Kid

Best Of: Where to Take the Kids

artistree community arts center

A nonprofit committed to making creative expression accessible to the community, ArtisTree’s Purple Crayon programs provide the perfect art and music center for children.  

From Music Together and acrobat classes to family clay days, Artistree is a great place to look for art inspired workshops with the kids, as well as seasonal classes that will foster your little one’s creative side. 

They also have an outdoor playground equipped with swing set, a life-size wood tractor, sandbox and picnic table – perfect for a run around post class and a quick snack before heading off for the rest of the day. In the colder winter months, their indoor play room filled with books, dress up cloths and toys, is the perfect place to let the little ones’ imaginations run wild with their new found friends. 

Summer program registrations are now open. They partner with VINS and Marsh-Billings- Rockefeller National Historical Park on outdoor adventures that your young one’s won’t want to miss.  Visit their website to find summer classes, workshops and after school programs for the kids.
 

billings farm & museum

Always a favorite stop for the kids, Billings Farm & Museum offers a look into the historic Billings Farm and the character and heritage of a rural Vermont farm. It is owned and operated by The Woodstock Foundation, Inc, a nonprofit educational institution founded by Laurance and Mary Rockefeller in 1968.

With over 70 Jersey cows (and an average of 35 milking at any given time), 5 draft horses, and a flock of Southdown sheep, your kids will get to experience a small dairy farm first hand. They can visit the milking barn, home to the farms Jersey herd, and during the warmer months they can run along the pastures where they will find the farm’s sheep and horses grazing. Open 10 am – 5 pm, this is the perfect place to spend a morning or afternoon with any animal loving kids.

The farm also offers programs and special activities, such as An Introduction to Milking, Up Close with a Jersey Cow and Meet Our Sheep. Check their schedule for all upcoming daily activities and programs. 

Bonus: The Dairy Bar on the property is open April through October and offers Vermont made Wilcox ice cream along with milk, healthy snacks, seasonal drinks, and a Farm Picnic featuring Billings Farm Cheddar, crackers and fruit. So after a run around the property and a visit with the animals, treat the kids to something sweet. 

Billings Farm & Museum also offers two week long summer camps for kids ages 8 – 12 years old. Have a little one interested in animals and becoming a farmer? Take a look at their summer programs, which run Monday – Friday from 9 am – 3 pm. 

montshire museum of science

This hands-on museum located in Norwich, Vermont with more than 150 exhibits relating to the natural and physical sciences, ecology and technology is only a 30 minute drive from the center of Woodstock. At Montshire, there is truly something for every age and plenty to do both indoors and outdoors, making it a great stop in any kind of weather.  

For the little tykes, check out Andy’s Place, which is a special area inside for those 5 and under visitors. Devoted to exhibits for preschool aged explorers, your little one will find unique sound, visual and tactile exhibits and a special aquarium area. Within the space, areas focus on air and movement, kinetic energy, light and sight, puzzles, matching games, interlocking shapes and color mixing.

 The most recent exhibit addition, Air Works, examines the properties of air and explores the science behind controlling and using this invisible substance in our everyday lives. Designed to help flex those engineering muscles, as well as strengthen the understanding of core scientific concepts, kids can enjoy sending objects through a two story, three-dimensional maze by controlling the flow of air from one location to another, or experiment with air lift by testing items of varying materials and weights on a hover table. There is also a paper airplane station. Need we say more?

Visiting on during the warmer months? With 100 – acres, there is plenty to explore with the kids across the varied landscape including a dozen exhibits in the David Goudy Science Park, within the Woodland Garden and along the trails. Highlights include a Wind Wall that changes color with the breeze, a musical fence created by artist Paul Matisse, and a walking tour of the solar system. And don’t miss out on the water exhibit on those hot summer days – the hands-on exploration of hydraulics is guaranteed to please any child. Learn more about Montshire’s outdoor offerings. 

In addition to their indoor and outdoor exhibits, Montshire has daily events and programs throughout the month. Check their daily calendar to see what’s scheduled for the upcoming month. 

Vermont institute of natural science (vins)

VINS is a nonprofit, environmental education, research and avian rehabilitation organization that has been around since 1972, but whose current location opened to the public in 2004. Located in Quechee, Vermont off Route 4 near the Quechee Gorge, it is an easy 10 minute drive from the center of town. Open year- round, the 47- acre campus features raptor enclosures, exhibit spaces, classrooms and interpretative nature trails, great for keeping kids of all ages busy for a couple hours.  

Their mission is to motivate individuals to care for the natural environment through education, research and avian wildlife rehabilitation. They have 17 state of the art rapture enclosures that house hawks, eagles, falcons, owls and other birds of prey. The bald eagles and snowy owls have been recent highlights and definite kid favorites. The rapture enclosures, located outside, leave plenty of space for the kids to run around while checking out the birds.  

The new Adventure Playscape located behind the nature store is great for the warmer weather months featuring natural wood and stone elements – kids can become a spider in a 16-foot web, mimic a woodchuck crawling through a 40-foot tunnel, transform into a squirrel to scramble up the climbing wall, or become a fox balancing on logs. 

Family fun Scavenger hunts are also available – try the Nature Quest for a 45 minute adventure exploring Mother Nature or for a shorter bird centric one do the Raptor Scavenger Hunt. 

Programs at VINS expand and rotate throughout the year, so be sure to check in on their calendar of events to see what’s happening before you head over.  

To access more great content on our blog…

click here

Woodstock Festival Facts for Kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Woodstock festival site with the stage

The Woodstock Music and Art Festival was a rock music festival at Max Yasgur’s 600 acre (2.4 km²) dairy farm in the town of Bethel, New York from 15–18 August 1969. It might be the most famous rock concert and festival ever held. For many, it showed the counterculture of the 1960s and the “hippie era”.

Many of the most famous musicians at the time showed up during the rainy weekend, as can be seen in a 1970 movie, Woodstock. Joni Mitchell’s song “Woodstock”, about the event, also became a major hit song for Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. In recent years, a number of attempts were made to recreate it, but the original Woodstock festival of 1969 has proven to be legendary.

The festival was called “Woodstock”, because the investment group that backed the concert was called “Woodstock Ventures. ” It was originally planned for Saugerties, and then the Town of Wallkill, in Orange County (not to be confused with the Hamlet of Wallkill, in Ulster county). People in the Town of Wallkill, meaning those on the Town Board, quickly passed a law that required a permit to hold any gathering for over 5,000 people. A permit was applied for, but it was denied because the portable toilets proposed were considered to be inadequate. A Sullivan County farmer named Max Yasgur heard about the festival and the problems and offered his farm in the Town of Bethel. He was paid $10,000 for the three days.

Although all the municipalities were told there would be no more than 50,000, the organizers thought they would get as many as 150,000, and by best counts, there were more than three times that number over the three days. Most did not pay to get in, and the festival lost money as a result. The roads to the concert were jammed with traffic. People left their cars and walked for miles to get to the concert area. The weekend was rainy and overcrowded, and fans shared food, alcoholic drinks, and drugs. Some people who lived there, including those at nearby Camp Ma-Ho-Ge, gave blankets and food to some concert-goers.

After two days of rain, there was deep mud in many places. There was almost no water for washing, and not enough toilets. Many of the concert-goers had brought small tents to sleep in; some of these turned into piles of cloth and mud. Even though this may not have been the most comfortable place, the crowd kept up kindness and good cheer among themselves. As the half-million people in the audience became aware of this, a warm feeling of friendship spread to everyone.

Some of the music stars of Woodstock were The Who and Jimi Hendrix. Because of arguments about getting paid, The Who did not play on the stage until about 4:00 in the morning. One part of The Who’s show was the song “See Me, Feel Me”, when the sun rose just as lead singer Roger Daltrey started to sing the chorus. When The Who was still playing, Abbie Hoffman jumped on the stage stopping the show, and tried to stir up the crowd with political slogans, but he was knocked off the stage by the guitar of the band’s leader, Pete Townshend, to the delight of the audience. At the end of The Who’s set, Townshend slammed his guitar into the stage and threw it into the crowd. This helped set up The Who as super-stars, and caused their album Tommy to sell multi-platinum.

Jimi Hendrix had a big show with the songs he played, including a new version of “The Star Spangled Banner”. The song caused some disagreements, because the Vietnam War was going on, and the sounds that Hendrix made with his guitar were like the sounds of the violence of the war. Fans remember these two acts as some of the greatest in rock history, although both The Who and Hendrix thought of their performances as not the best.

Woodstock was put on by Michael Lang, Artie Kornfeld, John Roberts and Joel Rosenman. Roberts was the financer, backed by a trust fund; his friend Rosenman, a graduate of Yale Law, was an amateur guitarist. Their friends were Kornfeld, vice-president at Capitol Records, and Michael Lang. Lang was a light-hearted hippie who had owned a head shop, and hoped to build a studio in the Woodstock area to serve singers such as Bob Dylan and Janis Joplin, who had homes nearby. When Lang and Kornfeld told the idea to Rosenman and Roberts, Rosenman got the idea of a rock concert with the same musicians. They picked the slogan “Three Days of Peace and Music”. They hired artist Arnold Skolnick to design the artwork for the poster with the bird. It wasn’t until years later, after the release of the 3-LP album and the documentary-like movie that the original investors began to recoup their investment.

In 1997, the concert place and 1,400 surrounding acres were bought by Alan Gerry, and have become the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts. It opened on July 1, 2006 with the New York Philharmonic playing. On August 13, 2006, Crosby Stills Nash & Young amazed 16,000 fans at the new Center—exactly 37 years after they played at Woodstock.

Images for kids

• Max Yasgur’s dairy farm in 1968

• Joe Cocker performs in front of huge lighting- and soundtowers

• Magazine advertisement promoting the Woodstock Music & Art Fair’s “Aquarian Exposition,” to be held in Wallkill, NY.

• Peace and Music Woodstock monument with plaques by sculptor Wayne C. Saward and erected in 1984 on the festival site. (Note that John Sebastian’s surname is misspelled as “Sabastian” and Bert Sommer’s name is missing)

• Max Yasgur’s farm in 1999

• Opening ceremony at Woodstock. Swami Satchidananda giving the opening speech

• A rainy day (August 15, 1969)

• Joe Cocker and the Grease Band performing at Woodstock

• Photo taken near Woodstock on August 18, 1969

• Richie Havens performing at Woodstock

• Tents and cars of spectators at Woodstock

See also

In Spanish: Festival de Woodstock para niños

All content from Kiddle encyclopedia articles (including the article images and facts) can be freely used under Attribution-ShareAlike license, unless stated otherwise. Cite this article:

Woodstock Festival Facts for Kids. Kiddle Encyclopedia.

The atmosphere of the festival in the photographs of the magazine “LIFE” – ROCK FM

The most famous rock festival “Woodstock”, which began on August 15, 1969 on one of the farms of the town of Bethel, New York, USA, gathered about half a million spectators, one and a half thousand from who were journalists.

Two photojournalists from LIFE magazine, John Dominis and Bill Eppridge, also came to the festival. And according to their photographs, you can restore in detail the spirit and atmosphere of the festival.

Woodstock Music & Art Fair (Woodstock Music & Art Fair, in other words, “Woodstock”) – one of the most famous rock festivals.

Held August 15-18, 1969 at a farm town in rural Bethel, New York, USA.

The number of visitors is about 500 thousand, including 1500 journalists.

This festival, which is one of the main symbols of the psychedelic era of the hippies, is often called the end of this very era and the beginning of the sexual revolution. Both titles are hardly relevant in relation to Woodstock, because sexual liberation reigned in the youth environment for a couple of years, and the legendary “Summer of Love” in San Francisco can be called the starting point.67 years old, and the “end of the hippie era” was still a rock festival at the Altamont racing stadium in the city of Tracy, which took place in December 1969.

The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Ravi Shankar, Carlos Santana and many more have performed at the festival.

In his opening remarks, Max Yasgur, owner of the farm where the festival was held, said: “I’m a farmer, I don’t know how to speak in front of an audience, in front of such a large gathering of people like this. This is the largest group of people ever gathered in one place. <…> But other than that, the important thing that you proved to the world is that half a million children – and I call you children because I have children who are older than you – half a million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music, and nothing but fun and music, and God bless you for that!”

The festival was called “Woodstock” because it was originally planned to be held in the city of Woodstock (New York) in Ulster County, but the city did not have a suitable site for such an event, for fear that more than a million spectators would arrive.

The place was found in the town of Wallkill.

The event almost fell apart, but Sam Yasgur persuaded his father, Max, to allow the concert to be held at the family’s field in Sullivan County, about 40 miles southwest of Woodstock.

Although the show was planned for 200,000 visitors, more than 500,000 arrived, most of them without tickets.

The fact that a huge number of people passed without tickets hit hard on the wallet. Over the course of three days, more and more applicants drove up, drove up “weekend hippies” – a young middle class, mostly university and college students. Those who remained behind the fence were swinging the fences, sitting on the trees around, and the crowd threatened to simply demolish all the barriers. In order to prevent unrest, and simply for humanitarian reasons, the organizers decided to open a free entrance.

The highways towards the festival site were overcrowded.

People left their cars and walked several miles to get to the show.

Due to drug abuse, which was recorded with particular severity, 797 people suffered; two were not released. LSD tablets were sold right on the field for only a dollar, and most of the audience bought drugs, no matter the quality. At one point, a warning was even sounded from the stage: “Do not consume brown acid, good is only white.”

Most of the famous artists came to Woodstock. Only Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull refused. The Moody Blues, Doors and Bob Dylan agreed, but for various reasons they did not make it. The Beatles were in the process of disintegration – McCartney refused, Lennon wanted to come with Yoko Ono, but he was refused.

During the festival, the organizers faced serious financial problems – they simply ran out of money. Representatives for Janis Joplin and some bands, including The Who and the Grateful Dead, said the musicians would not take the stage without prepayment. At one time, there was information among rock fans that the festival was allegedly free, symbolizing the “excellence of love, music and community”, but in reality everything was not at all so idealistic. All the bands were for the money, and the fees were quite high. It could not be otherwise, because for the artists it was another event where they had to work out, and Woodstock became the “elven” symbol of joy and love much later.

Group managers were persuaded to wait. The organizers turned to local banks, and one banker Charlie Prince agreed to meet halfway. He later said, “I thought what the half-million crowd would have done if I hadn’t found the money.”

Due to disagreements with the organizers over payment, The Who did not take the stage until 4 am.

One of The Who’s most memorable performances was “See Me, Feel Me”: the sun came up just as lead singer Roger Daltrey began to sing.

Also while on the band stage, political activist Abby Hoffman, taking advantage of a brief break in the performance, shouted into the microphone: “What, are we going to sit and listen to this shit while John Sinclair rots in prison?”, but was kicked off the stage by bandleader Pete Townsend.

At the end of the set, Townsend smashed his guitar on the stage and threw it into the crowd. This moment helped establish The Who as superstars and helped their album “Tommy” go multi-platinum.

