwart, Ann Lyons, Betsy Jensen Miller, Mary Beth Remorenko, and Myrna Zakarian, are Tricia Burch, Melissa Crowe, Nicola DiMauro, Nar Dong, Julia Sappenfield, and Wendy Todd. We’ll both be staying on for another year as co-president.

If you are interested in getting involved and helping us to make our 21^st year our strongest yet, please let us know. We have open positions, both big and small that will suit a variety of interests and skills. Email us at president@parenttalk.info and we’ll find the right position for you. 

Happy Summer! 

Reading Spotlight

Written by Katie Edwards

Hungry Monkey: A Food-Loving Father's Quest to Raise an Adventurous Eater

by Matthew Amster-Burton

This was the perfect book for me, as someone who loves food and cooking, and is trying to raise her son to eat lots of different things [mostly unsuccessfully so far].  It even included recipes!  Lots of fun.  Here is how Amazon describes it:

“Hungry Monkey is the story of one man’s coming to realize that kids don’t need puree in a jar or special menus at restaurants and that raising an adventurous eater is about exposure, invention, and patience. A restaurant critic and food writer, now a stay-at-home dad, Amster-Burton writes of the highs and lows of teaching your child about food—the high of rediscovering how something tastes for the first time through a child’s unedited reaction, the low of thinking you have a precocious vegetable fiend on your hands only to discover that a child’s preferences change from day to day. Sharing in his culinary capers is little Iris, a budding gourmand and a zippy critic herself, who makes huge sandwiches, gobbles up hot chilis, and even helps around the kitchen sometimes.”

Bubble Trouble 

by Margaret Mahy and Polly Dunbar

This is one of my 3-year-old’s favorites, and mine too!  It’s a lot of fun to read, although it can take a few times through to get the rhythm right!  The story is about a little girl whose baby brother gets taken up in the air inside of a bubble she blew, and the attempts to get him back down safely.  Not too many picture books out there using words like “nefarious”, either!  I highly recommend it.

Katie Edwards lives in Needham with her wife and two children, ages 13 and 3.   She has a Master’s Degree in Library Science, but has been a stay at home mom for many years, so she is happy to have an outlet to share good books with others.  She loves to read [obviously], travel, try new restaurants, and gab with her friends.  Luckily she is in a book group where she can simultaneously eat and talk to friends about books!

Favorite Toddler Apps

We polled Parent Talk members, friends and family about their favorite toddler apps and have compiled a list of top recommendations below. If you are traveling this holiday weekend, get prepared with a few new apps to test out.  Feel free to add your own favorites in the comment section.  Thanks to everyone who submitted their favorites on Facebook and Yahoo Groups!
 

- Art of Glow

- Balloonimals

- Barefoot Books Atlas
- Bord

- Build A Train

- CookieDoodle

- Cupcake Maker

- Dora ABCs

- Dr. Panda

- Dr. Suess

- George's Curious Climb

- Giraffe's Matching Zoo Deluxe

- iGlowStick

- iWriteWords

- JellyDoodle

- Little Bella's I Close My Eyes

- Monkey MathSchool Sunshine (Monkey Math)

- Monkey Preschool Lunchbox

- Musical Me!

- Peekaboo

- Tappy Tunes

- TeachMe Kindergarten

- TeachMe First Grade

- TeachMe Toddler

- TocaDoctor

- Tozzle

- ScribblePress

- Shape Builder

- Site Word Bingo

If your kids need smaller headphones, check out the Panda Bear headphones on Amazon.

 

*Disclosure: At Parent Talk, we trust each individual parent's judgement on what is best for their child. Research has shown "using apps with your kids is all about moderation. The time they spend in front of them is included in "screen time" for the day. Here is a quote from Raising Children network... Children aged 2-5 years should have no more than an hour a day. And children aged 5-18 years should have no more than two hours."

Recipe Spotlight: Veggie and Bean Soup

Written by Joy Errico Seusing

I make a version of this soup almost every week from fall through spring. It is great for dinner and even better as leftovers or a healthy, hearty lunch. As with many soups, the ingredients are pretty flexible (for instance, if you like a different kind of bean or vegetable, feel free to switch it out for the ones I have here). This feeds my family of four for dinner (though I admit, my four year old and two year old don’t eat a big portion!) with plenty of leftovers for at least two lunches or another dinner. It’s delicious on its own or with a loaf of crusty bread and a sprinkling of parmesan cheese on top. It also freezes very well.

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon minced or crushed garlic

1 cup each finely diced carrot, onion and celery (please note Trader Joe’s sells something called Mirepoix in their vegetable section—it is in a clear plastic container. They do the work of dicing for you so I would suggest using this to save time!)

