Lawrence Kids Summer 2021
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Lawrence Kids Summer 2021 Summer’s Season Readings
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Late-Summer Health Guide 10 Seasonal Essentials / The Minx Family 14 Deconstructing the Playground w/ City PlayCorps 22 Finding Fun at the Downtown Farmers’ Market 26 Get Outside: Wildflowers 30
cover / table of contents photo: Amber Yoshida a project of Four Birds Media info@lawrencekidsmagazine.com (785) 766-5669 Thank you for reading.
All content property of Four Birds Media. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.
BRACES to fit your LIFESTYLE
Dr. Malani Kuiper M.D., F.A.A.P.
Dr. Kristen Jacobs M.D., F.A.A.P.
Dr. Eleni Grammatikopoulou M.D., F.A.A.P.
Dr. Sara Nelson M.D., F.A.A.P.
Dr. Ann Novosel M.D., F.A.A.P.
Gretchen Wells APRN
Summer’s Season Readings by Dan Coleman from the Lawrence Public Library
And Then Comes Summer, by Tom Brenner, illustrated by Jaime Kim Every summer list needs a picture book tribute for the younger set, and few cover more ground than this catalog of simple summer joys like lemonade, fireworks, and staying up late. Flash, Crash, Rumble, and Roll, by Franklyn Branley, illustrated by True Kelley A few big thunderstorms rock every Kansas summer. Some kids love them, some fear them, but learning exactly what is happening up there appeals to all in this volume of the classic Let’s-Read-and-Find-Out Science series. Blackout, by John Rocco When I was a kid, summer was also a great time to be bored. Do kids still learn how to do that? In this picture book, John Rocco, better known for his lavishly painted covers of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson books, tells the story of a kid whose wish to play a board game with her toobusy family finally comes true during a citywide blackout, when the family’s house and block come alive with a new energy. Here’s hoping my own family can conjure this kind of magic next time the Wi-Fi router goes dark (after the screaming stops, of course). Flashlight, by Lizi Boyd The first thing to grab when the lights go out is a flashlight, and it’s also a must-have when camping, another of summer’s favorite past-times. Lizi Boyd fills this wordless picture book with white line drawings against black backgrounds, and a child with a flashlight walks through its pages illuminating natural wonders in small cones of color. A beaver, an owl, a fish in the dark, a lesson for kids (although they may understand it better than we): You never know what’s hiding right in front of you until you look. Fatima’s Great Outdoors, by Ambreen Tariq, illustrated by Stevie Lewis Join Fatima and her Indian immigrant family as they visit a Midwestern state park on their first US camping trip. Fatima has experienced an unwelcoming week at school and a bad math grade, but finds solace in nature and a new confidence with the support of her family. After helping her dad set up their tent, her mom teaches her how to make a campfire, and the family enjoys kababs, roti, and samosas before cuddling up to watch the fireflies. A new camping story sure to be a favorite year after year. The Very Lonely Firefly, by Eric Carle The world lost a gentle giant of children’s literature this year
when Eric Carle, creator of one of the best-selling books of all time, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, died at age 91. His ode to the firefly includes a masterstroke of book design in the light-up surprise at the end (powered by watch batteries embedded in the back cover), and is among his best works. Cannonball, by Sacha Cotter, illustrated by Josh Morgan In this New Zealand take on the classic kid-versus-diving board story, a Maori boy works up his courage to cannonball off the high dive. A colorful new picture book about summer swimming that celebrates differences and universals. Market Day: A Story Told with Folk Art, by Lois Ehlert Another legendary author-illustrator, Lois Ehlert, died at age 86 in May. While she is better known for works of cut paper collage like Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and Planting a Rainbow, Ehlert uses folk art from around the world in Market Day to depict one of Lawrence’s beloved summer activities, the harvest of vegetables and their exchange in the public square. We Are the Ship: The Story of Negro League Baseball, by Kadir Nelson The pandemic coincided with many of the planned hundredth anniversary celebrations of the Negro Leagues last summer, but this crucial history can be commemorated any time with Kadir Nelson’s award-winning tribute. The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster, illustrated by Jules Feiffer Alas, always in threes. Norton Juster was the third children’s literature great to leave us this year. In this collaboration with cartoonist Jules Feiffer, he created what might be the ultimate middle grade novel about a kid conquering boredom through brainpower, relevant as ever sixty years after its original publication in 1961. The Startup Squad, by Brian Weisfeld What would happen if the Baby-Sitter’s Club took on other business ventures? More importantly, what should kids who have burned through all the BSC books read next? Meet the Startup Squad, a group of diverse young female entrepreneurs whose various small businesses are chronicled in the first three volumes of the series, with more to come. Each book concludes with an interview of a real life “girlpreneur,” and the series website contains a bunch of great content like business plans, leadership booklists, and startup ideas for kids.