Jimi Hendrix gave a huge payoff, including an alternate version of the Stars and Stripes. The song was something incredible, the Vietnam War was in full swing, and the sound effects that Hendrix played from the guitar evoked parallels with the sounds of violence and conflict.

In 1970, the documentary film Woodstock. Three Days of Peace and Music” won an Oscar in 1971.

Interestingly, one of the editors of this documentary was Martin Scorsese.

Subsequently, anniversary festivals were held to coincide with the anniversaries of the 1969 Woodstock festival: Woodstock-79, Woodstock-89, Woodstock-94 (25th anniversary), Woodstock-99.

The organization of recent festivals has been sharply criticized (high prices for drinks and food and the ban on bringing food, lack of proper medical care).

In mid-August 1969, no one knew that endless ranks of cultural scientists would later christen the Woodstock festival as one of the greatest moments in history that changed the image of modern culture.

See also:

Woodstock fees

About Woodstock in the Soviet press

Naked enthusiasm and music on grass. How Woodstock exposed controversy in the US

No festival in the history of popular music is remembered as often and with such envy for its participants as Woodstock. Surprisingly, it was precisely this largely random and utter action that turned into a cornerstone myth, a symbol of the time and the most spiritualized portrait of the “flower children”. And even half a century later, Woodstock is a blissful dream and heaven on earth for those who are not indifferent to the ideas of peace and freedom. He is the cherished dream of adherents of legalization, nudist beaches, body positivity, yoga, crowdfunding and free relationships. Even if they don’t know about it.

Woodstock Festival, 1994

© Reuters

Surprisingly, because hippie music rallies did not start at Woodstock, but two years earlier; because the festival was in jeopardy until the last minute; because he was saved by everything that the organizers struggled with in many ways; because the grand show could end in disaster. “Woodstock” has become a thing in itself, a precedent that cannot be repeated, a starting point to nowhere.

It is noteworthy that the authors of the classic documentary “Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music” were the first to intuitively understand this (1970), who assembled a poignant three-hour monument to an era from kilometers of film. Under the roar of guitars and the roar of drums, a politically conscious and critical community of young people emerged before the eyes of the audience. Those who are tired of Vietnam and the way of the old world. The ones who, following Dylan, felt that times were changing. The film won a well-deserved “Oscar” and for many years formulated the main ideological value of the festival as an experience – come to be reborn and find answers to the main questions.

Rock ‘n’ roll and sacred cows

Four people were at the helm of the main festival of the century: two young and rich businessmen who did not know what to do with superprofits, and two ambitious promoters with connections in the rock scene. They saw Woodstock as an excellent investment without unnecessary hassle and risk: guitar music of all stripes was on the rise, festivals of “psychedelic pop” drew tens of thousands of people. It only remained to find a suitable platform and convene the stars.

In theory, everything looked clear and predictable: according to this scenario, all combined concerts of those years were held. It was this, paradoxically, that became the first problem of the unfortunate organizers – venues and major artists capable of gathering tens of thousands of people failed over and over again near the festival.

Read also

Media: Anniversary Woodstock canceled in the USA

Realtors, local authorities and residents of nearby towns in New York State have been sorting out relations with the organizers of Woodstock for months. The first venue failed almost immediately (but gave the festival its name), the second, a 120-hectare park in the outback of Wallkill, three months later, when about a million dollars had already been invested in the project. Five weeks before the festival, the four helmsmen were forced to start from scratch. The artists fled even further: The Doors, The Byrds, Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa and a dozen other first-tier musicians, including The Beatles and Bob Dylan, were out of reach. The first serious production of the organizers was Creedence Clearwater Revival.

The Jewish farmer-tycoon Max Yasgur unexpectedly came to the aid of the show in distress, giving away his own field for the concert, where until recently cows were grazing. The platform resembling a bowl was, according to eyewitnesses, “a perfect natural amphitheater” and could easily accommodate 50,000 people. This is exactly what the organizers said at the talks with the authorities. As you know, more than 400 thousand spectators decided to come to Woodstock.

Participants of the Woodstock Festival, 1969

© AP Photo

The coolest weekend

“The mob is swirling, the gaze of countless eyes is burning with unaccountable delight,” the Decembrist poet Alexander Odoevsky wrote as if about “Woodstock”. The first groups of spectators (some on foot, some on motorcycles and cars, some in trucks and trailers) began to flock to the lands of Yasgur a week before the start of the festival. Heavy rain and narrow access roads, by no means designed for such a large number of people, did their job: kilometer-long traffic jams paralyzed traffic in the neighboring town of Bethel and got into federal news releases.

Meanwhile, there was still no stage on the site and no fence around the field. Security, food, dry closets, medical care remained in question – in a word, all the necessary infrastructure. The coolest weekend of the 1960s threatened to spill over into an unruly human sea, poisoned by drugs and alcohol.

Due to the unfinished fence, the festival, for which tickets were actively sold, turned into a free one the night before the opening: there was no entrance and ticket control anyway. 200 thousand people who arrived on the field unexpectedly for the organizers blocked the way not only for future guests, but also for musicians. The headliners had to be delivered by air. The situation was about to spiral out of control. The state governor warned that he was ready to ask the president to send troops to Woodstock. Newspapers were full of headlines about the “Babylonian pandemonium of hippies.”

See also

Save an ordinary rapper. How Trump is trying to get A$AP Rocky out of a Swedish prison

By some miracle, in conditions of medieval unsanitary conditions, lack of water, food and means of communication, a crowd of half a million managed to avoid violence and delinquency. Young farmers were saved from hunger by elderly farmers, from brawls – by the gaming community of freaks “Pig Farm”. According to official statistics, two people died from a drug overdose, and about a thousand asked for help. Two pregnant girls could not leave the territory in time and became mothers right on the field. One case was announced publicly by the organizers from the stage.

“Woodstock” turned into a real living organism, an hourly growing city – even without the authorities, police and bureaucracy. What was in their place? Naked enthusiasm, mutual respect and sympathy as the antithesis of war and violence. And, of course, dreams come true of 24/7 free love and illegal substances. Boys and girls washed together in the pond, prepared breakfast for each other, and listened to their favorite music during the day.

The authorities and the parents of yesterday’s teenagers learned about what was happening on the field from newspapers. They were at a loss: contrary to their expectations, half a million stoned hippies did not destroy each other. The threat they allegedly posed to American society turned out to be imaginary. Moreover, fraught with riots and protests, “Woodstock” turned out to be one of the most peaceful places in the country. The real danger for the young population, judging by the reports of the victims in Vietnam, was hidden in the White House.

Visitors at the Woodstock Festival, 1969

© Daniel Wolf/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

The Dark Side of Woodstock

Still, Woodstock had its dark side. It’s not just about the compromises that freedom-loving and independent organizers had to make, who were left in a deep red after the festival. The real Woodstock turned out to be much more controversial than is commonly believed on at least three issues.

The first is antimilitarism. No matter how much the US military leadership was criticized by the festival participants, it was the help of the army aircraft that made the festival possible. At a critical moment, when minutes were counting, helicopters delivered artists and medicines to the field. Ironically, one of the main characters of “Woodstock” – a brilliant magician and virtuoso Jimi Hendrix – once served in the airborne division himself. When he sang the national anthem on an overcharged electric guitar, the crackle and rumble coming from the speakers reminded many of the whistle of falling bombs.

Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock, 1969

© Reuters/MPTV

The second is ecology. The pastoral and almost the Garden of Eden that remained in the photo, not far from the stage, should not be misleading. After the festival, mountains of rubbish, dirty sleeping bags and tons of cigarette butts were left on the site. If the “children of flowers” thought about nature, then at best a couple of days.

The third is the counterculture. The successes of independent promoters, who bypassed the establishment by organizing the biggest concert of their time, dissolved the following year. Cultural officials seized the initiative and closed all processes on themselves: from now on, the biggest festivals were held with the support of local administrations and generated tourist traffic. Live music was presented as a gift and had the sanction of higher authorities.

Later multinational corporations and big brands were added. Now their names hang over every large venue and are visible almost better than the faces of the musicians on huge projectors.

The end of a beautiful era

For the USSR, as well as for the rest of the world, “Woodstock” instantly became a legend. Local hippies and prophets of rock music equated it with any more or less noticeable outdoor concerts. “Soviet Woodstock” was called the festival in Tbilisi at 1980, in Podolsk – in 1987, in the Moscow “Luzhniki” – in 1989, at the airfield in Tushino – in 1991.

Moscow Music Peace Festival in Moscow, 1989

© Nikolay Berketov, Viktor Velikzhanin/TASS

“Woodstock” rightfully became a household name and launched a number of areas in the study of youth from the point of view of sociology and politics. Half a century later, it is clear that Woodstock was not so much the beginning of a new era as the end of an old world.

Best Of: Where to Take the Kids

artistree community arts center

A nonprofit committed to making creative expression accessible to the community, ArtisTree’s Purple Crayon programs provide the perfect art and music center for children.  

From Music Together and acrobat classes to family clay days, Artistree is a great place to look for art inspired workshops with the kids, as well as seasonal classes that will foster your little one’s creative side. 

They also have an outdoor playground equipped with swing set, a life-size wood tractor, sandbox and picnic table – perfect for a run around post class and a quick snack before heading off for the rest of the day. In the colder winter months, their indoor play room filled with books, dress up cloths and toys, is the perfect place to let the little ones’ imaginations run wild with their new found friends. 

Summer program registrations are now open. They partner with VINS and Marsh-Billings- Rockefeller National Historical Park on outdoor adventures that your young one’s won’t want to miss.  Visit their website to find summer classes, workshops and after school programs for the kids.
 

billings farm & museum

Always a favorite stop for the kids, Billings Farm & Museum offers a look into the historic Billings Farm and the character and heritage of a rural Vermont farm. It is owned and operated by The Woodstock Foundation, Inc, a nonprofit educational institution founded by Laurance and Mary Rockefeller in 1968.

With over 70 Jersey cows (and an average of 35 milking at any given time), 5 draft horses, and a flock of Southdown sheep, your kids will get to experience a small dairy farm first hand. They can visit the milking barn, home to the farms Jersey herd, and during the warmer months they can run along the pastures where they will find the farm’s sheep and horses grazing. Open 10 am – 5 pm, this is the perfect place to spend a morning or afternoon with any animal loving kids.

The farm also offers programs and special activities, such as An Introduction to Milking, Up Close with a Jersey Cow and Meet Our Sheep. Check their schedule for all upcoming daily activities and programs. 

Bonus: The Dairy Bar on the property is open April through October and offers Vermont made Wilcox ice cream along with milk, healthy snacks, seasonal drinks, and a Farm Picnic featuring Billings Farm Cheddar, crackers and fruit. So after a run around the property and a visit with the animals, treat the kids to something sweet. 

Billings Farm & Museum also offers two week long summer camps for kids ages 8 – 12 years old. Have a little one interested in animals and becoming a farmer? Take a look at their summer programs, which run Monday – Friday from 9 am – 3 pm. 

montshire museum of science

This hands-on museum located in Norwich, Vermont with more than 150 exhibits relating to the natural and physical sciences, ecology and technology is only a 30 minute drive from the center of Woodstock. At Montshire, there is truly something for every age and plenty to do both indoors and outdoors, making it a great stop in any kind of weather.  

For the little tykes, check out Andy’s Place, which is a special area inside for those 5 and under visitors. Devoted to exhibits for preschool aged explorers, your little one will find unique sound, visual and tactile exhibits and a special aquarium area. Within the space, areas focus on air and movement, kinetic energy, light and sight, puzzles, matching games, interlocking shapes and color mixing.

 The most recent exhibit addition, Air Works, examines the properties of air and explores the science behind controlling and using this invisible substance in our everyday lives. Designed to help flex those engineering muscles, as well as strengthen the understanding of core scientific concepts, kids can enjoy sending objects through a two story, three-dimensional maze by controlling the flow of air from one location to another, or experiment with air lift by testing items of varying materials and weights on a hover table. There is also a paper airplane station. Need we say more?

Visiting on during the warmer months? With 100 – acres, there is plenty to explore with the kids across the varied landscape including a dozen exhibits in the David Goudy Science Park, within the Woodland Garden and along the trails. Highlights include a Wind Wall that changes color with the breeze, a musical fence created by artist Paul Matisse, and a walking tour of the solar system. And don’t miss out on the water exhibit on those hot summer days – the hands-on exploration of hydraulics is guaranteed to please any child. Learn more about Montshire’s outdoor offerings. 

In addition to their indoor and outdoor exhibits, Montshire has daily events and programs throughout the month. Check their daily calendar to see what’s scheduled for the upcoming month. 

Vermont institute of natural science (vins)

VINS is a nonprofit, environmental education, research and avian rehabilitation organization that has been around since 1972, but whose current location opened to the public in 2004. Located in Quechee, Vermont off Route 4 near the Quechee Gorge, it is an easy 10 minute drive from the center of town. Open year- round, the 47- acre campus features raptor enclosures, exhibit spaces, classrooms and interpretative nature trails, great for keeping kids of all ages busy for a couple hours.  

Their mission is to motivate individuals to care for the natural environment through education, research and avian wildlife rehabilitation. They have 17 state of the art rapture enclosures that house hawks, eagles, falcons, owls and other birds of prey. The bald eagles and snowy owls have been recent highlights and definite kid favorites. The rapture enclosures, located outside, leave plenty of space for the kids to run around while checking out the birds.  

The new Adventure Playscape located behind the nature store is great for the warmer weather months featuring natural wood and stone elements – kids can become a spider in a 16-foot web, mimic a woodchuck crawling through a 40-foot tunnel, transform into a squirrel to scramble up the climbing wall, or become a fox balancing on logs. 

Family fun Scavenger hunts are also available – try the Nature Quest for a 45 minute adventure exploring Mother Nature or for a shorter bird centric one do the Raptor Scavenger Hunt. 

Programs at VINS expand and rotate throughout the year, so be sure to check in on their calendar of events to see what’s happening before you head over.  

To access more great content on our blog…

click here

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Children’s Safety First. That’s The Kids ‘R’ Kids Way.

Safety and care for every child

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We are so happy you found us! Our unique mix of safe surroundings, loving interactions with our staff, and advanced curriculum founded upon play-based activities propels us far beyond the standard concept of “daycare. ”

Tour Intro Kids ‘R’ Kids Tour Our School

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We want to meet you!

Kids ‘R’ Kids is proud to deliver first-class child care and early education to our community for families with children aged 6 weeks through 4 years. We also offer before and after school programs for children 5 to 12 years of age who attend local elementary schools for kindergarten through 5th grade.

We want to meet you and show you around our Learning Academy. Remember to Like us on Facebook and be sure to visit our blog often for great advice on everything from education to parenting.

Our Mission Statement

Kids ‘R’ Kids Learning Academy provides a secure, nurturing, and educational environment for children. Our school is a place for children to bloom into responsible, considerate, and contributing members of society.

