Category Archives: Community Notes

High School Start Time Working Group Update

The High School Start Time Working Group reported on community feedback about scenarios under consideration and made a presentation to School Committee on December 12th. A presentation which summarizes the report as well as the full report have been posted online. Please visit the Newton Public Schools web site for full information. www.newton.k12.ma.us/laterstarttime

Au Pair placement availbale

PROaupair is an au pair agency placing professional au pairs with families of children with special needs. The au pairs include occupational therapists, speech therapists, pediatric nurses and teachers. To learn more and sign up for the January Information Session, please call Area Director Marie-Laure Frere at 530-545-2869 or email ma********@*******ir.com.

Winter Break Library Programs for teens

Check out these Library programs over Winter Break! There is a lot happening this vacation.

Dream Jars, December 27th, 7:00 pm, Druker Auditorium: Join this Green Art Workshop and get creative with a conscience. Participants will tap into their creativity as they Reduce-Reuse-Recycle. Transform jam jars, chocolate boxes, and tea tins into your own three-dimensional memory collage. Then collect your illustrations, ticket stubs, and dream recordings in your personal time capsule for the New Year. For grades 5-7. Register online.

Trivia Nite, December 28th, 6:30 pm, Druker Auditorium: Are you a genius at Jeopardy!? A consumer of crossword puzzles? Come join the fun and test your mastery of useful (and useless) information! Players will be challenged with 4 rounds of questions from a variety of categories. Stretch your brain and win great prizes! Come alone or with friends. Refreshments will be provided. Teens and adults welcome. Register online.

3D Printing, December 29th, 1:00 pm, second floor Computer Center: Learn how 3D printing works by designing your own three-dimensional creation! For grades 5-7. Register online.

Techcycled Jewelry, December 29th, 3:00 pm, second floor Computer Center: Transform old computer parts into jewelry! You’ll be giving new life to computers parts. Stop by to make something unique. For grades 7 and up. Register online.

Mix & Match Marionettes, December 29th, 7:00 pm, Druker Auditorium: Join this Green Art Workshop where you’ll get creative with a conscience. Participants will tap into their creativity as they Reduce-Reuse-Recycle. In this workshop you’ll forage for found images from calendars, greeting cards, and magazines to find the elements for your assemblage. Play with “cut-up” and collage techniques to create your own one-of-a-kind hybrid dancers. For grades 7-12. Register online.

Belmont World Film Family Festival: January 13th – 16th

Belmont World Film’s 14th Annual Family Festival offers nearly four full days of some of the world’s best films, in English or their native language with subtitles, for children age 3-12 and their families. Many are being screened in the US or on the East Coast for the first time. It might be your only time to see them in New England!

This year’s festival, Where Books Come Alive, features films based mostly on children’s books: from American favorites, including Robert McCloskey’s Make Way for Ducklings, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary, to Johanna Spyri’s Swiss classic, Heidi. There are films about new siblings, friendship in South Korea, Vietnamese immigrants in Germany, Little League Baseball in Uganda, three 12 year-old boys from Brooklyn with a $1.8 million record deal, and so much more!

Aardman’s Creative Director Merlin Crossingham (Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, Shaun the Sheep) is also coming from the UK to talk and sign autographs after a screening of the Oscar-winning Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit on opening night and to lead two model making workshops (Shaun the Sheep and Gromit) on Saturday, January 14th (there only a few spots left, so hurry).

Schedule and venues:

Friday, January 13
7:00-9:00 PM Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit + talk and autograph signing with Wallace & Gromit Creative Director Merlin Crossingham. Regent Theater, Arlington Continue reading →

Newton Family & Friends Ski Trip, March 3rd – 5th

Randy Friedman, father of two boys in the Newton schools and  Director of Ski & Travel, an adult ski, sports, and social club in Boston, invites you to join the March 2017 Family Ski Trip.

Bolton Valley is set amidst 5,000 acres of Vermont’s most spectacular Green Mountain vistas with the highest base elevation of any Vermont ski resort. Whether your interest is skiing or snowboarding, telemark or Nordic, backcountry or night skiing or just a relaxing snowshoe in the woods, BV has it all in abundance. Bolton Valley Ski Resort is the perfect location for the entire family.

Trip Includes:
* 2 night’s slopeside lodging at The Inn at Bolton Valley (standard room with 2 queen beds)
* 2-day lift pass
* Daily breakfast buffet
* Saturday night Italian dinner buffet

Cost: $820 for family of 4 (2 adults, 2 children 7-17) in a standard room with 2 queen beds

Adult non-skiers or pass holders may deduct $60 OFF trip price for no lift passes.  Continue reading →

NewPAC meeting on December 14th

The next NewPAC meeting will include a presentation on Transition from Elementary to Middle School, with Newton staff members. We will discuss Newton’s citywide programs as well as neighborhood inclusion and support services and will have a panel discussion.

December 14th, 7:30 pm (refreshments and networking starting at 7:15 pm)
Room 210 at the Education Center, 100 Walnut Street

IMPORTANT: Please send an email to rs************@***il.com if you plan to attend. Last year this presentation and panel was very crowded, and we may need to move to a bigger room depending on the RSVPs. Please check www.newtonpac.org for any room changes.

Come Join the Parade!!

The Upper Falls neighborhood is having a party to celebrate the re-opening of the Elliot Street Bridge. Everyone, of all ages, is welcome to be in the parade – on one of the floats, in the kazoo choir, carrying one of the giant puppets, wearing one of the giant heads, etc.

If you want to be in the parade, arrive no later than 10:45 to the mill parking lot at the Eliot Street Bridge over the Charles River … or just come and watch the parade. In any case, everyone is urged to bring something loud to bang on – a drum, a pan and a spoon, two metal trash can covers etc.

Giant puppets, giant heads, a real miniature horse, live chickens, an antique fire truck, Santa Claus, kazoo choir, accappella singers, marching band, refreshments – don’t miss it!

December 17th, 11 AM – 12 noon

Sounds of the Season

Join VOICES Boston, Brookline’s premier children’s chorus, for the annual Sounds of the Season concert. The program will feature Benjamin Britten’s “A Ceremony of Carols,” and many other holiday favorites, a true musical celebration.

You can purchase your tickets by following this link: Tickets. For more information about performances or auditions, visit www.voicesboston.org or contact Kathryn DiMaria at 857-366-0034 or kd******@**********on.org

December 17th, 3:00 pm
First Parish in Brookline

Media and the Mind: Parent Workshop

Take time out of the holiday rush to join an interactive workshop designed to help you understand the effects of media on the brain, learn ways to set limits on media use, and know what to focus on to keep your children happy, self-aware, and healthy. At this workshop, you will learn about “The Vital 5” – Five things to focus on to make sure your child’s brain is developing in an optimal way. You will have an opportunity to learn and develop ideas and strategies that work for your individual child or children and to get to know other parents in the community. Session Fee: $20, half of which goes to benefit the Waban Library Center.

To RSVP: Please email Amy at am*@********ns.com or follow this link: http://www.wabanlibrarycenter.org/parent-coaching-sessions-at-wlc/.

December 13th 7:30-9:30 pm
Waban Library Center, 1608 Beacon Street, Waban