Late-Summer Health Guide
Tips on Staying Safe from the Lawrence-Douglas County Health Department
Summer is a great time to enjoy outdoor activities like family picnics, playing in the park, and swimming. However, families need to be mindful of the potential dangers that come along with hot, humid temperatures. Here are some tips to have a safe and healthy summer. Tick season peaks at the height of summer’s heat. Ticks lurk in tall grasses and bushy areas and then climb aboard humans as they walk by. Some ticks will attach quickly and others will wander looking for an area where the skin is thinner. They must be attached for more than twenty-four hours before they can transmit infection; therefore, finding and removing all ticks in a timely manner is critical to preventing disease. To help protect against ticks: • Avoid wooded, bushy areas with tall grass and leaf litter. • Keep grass cut and underbrush thinned in yards. • Wear light-colored clothing so that ticks are easier to see and remove. • Tuck pant legs into socks and boots. Wear longsleeved shirts buttoned at the wrist. Tuck shirts into pants to keep ticks on the outside of clothing. • When outdoors, use insect repellent containing DEET and follow all directions and precautions on the label. • Bathe or shower as soon as possible after coming indoors, preferably within two hours, to wash off and more easily find ticks. • Conduct tick checks on yourself, children, and pets every four to six hours for several days after being in a tick-infested area. Ticks tend to attach in the following areas: under the arms, around the waist, behind the knees, between the legs, inside the belly button and in hair. • Remove ticks as quickly as possible. The best method is to use tweezers and pull upward with steady, even pressure. After removing the tick, thoroughly clean the bite area and your hands with rubbing alcohol, an iodine scrub, or soap and water. • If you find a tick on your body, jot down the date it was discovered. If symptoms such as a rash, fever, headache, joint or muscle pains, or swollen lymph nodes appear, contact your doctor as soon as possible. Tick-borne diseases can cause mild symptoms treatable at home with antibiotics to severe infections requiring hospitalization. Heat-related illness happens when the body’s temperature control system is overloaded. Infants and children up to 4 years of age are at greatest risk. Even
young and healthy people can get sick from the heat if they participate in strenuous physical activities during hot weather. To prevent heat-related illness: • Never leave infants, children, or pets in a parked car, even if the windows are cracked. • Dress infants and children in loose, lightweight, light-colored clothing. • Schedule outdoor activities carefully, for morning and evening hours. • Take cool showers or baths. Just a few serious sunburns can increase you and your child’s risk of skin cancer later in life. Their skin needs protection from the sun’s harmful ultraviolet (UV) rays whenever they’re outdoors. To prevent sunburns: • Cover up. Clothing that covers you and your child’s skin-helps protect against UV rays. Clothes made from tightly woven fabric offer the best protection. • Wear a hat. Hats that shade the face, scalp, ears, and neck are easy to use and give great protection. • Use sunscreen with a sun protection factor (SPF) of at least 30 and UVA and UVB protection every time your child goes outside. Be sure to follow application directions on the bottle or tube. It’s best to apply sunscreen generously thirty minutes before going outdoors. • Wear sunglasses that block close to 100 percent of both UVA and UVB rays as possible. • Limit exposure. UV rays are most intense between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Every day, ten people die from drowning, and of those, two are children ages 14 and younger. Of drowning victims who survive and are treated in emergency rooms, more than half are hospitalized or transferred for further care. These individuals often experience brain damage, which can cause memory problems, learning disabilities, or permanent loss of basic functioning. To prevent drowning: • Designate an adult to watch children swimming or playing around water. Adults should not be involved in any other distracting activity. • Use life jackets appropriately. Don’t use air-filled or foam toys, such as noodles or inner tubes, instead of life jackets because they are not designed to keep swimmers safe. • Avoid alcohol when swimming, boating, or supervising children. LK
Pop Up Adventure PlayGround!