Kids ‘R’ Kids Learning Academy wants all children to have the opportunity to grow physically, emotionally, socially, and intellectually by playing, exploring, and learning with others in a fun, safe, and healthy environment.

As a family-owned and operated school, Kids ‘R’ Kids Learning Academy welcomes positive family involvement and encourages a parent-teacher approach where the needs of every child come first!

WE HOLD THE FUTURE^®

Schedule a Tour

Our Accredited Programs

Kids ‘R’ Kids Learning Academy is fully accredited and offers the ultimate foundation for your child. We are very proud to provide the most effective educational programs and innovative facilities for children 6 weeks through 12 years of age.

Our Exclusive Curriculum

Our exclusive line of curriculum is designed specifically for every developmental stage of education with theme-based units, specific learning activities and teacher-friendly lesson plans. As a parent, rest assured your child is benefiting and advancing from the most innovative curriculum available.

1/9: Large separate playgrounds are designed for ultimate play for infants, toddlers, preschool and school age children.

2/9: Our School Age Program provides an engaging and collaborative environment.

3/9: Our Toddler Program encourages each child to practice skills and develop independence.

4/9: Introduction to literacy begins with our earliest learners with exclusive Infant Curriculum that exceeds other typical childcare services.

5/9: The Kids ‘R’ Kids exclusive STEAM Ahead® Curriculum implements various activities to develop skills in science, technology, engineering, art and math.

6/9: School buses with seat belts provide transportation to and from local elementary schools as well as to planned field trips.

7/9: Hands-on activities (such as patterns, measurements and shapes) are important for developing your child into an abstract thinker.

8/9: The Kids ‘R’ Kids Staff is central to our success. Each member is carefully selected and extensively trained to provide the best in early childhood development and childcare.

9/9: Engaging activities thoughtfully engineered to encourage innovation, collaboration and imagination.

The atmosphere of the festival in the photographs of the magazine “LIFE” – ROCK FM

The most famous rock festival “Woodstock”, which began on August 15, 1969 on one of the farms of the town of Bethel, New York, USA, gathered about half a million spectators, one and a half thousand from who were journalists.

Two photojournalists from LIFE magazine, John Dominis and Bill Eppridge, also came to the festival. And according to their photographs, you can restore in detail the spirit and atmosphere of the festival.

Woodstock Music & Art Fair (Woodstock Music & Art Fair, in other words, “Woodstock”) – one of the most famous rock festivals.

Held August 15-18, 1969 at a farm town in rural Bethel, New York, USA.

The number of visitors is about 500 thousand, including 1500 journalists.

This festival, which is one of the main symbols of the psychedelic era of the hippies, is often called the end of this very era and the beginning of the sexual revolution. Both titles are hardly relevant in relation to Woodstock, because sexual liberation reigned in the youth environment for a couple of years, and the legendary “Summer of Love” in San Francisco can be called the starting point.67 years old, and the “end of the hippie era” was still a rock festival at the Altamont racing stadium in the city of Tracy, which took place in December 1969.

The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Ravi Shankar, Carlos Santana and many more have performed at the festival.

In his opening remarks, Max Yasgur, owner of the farm where the festival was held, said: “I’m a farmer, I don’t know how to speak in front of an audience, in front of such a large gathering of people like this. This is the largest group of people ever gathered in one place. <…> But other than that, the important thing that you proved to the world is that half a million children – and I call you children because I have children who are older than you – half a million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music, and nothing but fun and music, and God bless you for that!”

The festival was called “Woodstock” because it was originally planned to be held in the city of Woodstock (New York) in Ulster County, but the city did not have a suitable site for such an event, for fear that more than a million spectators would arrive.

The place was found in the town of Wallkill.

The event almost fell apart, but Sam Yasgur persuaded his father, Max, to allow the concert to be held at the family’s field in Sullivan County, about 40 miles southwest of Woodstock.

Although the show was planned for 200,000 visitors, more than 500,000 arrived, most of them without tickets.

The fact that a huge number of people passed without tickets hit hard on the wallet. Over the course of three days, more and more applicants drove up, drove up “weekend hippies” – a young middle class, mostly university and college students. Those who remained behind the fence were swinging the fences, sitting on the trees around, and the crowd threatened to simply demolish all the barriers. In order to prevent unrest, and simply for humanitarian reasons, the organizers decided to open a free entrance.

The highways towards the festival site were overcrowded.

People left their cars and walked several miles to get to the show.

Due to drug abuse, which was recorded with particular severity, 797 people suffered; two were not released. LSD tablets were sold right on the field for only a dollar, and most of the audience bought drugs, no matter the quality. At one point, a warning was even sounded from the stage: “Do not consume brown acid, good is only white. ”

Most of the famous artists came to Woodstock. Only Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull refused. The Moody Blues, Doors and Bob Dylan agreed, but for various reasons they did not make it. The Beatles were in the process of disintegration – McCartney refused, Lennon wanted to come with Yoko Ono, but he was refused.

During the festival, the organizers faced serious financial problems – they simply ran out of money. Representatives for Janis Joplin and some bands, including The Who and the Grateful Dead, said the musicians would not take the stage without prepayment. At one time, there was information among rock fans that the festival was allegedly free, symbolizing the “excellence of love, music and community”, but in reality everything was not at all so idealistic. All the bands were for the money, and the fees were quite high. It could not be otherwise, because for the artists it was another event where they had to work out, and Woodstock became the “elven” symbol of joy and love much later.

Group managers were persuaded to wait. The organizers turned to local banks, and one banker Charlie Prince agreed to meet halfway. He later said, “I thought what the half-million crowd would have done if I hadn’t found the money.”

Due to disagreements with the organizers over payment, The Who did not take the stage until 4 am.

One of The Who’s most memorable performances was “See Me, Feel Me”: the sun came up just as lead singer Roger Daltrey began to sing.

Also while on the band stage, political activist Abby Hoffman, taking advantage of a brief break in the performance, shouted into the microphone: “What, are we going to sit and listen to this shit while John Sinclair rots in prison?”, but was kicked off the stage by bandleader Pete Townsend.

At the end of the set, Townsend smashed his guitar on the stage and threw it into the crowd. This moment helped establish The Who as superstars and helped their album “Tommy” go multi-platinum.

Jimi Hendrix gave a huge payoff, including an alternate version of the Stars and Stripes. The song was something incredible, the Vietnam War was in full swing, and the sound effects that Hendrix played from the guitar evoked parallels with the sounds of violence and conflict.

In 1970, the documentary film Woodstock. Three Days of Peace and Music” won an Oscar in 1971.

Interestingly, one of the editors of this documentary was Martin Scorsese.

Subsequently, anniversary festivals were held to coincide with the anniversaries of the 1969 Woodstock festival: Woodstock-79, Woodstock-89, Woodstock-94 (25th anniversary), Woodstock-99.

The organization of recent festivals has been sharply criticized (high prices for drinks and food and the ban on bringing food, lack of proper medical care).

In mid-August 1969, no one knew that endless ranks of cultural scientists would later christen the Woodstock festival as one of the greatest moments in history that changed the image of modern culture.

See also:

Woodstock fees

About Woodstock in the Soviet press

Naked enthusiasm and music on grass. How Woodstock exposed controversy in the US

No festival in the history of popular music is remembered as often and with such envy for its participants as Woodstock. Surprisingly, it was precisely this largely random and utter action that turned into a cornerstone myth, a symbol of the time and the most spiritualized portrait of the “flower children”. And even half a century later, Woodstock is a blissful dream and heaven on earth for those who are not indifferent to the ideas of peace and freedom. He is the cherished dream of adherents of legalization, nudist beaches, body positivity, yoga, crowdfunding and free relationships. Even if they don’t know about it.

Woodstock Festival, 1994

© Reuters

Surprisingly, because hippie music rallies did not start at Woodstock, but two years earlier; because the festival was in jeopardy until the last minute; because he was saved by everything that the organizers struggled with in many ways; because the grand show could end in disaster. “Woodstock” has become a thing in itself, a precedent that cannot be repeated, a starting point to nowhere.

It is noteworthy that the authors of the classic documentary “Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music” were the first to intuitively understand this (1970), who assembled a poignant three-hour monument to an era from kilometers of film. Under the roar of guitars and the roar of drums, a politically conscious and critical community of young people emerged before the eyes of the audience. Those who are tired of Vietnam and the way of the old world. The ones who, following Dylan, felt that times were changing. The film won a well-deserved “Oscar” and for many years formulated the main ideological value of the festival as an experience – come to be reborn and find answers to the main questions.

Rock ‘n’ roll and sacred cows

Four people were at the helm of the main festival of the century: two young and rich businessmen who did not know what to do with superprofits, and two ambitious promoters with connections in the rock scene. They saw Woodstock as an excellent investment without unnecessary hassle and risk: guitar music of all stripes was on the rise, festivals of “psychedelic pop” drew tens of thousands of people. It only remained to find a suitable platform and convene the stars.

In theory, everything looked clear and predictable: according to this scenario, all combined concerts of those years were held. It was this, paradoxically, that became the first problem of the unfortunate organizers – venues and major artists capable of gathering tens of thousands of people failed over and over again near the festival.

Read also

Media: Anniversary Woodstock canceled in the USA

Realtors, local authorities and residents of nearby towns in New York State have been sorting out relations with the organizers of Woodstock for months. The first venue failed almost immediately (but gave the festival its name), the second, a 120-hectare park in the outback of Wallkill, three months later, when about a million dollars had already been invested in the project. Five weeks before the festival, the four helmsmen were forced to start from scratch. The artists fled even further: The Doors, The Byrds, Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa and a dozen other first-tier musicians, including The Beatles and Bob Dylan, were out of reach. The first serious production of the organizers was Creedence Clearwater Revival.

The Jewish farmer-tycoon Max Yasgur unexpectedly came to the aid of the show in distress, giving away his own field for the concert, where until recently cows were grazing. The platform resembling a bowl was, according to eyewitnesses, “a perfect natural amphitheater” and could easily accommodate 50,000 people. This is exactly what the organizers said at the talks with the authorities. As you know, more than 400 thousand spectators decided to come to Woodstock.

Participants of the Woodstock Festival, 1969

© AP Photo

The coolest weekend

“The mob is swirling, the gaze of countless eyes is burning with unaccountable delight,” the Decembrist poet Alexander Odoevsky wrote as if about “Woodstock”. The first groups of spectators (some on foot, some on motorcycles and cars, some in trucks and trailers) began to flock to the lands of Yasgur a week before the start of the festival. Heavy rain and narrow access roads, by no means designed for such a large number of people, did their job: kilometer-long traffic jams paralyzed traffic in the neighboring town of Bethel and got into federal news releases.

Meanwhile, there was still no stage on the site and no fence around the field. Security, food, dry closets, medical care remained in question – in a word, all the necessary infrastructure. The coolest weekend of the 1960s threatened to spill over into an unruly human sea, poisoned by drugs and alcohol.

Due to the unfinished fence, the festival, for which tickets were actively sold, turned into a free one the night before the opening: there was no entrance and ticket control anyway. 200 thousand people who arrived on the field unexpectedly for the organizers blocked the way not only for future guests, but also for musicians. The headliners had to be delivered by air. The situation was about to spiral out of control. The state governor warned that he was ready to ask the president to send troops to Woodstock. Newspapers were full of headlines about the “Babylonian pandemonium of hippies.”

See also

Save an ordinary rapper. How Trump is trying to get A$AP Rocky out of a Swedish prison

By some miracle, in conditions of medieval unsanitary conditions, lack of water, food and means of communication, a crowd of half a million managed to avoid violence and delinquency. Young farmers were saved from hunger by elderly farmers, from brawls – by the gaming community of freaks “Pig Farm”. According to official statistics, two people died from a drug overdose, and about a thousand asked for help. Two pregnant girls could not leave the territory in time and became mothers right on the field. One case was announced publicly by the organizers from the stage.

“Woodstock” turned into a real living organism, an hourly growing city – even without the authorities, police and bureaucracy. What was in their place? Naked enthusiasm, mutual respect and sympathy as the antithesis of war and violence. And, of course, dreams come true of 24/7 free love and illegal substances. Boys and girls washed together in the pond, prepared breakfast for each other, and listened to their favorite music during the day.

The authorities and the parents of yesterday’s teenagers learned about what was happening on the field from newspapers. They were at a loss: contrary to their expectations, half a million stoned hippies did not destroy each other. The threat they allegedly posed to American society turned out to be imaginary. Moreover, fraught with riots and protests, “Woodstock” turned out to be one of the most peaceful places in the country. The real danger for the young population, judging by the reports of the victims in Vietnam, was hidden in the White House.

Visitors at the Woodstock Festival, 1969

© Daniel Wolf/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

The Dark Side of Woodstock

Still, Woodstock had its dark side. It’s not just about the compromises that freedom-loving and independent organizers had to make, who were left in a deep red after the festival. The real Woodstock turned out to be much more controversial than is commonly believed on at least three issues.

The first is antimilitarism. No matter how much the US military leadership was criticized by the festival participants, it was the help of the army aircraft that made the festival possible. At a critical moment, when minutes were counting, helicopters delivered artists and medicines to the field. Ironically, one of the main characters of “Woodstock” – a brilliant magician and virtuoso Jimi Hendrix – once served in the airborne division himself. When he sang the national anthem on an overcharged electric guitar, the crackle and rumble coming from the speakers reminded many of the whistle of falling bombs.

Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock, 1969

© Reuters/MPTV

The second is ecology. The pastoral and almost the Garden of Eden that remained in the photo, not far from the stage, should not be misleading. After the festival, mountains of rubbish, dirty sleeping bags and tons of cigarette butts were left on the site. If the “children of flowers” thought about nature, then at best a couple of days.

The third is the counterculture. The successes of independent promoters, who bypassed the establishment by organizing the biggest concert of their time, dissolved the following year. Cultural officials seized the initiative and closed all processes on themselves: from now on, the biggest festivals were held with the support of local administrations and generated tourist traffic. Live music was presented as a gift and had the sanction of higher authorities.

Later multinational corporations and big brands were added. Now their names hang over every large venue and are visible almost better than the faces of the musicians on huge projectors.

The end of a beautiful era

For the USSR, as well as for the rest of the world, “Woodstock” instantly became a legend. Local hippies and prophets of rock music equated it with any more or less noticeable outdoor concerts.

Best Of: Where to Take the Kids

artistree community arts center

A nonprofit committed to making creative expression accessible to the community, ArtisTree’s Purple Crayon programs provide the perfect art and music center for children.  

From Music Together and acrobat classes to family clay days, Artistree is a great place to look for art inspired workshops with the kids, as well as seasonal classes that will foster your little one’s creative side. 

They also have an outdoor playground equipped with swing set, a life-size wood tractor, sandbox and picnic table – perfect for a run around post class and a quick snack before heading off for the rest of the day. In the colder winter months, their indoor play room filled with books, dress up cloths and toys, is the perfect place to let the little ones’ imaginations run wild with their new found friends. 

