Hidden Gems

Kaleidoscope Colors & Co.

Tie dye is back in and it’s the perfect craft to keep our kids busy. It’s a onesize-fits-all activity that your toddler and teen will both love! Kaleidoscope Colors & Co. is one of the first tie dye exclusive studios in the Southwest Ohio region.

Located in Blue Ash, Kaleidoscope Colors is a one-woman, professionalgrade tie-dye show. Local Mama, Ashley Phillips, prides herself on providing families a clean space to get a little messy and creative.

How It Works

Reservations are required with a $10 fee that comes off your total purchase. The studio is yours for an hour as Ashley walks you through the steps of choosing products, patterns and colors. The combinations are endless with t-shirts, scrunchies, tote bags, drawstrings, hoodies and tea towels with more products added often.

Parties and Events

Pay by the piece at any party at Kaleidoscope Colors. Bring the girls

for a night out or plan the most colorful baby shower or birthday party, your rental time includes space in the studio for cake and refreshments; bring your own everything! For parties of 30 or more, the party can even be brought to you.

Color vibrancy is impressive at Kaleidoscope Colors, as each piece is hand prepped and air dried ahead of time to maintain the brightness in the dyes. The prep work assures you the absolute best application and end result. When you arrive for your session, you get straight to work dampening, folding and dyeing your items.

Head home with your one-of-a-kind piece in a storage bag to continue soaking up to 24 hours. The dye loves the heat; stick your bags out in the sun for an even deeper vibrancy. Kaleidoscope Colors includes instructions and laundry detergent to complete your masterpiece.

8454 Blue Ash Road, Cincinnati kaleidoscopecolorsandco.com

WORDS BY NICOLE SIPE

2021 Holiday sneak peak

The holidays are just around the corner, and there are lots of fun and festive events happening around southwest Ohio that are guaranteed to get you in a merry mood. Here is a sneak peek at some of the ones we’re looking forward to!

Christmas Nights of Lights

christmasnightsoflights.com

Cincinnati’s largest synchronized light show is happening at Coney Island from November 12-January 2, 2022. See over 1 million lights synchronized to traditional and newer, rocking Christmas music played through your car stereo. Pack your vehicle full of friends and family to enjoy the show!

Holiday Junction

cincymuseum.org

Visit Cincinnati Museum Center starting November 12 for Holiday Junction, a winter wonderland featuring the beloved Duke Energy Holiday Trains that are back for their 75th season. Returning this year is Brickopolis, a blizzard of LEGO bricks crafted into fantastical scenes from the magical worlds of Disney, Marvel, DC Comics and Harry Potter.

Woodland Lights

washingtontwp.org/recreation/ woodland_lights

From November 19-December 30, experience a fantasy land of holiday lights and displays along a half-mile paved path at Countryside Park in Washington Township!

Journey Borealis: Holiday Lights on the Hill

pyramidhill.org/holiday-lightson-the-hill

Experience an artful adventure through holiday lights at Pyramid Hill Sculpture Park & Museum! From November 19-January 2, 2022, enjoy the nostalgic holiday experience with an expanded route with new lights and new music.

PNC Festival of Lights

cincinnatizoo.org

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden’s Festival of Lights kicks off November 19-January 9, 2022. Admire the beauty of 4 million LED lights, ride the North Polar Express train ride, marvel at the spectacular Wild Lights show on Swan Lake, and snack at one of two S’mores-nMore stands.

Land of Illusion Christmas Glow

landofillusion.com/glow

Experience Southwest Ohio’s largest Christmas lights drive-thru event! From November 25– December 30, celebrate the season at Land of Illusion Adventure Park in Middletown, with more than 3.8 million lights at the 2-mile long Christmas Around the World drive-thru experience, plus visit with Santa at the Christmas Village Santa Workshop.

Kings Island Winterfest

visitkingsisland.com

Step into a world of holiday magic at Kings Island! On select nights from November 26-December 31, the spirit of the season is captured in an atmosphere of warmth and nostalgia at Cincinnati’s premier holiday event.

Heritage Village Museum's Holiday Events

heritagevillagecincinnati.org

Sharonville's living history museum really shines during the holidays! Festivities kick off at Heritage Village Museum on Dec. 1-4 with a 19th Century Holiday Guided Tour, as well as Breakfast with Mother Christmas on Dec. 11, Holly Days on Dec. 11-12, and Train Days Dec. 15, 16, 17, 22 & 23.

Light in the Forest

cincynature.org

From December 1-31, experience Cincinnati Nature Center in a whole new light! Walk along Nature Center trails that sparkle with gentle lights, and enjoy music, bonfires, holiday shopping, and the historic Krippendorf Lodge and Abner Hollow Cabin adorned in period decorations.