Make Your Own Playground with Anything you Find! Boxes, crates, fabric, rope, chalk, tape, tires, tubes, costumes, foam noodles and MORE!! "Children cannot bounce off the walls if we take away the walls" - Erin Kenny Contact Us Today to have an Adventure Playground at your next event!
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Seasonal Essentials Rhea and Adam Minx wait for summer all year. When the season starts, the couple and their daughter Charley and son Jackson make the most of the long days. Here’s how the family makes the most of summer in Lawrence. photos by Amber Yoshida
1. For a fun day in the sun we love to head out to Lonestar Lake. Whether it’s cannonballs and dives off the dock, paddle boarding, or playing in the sand, there are so many reasons this is one of our favorite places to play. 2. We can spend a whole afternoon exploring Mutt Run Dog Park with the pups. There are great hiking trails, a training course, and even a waterfall to cool off in. Afterwards, we’ll give the dogs a thorough bath at Pawsh Wash to wash the day away. 3. Biking the Lawrence Loop is always a great activity. Our family especially enjoys the south half because of all the opportunities for water breaks and to enjoy the gorgeous scenery around the Baker Wetlands. It’s the big sky and sweeping vistas that make this area so remarkable. 4. Picnicking at the Rotary Club Arboretum is great for checking out local wildlife. When we finish eating, it’s fun to feed the geese our bread crumbs and see the fish swimming in the ponds. We relax while spending time spotting the turtles poking their heads above the water and sunning on the rocks. On a lucky day, we might even get to see one of the massive bullfrogs that call the place home. 5. For a fun day out, we head downtown to find a kid-friendly patio spot for lunch. Then it’s just a short walk to our awesome public library to pick out some favorite books to read. They have activities for all ages, including video games in the Teen Zone and cozy cubbies for reading in the Kids Zone. 6. A trip to Sylas and Maddy’s is a family favorite. There’s nothing like indulging in a delicious waffle cone (Princess Lemon Raspberry is the best!) on a hot day and then strolling over to South Park to play on the playground. For a sugary sweet beverage, Mass Street Soda is right next door with the most exotic soda flavors in town. If we’re there on a Wednesday evening, it’s an added treat to hear the City Band play. 7. For some COVID-safe fun, we like to gather at Centennial Park with friends and put together teams for a round or two of disc golf. It’s great exercise and the huge course makes social distancing easy. 8. For some meal planning inspiration, we head over to Clinton Parkway Nursery for the Wednesday Farmers’ Market. They have the freshest local produce, tasty treats, and we always find something we can’t wait to prepare to eat. Plus, the Southwest Middle School Garden has a stand where we can purchase foods our son helped grow. 9. For some excitement, we’ll call up the grandparents for a day out on Clinton Lake. Our kids can practice water skiing or tubing while speeding across the water. There are so many coves and fishing spots to explore that it’s easy to find a quiet spot for even the most intrepid beginners to test their skills. 10. Finally, when the hubby and I need a chance to reconnect, we’ll hire a sitter for a date night. In Lawrence, that means a visit to any of the local wineries to sample and shop tasty vinos. Trivedi, Davenport, and Haven Pointe are some of our favorite places to visit with the nicest staff to encourage our growing interest and there are so many more we hope to visit soon!