Summer program registrations are now open. They partner with VINS and Marsh-Billings- Rockefeller National Historical Park on outdoor adventures that your young one’s won’t want to miss.  Visit their website to find summer classes, workshops and after school programs for the kids.
 

billings farm & museum

Always a favorite stop for the kids, Billings Farm & Museum offers a look into the historic Billings Farm and the character and heritage of a rural Vermont farm. It is owned and operated by The Woodstock Foundation, Inc, a nonprofit educational institution founded by Laurance and Mary Rockefeller in 1968.

With over 70 Jersey cows (and an average of 35 milking at any given time), 5 draft horses, and a flock of Southdown sheep, your kids will get to experience a small dairy farm first hand. They can visit the milking barn, home to the farms Jersey herd, and during the warmer months they can run along the pastures where they will find the farm’s sheep and horses grazing. Open 10 am – 5 pm, this is the perfect place to spend a morning or afternoon with any animal loving kids.

The farm also offers programs and special activities, such as An Introduction to Milking, Up Close with a Jersey Cow and Meet Our Sheep. Check their schedule for all upcoming daily activities and programs. 

Bonus: The Dairy Bar on the property is open April through October and offers Vermont made Wilcox ice cream along with milk, healthy snacks, seasonal drinks, and a Farm Picnic featuring Billings Farm Cheddar, crackers and fruit. So after a run around the property and a visit with the animals, treat the kids to something sweet. 

Billings Farm & Museum also offers two week long summer camps for kids ages 8 – 12 years old. Have a little one interested in animals and becoming a farmer? Take a look at their summer programs, which run Monday – Friday from 9 am – 3 pm. 

montshire museum of science

This hands-on museum located in Norwich, Vermont with more than 150 exhibits relating to the natural and physical sciences, ecology and technology is only a 30 minute drive from the center of Woodstock. At Montshire, there is truly something for every age and plenty to do both indoors and outdoors, making it a great stop in any kind of weather.  

For the little tykes, check out Andy’s Place, which is a special area inside for those 5 and under visitors. Devoted to exhibits for preschool aged explorers, your little one will find unique sound, visual and tactile exhibits and a special aquarium area. Within the space, areas focus on air and movement, kinetic energy, light and sight, puzzles, matching games, interlocking shapes and color mixing.

 The most recent exhibit addition, Air Works, examines the properties of air and explores the science behind controlling and using this invisible substance in our everyday lives. Designed to help flex those engineering muscles, as well as strengthen the understanding of core scientific concepts, kids can enjoy sending objects through a two story, three-dimensional maze by controlling the flow of air from one location to another, or experiment with air lift by testing items of varying materials and weights on a hover table. There is also a paper airplane station. Need we say more?

Visiting on during the warmer months? With 100 – acres, there is plenty to explore with the kids across the varied landscape including a dozen exhibits in the David Goudy Science Park, within the Woodland Garden and along the trails. Highlights include a Wind Wall that changes color with the breeze, a musical fence created by artist Paul Matisse, and a walking tour of the solar system. And don’t miss out on the water exhibit on those hot summer days – the hands-on exploration of hydraulics is guaranteed to please any child. Learn more about Montshire’s outdoor offerings. 

In addition to their indoor and outdoor exhibits, Montshire has daily events and programs throughout the month. Check their daily calendar to see what’s scheduled for the upcoming month. 

Vermont institute of natural science (vins)

VINS is a nonprofit, environmental education, research and avian rehabilitation organization that has been around since 1972, but whose current location opened to the public in 2004. Located in Quechee, Vermont off Route 4 near the Quechee Gorge, it is an easy 10 minute drive from the center of town. Open year- round, the 47- acre campus features raptor enclosures, exhibit spaces, classrooms and interpretative nature trails, great for keeping kids of all ages busy for a couple hours.  

Their mission is to motivate individuals to care for the natural environment through education, research and avian wildlife rehabilitation. They have 17 state of the art rapture enclosures that house hawks, eagles, falcons, owls and other birds of prey. The bald eagles and snowy owls have been recent highlights and definite kid favorites. The rapture enclosures, located outside, leave plenty of space for the kids to run around while checking out the birds.  

The new Adventure Playscape located behind the nature store is great for the warmer weather months featuring natural wood and stone elements – kids can become a spider in a 16-foot web, mimic a woodchuck crawling through a 40-foot tunnel, transform into a squirrel to scramble up the climbing wall, or become a fox balancing on logs. 

Family fun Scavenger hunts are also available – try the Nature Quest for a 45 minute adventure exploring Mother Nature or for a shorter bird centric one do the Raptor Scavenger Hunt. 

Programs at VINS expand and rotate throughout the year, so be sure to check in on their calendar of events to see what’s happening before you head over.  

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Now Enrolling for All Ages

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Children’s Safety First. That’s The Kids ‘R’ Kids Way.

Safety and care for every child

CHECK US OUT

We are so happy you found us! Our unique mix of safe surroundings, loving interactions with our staff, and advanced curriculum founded upon play-based activities propels us far beyond the standard concept of “daycare. ”

Tour Intro Kids ‘R’ Kids Tour Our School

VIDEO: Tour Kids ‘R’ Kids Learning Academy

We want to meet you!

Kids ‘R’ Kids is proud to deliver first-class child care and early education to our community for families with children aged 6 weeks through 4 years. We also offer before and after school programs for children 5 to 12 years of age who attend local elementary schools for kindergarten through 5th grade.

We want to meet you and show you around our Learning Academy. Remember to Like us on Facebook and be sure to visit our blog often for great advice on everything from education to parenting.

Our Mission Statement

Kids ‘R’ Kids Learning Academy provides a secure, nurturing, and educational environment for children. Our school is a place for children to bloom into responsible, considerate, and contributing members of society.

Kids ‘R’ Kids Learning Academy wants all children to have the opportunity to grow physically, emotionally, socially, and intellectually by playing, exploring, and learning with others in a fun, safe, and healthy environment.

As a family-owned and operated school, Kids ‘R’ Kids Learning Academy welcomes positive family involvement and encourages a parent-teacher approach where the needs of every child come first!

WE HOLD THE FUTURE^®

Schedule a Tour

Our Accredited Programs

Kids ‘R’ Kids Learning Academy is fully accredited and offers the ultimate foundation for your child. We are very proud to provide the most effective educational programs and innovative facilities for children 6 weeks through 12 years of age.

Our Exclusive Curriculum

Our exclusive line of curriculum is designed specifically for every developmental stage of education with theme-based units, specific learning activities and teacher-friendly lesson plans. As a parent, rest assured your child is benefiting and advancing from the most innovative curriculum available.

1/9: Large separate playgrounds are designed for ultimate play for infants, toddlers, preschool and school age children.

2/9: Our School Age Program provides an engaging and collaborative environment.

3/9: Our Toddler Program encourages each child to practice skills and develop independence.

4/9: Introduction to literacy begins with our earliest learners with exclusive Infant Curriculum that exceeds other typical childcare services.

5/9: The Kids ‘R’ Kids exclusive STEAM Ahead® Curriculum implements various activities to develop skills in science, technology, engineering, art and math.

6/9: School buses with seat belts provide transportation to and from local elementary schools as well as to planned field trips.

7/9: Hands-on activities (such as patterns, measurements and shapes) are important for developing your child into an abstract thinker.

8/9: The Kids ‘R’ Kids Staff is central to our success. Each member is carefully selected and extensively trained to provide the best in early childhood development and childcare.

9/9: Engaging activities thoughtfully engineered to encourage innovation, collaboration and imagination.

The atmosphere of the festival in the photographs of the magazine “LIFE” – ROCK FM

The most famous rock festival “Woodstock”, which began on August 15, 1969 on one of the farms of the town of Bethel, New York, USA, gathered about half a million spectators, one and a half thousand from who were journalists.

Two photojournalists from LIFE magazine, John Dominis and Bill Eppridge, also came to the festival. And according to their photographs, you can restore in detail the spirit and atmosphere of the festival.

Woodstock Music & Art Fair (Woodstock Music & Art Fair, in other words, “Woodstock”) – one of the most famous rock festivals.

Held August 15-18, 1969 at a farm town in rural Bethel, New York, USA.

The number of visitors is about 500 thousand, including 1500 journalists.

This festival, which is one of the main symbols of the psychedelic era of the hippies, is often called the end of this very era and the beginning of the sexual revolution. Both titles are hardly relevant in relation to Woodstock, because sexual liberation reigned in the youth environment for a couple of years, and the legendary “Summer of Love” in San Francisco can be called the starting point.67 years old, and the “end of the hippie era” was still a rock festival at the Altamont racing stadium in the city of Tracy, which took place in December 1969.

The Who, Jefferson Airplane, Janis Joplin, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Joan Baez, Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Ravi Shankar, Carlos Santana and many more have performed at the festival.

In his opening remarks, Max Yasgur, owner of the farm where the festival was held, said: “I’m a farmer, I don’t know how to speak in front of an audience, in front of such a large gathering of people like this. This is the largest group of people ever gathered in one place. <…> But other than that, the important thing that you proved to the world is that half a million children – and I call you children because I have children who are older than you – half a million young people can get together and have three days of fun and music, and nothing but fun and music, and God bless you for that!”

The festival was called “Woodstock” because it was originally planned to be held in the city of Woodstock (New York) in Ulster County, but the city did not have a suitable site for such an event, for fear that more than a million spectators would arrive.

The place was found in the town of Wallkill.

The event almost fell apart, but Sam Yasgur persuaded his father, Max, to allow the concert to be held at the family’s field in Sullivan County, about 40 miles southwest of Woodstock.

Although the show was planned for 200,000 visitors, more than 500,000 arrived, most of them without tickets.

The fact that a huge number of people passed without tickets hit hard on the wallet. Over the course of three days, more and more applicants drove up, drove up “weekend hippies” – a young middle class, mostly university and college students. Those who remained behind the fence were swinging the fences, sitting on the trees around, and the crowd threatened to simply demolish all the barriers. In order to prevent unrest, and simply for humanitarian reasons, the organizers decided to open a free entrance.

The highways towards the festival site were overcrowded.

People left their cars and walked several miles to get to the show.

Due to drug abuse, which was recorded with particular severity, 797 people suffered; two were not released. LSD tablets were sold right on the field for only a dollar, and most of the audience bought drugs, no matter the quality. At one point, a warning was even sounded from the stage: “Do not consume brown acid, good is only white. ”

Most of the famous artists came to Woodstock. Only Led Zeppelin and Jethro Tull refused. The Moody Blues, Doors and Bob Dylan agreed, but for various reasons they did not make it. The Beatles were in the process of disintegration – McCartney refused, Lennon wanted to come with Yoko Ono, but he was refused.

During the festival, the organizers faced serious financial problems – they simply ran out of money. Representatives for Janis Joplin and some bands, including The Who and the Grateful Dead, said the musicians would not take the stage without prepayment. At one time, there was information among rock fans that the festival was allegedly free, symbolizing the “excellence of love, music and community”, but in reality everything was not at all so idealistic. All the bands were for the money, and the fees were quite high. It could not be otherwise, because for the artists it was another event where they had to work out, and Woodstock became the “elven” symbol of joy and love much later.

Group managers were persuaded to wait. The organizers turned to local banks, and one banker Charlie Prince agreed to meet halfway. He later said, “I thought what the half-million crowd would have done if I hadn’t found the money.”

Due to disagreements with the organizers over payment, The Who did not take the stage until 4 am.

One of The Who’s most memorable performances was “See Me, Feel Me”: the sun came up just as lead singer Roger Daltrey began to sing.

Also while on the band stage, political activist Abby Hoffman, taking advantage of a brief break in the performance, shouted into the microphone: “What, are we going to sit and listen to this shit while John Sinclair rots in prison?”, but was kicked off the stage by bandleader Pete Townsend.

At the end of the set, Townsend smashed his guitar on the stage and threw it into the crowd. This moment helped establish The Who as superstars and helped their album “Tommy” go multi-platinum.

Jimi Hendrix gave a huge payoff, including an alternate version of the Stars and Stripes. The song was something incredible, the Vietnam War was in full swing, and the sound effects that Hendrix played from the guitar evoked parallels with the sounds of violence and conflict.

In 1970, the documentary film Woodstock. Three Days of Peace and Music” won an Oscar in 1971.

Interestingly, one of the editors of this documentary was Martin Scorsese.

Subsequently, anniversary festivals were held to coincide with the anniversaries of the 1969 Woodstock festival: Woodstock-79, Woodstock-89, Woodstock-94 (25th anniversary), Woodstock-99.

The organization of recent festivals has been sharply criticized (high prices for drinks and food and the ban on bringing food, lack of proper medical care).

In mid-August 1969, no one knew that endless ranks of cultural scientists would later christen the Woodstock festival as one of the greatest moments in history that changed the image of modern culture.

See also:

Woodstock fees

About Woodstock in the Soviet press

Naked enthusiasm and music on grass. How Woodstock exposed controversy in the US

No festival in the history of popular music is remembered as often and with such envy for its participants as Woodstock. Surprisingly, it was precisely this largely random and utter action that turned into a cornerstone myth, a symbol of the time and the most spiritualized portrait of the “flower children”. And even half a century later, Woodstock is a blissful dream and heaven on earth for those who are not indifferent to the ideas of peace and freedom. He is the cherished dream of adherents of legalization, nudist beaches, body positivity, yoga, crowdfunding and free relationships. Even if they don’t know about it.

Woodstock Festival, 1994

© Reuters

Surprisingly, because hippie music rallies did not start at Woodstock, but two years earlier; because the festival was in jeopardy until the last minute; because he was saved by everything that the organizers struggled with in many ways; because the grand show could end in disaster. “Woodstock” has become a thing in itself, a precedent that cannot be repeated, a starting point to nowhere.

It is noteworthy that the authors of the classic documentary “Woodstock: Three Days of Peace and Music” were the first to intuitively understand this (1970), who assembled a poignant three-hour monument to an era from kilometers of film. Under the roar of guitars and the roar of drums, a politically conscious and critical community of young people emerged before the eyes of the audience. Those who are tired of Vietnam and the way of the old world. The ones who, following Dylan, felt that times were changing. The film won a well-deserved “Oscar” and for many years formulated the main ideological value of the festival as an experience – come to be reborn and find answers to the main questions.

Rock ‘n’ roll and sacred cows

Four people were at the helm of the main festival of the century: two young and rich businessmen who did not know what to do with superprofits, and two ambitious promoters with connections in the rock scene. They saw Woodstock as an excellent investment without unnecessary hassle and risk: guitar music of all stripes was on the rise, festivals of “psychedelic pop” drew tens of thousands of people. It only remained to find a suitable platform and convene the stars.

In theory, everything looked clear and predictable: according to this scenario, all combined concerts of those years were held. It was this, paradoxically, that became the first problem of the unfortunate organizers – venues and major artists capable of gathering tens of thousands of people failed over and over again near the festival.