Cincinnati Ballet Presents the Nutcracker

cballet.org

Cincinnati’s favorite holiday tradition returns to Cincinnati Ballet’s Music Hall on December

6-16! Enjoy the magic and wonder of The Nutcracker with sparkling choreography, awe-inspiring sets and costumes, and Tchaikovsky’s beloved score performed live by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

Dayton Ballet's The Nutcracker

daytonperformingarts.org

Enjoy Dayton’s biggest and best holiday performance arts tradition: Dayton Ballet’s beloved The Nutcracker, happening December 13-13 at the Schuster Performing Arts Center–Wintergarden. Plus, enjoy a Sugar Plum Tea on Dec. 15, and a sensory-friendly performance on Dec. 20.

Dayton Holiday Festival

downtowndayton.org

A full month of holiday fun is waiting in downtown Dayton! Through the month of December, enjoy family holiday movies, experience drive-thru light shows, view Virginia Kettering's one-of-a-kind holiday trains, and experience the wonder of the magical Rike’s department store holiday window displays.

Learning through Music

Turn up the beat and boost your child’s language development in the process.

Music is a universal experience. No matter what age or what culture, people use music to relate to one another, regulate emotions and form their identities. While it can’t be contested that music plays an important role in humans’ lives, research is also beginning to show us the critical role it plays in children’s language development. In fact, music has been called a language all its own — and one that kids can master before their native language takes shape.

“The rhythmic cadence and tonal changes of music spark an interest in the cadance and tone involved in everyday speech patterns,” says Cheryl Bruemmer, who has been an instructor for the early-childhood music program Kindermusik in Cincinnati for more than 19 years. “Often a child not yet confident in expressive language skills will engage in the repetitive phrases of a song without a similar hesitation.”

Neuroscientists at the Brain and Creativity Institute at University of Southern California are diving into why exactly this is. According to their research, which has been underway since 2012, music instruction speeds up the maturation of auditory pathways in the brain, which can, in turn speed up the development of language, reading and other skills. This is backed up by the research of Christina Zhao, a postdoctoral researcher at University of Washington’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, who says that a child’s exposure to musical patterns can improve their ability to detect and predict speech patterns.

In other words, the parts of the brain that process music and language are closely connected. As parents, we all want to give our children a head start on learning, and music just might be a fun and easy way to do that. And the good news is, you don’t have to be able to carry a tune yourself. Exposing your child to music can be as simple as turning on your favorite playlist at dinnertime or as involved as enrolling in an early-childhood music class, like Kindermusik or Music Together. However, there are also a number of small, intentional things you can do at home no matter your musical skill level to increase your child’s music competence and feed their developing brain.

Repeat, Repeat, Repeat

If your children ever want to hear the same song over and over and over again, don’t fret--they’re not doing it to annoy you. “Children thrive on repetition and need it to develop confidence,” Bruemmer says.

Repeating the same song over the course of a day or even several weeks can encourage language development, but so can playing songs that have repetitive phrases or sounds. Nursery rhymes are particularly good for this, but some of your favorite music can be, too.

“Just this week, I had a nanny tell me as we were discussing the development of early consonants in infants that when she heard the baby she cares for attempting the “b” sound, she played the oldie by the Beach Boys, “Barbara Ann,” in which the “b” sound is playfully repeated,” Bruemmer says. “Both the baby and older sibs delighted in practicing the sound as they heard the song!”

Experiment With Instruments

While listening to music at home, allow your children to explore its rhythmic patterns by laying out some simple instruments, like drums or shakers, for them to play with. If you don’t have instruments, create your own. Turn a pot and a wooden spoon into a drum and put beans into a plastic container as a rattle. Get curious with your child about the quality of sound those instruments make.

“Children are more likely to respond to music that is personal,” Bruemmer says. Try incorporating their name or names of family, friends or pets into songs you already know. For example, instead of singing “Mary Had a Little Lamb,” sing “Katie Has a Little Dog.” You can also make up songs about everyday experiences, such as washing dishes or driving in the car, by co-opting familiar tunes or creating your own.

Mix It Up

Get outside of your comfort zone and switch up the type of music you play in the car or at home. Play a mix of rock, classical, jazz, and music from different world cultures. The diversity of genres will expose your child to a variety of meters and tonalities, which will not only help them appreciate a wider breadth of music in the long Have Fun

Music time should be joyful, and there are so many ways to make music a fun and enriching experience in your home. Have family dance parties to explore musical rhythms. Make up hand motions to your favorite songs to improve vocabulary. Play around with silly sounds to explore the range of the human voice. There is no one way to enjoy music.

Seize opportunities that arise in your everyday life to play and have fun with music, and you’ll be feeding your child’s developing brain with seemingly little effort involved.