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Deconstructing the Playground with City PlayCorps
“Children cannot bounce off the walls if we take away the walls.” - Erin Kenny
Richard Renner has a novel idea... “How about, maybe, just for a little bit, we just let kids be kids,” he asks. “Let’s let them play and explore and build things and knock things over. Let’s let them be kids. Kids have so much structure and organization these days that sometimes I think we forget that kids need time that isn’t structured to let their mind wander and their imagination grow.” Letting kids just kind of go do their own thing is the driving force behind City PlayCorps, a group working to create free play experiences for kids in the Lawrence area. Renner, who is also the mastermind behind the Lawrence Buskerfest, thinks that sometimes kids need to be left to their own imaginations. “The mission of City PlayCorps is to safely give kids the space and tools to direct their own play,” Renner says. “We encourage child-directed play. That’s play that evolves when children choose what to play and make up their own rules for how to play.” The City PlayCorps is a nonprofit group of trained advocates for children learning and growing through play. The group is funded through generous donations, grants, and fees for services. City PlayCorps strive to offer free play experiences to underserved communities whenever possible. City PlayCorps organizes areas for kids to get out of their
overly organized lives by playing with any variety of materials. A City PlayCorps area might have cardboard boxes, old clothes, packing material, and pool noodles. The objective is to not have an objective and let kids go a little wild. PopUp Adventure Playgrounds are free, public celebrations of child-directed play, stocked with loose parts (such as cardboard boxes, fabric, tape, and string) and staffed by trained playworkers. “We try to keep the parents out of it,” Renner says with a laugh. “Creative play can’t really be directed or corralled, so if all the materials are safe, we just let the kids go and direct their own play. We don’t tell them to build this or solve that, we just tell them to go play.” Renner and his crew have produced Pop-Up Adventure Playgrounds in partnership with the Lawrence Public Library and museums, and earlier this summer they directed a summer camp at the Lawrence Arts Center. Issac Walters (10) remembers the first time he found a PopUp Adventure Playground at the lawn by the library. “It was awesome,” he says. “I was like, ‘Whoa. We can just play with all this stuff?’ I remember it was like tubes and boxes and stuff and I taped a bunch of it together. It was cool.” According to Renner, the play being ‘cool’ is pretty much the goal.
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“It’s always fun to see kids light up with ideas when no one is giving them the ideas,” he explains. “Occasionally we’ll see a kid looking around like they think they’re getting away with something. I think they can’t believe there are no rules or guidelines about how to interact with the materials. Once that sinks in, they get busy playing.” Renner says COVID quarantine caused City PlayCorps to hit pause on a lot of their plans, but the future holds a bunch of fun ideas. To start, the group is actively working on securing a location and funding for a permanent Adventure Playground somewhere in Lawrence. “The Adventure Playground movement was in the aftermath of World War II and the need for kids to get out, have fun, and process their feelings,” Renner says. “Kids today, while certainly not going through a war, are in a similar situation. They’ve been cooped up and inside for eighteen months. Let’s let them out to play.” While the goal of a permanent playground is a long-term plan, City PlayCorps are also looking for a storefront in downtown Lawrence they can convert to a playplace for the holiday season. Renner thinks having an indoor place for the kids to get a little wild when the weather starts to turn can only be a good thing. “Ideally it will be downtown, right in the middle of the hustle and bustle of the season,” he says. “And it might be a good
chance to keep the kids from tearing apart presents and to help keep their parents from tearing out their hair.” City PlayCorps are fundied through a combination of donations, fundraising, and grants. The group is always open to financial and material donations. In fact, Renner has an idea of what to do with all that stuff sitting in your garage. “Call us,” he says with an enthusiastic laugh. “You know that junk you have cluttering your garage or your basement or that guest bedroom? That’s gold to us. Call us and we’ll arrange to get a bunch of it off your hands. People might be surprised to learn what things we can use to help create really fun, engaging play areas for inquisitive kids.” For more information about City PlayCorps, or to learn how to donate to the cause, please visit cityplaycorps.org or call 913-634-1711. LK
Finding Fun at the Downtown Farmers’ Market