Read also

Media: Anniversary Woodstock canceled in the USA

Realtors, local authorities and residents of nearby towns in New York State have been sorting out relations with the organizers of Woodstock for months. The first venue failed almost immediately (but gave the festival its name), the second, a 120-hectare park in the outback of Wallkill, three months later, when about a million dollars had already been invested in the project. Five weeks before the festival, the four helmsmen were forced to start from scratch. The artists fled even further: The Doors, The Byrds, Led Zeppelin, Frank Zappa and a dozen other first-tier musicians, including The Beatles and Bob Dylan, were out of reach. The first serious production of the organizers was Creedence Clearwater Revival.

The Jewish farmer-tycoon Max Yasgur unexpectedly came to the aid of the show in distress, giving away his own field for the concert, where until recently cows were grazing. The platform resembling a bowl was, according to eyewitnesses, “a perfect natural amphitheater” and could easily accommodate 50,000 people. This is exactly what the organizers said at the talks with the authorities. As you know, more than 400 thousand spectators decided to come to Woodstock.

Participants of the Woodstock Festival, 1969

© AP Photo

The coolest weekend

“The mob is swirling, the gaze of countless eyes is burning with unaccountable delight,” the Decembrist poet Alexander Odoevsky wrote as if about “Woodstock”. The first groups of spectators (some on foot, some on motorcycles and cars, some in trucks and trailers) began to flock to the lands of Yasgur a week before the start of the festival. Heavy rain and narrow access roads, by no means designed for such a large number of people, did their job: kilometer-long traffic jams paralyzed traffic in the neighboring town of Bethel and got into federal news releases.

Meanwhile, there was still no stage on the site and no fence around the field. Security, food, dry closets, medical care remained in question – in a word, all the necessary infrastructure. The coolest weekend of the 1960s threatened to spill over into an unruly human sea, poisoned by drugs and alcohol.

Due to the unfinished fence, the festival, for which tickets were actively sold, turned into a free one the night before the opening: there was no entrance and ticket control anyway. 200 thousand people who arrived on the field unexpectedly for the organizers blocked the way not only for future guests, but also for musicians. The headliners had to be delivered by air. The situation was about to spiral out of control. The state governor warned that he was ready to ask the president to send troops to Woodstock. Newspapers were full of headlines about the “Babylonian pandemonium of hippies.”

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By some miracle, in conditions of medieval unsanitary conditions, lack of water, food and means of communication, a crowd of half a million managed to avoid violence and delinquency. Young farmers were saved from hunger by elderly farmers, from brawls – by the gaming community of freaks “Pig Farm”. According to official statistics, two people died from a drug overdose, and about a thousand asked for help. Two pregnant girls could not leave the territory in time and became mothers right on the field. One case was announced publicly by the organizers from the stage.

“Woodstock” turned into a real living organism, an hourly growing city – even without the authorities, police and bureaucracy. What was in their place? Naked enthusiasm, mutual respect and sympathy as the antithesis of war and violence. And, of course, dreams come true of 24/7 free love and illegal substances. Boys and girls washed together in the pond, prepared breakfast for each other, and listened to their favorite music during the day.

The authorities and the parents of yesterday’s teenagers learned about what was happening on the field from newspapers. They were at a loss: contrary to their expectations, half a million stoned hippies did not destroy each other. The threat they allegedly posed to American society turned out to be imaginary. Moreover, fraught with riots and protests, “Woodstock” turned out to be one of the most peaceful places in the country. The real danger for the young population, judging by the reports of the victims in Vietnam, was hidden in the White House.

Visitors at the Woodstock Festival, 1969

© Daniel Wolf/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

The Dark Side of Woodstock

Still, Woodstock had its dark side. It’s not just about the compromises that freedom-loving and independent organizers had to make, who were left in a deep red after the festival. The real Woodstock turned out to be much more controversial than is commonly believed on at least three issues.

The first is antimilitarism. No matter how much the US military leadership was criticized by the festival participants, it was the help of the army aircraft that made the festival possible. At a critical moment, when minutes were counting, helicopters delivered artists and medicines to the field. Ironically, one of the main characters of “Woodstock” – a brilliant magician and virtuoso Jimi Hendrix – once served in the airborne division himself. When he sang the national anthem on an overcharged electric guitar, the crackle and rumble coming from the speakers reminded many of the whistle of falling bombs.

Jimi Hendrix at Woodstock, 1969

© Reuters/MPTV

The second is ecology. The pastoral and almost the Garden of Eden that remained in the photo, not far from the stage, should not be misleading. After the festival, mountains of rubbish, dirty sleeping bags and tons of cigarette butts were left on the site. If the “children of flowers” thought about nature, then at best a couple of days.

The third is the counterculture. The successes of independent promoters, who bypassed the establishment by organizing the biggest concert of their time, dissolved the following year. Cultural officials seized the initiative and closed all processes on themselves: from now on, the biggest festivals were held with the support of local administrations and generated tourist traffic. Live music was presented as a gift and had the sanction of higher authorities.

Later multinational corporations and big brands were added. Now their names hang over every large venue and are visible almost better than the faces of the musicians on huge projectors.

The end of a beautiful era

For the USSR, as well as for the rest of the world, “Woodstock” instantly became a legend. Local hippies and prophets of rock music equated it with any more or less noticeable outdoor concerts.

Top 10 Free Coding Programs for Kids

In today’s world of rapidly developing technology, programming is no longer a science for the elite. It has become a vital skill for everyone to learn, adults and kids alike. 

Teaching children basic programming, especially from a young age, opens up an entire world of opportunities for them to thrive and succeed.  Learning how to code engages kids’ minds in critical thinking and prepares them for an increasingly tech-driven world. At Coder Kids, we believe all kids should have this opportunity, so we’ve partnered with schools to provide courses that teach kids how to code in fun and practical ways.

Why Should Kids Learn Coding?

It’s not just about the growing demand for programmers worldwide. The benefits of coding knowledge affect the very personality and mental state of children. Some of these advantages include:

• Boosting creativity – coding demands repeated experimentation. The process of trial and error encourages children to use creativity.

• Better math skills – coding mainly involves visualizing abstract concepts that can be applied to mathematical problem-solving. This, in turn, helps kids improve their math skills and use them in real-life situations.

• Builds confidence in problem-solving – since coding often involves making mistakes until you can get it right, children will learn that there’s always more than one way to complete any task.

• Enhances academic writing performance – coding supports planning and organizing skills,. Kids will be able to put their thoughts in order and can improve their writing skills.

Top 10 Free Coding Programs and Websites for Kids

Let’s get started! If you are looking for more support and instruction in your child’s coding journey, checkout our blogpost, “The Best Summer Coding Camps for Kids.” You can also find a list of our Top 10 Free Coding Apps for Kids here.

1- Coder Kids

Coder Kids is a great company that offers online, in-person and on-demand coding classes and camps for kids of all ages. Their free on-demand class, Introduction to Scratch Coding, is the perfect way for kids to begin their coding journey!

They offer a free on-demand class called Introduction to Scratch Coding. In the class, Coder Kids will walk kids through setting up their Scratch account and learn the basics of Scratch. They’ll also learn how to express themselves on Scratch in fun and sometimes silly ways.

Once students are familiar with the basics and the Scratch interface, then the kids will move on to start learning how to code. This course goes over the basics of Scratch coding in a fun way so that kids will have a solid foundation. To finish it off, they’ll get to complete the Pokemon in Space project!

Coder Kids offers other on-demand classes at a reasonable price, as well as online and in-person private tutoring lessons. Check out all of there camps and classes here.

2- Code.org – Learn to Code

Currently one of the most popular websites that provides free coding classes for children is Code.org. 

This platform is known for its intuitive search engine that enables you to search for relevant courses from all over the world. It also offers comprehensive online tutorials, averaging at 15 to 20 hours.

Code.org adopts interactive teaching methods, such as maze games, to engage kids in the material at hand. It also presents a number of exclusive videos featuring individuals of high caliber including Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg.

Once you log in, you can find courses on building websites and games. The content includes the basics of programming as well as classes on coding actual apps and websites using various programming languages such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.

Code.org also offers Hour-of-code lessons that are particularly useful for kids looking for a quick class. They can learn to program Minecraft animals and Star Wars droids, or code their own adventure with Frozen characters.

Code.org is suitable for kids aged 4 years and older, with lessons arranged according to grade so that children can choose levels that aren’t too easy or too complicated for them.

3- ScratchJr.org and Scratch

ScratchJr and Scratch are widely popular platforms used mainly by children. This website was developed by MIT students, aimed at kids from 6 to 16 years old.

It features one of the easiest user interface designs, adopting visual code blocks that are very simple to follow. Instead of actually typing code, you can drag and drop blocks of code to program different stories and games. Kids can create all types of different projects on Scratch and ScratchJr.

You can find descriptions of the blocks on the website, along with an interface guide and a guide for paint editor to help produce graphics.

Scratchjr doesn’t only offer coding lessons for children, but also curriculum, activities, and assessment exercises for teachers to apply in class.

It has a huge community with more than 15 million registered members who also happen to be incredibly active. It’s available for anyone to join, as long as they respect the rules and engage in friendly communication with other users.

Besides their web version, you can download the Scratchjr app on your iOS, Android, or Kindle device. There’s also a handy Scratchjr extension that you can add to your Google Chrome browser for quick access.

4- Codecombat.com

Combining the world of text-based coding and RPG gaming, Code Combat offers a highly immersive learning experience via a fun game that’s accessible through any browser.

The idea here is to give your character the correct set of commands to complete missions by solving an assortment of mazes, puzzles, and other tasks.

The free version of Code Combat provides an in-depth introduction to computer coding science. It consists of 39 levels, teaching kids basic syntax, parameters, strings, arguments, loops, and variables.

After that, you can move onto more advanced modules, such as web development and game development, by gaining access to their paid version.

Code Combat applies actual coding syntax using a text editor, allowing kids to get familiar with languages such as HTML, CDS, JavaScript, and Python.

5- LightBot

If you’re looking for a fun but simple approach to get your kids into coding while being as flexible as possible, then LightBot might just be what you need.

It’s an app-based experience that works for seemingly all ages thanks to its interactive and enjoyable concept. It was designed by actual coders who know what aspects of coding are suitable for every age group to learn.

LightBot is basically a puzzle game that requires coding knowledge to advance, which further promotes the problem-solving skills of children. The beauty of this engaging logic game is that you can forget it’s meant as an educational platform.

LightBot offers a range of lessons that includes sequencing, procedures, overloading, conditionals, and recursive loops. It’s available to download from Google Play Store, the App Store, and Amazon Apps.

You can get free content through its demo version, and when you’re ready, you can upgrade to unlock the full materials for a couple of bucks. Check out our LIghtbot Cheats here.

6- Khanacademy.com

Khan Academy is one of the highest praised free coding websites for kids. It’s an extremely popular choice when it comes to e-learning thanks to its extensive library of subjects that allow users to search and learn just about anything for free! 

Khan Academy provides lessons on a wide range of topics from maths, chemistry, and biology, all the way to history, finance, and engineering. 

Fortunately, the platform recently added coding and programming courses for kids aged 12 and older to its menu, becoming a reliable resource for such education on a global scale.

Khan Academy provides computer science courses discussing the basics of programming, which includes internet 101, algorithms, cryptography, information, and theory. 

Its coding lessons also cover HTML/CSS for building websites, HTML/JS for creating interactive web pages, SQL for managing data and querying, as well as JavaScript for animation, games, drawing, and natural simulation.

Khan Academy offers its materials in a laid back yet entertaining way to make sure that kids remain hooked while watching the videos. It’s also accessible to anyone in the world, without even requiring an account to log in. 

To learn about more online coding classes for kids, click here.

7- Codemonkey.com

Another excellent platform that offers free coding lessons for kids is Code Monkey. 

Besides having a fun name, this web-based service adopts the idea of teaching coding to children through the interactive environment of online gaming.

The general objective of Code Monkey is to have the user help a monkey obtain bananas. To make this happen, the user has to work through a series of tasks and challenges to correctly code the monkey towards the bananas.

By the time the players complete the game, they should possess the skills needed to get into game development and start making their own.

Code Monkey uses a text-based editor that enables players to code and build games using CoffeeScript. This language also makes it easier for children to learn JavaScript later on when they become more invested in the world of coding.

The Code Monkey website offers 250 free challenges to cover the basics and test the waters. After that, you can upgrade to the paid version to unlock all 400 challenges.

8- Crunchzilla.com – Code Monster

Crunchzilla is one of the simplest teaching platforms when it comes to boosting your kids’ knowledge of coding. It delivers information in an engaging manner that’s perfect for educating young minds.

Once you open Crunchzilla, you’ll need to pick one of its 4 levels of coding lessons to proceed. These levels are: Code Monster for preteens (or younger under supervision), Code Maven for teens and adults, Game Maven for ages 16+, and Data Maven which is statistics for ages 12+.

Obviously, we’ll be focusing on Code Monster since it’s directed towards younger kids, but it’s good to know there are higher levels to move on to after completing each stage.

Basically, Code Monster provides interactive coding practice using JavaScript. The layout consists of a friendly monster graphic with a chat bubble that displays questions and step by step guides.

Below, there are 2 boxes, one for text-based coding and the other shows the results of input codes. Of course, you’ll have to type in the right code so you can advance to the next level.

The fact that you can instantly see what your code creates, makes it easy for this website to grab the attention of young students.

9- Blockly.games

Looking for a fun and interactive way to get your kid started with coding? Then you may want to consider Blockly. 

This is a super entertaining platform that integrates coding into gaming to produce a programming experience that’s both engaging and beneficial.

Blocky offers a variety of games adopting the approach of teaching kids how to code using interactive challenges. These games include puzzles, mazes, birds, music, movies, and more. The idea is to get the kids to type in or drag-and-drop code blocks in order to solve a puzzle, create a story, or hit targets.

Children will be able to see the results of their coding text on the spot, which helps them fully realize and visualize what they can build.

10- Stencyl.com

Last but not least, Stencyl is a fantastic gateway for beginners to get into coding. It’s inspired by Scratch, so it pretty much applies the same code blocking system.

Kids will learn to code through creating games, which they can then publish on most platforms such as iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, Windows, HTML5, Linux, and Flash.

Stencyl also offers the option of typing code to allow your kids to further practice their skills. Additionally, the website has a curriculum for teachers to use in classrooms.

Besides the free version of Stencyl that supports web publishing, there are paid pro plans for publishing to other platforms if your kid is serious about it.

There you have it! Our Top 10 free coding programs for kids!

While all the options mentioned above are excellent pathways to get involved in the world of coding on their own, it can be a good idea to use more than one program at the same time to avoid creating a routine. You can find our favorite coding sites for kids here.  It can also be a good idea to incoporate Coder Kids After School Programs, Summer Camps or Private Lessons to help your young coder continue to grow!

Inluding several ways to learn can help kids stay focused and improve their skills. For a list of The Best Coding Resources for Kids, click here. There are also several offline ways you can teach kids how to code. Variety in activites, classes, camps and self-directed learning provides children with the opporutnities they need to explore the world of coding!