1 large zucchini or 2 small zucchinis, diced

1 can diced tomato

1 can cannellini beans (white kidney beans)

1 can chickpeas

2 containers of 32 ounce chicken broth (I use organic)

Salt, pepper and Italian seasoning to taste

Coat the bottom of a big soup pan with the olive oil. Heat on medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Add diced carrot, onion and celery mixture, diced zucchini and crushed garlic. Saute for seven minutes or so. Add the canned tomato, beans, chickpeas and broth. Turn the heat to medium and let cook for 25-30 minutes. Taste the soup and add the seasonings to taste. Depending on what chicken broth you use, you may need more or less seasoning (especially salt), so it is important that you taste it until you get the flavor you want. Enjoy!

Joy Errico Seusing lives in Needham with her husband and two young children. She is the Vice President for External Relations at Jumpstart, a national early education organization headquartered in Boston. In addition to being a happily busy working mom, Joy loves traveling to new places, reading on her Kindle, interior design, power yoga, and of course, cooking!  Joy is a monthly contributor for the Parent Talk blog so be sure to check back for new recipe ideas each month.

Magic Beans Drool Baby Expo

Written by Emily Roach

On Tuesday night I attended the Drool Baby Expo organized by Magic Beans.  All of the best in baby gear came together to show off the latest gear, clothes, toys and everything in between.  I went in to the experience to check out the latest eco-friendly gear to share with my readers at Random Recycling, and also to visit with some of the local business.

I loved the variety of vendors at the event.  Both big and small, local and California based companies all got together to share the latest and greatest in baby gear. Certainly kicked in a little baby fever since my 15 month old is much more toddler now than baby.  I will say it was great to attend the event as a parent of two because I know what features are really key, like a one-handed fold up option for strollers.  I have my eye on the new Britax B-Agile stroller.  I didn't even know Britax made strollers.    

It was a nice mix of people I met at the event.  Lots of expecting parents, new moms with their babies tucked inside a carrier, and also Mom-preneurs. Moms know when there is a need for a better product and I try to support them. 

I was really impressed by the non-toxic paint line from Quiet Nursery, baby food containers from Sage Spoonfuls and baby bath and beauty products from MD Moms.  The ritzy ritzy reusable snack bag was also adorable and I want to get one of their wet bags to stash in the beach bag for wet suits this summer.


I had a great chat with Lane, the owner of Tiny Signs.  She is teaches baby signing to Metrowest families.  If you are interested, you find more about her workshops here.


Lots of favorite items, hope they have the event again next year!

About the Author

Emily lives in Needham with her husband Jim and two children.  After working in retail for 10 years, she decided to stay home with the kids and bake.  Emily is also working with Parent Talk Marketing, Needham Farmers Market and writes the blog Random Recycling.

Estate Planning for Families: Why you need a Will and a Trust

By Rachel Schneller Ziegler

Clients frequently say “All I need is a simple will.”  But is that really true?  There is no doubt that your Will is an important part of your estate plan.  Your Will states what happens to your property after your death and appoints a guardian for your children.  But for many people, especially parents of young children, a Will alone is not enough.  You should also create a Revocable Living Trust.  This is true no matter how large your estate.

A Trust is a document in which you establish terms for holding, managing, and using your assets.  A Trustee manages the assets for the benefit of someone else (the beneficiary).   A Revocable Living Trust is a Trust you create while you are living that you can revoke or amend at any time before you die.  

Here are some key reasons to prepare a Revocable Living Trust:

1. Hold and manage money for children and young adults – Assets left to a Trust can be held and managed for the benefit of your children after your death by a Trustee selected by you pursuant to terms set by you.  Without a trust, your property will be distributed to a guardian subject to costly court supervision and terms set by state law, and then distributed outright to children at age 18.  
2. Avoid probate – Probate is a lengthy and costly court proceeding to distribute assets after your death.  Assets in a Trust avoid probate entirely.  
3. Estate tax savings – A Trust can include provisions that can reduce or even eliminate estate taxes.  Without a trust, your family may pay as much as 50% of your total assets in estate taxes.  
4. Protection from creditors – A Revocable Living Trust may protect assets from the reach of a beneficiary’s creditors after your death.  
5. Hold and manage money if you become disabled – Assets held in a trust can be managed by a Trustee selected by you pursuant to terms set by you for your own benefit, in the event you become disabled and cannot manage your own assets.   

Rachel Schneller Ziegler is an attorney concentrating in estate planning and estate administration in Wellesley, Massachusetts.  She is happy to respond to concerns or questions about your estate plan at (617) 641-0000 or rachel@kaiserlawgroup.com.

Disclaimer:  This information is not a substitute for legal counsel.  Nor does it create an attorney-client relationship.  Please contact an attorney for advice specific to your needs.