Going to the Lawrence Farmers’ Market on a brisk Saturday morning was something Chloe Phillips (8) thought was fun. Sometimes her mom would buy her a treat between produce stands. Then in the spring, Chloe learned about a new scavenger hunt at the market. Now, the treats can wait–she has a treasure to find. “It’s really fun to find the picture,” Chloe says with a big smile. “I’m pretty good at it so it doesn’t take me too long. Then I like to help my sister.” Emily Lysen, director of development for the market, said getting kids more engaged in market activities has been a priority this year. “We’re really working to make the farmers’ market a destination for Lawrence families,” Lysen explains. “The market has always been family friendly, but we wanted to do something to really involve the kids. That’s how we came up with the scavenger hunt idea.” Each Saturday at the downtown farmers’ market, Lysen hides a photo of a food character somewhere on the market grounds. The cartoon might be a blueberry or a cherry or broccoli. Kids must search for the picture and tell market officials of the location to receive a weekly surprise. Lysen posts the week’s character on market social media outlets so kids know what to find. “Initially kids would grab the photo and bring it to us,” Lysen says with a laugh. “We had to explain that if they kept bringing the photo, only one kid would get the prize. Now I think most kids understand we just need them to tell us where they found the weekly character.” The simple scavenger hunt has been a big hit, Lysen says. The number of kids claiming the weekly prize has steadily risen since the program started in the spring. “We see a lot of the same kids running around looking for the weekly character,” Lysen says. “And each week the number of kids grows, which is great. We really want to make coming to the Saturday market something kids look forward to doing with their families. If looking for a funny little food character does that, we count it as a win.” The scavenger hunt is a small piece of the bigger puzzle of how to engage a broader audience. With the reopening of in-person events after the COVID shutdown, Lysen says the market is in a unqiue position to change the way families perceive the the weekly event. “We are seeing an increasing number of families coming to the market,” Lysen says. “We’re really trying to create a fun atmosphere for families to get the great products as usual, but also have some fun.” LK
photo courtesy of Lawrence Farmers’ Market
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Varsity Issue Two • Fall 2021 lawrencevarsity.com
Get Outside: Wildflowers
Story and Photo by Rebecca Zarazan Dunn
Summer is here. The days are getting longer, strawberries are in season, and the kids are restless for the relaxed freedom that comes with summertime. It is also a time where the world around us becomes a vibrant spectrum of blazing wildflowers. Wildflowers Although the wildflowers in the woods have now vanished with spring’s new canopy of tree leaves offering shade from the sun, now is the time prairie grasses start reaching up toward the sky and prairie wildflower buds start bursting with color. These flowers can be small and dainty, such as the wild strawberry, or strong and tall towers like our state beauty, the wild sunflower. Different colors, shapes, and sizes reveal themselves over the next several weeks and on into autumn. In their coming out, they’ll be celebrated by the bees and butterflies you’ll also find visiting their blooms. Where to Find Them Just a ten-minute drive north of downtown Lawrence there’s 1,800 acres of public land open from dawn to dusk, every day, free of charge. The University of Kansas Field Station is a place we enjoy seasonally and just the other day we noticed the wildflowers in the fields were starting to bloom. The Lowland Trail (The Suzanne Ecke McColl Nature Reserve) is a short trail friendly to even the littlest of legs. As good a place for children to enjoy a variety of habitats, it’s also an excellent place to walk among the fragrant wildflowers. A wildflower is a flower that grows naturally in the wild without human involvement, and summer is their time to shine on the prairies. Go on a flower scavenger hunt; look closely and notice if there are insects visiting a particular flower, run your fingers along the tallgrass, or play in the sunshine! Other places to explore wildflowers are Prairie Nature Park and the Akin Prairie Conservation Easement. Also, keep your eyes open for wildflowers along the roadside during your summer vacation travels. Enjoy and Let It Be! It’s natural for children to want to touch and explore something they’re interested in, but it’s very important to leave flora and fauna where it is found–so many animals depend on wildflowers for survival, and explaining this will help them resist the urge to pick wildflowers. Something I’ve been doing to avoid picking is bringing a kid-friendly camera or a sketchbook and coloring pencils along on our adventures. This way, the girls can either take a picture or draw the beloved flower. The picture memento comes home instead of the actual plant. Another idea is to bring along a little squirt bottle and instead of picking a flower, invite the child to say “hello” and give it a drink of water. This goes for animals too! Be sure to leave all animals in their homes. The exception is if you find an injured animal or abandoned animal. Keep away and contact Operation WildLife immediately at 785-542-3625. Books to Check Out Flowers Are Calling by Rita Gray The Tiny Seed by Eric Carle Wildflowers, Blooms, and Blossoms by Diane Burns Miss Lady Bird’s Wildflowers: How a First Lady Changed America by Kathi Appelt
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