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Ready To Learn | CPB

 support the millions of children lacking the basic early learning skills to succeed in school, the U.S. Department of Education’s Ready To Learn Television grant has funded, for the past two decades, the development of educational television and digital media targeted at preschool and early elementary school children and their families, especially those who live in low-income communities. Under this federal grant, CPB and PBS KIDS work with producers, researchers, local public media stations, and other partners to develop, distribute and evaluate PBS KIDS multiplatform content – including television programs, video, interactive games, mobile apps and hands-on activities – to engage children, families, and educators in learning experiences at home, in preschool, and in out-of-school settings.

In this grant cycle, CPB and PBS are working with early learning experts to create experiences that expose young children to career and workforce options and help them to build vital functional literacy, critical thinking, collaboration, and “world of work” skills and knowledge. This effort will also empower and equip parents, caregivers, and communities to support children’s learning and growth in these areas to put children on a path to lifetime success. This grant is funding three new multi-platform television series and connected digital experiences, four new short-form video series, two new podcasts for children and families, and digital and real-world hybrid learning experiences that support intergenerational and family learning at home, in virtual spaces, and in the community. Local PBS stations will work with diverse community partners as part of a network of Learning Neighborhoods devoted to supporting the early learning needs of children in low-income communities, and the Education Development Center (EDC) will lead a research effort to assess the success of the five-year initiative.

Media, Learning Resources and Engagement

Work It Out Wombats! An animated series for children ages 3-6 from GBH Kids and Pipeline Studios features marsupial siblings who demonstrate a way of thinking that uses practices, processes, and ideas at the core of computer science.

Learn More

 

 

• 2020-2025 Ready To Learn Initiative Project Update (February 2022)
• 2020-2025 Ready To Learn Initiative Project Update (February 2023)

2015-2020: Content, Community and Collaboration: Advancing Children’s Learning Through Personalized Media Experiences

In this grant cycle, CPB and PBS worked with experts in early learning to create science and literacy-based television series, videos, games, mobile apps, and engagement resources. The grant funded new content for PBS KIDS series such as The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! and Ready Jet Go! along with a new science version of the PBS KIDS for Parents Play & Learn app and innovative short form videos from The Ruff Ruffman Show. PBS KIDS also launched two Ready To Learn series: Molly of Denali, focused on informational text literacy, and Elinor Wonders Why, focused on scientific inquiry. CPB and PBS leveraged this content by developing personalized and adaptive learning experiences for children and supports for parents, caregivers and educators.  Local PBS stations and community partners around the country used this content and related resources in the neighborhoods that need them most. Independent evaluations of the project’s major media properties demonstrated that children learn the targeted knowledge and skills from the presented content. Recent data from the CPB-PBS Ready To Learn Initiative indicates that 15 million children watch RTL-funded science television content, and 19 million children use STEM games and mobile apps. The Ready To Learn Initiative: Improving Children’s Science and Literacy Learning Through the Power of Public Media summarizes the accomplishments of the CPB-PBS Ready To Learn Initiative (2015-2020). Further information and links to content and research reports can be found on PBS LearningMedia.

Media, Learning Resources and Engagement

The 2015-2020 Ready To Learn grant supports the development of two new multiplatform series:

Molly of Denali, produced by WGBH Boston with animation collaborators at Atomic Cartoons for PBS KIDS, centers on Alaska Native Molly Mabray, a feisty and resourceful 10-year-old who brings viewers along for adventures in America’s 49^th state. With a curriculum grounded in informational text, Molly of Denali also emphasizes family and intergenerational relationships and Alaska Native values. Ready To Learn is funding 38 half-hour episodes, a one-hour special, a digital app, online games, and hands-on resources for children ages 4-8, families, and educators.

Elinor Wonders Why, created by Jorge Cham and Daniel Whiteson and produced in partnership with Pipeline Studios, will launch on PBS KIDS in September 2020. Elinor, the most observant and curious bunny rabbit in Animal Town, will introduce children ages 3-5 to science, nature and community through the adventures with her friends. Ready To Learn is funding 40 half-hour episodes, digital games, and hands-on resources for kids, families, and educators.

The 2015-2020 grant also supports new episodes, games, and resources for existing properties and familiar characters on PBS KIDS:

• Ready Jet Go! Ready To Learn funded 40 new episodes (including the one-hour special,“Back to Bortron 7), two digital apps (Jet’s Bot Builder and Space Scouts), and two engagement resources (PBS KIDS Family & Community Learning and Space Scouts Camp). Produced by Wind Dancer Films, the property introduces children ages 4-8 to new adventures of Jet Propulsion and his group of friends, who explore the solar system to learn about Earth and space science, and engineering and technology.  
• The Cat in the Hat Knows a Lot About That! Ready To Learn funded 40 new episodes, The Cat in the Hat Builds That! app, and a PBS KIDS Family & Community Learning series. Produced by Portfolio Entertainment, the property models early science and engineering concepts and practices for children ages 3-5.
• The Ruff Ruffman Show. Ready To Learn supported the launch of an online series with corresponding online games, the Photo Stuff with Ruff app, and two engagement resources (PBS KIDS Family & Community Learning and Sensational Science Camp). Produced by WGBH, these YouTube-inspired short form videos introduce children ages 4-8 to core science concepts and the science inquiry process.
• PBS KIDS for Parents Play and Learn Science App. Ready To Learn funded the newest version of the Play and Learn app (featuring 15 engaging games covering core topics in Earth Science, Physical Science, and Life Science) and a PBS KIDS Family & Community Learning series to encourage families to explore science together.

 Additional content and resources, including professional development tools and out-of-school learning materials, can be found on PBS LearningMedia.

Outcomes That Matter

EDC and SRI International continue to show positive gains not only for children, but also for their families and educators, and public media station communities.

• The efficacy of digital media resources in improving children’s ability to use informational text: An evaluation of Molly of Denali from PBS KIDS (2021, EDC & SRI). Access to the Molly of Denali resources improved children’s ability to use informational text to solve real-world problems (Summary Report).
• Strategies for Success in Community partnerships: Case Studies of Community Collaboratives for Early learning and Media (2020, EDC & SRI). A cross-case analysis of six case studies of Community Collaboratives for Early Learning and Media places case study findings in the context of overall evaluation findings. (Executive Summary). 
• Early Learning & Engineering: The Impact of The Cat in the Hat Knows A Lot About That! on Learning (2019, EDC & SRI). Preschool children living in low-income households learned critical science and engineering concepts and practices from The Cat in the Hat media.
• Community Collaboratives for Early Learning & Media: A National Picture of CC-ELM Results, 2017-2018 (2019, EDC & SRI).  Nearly all parents who participated in Community Collaborative programs feel more confident about helping their children learn science and want to spend more time each week helping their children learn at home.
• Ready To Learn Research: What Parents Talk About When They Talk About Learning: A National Survey About Young Children and Science (2018, EDC & SRI). Nearly all parents want to be involved in their children’s education, but most are less likely to feel confident teaching their young children science than reading, writing or math. (Executive Summary and Infographic).
• Ready To Learn Research: PBS KIDS ScratchJr Family Creative Learning Workshop Implementation Study (2017, EDC & SRI). The workshop boosted parents and children’s interest in and learning of technology and coding (Report Highlights).

2010-2015: Expanded Learning Through Transmedia Content

Between 2010-2015, CPB and PBS collaborated with numerous partners to produce, evaluate, and disseminate a collection of evidence-based educational media and learning resources to advance the math and literacy skills of young children, particularly those in low-income communities.

Media, Learning Resources and Engagement

• A Preschool Math Property, PEG + CAT – Peg and Cat use math and problem-solving skills to save the day.  In 2015, PEG + CAT reached 11 million children on television and 12 million users digitally.
• An Elementary Math Property, ODD SQUAD – Young agents are presented with a unique math problem that they must solve together through teamwork, critical thinking, and related math skills and practices.  In 2015, ODD SQUAD reached 10 million children on television and 20 million users digitally.
• Transmedia Game Collections and Apps – These integrated collections of interactive content and games feature over 135 new games and mobile apps  based on characters and storylines from popular PBS KIDS series such as Curious George, The Cat In The Hat Knows A Lot About That, Cyberchase, Dinosaur Train,Martha Speaks, Sid the Science Kid, Super WHY!, and others.  

• The Electric Company Immersive World – The project developed a web and mobile-enabled immersive world called Prankster Planet to extend the math and literacy impact of The Electric Company. A wide range of resources, both in-school and out-of-school, were also created to support summer learning, bilingual education, and more.
• Technology Innovations to Empower Parents and Educators – The project built and tested Measure Up!, a cutting-edge learning analytics platform that captures data from children’s real-time gameplay to help parents chart their child’s progress and receive recommendations for ways to further support their children’s learning.
• Learning Resources and Community Engagement – Through collaboration with local public media stations and their partners, CPB and PBS scaled the usage of RTL content and tools across the country with parents, caregivers, and teachers who work with target audience children.   Tools featured PBS KIDS Lab, the PBS KIDS Play and Learn app, RTL’s Mobile Learning Program, Teaching Tips modules and videos, as well as PBS KIDS Afterschool and Summer Adventures. and more.

Performance Measures that Matter

RTL math and literacy content is rigorously tested and evaluated at every phase of development and implementation by experts to assess its impact on children’s learning.  More than 100 research and evaluation studies completed since 2005 show that this content engages children and enhances their early learning skills, and that children can make significant academic gains when taught through a combination of media. 

Recent studies by EDC, SRI International, and WestEd continue to show positive gains not only for children, but also for their families and educators.

• Supporting Parent-Child Experiences with PEG+CAT Early Math Concepts (EDC & SRI, 2015). This randomized RTL study found that children who used media content from PBS KIDS’ series PEG + CAT showed improvement in critical math areas involving ordinal numbers, spatial relationships, and 3-D shapes. Parents and caregivers also showed greater comfort and confidence in supporting their children with math concepts and problem-solving strategies.
• ODD SQUAD: Learning Math with PBS KIDS Transmedia Content at School and Home (2015, WestEd): Use of ODD SQUAD resources was shown to improve elementary-age students’ mathematics learning. 
• Learning with PBS KIDS: A Study of Family Engagement and Early Mathematics Achievement, (2015, WestEd) PBS KIDS resources, coupled with family engagement, can help narrow the math achievement gap for children from low-income families and better prepare them for kindergarten.
• PEG + CAT Content Study (2014, ED/SRI): PEG + CAT  resources were shown to  improve children’s learning and engagement  and were viewed favorably by parents.
• PBS KIDS Mathematics Transmedia Suites in Preschool Families and Communities (2013, WestEd): Children’s math scores improved and parents increased their support of children’s math learning while using Ready To Learn content.
• Preschool Teachers Can Use a PBS KIDS Transmedia Curriculum Supplement to Support Young Children’s Mathematics Learning (2013, Pasnik & Llorente): Results of a randomized controlled trial indicate that Ready To Learn content improved children’s understanding of early math, and increased educator content knowledge.
• Evaluation of The Electric Company Summer Learning Program (2011, WestEd): Students made significant gains in math, vocabulary, numeracy and phonics skills.

Learn More

• CPB-PBS Ready To Learn Initiative 2010-2015 – Project Update (3. 39MB)
• CPB-PBS Ready To Learn 2010-2015: It All Adds Up! – Final Report (21.8MB)

2005-2010: Improving and Measuring Children’s Literacy

• Ready To Learn Grant Awards 2005-2010

• Findings from Ready To Learn 2005-2010

 

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The contents of this website were developed under a grant from the Department of Education. However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. The project is funded by a Ready To Learn grant (PR/AWARD No. U295A150003, CFDA No. 84.295A) provided by the Department of Education to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

Programming for kids: 10 learning apps

To teach a child the basics of programming, he must be not only understandable, but also interested. We’ve rounded up 10 fun game apps for kids of all ages.

1. Preschool programming
2. Programming for schoolchildren

Programming for preschoolers

Box Island

The most intuitive mobile game in which you have to roam the island, overcome obstacles and collect stars. Teaching kids the basics of programming through sequences and loops is a great start. Box Island develops logical thinking, pattern recognition and memory.

Russian language supported.

Download Box Island

ScratchJr

Scratch is known as the best introductory programming language and ScratchJr is adapted for kids ages 5+. With it, you can animate characters, create your own games and scenarios. Develops not only algorithmic, but also creative thinking.

Almost the entire application consists of pictures, so the language of the interface does not matter.

Download ScratchJr

If you’ve outgrown Scratch but also want to learn how to code in a fun way, here are 20 free online coding games.

Lightbot

Another mobile application in which the child will have to control the robot, direct it and turn on the light at the right points. Each new stage of the game is more difficult than the previous one, there are more and more repeating commands, as a result of which peculiar cycles appear.

Russian language can be selected.

Download Lightbot

PiktoMir

But teaching children programming is not limited to foreign applications. PictoMir from Russian developers is very similar to Lightbot, but instead of turning on the light, you need to paint over the squares passed by the robot.

Default in Russian, but you can also switch to English.

Play PictoWorld online

SpriteBox

The game is somewhat reminiscent of the good old Mario, but with a brighter picture and puzzle quests that introduce children to sequences, loops and basic programming operations.

All assignments in English.

Download SpriteBox

Programming for schoolchildren

Scratch

There is also a visual programming language Scratch – for children aged 10 and older. The program differs from ScratchJr in a more advanced graphics editor and project editor. So, Scratch teaches children not only how to write programs, but also the basics of design.

The Russian interface language is supported.

Create your first Scratch 9 project0003

Minecraft

Minecraft programming is the best solution for today’s kids. Not only can a child be interested in such a popular game, but in it you can still complete tasks within the 3D world. In addition to the presence of puzzles, Minecraft also develops the imagination and allows you to build relationships of cause and effect.

Note In Minecraft, you can create unique scenarios and tasks for your child.

In the settings, you can select the Russian language.

Buy Minecraft

Kodu Game Lab

Programming for kids who are interested in game development should start with this app. Kodu is Microsoft’s visual programming game. With it, the child will not only learn programming and design, but also create a real 3D game that can be played on PC or Xbox.

English only.

Download Kodu

Tynker

This is not a game, but a whole platform with learning applications for different languages. The most popular games for kids are learning JavaScript, Python, HTML and CSS. In total, Tynker has about 2,000 games, including topics on augmented reality and robotics.

English.

Tynker website

Codecombat

Another platform for kids to learn programming. The courses and games collected here were developed with the support of teachers. The platform allows you to learn syntax and write code in compliance with best practices. The following programming languages ​​are supported: JavaScript, Python, Java, CoffeeScript and Lua.

There is support for the Russian language.

Start programming with Codecombat

Also keep a short Python development guide for kids.

Advertising on Tproger: we will find developers of the right stack and level for you.

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25 apps for activities with preschoolers (and trends in their development)

Before school, you can send your child to preparatory courses, or you can download several applications and sign him up for educational content on YouTube. Our blogger, teacher and mother, Ksenia Mayorova, spoke with Olga Dynyak, the founder of one of the most popular educational services for preschoolers, who told us what makes us happy and how applications are developing.

