KidsOutAndAbout Weekly Newsletter |
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Mon, Apr 20: Children’s Free Week in the Museum at White Memorial Conservation Center 4/20- 4/26
Wed, Apr 22: Earth Day at Oak Grove Nature Center
Sat, Apr 25: Day Out with Thomas: Let’s Rock, Let’s Roll Tour at Essex Steam Train and
Riverboat
Sun, Apr 26: Build Your Own Bat House at Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory & Gardens
Sat, May 2: Woodbury Parks & Recreation Mother~Son Spring Dance
Sat, May 2: Free First Saturday at Lyman Allyn Art Museum
Thu, May 7: SHEN YUN 2026 in Stamford
Sat, May 9: Opening Day at Lake Compounce
Tue, May 12: Once Upon A Time: Cinderella & Jack and the Beanstalk at The Bushnell
Sat, Jun 6: 17th Annual Robin Hood’s Medieval Faire
Sat, Jun 13: Historic Garden Tours - Life on the Webster Farm at Noah Webster House & West Hartford Historical Society |
Dear KidsOutAndAbout readers: When my kids were little, one of our favorite nature activities was also one of the simplest: We’d head out onto a trail, stop among the trees, and play the Listening Game. The rules were easy: Close your eyes. The first time you hear a sound, any sound at all, put up one finger. Then add another for each new sound you notice. After a minute or two, someone says, “Open your
eyes,” and everyone compares fingers and talks about what they heard. It’s a small exercise in attention, but it changes how kids experience the world. The invisible becomes visible... not to the eyes, exactly, but to the mind. Things that were just out of range suddenly move onto our radar. Nature is full of motion and music, and this game helps us tune ourselves to it. The free Merlin Bird ID app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology takes that magic one step further: Tap Sound ID, and suddenly the songs around you appear on your screen as a voiceprint and a bird name and an image that shows you what to look for. And what a moment ago was only background atmosphere becomes a Carolina Wren, or an Eastern Whip-poor-will, or the Common Yellowthroat pictured above,
singing his heart out for a girl with a camera. That’s one of the great tasks of childhood, and of the adults who love children: to help hidden things come into view. Before we know something, it is almost as if it isn’t there. But once it is named, we have a new way to see. There are suddenly new dimensions to our universe, helping us transform even more mysteries into things that are ours. And we never really experience the woods—or the field, or the river, or
the ocean, or the city, or our backyard—the same way again.
—Debra Ross, publisher of KidsOutAndAbout.com, co-author of The Eclipse Effect: How to Seize Extraordinary Moments to Build Strong Communities
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KidsOutAndAbout.com: Discover more. Do more. Connect more. If you like my publisher's column, you can easily scroll through past columns in the "Notes from Deb" section of our site. |
- Family Programs - Yale Peabody Museum, 170 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511, Friday, April 16, 2026 to Sunday, April 19, 2026, See website for specific program times
- April Star Party - White Memorial Conservation Center, 80 Whitehall Rd, Litchfield, CT 06759, Friday, April 17, 2026, 8 pm - 9:30 pm
- Earth Day Celebration - Ansonia Nature & Recreation Center, 10 Deerfield Lane, Ansonia, CT 06401, Saturday, April 18, 2026, 10 am - 3 pm
- Bats Count Evening Bat Count - White Memorial Conservation
Center, 80 Whitehall Rd, Litchfield, CT 06759, Saturday, April 18, 2026, 7 pm - 8:30 pm
- Earth Day Beach and Park Cleanup - 1288 Boston Post Road, Madison, CT 06443, Saturday, April 18, 2026, 10 am
- Discovery Station - Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center, Saturday, April 18, 2026, 10:00 am -12:00 pm
- Family
Programs - Yale Peabody Museum, 170 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511, Sunday, April 19, 2026, See website for specific program times
- Free Spring Mini Photo Session - Shoott, Broadway, New York, NY, USA, Sunday, April 19, 2026, See link for times
- Wooster Square Cherry Blossom Festival 2026 - New Haven, CT 06533, USA, Sunday, April 19, 2026, 12 pm - 4:30 pm
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The KidsOutAndAbout annual guide to summer camps in the Hartford area is back! You can search by date, age, or categories like day/overnight, sports, drama, music, theatre, arts & crafts, technology, robotics, horseback riding, preschool, & more.
Our guide puts summer fun right at your fingertips!
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Parents have an abundance of choices when it comes to PreK and day care options in the Hartford area! Use our Big List to help find the best one for your kiddos and check our events calendar to find Open Houses where you can meet teachers and tour the
schools.
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Looking for a thrilling family-friendly adventure in the Hartford area? Escape rooms are interactive, puzzle-packed experiences where you and your team work together to solve clues and complete your mission-all before time runs out! Whether you're escaping
a spooky cabin, cracking a high-stakes heist, or breaking a magical curse, escape rooms offer exciting, screen-free fun for kids, teens, and adults.
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Have a great weekend!
Debra Ross
Publisher, KidsOutAndAbout.com
Mom of Madison and Ella |
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