Gadgets and the Internet have penetrated into all areas of our lives and brought unexpected and useful solutions, including in the preschool sphere. 49% of parents use free and paid digital resources for additional education of preschoolers. According to forecasts, by 2021 the audience of parents who are willing to pay for such classes will more than double.

The reasons why parents choose additional online education can be different. More than three million children in Russia do not attend kindergartens at all, live in villages and cities with undeveloped infrastructure, often get sick, sometimes parents travel a lot or work in different parts of the Earth (thanks to the global economy), and someone simply does not have enough money for mugs .

As a marketer and mother of two, I actively explore, test and use various online services and applications. Recently, I see the following educational trends in the preschool segment:

1. Deep study of methodology and content

games and content. Younger players impress with a very deep methodical, visual and auditory elaboration of training materials, sometimes developing in a narrower segment.

• LogicLike is a beautiful and methodically well-designed Russian service for developing logic and solving logic problems.
• Chevostik is an interesting, amazingly beautifully visualized interactive online encyclopedia for children with lessons and tests.
• Skazbuka is a resource created with the participation of the Institute of Developmental Physiology and independent specialists for effective teaching of mathematics, reading, and the development of different styles of thinking. Visualized in detail and professionally voiced.
• Readings is a beautiful, watercolor-painted (MyPlayHome style) travel app for iOS with a thoughtful way of learning letters and reading.

2. The interest of language services in preschoolers

I am pleased with the large number of applications and services for learning English, because its importance for a future child cannot be overestimated. Whether a child speaks fluently will depend on the range of opportunities that open up to him: whether he will have access to the latest scientific research from around the world, go on free (or paid to a student) internships in different countries, work in international companies and communicate freely with people from different countries. You make this choice.

Among the online services for learning English with a teacher, I noticed a decrease in the age threshold for starting classes, now it is four years. Skyeng Kids, Allright, Bilingval are some of the services that offer such services.

3. Speech therapy and special assistance

Parents of special children are open to new things like no one else, they are ready for any experiments, if only it helps. Raising a non-verbal four-year-old, I know this situation firsthand. Some foreign programs already have scientific evidence of their effectiveness (and rebuttals by meta-analysis, but the very fact that there are enough studies impresses me very much) and allow parents from all over the world to help children on their difficult path. For example, IQsha provides free access to educational programs for special children (with ASD and Down syndrome).

• Mercibo is an online speech therapy service that recognizes sounds. A speech pathologist, a specialist with 20 years of experience, uses the service in his work and assigns Roma and me classes in it every day, and also strictly checks whether we were engaged or not.
• Fast ForWord is an English-language program based on the neuroplasticity of the brain, used to stimulate speech recognition and understanding. The application is recommended for alalia, autism, ADHD, dyslexia and more. The principle of the program is to amplify some sounds that children do not pick up in speech, gradually reducing such amplification for training.
• Cool Little Kids is an online course for 3-6 year olds and their parents from the Australian Emotional Health Association that uses the principles of cognitive behavioral therapy to reduce shyness and its negative manifestations in a child.
• AR Tutor – Augmented reality training for basic daily living skills for children with autism.
• Smiling Mind and OMG. I Can Meditate! – meditation apps with programs for children of different ages, including collective ones, for working in the classroom.

4. Video is our everything!

48% of children under 12 watch YouTube videos every day (Children’s Media Consumption, MOMRI, 2017). You still won’t be able to fight it, it’s better to make the service your friend — install the YouTube Kids app or subscribe your child to informative, educational and extremely popular channels for children.

• “Meet Bob” is an animation project where interesting educational facts are revealed using the example of a hero named Bob with a bit of humor.
• Teremok school is a channel where all educational cartoons from Teremok TV are selected.
• It’s OK to Be Smart is an English-language educational channel where charismatic host Joe Hanson explains how the universe works.
• Pocoyo is a channel with educational videos for preschool children in which the cheerful animated baby Pocoyo explores the world around him and learns new skills in the company of friends. This channel is available in both Russian and other languages.
• “Galileo” is a channel of a familiar transmission. Here you can find all the videos of the scientific, entertainment and educational program “Galileo”.

5. The advent of online hobby services

It surprises even me, but now preschoolers can do music, art and other exciting activities online. I look forward to the emergence of online sports services for children. Although what am I talking about? For children’s yoga, there is already the Wuf Shanti Yoga Fun Machine app.

• “Artist Online” – online drawing courses for adults and children. The service combines courses, master classes and personal communication with a teacher. The catalog of courses includes the basics of drawing for children from five to nine years old, a course in watercolor sketching (sketching), oil painting, illustrations and so on.
• SkillBerry – online drawing and needlework lessons for children from three to ten years old. All videos are recorded by professional teachers.
• Creativity.ru is a school of creativity that provides online courses in drawing in various techniques, layout, art, crocheting and wool felting.
• Coddy School is a programming school for children from three to eighteen years old. They offer online courses on programming, development and cybersecurity.
• “My Dream” is an online school of music. Skype lessons are offered. Practice: vocals, piano, synthesizer, guitar, violin, cello, trumpet and others. Theory: musical notation, solfeggio, harmony, instrumentation, arrangement, development of musical ear and much more. For children, there are courses in the basics of music from zero to three, as well as a preparatory program from four to seven years.

6. The success of mixed online-offline projects

I am very pleased with such products because they complement, enrich real life and increase the value of using a software solution through an offline component, creating a deep user experience. I believe that the future lies with such services, because the consumer society definitely wants to turn something in their hands.

• KidArKit – sets for the study of history, medicine, botany, combining real objects and cards with augmented reality and cartoons.
• Ubego is an application with excursion quests. Everything is combined here: games, entertainment, fresh air, solving riddles and using a smartphone. Quests are available in various cities of Russia.
• Osmo is a set of seven different apps for learning games in English. They teach abstract concepts in practice in real life. The young genius kit includes an application, an iPad stand, a creative board, a tangram and other elements of Osmo games.
• Devar is an educational and entertainment content platform from Tula. Live coloring pages with augmented reality. For an interactive game, just download the application to your phone and “activate” the coloring book.
• KiwiCo is a delivery service for developing science and art projects for children and adults. Unusual and interesting crafts that develop various skills and help to have fun and useful time. There is online support, video tutorials and usage ideas.
• LEGO is a world-famous construction set actively developing applications for different sets, allowing the child to complement and deepen the interaction with the product.

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As an active user of children’s educational innovations, I observe with interest the transformation of the preschool sphere, rejoice at the opportunities that open up, but I want to note that in order to organize a quality process and a good result, direct immersion and participation of an adult in these activities is still required. No matter how busy and lazy adults want to transfer learning, development, entertainment of children to advanced online services and artificial intelligence, there is nothing better than going through the whole process together, taking the best from both traditional and the most advanced methods.

Day Care Centers Site

More and more in today’s world both parents have employment and need suitable day care centers for their children. These early stages in a child’s life are very important to their growth and development. Choosing a good child day care center is vital, one where the adult won’t just plunk your children down in front of a soap opera all day and feed them Top Ramen. You should look for day care centers that provide learning programs and playtime for your child, along with a safe and healthy environment. 

There are many different types of day care centers, ranging from basic nurseries to preschools that will provide more of a learning environment for your children. Some day care centers specialize in a specific age range, while others are more open. When you’re contemplating placing your child in a specific day care center, you should visit each one with your child. In this way, you can see how your child reacts to the other children who are there and to the caregiver. You want your child to be happy and comfortable.

While some day care centers provide a greater variety of activities than others, any good day care center is going to encourage positive interaction among all of the children. They will also have rules that promote good behavior, learning, manners, and child development. You certainly don’t want to have to worry that your child is going to develop bad habits from day care.

Our Most Recent Additions to the Child Care Provider Directory
Wee Care Three 809 Coldwater Rd Murray, KY 42071 Phone Number: (270) 759-5425 Providing the child care and day care services:Day Care Center / Nursery, Child Care Provider

 

While you don’t need to go overboard in choosing suitable day care centers, you should approach the subject seriously and with thought. Your child is going to be spending a good-sized portion of his or her life in day cares and you want to make sure it is going to be a positive experience. Family is the most important thing in the world and you should make sure that your children are your first priority.
When you are considering a day care center, you should look at where it is located and how much it costs. There’s not much sense in putting your son or daughter in daycare so that you can work full time and spending most of what you earn on the day care center’s tuitions and your travel expenses. If that’s the case, you might as well stay home with your child. However, if you do truly need the money, there are usually plenty of day care services available and it shouldn’t be too difficult to find one close by that is reasonably priced. 

Different Kinds of Child day Care Centers

While child day care centers are common, there is such a huge demand for this service that there are now quite a variety of options available other than basic day care. These include the following:

• Home child care or family childcare
• Child care services
• Preschool
• Nursery

Home child care tends to be the most popular option because it is generally more affordable and a smaller environment. While some day care centers are quite large and can provide better early childhood education, it is also more difficult for each child to receive personal attention. Day care centers that are based out of someone’s home are usually more personal and your child can receive more care and nurturing. Most parents want their children to be receiving love and affection, the care that they themselves would give them. They don’t want a day care business that is merely going to make sure that their child is still alive and adequately healthy.

Home child care providers are also more adaptable, generally speaking. This means that if your child likes a certain song sung to them before they take their nap each day, the home care provider is more likely to be willing to do that than someone in a larger day care facility. Most adult home child care providers are parents themselves, making them better able to understand and love your child.

Other Things to Think About

One of the first steps you should take after picking out a family day care center that you think will be suitable for your child is do a little investigating. This can involve talking to the parents of the other children that use the child day care center to see what they think about it. You should also always check to make sure the child care service you are considering is legally licensed to operate in your state. Licensing officials check criminal records and ensure that the child care provider has emergency response training and a safe and healthy environment for the children.
As mentioned earlier, it is a good idea to visit the child day care center that you are considering. You should do this at least a couple of times, and try to go at different times of the day so that you can get a better idea of what kind of schedule they have. This will help you to see how your own child would fit in.
If you are having difficulties finding the appropriate child care environment for your son or daughter, there are some other options. Some people get family and friends to help out, while others hire a nanny. Adult nannies are a good option because they ensure that your child receives personal attention and quality child care. However, this also means that your child will not receive as much social interaction since he or she won’t have other children to play with like in a family day care center.

No matter what option you decide to go with, make sure that you know who you are leaving your child with.  Meet them, get to know them, and let your child do the same. Do some research on the internet to make sure that no one has had negative experiences with the day care center you are considering. Check to make sure that they are legally licensed. Once you have done all of this, you can feel more confident and secure in knowing that you have chosen the right day care center for your child.

Switching Day Care Centers

Choosing Another Child Care Provider

So you want to switch day care providers for your kids but you don’t know where to start or what to choose among the plethora of options out there in this world. It is fittingly one of the most important decisions of a young parent’s journey due to the fact that a child’s first formative years up until the age of six is critical. It is important for parents to not just consider the monetary impact of these choices but also the emotional, intellectual, and social future impacts the choice of a day care provider will have on their kids in the long term future. So let’s discuss some general tips to consider for the parent and the child to consider when one is looking to switch day care providers within a short time frame.

First, you must consider the cost of attending some of the more prestigious and rigorous day care provider centers in your area. In some areas, let’s face the reality that the more money per month per child spent; the better the facilities and the educational value experience offered for your child. Things such as using smart boards and I Pad’s to enhance the learning experience is a very real possibility in these places. However, if a parent is budget conscious they can still afford this experience but it would mean cutting back on all or most non-necessity spending. This would include curbing your eating out habits as well as any leisure entertainment or travel activity and place that money instead into your child’s future day care home. If an expensive day care sees that you are making an effort to keep up with the payments; then they will be more willing to work with you and not let your child leave that place. For a child going to this environment, they need to consider whether or not they will fit into this environment, things like playtime, feeding time, and individual care of the staff- is it received well by the child? These will make the difference between choosing these ones or a cheaper alternative. Cheaper is not all bad if the quality and availability of care is there for your child in the first place.

Secondly, you need to consider your travel times and distance of day care relative to your work and other important places like the hospital, grocery store, bank, and places that you frequent on a daily basis. Is it near enough that you can get to your child should he/she become ill or need special attention so that the day care center can contact you and arrange a meeting with you the same day if needed.

Furthermore, you need to consider the overall cleanliness and friendliness of the day care center provider. Do not underestimate a clean environment for your kid to play and learn in with other kids. Your kid will enjoy making new friends in a clean and safe environment. Plus you as a parent will enjoy the peace of mind of knowing that your child will not be being home any unwanted germs and diseases into your house. Parents must also consider if there is a dispute over payment and care; how does the management and staff deal with such requests? If there is a lackadaisical approach to your core issues; then that is a bad prelude of things to come concerning your child’s care. Your child will probably feel like he/she is being neglected or not fed on time and will start to complain to you ever so slightly that something is not right. When they do, do not hesitate to take them out of that day care center and find another one immediately.

In a recessionary economy, it is okay and permissible for both parents and kids to demand the best care for their dollar. Make your day care dollar stretch by reading all of the material and brochures and visiting every day center on your list until you find that perfect fit for your child. It’s out there; it is just waiting on you to find it!

Child Care Options for Low Income Families

One of the most frustrating aspects of being a working citizen is not having the ability to afford childcare. The majority of day care facilities charge as much as $300 per week for each child. That amount is difficult for middle-class citizens to pay. Low-income families cannot fathom paying such an expense. Luckily, the government and the various states have developed programs that help low-income families get the childcare they deserve. The following is some information on those programs:

Extended Day Program

The extended day program can assist low-income working parents during the regular school year. Many school districts offer this program. The school keeps children before and after school hours for a small monthly fee. A parent can drop a child off as early as 7:00 a.m. and pick the child up as late as 6:00 p.m. This program is excellent for low-income workers with daytime weekday jobs. The cost is approximately $150 per month for before and after school. The weekly rate is approximately $37.50, which is extremely competitive.

The attendants participate in various activities with the children before and after school. They help the children with their homework so that the parents have less stress when they come home from work. They give the children a full breakfast in the morning program and a snack in the evening program. Parents can opt to pay for the morning program only, the evening program only, or both programs. The evening program is the more expensive of the two because it lasts so many hours after the school releases the children. The evening program is $100 while the morning program is $52.

The Child Care Assistance Program

CCAP is a special program that provides childcare assistance to certain low-income families. People who are collecting TANF are automatically eligible to receive this assistance. Teenage parents who are working on obtaining their educations are also eligible for CCAP. Those who are not collecting TANF can still qualify if they are pursuing education that will improve their work skills and job opportunities. Parents can apply for CCAP assistance with the Department of Children & Family Services. The financial guidelines for qualification are along the lines of a $3,000 per month income threshold for a four-person family. The applicant must have proof of income, social security cards, birth certificates, and immunization records for all children. Application processing can take up to 30 days.

Head Start

Head start is a program for children between the ages of three and five. The program provides childcare services and medical services to the children who qualify. It is funded by the Administration of Children’s Services. The Head Start program covers childcare from 7 a. m. to 5 p.m. Teachers work with the children to fine-tune their social and developmental skills. Those who are interested in the program may apply online. Applicants go on a waitlist until there is an available slot in the program. It is best for an interested person to complete an application as quickly as possible since the wait may be extended.

Child Care Voucher Program

The Child Care Voucher Program is in effect in many states throughout the United States. It provides a subsidy of up to 95 percent of childcare cost to low-income families. Subsidy recipients will choose an eligible provider from the list of licensed providers. They may also select a relative or an in-home provider. The Child Care Voucher Program covers the childcare from 7:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. on Monday through Friday. This is known as the traditional childcare period. However, the program also covers non-traditional times for parents who work odd shifts. It covers nights, weekends, and evenings.

A wide variety of options is available for low-income childcare. Many stay-at-home moms also run small day care businesses in which they discount their services. There is a way to make working and taking care of your children affordable.

Playful Learning Family Child Care Center

Providing a creative & engaging environment

for children to learn through play

Conveniently Located in Hales Corners

Playful Learning Family Care Center is a play based learning facility. We strongly believe in working with each individual child to reach their full potential through group activities, creativity, messy play, and sensory activities. Our in home facility offers the benefit of a small group environment, while still utilizing a curriculum like structure.

OUR STRUCTURE

We believe in learning

through play

We are here to help your child shine by utilizing creativity, sensory development, messy play, and musical activities.  

Art & Creativity

Age appropriate art projects and activities will be offered frequently to encourage creative growth. We utilize sensory activities, messy play, and music to encourage creativity growth.

Outdoor Exploration

As part of our well rounded curriculum, Playful Learning Family Care Center offers a variety of outdoor activities to challenge and engage your child in our completely fenced in yard.

Group Activities

Group activities promote sharing, learning from others, and self awareness. Children will take part in daily circle time, be given the opportunity to listen to their peers, as well as engage in outdoor games and science activities together.

Fine & Gross Motor Skills

A variety of toys and activities are offered to foster fine and gross motor development. We provide Playdough, shape sorting, puzzles, blocks, balancing activities, and dancing.

Amy is great with both of our children. She is a great communicator and plans different activities for each of our boys, almost like a curriculum. She truly has become a part of our family.

RochellePARENT

Amy is absolutely incredible! She is extremely trustworthy and reliable. Her communication skills are amazing and she was great about keeping me posted with plans for the day and how the day went. She prioritized learning, spending time outdoors, and imaginative play, keeping our kids busy and happy! I would not hesitate to recommend Amy to anyone looking for a caregiver for their child. She is the best!

RachelPARENT

Amy is an amazing caregiver. She has always been extremely responsible, patient, caring, honest, and flexible. She has cared for our two boys for over 4 years (0-4 and 2-6). They would not be the wonderful boys they are today without her influence shaping, teaching, and nurturing them. We are forever grateful to Amy for her impact on our family and would recommend her to anyone looking for childcare; you won’t find better for your kids!

ScottPARENT

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Flexible Options For All

Infant + Toddler Care

For children under 2 years of age

Preschooler Care

For children ages 2 to Pre K

Before + After School Care

Kindergarten to 12 years of age

Want to learn more?

Orthodox Spiritual and Educational Center opened in Belorechensk

The opening of the Orthodox Spiritual and Educational Center in Belorechensk, which took place the other day, was attended by guests from Krasnodar and from all over the region.

Great work of many, many people preceded this significant event for the people of Belorechensk. Thanks to the help of the regional administration, the district administration, city and district deputies, heads of organizations, and the personal participation of Christians, the dream of an Orthodox youth center in Belorechensk has come true!

There is still a lot of work to be done to improve and plant the territory of the courtyard, but the parishioners of the Holy Assumption Church, under the guidance of the rector, Archpriest Nikolai Zelenko, tried to create a festive atmosphere at the entrance to the building. Lush bouquets, balloons, carpets laid on the tiled floor of a wide path turned the porch into an impromptu stage for participants in the musical and poetic program.

Meeting of those gathered according to the Kuban tradition with a welcome Cossack song and bread and salt. Among the numerous guests were representatives of the regional administration – the head of the Department for Supervision and Control in the Sphere of Education of the Ministry of Education, Science and Youth Policy of the Krasnodar Territory Tatyana Gornostaeva and the Deputy Minister of Culture of the Krasnodar Territory Grigory Zhukov, the head of the Belorechensky District Dmitry Fedorenko, the Chairman of the Council of the Belorechensky District Municipality Tatyana Marchenko , chairman of the Council of the Belorechensk urban settlement Aslan Tsiku, deputies of the district and city councils, heads of departments and departments of the district, heads of rural settlements, school directors, Cossacks, priests and parishioners of urban Orthodox churches, headed by Dean Archpriest Vitaly Osipov, residents of the city and district.

The official event turned out to be kind and warm in a family way. Congratulations were said from the heart, and gratitude sounded so sincere that each participant in the holiday felt personally involved in this wonderful day, which was brought closer by someone – with fervent prayer, someone – with their own work, someone – with feasible means. And everyone rightly called the rector of the parish and confessor of the Sunday school, Archpriest Nikolai Zelenko, the main inspirer and builder of the Center.

– Until now there were two spiritual and educational centers in the Kuban – in Tikhoretsk and Ust-Labinsk, – said Tatyana Gornostaeva. – Now three thanks to the efforts of Father Nikolai.

Tatyana Yurievna reminded that 24 years ago the first Sunday school group for seven children was opened in Belorechensk, and today one hundred children aged four to 17 attend Sunday school. On behalf of the Governor of Kuban, Veniamin Kondratyev, and the Deputy Head of Administration of the Krasnodar Territory, Anna Minkova, she presented a gift to the Center – a spiritual and educational library focused on children and youth.

The head of the district in his speech with a deep bow thanked the management of EuroChem-BMU LLC, business representatives, deputies and everyone who contributed to the construction and opening of the Center. But he especially noted the work of the rector of the parish.

– It’s amazing how Father Nikolai manages to control the work of builders, to improve, to delve into all issues, along with his duties as a priest, – said Dmitry Albertovich. And he added that he had not seen a single object in our city made with such quality.

The guests were convinced of the correctness of these words after visiting the building. Everyone was delighted with the decoration of the premises, selected with high taste, the quality of interior decoration, cleanliness and comfort. Joy filled the hearts from the realization that all this was done for our common future – for Belorechensk children and youth, for their spiritual education.

“This is indeed a palace compared to the former premises in the old house, where the Sunday school was located for many years,” Marina Popova, the first teacher of the Holy Royal Passion-Bearers Sunday School, shared her impressions. – Although that house seemed to us a luxury: after the “christening” (the room where the baptism took place), we got our own room. And here is the whole building! Many thanks to Father Nicholas. It was his ardent desire to build a real school for the children. With God’s help, he did it.

“Now the task is before all of us – to fill all this with spiritual content,” Vitaly Vedenyapin, priest of the Holy Dormition Church, shared his thoughts.

Since 2012, the implementation of a plan to build a spiritual center instead of a Sunday school began with the blessing of Metropolitan Isidor of Yekaterinodar and Kuban. Then a land plot was purchased for future construction. For many days and nights, Father Nikolai prayed and worked with his assistants and fellow prayers of the whole city and region, so that the Lord would make the dreams of children and adults about a school come true, where they teach faith, love and goodness.

Lyubov KALININA. Photo report by Sergei MARTYNOV.

Kindergarten No. 54 | Belgorod, st. Kurskaya, 8-B

Sticky 07/31/2021 Newsadmin

15.06.2023 Newsadmin

On June 15, the Kindergarten hosted the festival “Game 4D: Children, Movement, Friendship, Yard” to support the value of children’s play and create conditions for its development.

The festival was held in the form of free playgrounds and creative workshops.

The opening of the game festival began with a fun musical flash mob.

The children were shown the route lists with the location of 4 playgrounds (“Children love to play”, “Movement helps development”, “Friendship is born in the game”, “The yard is the best place to play”), on which they played outdoor games and learn new things through experimentation.

Emotions and desire to play were so captivating that the time flew by too quickly. The guys tried to go through all the playgrounds and games in them. They independently chose games and attributes for games, showed creativity and imagination, actively moved and enjoyed the opportunity to PLAY!

Laughter, noise and fun reigned all around! The festival left a lot of positive emotions and impressions about itself!

The holiday ended with a visit to the photo zone, where the participants took pictures in a photo frame with the logo of the festival.

09.06.2023 Newsadmin

June 12 is the day of Russia. On the Day of Russia, festive events are held throughout the country. And in our kindergarten, the children happily took part in the celebrations. The morning began with the raising of the Flag and the singing of the Anthem. And then our pupils went on an exciting journey where they had to show dexterity, courage, ingenuity, mutual assistance. The holiday ended with the performance of a flash mob.

Irina Ivanovna Usacheva, physical culture instructor

Natalya Vladimirovna Prokhorova, music director

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06/08/2023 Newsadmin

With the onset of warm summer days, it’s time to decorate the flower beds on the territory of the kindergarten. In our group, an environmental action “Blossoming Kindergarten” was held.

Adults and children prepared a flower bed, planted seedlings of petunias, sowed marigold seeds, watered flowers. Children gained knowledge about flowering plants, began to understand the need for a careful and caring attitude towards nature. Our kindergarten just got better!

Yulia Vasilievna Bogdanova, teacher

Alvina Viktorovna Pletnikova, teacher

Zhanna Georgievna Gayvoronskaya, teacher

9000 2 Shekhovtsova Lyubov Vitalievna, teacher

06/07/2023 Newsadmin

As part of the events dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Kursk and the Prokhorovka tank battle, the action “Bicycle Ride of Memory” was held in the kindergarten. The main goal of the past bike ride is the patriotic education of preschoolers. And also to remind children about the heroism of Soviet soldiers in the fight against the Nazis.

06.06.2023 Newsadmin

On June 6, Pushkin’s birthday is celebrated in Russia. The literary work of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin accompanies us throughout our lives. Now Pushkin’s Day is celebrated annually in our country. In our kindergarten, we also did not disregard such a wonderful holiday, because with the works of A.S. Pushkin’s children get acquainted with the kindergarten. And our wonderful heroes the Scientist Cat and the White Mouse from the fabulous library helped us in this. The children made a journey through the tales of the great Russian poet with fairy tale characters. The children remembered the heroes of his works during the literary game. They did an excellent job with the tasks, showed quick wit and demonstrated their love for Pushkin’s work by answering the quiz questions. Children received a lot of positive emotions and good mood.

06/01/2023 Newsadmin

On June 1, everyone celebrates a big holiday – International Children’s Day. This wonderful holiday is associated with joyful children’s laughter, songs, balloons, gifts, fun. We had a fun party in our kindergarten. The children, together with mischievous clowns, performed their favorite dances, guessed riddles and played interesting games.

Eduard Vladimirovich Androsov, a deputy of the Belgorod Council for single-mandate constituency No. 14, came to visit the children. He congratulated our children on their victory in the creative contest “Animals of the Red Book in the Belgorod Zoo” and presented memorable gifts.

05/30/2023 Newsadmin

In May 2023, pupils and teachers of MBDOU d / s No. 54 took part in the municipal creative competition “Animals of the Red Book in the Belgorod Zoo”, which was held in 3 categories: “Video story”, “Craft”, “Drawing” (age categories: 4-5 years old, 5-6 years old, 6-7 years old).

Congratulations!!!

Nomination “Drawing” (age category 4-5 years)

Grand Prix pupil of the middle group Ryabikina Taisiya “Wise Owl”, tutor Yulia Vladimirovna Maklakova.

Nomination “Craft” (age category 4-5 years)

Grand Prix pupil of the middle group Chernikova Daria “Owl Owl”, teacher Chebukina Olga Borisovna.

Nomination “Craft” (age category 6-7 years)

The winner is a pupil of the compensatory group Samsonenko Daria “Night hunter”, educator Anna Aleksandrovna Belousova.

Nomination “Drawing” (age category 6-7 years)

The winner is a pupil of the preparatory group Yakovleva Stefania “Filin”, teacher Zhunenko Olga Igorevna.

nomination “Video story” (age category 4-5 years)

Laureate pupil of the middle group Travkin Pavel “Amur Tiger”, teacher Leonova Elena Viktorovna.

Nomination “Drawing” (age category 5-6 years)

Laureate, pupil of the compensation group Maxim Moskvitin “Playful tiger cub”, tutor Zhdanova Anna Mikhailovna.

The Organizing Committee and the jury noted the high level of the Competition, the correspondence of the works to their subject, originality and fascination, professionalism, skill and creativity of the participants.

29.05.2023 Newsadmin

On May 29, a graduation ball for our graduates was held in our kindergarten. This solemn event is as joyful as it is sad. Educators are sad to let go of their beloved pupils, parents are sad to say goodbye to good educators, but the kids are also sad to part with their second mothers. But, there is a lot of joy in this wonderful matinee – after all, in the fall the children will go to first grade and they are waiting for this event with great joy. May the kindergarten never be forgotten, may it leave a trail of happiness and warm memories. We wish you to follow only the right path in the future, choose what is close to your soul and heart.

Happy holiday to you, our dear graduates!

05/23/2023 Newsadmin

Dear parents!

We invite you on May 25, 2023 at 16. 00 https://telemost.yandex.ru/j/18320801799523369269892373671794025617 to the remote parent meeting “So that trouble does not happen!” Dedicated to measures to prevent child injuries with the demonstration of thematic videos .

The safety of children largely depends on what we advise children, what we teach. Our task is to protect the child, properly prepare him for a meeting with various difficult, and sometimes very dangerous situations in life, to do everything so that children feel comfortable in this or that situation. The topic of our parent meeting was not chosen by chance. Each of you wants to see your children healthy and happy.

It’s wonderful when children are healthy. Alas, this does not always happen.

You can familiarize yourself with the materials of the parent meeting by clicking on the link http://mdou54.beluo31.ru/?page_id=95

Recommendations for parents on the prevention of injuries and death of children

Child injuries have always been and remain an urgent problem of society. Millions of children around the world, due to the consequences of injuries, end up in a hospital bed, remain disabled for life or die.

The main factors of injury and death of children are negligence, neglect by adults, careless misbehavior of children at home, on the street, during games, sports.

Naturally, the psychological characteristics of children also contribute to the occurrence of injuries: curiosity, high mobility, emotionality, lack of life experience, and hence the lack of a sense of danger.

Dear parents, the life and health of children is in our hands. Try to do everything possible to protect them from accidents. Remind your children of the safety rules on the street at all times. Forbid them to go far from their home, yard, avoid deserted places, ravines, wastelands, abandoned houses, sheds, attics, basements. Do not leave children alone in the apartment with electrical appliances turned on, block access to sockets, avoid contact of the child with a gas stove and matches.