Being Savvy: Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers and kids in Pasadena, CA

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...los angeles area greenies, check it out!

January 15, 2009

If you're looking for something to do the weekend of January 24-25, 2009, check out the annual Go Green Expo in downtown Los Angeles' convention center . As we all know, having a child makes you think more deeply about the world he or she lives in. If your child has environmental sensitivities to household cleaners or a food allergy, chances are you'll be acutely attuned to the chemicals he or  Read more...

...looking in the mirror: best places for children to see their reflections

January 13, 2009

Culture is an important mirror in which we see ourselves reflected. Case in point: as a kid growing up, I was one of few Asian Americans in my school. At home, if we saw Sulu on Star Trek, we'd run screaming to the tv and call everyone around, the sight was so unusual. Things have gotten better in movies and on tv, but even so, those images don't tell a complete story. With that in mind, I've  Read more...

...favorite parenting books

January 08, 2009

It's not strictly a parenting book, but Anne Lamott's Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year is a wonderful memoir of becoming a mother and opening oneself up to new life at the same time as the author loses a cherished friend to cancer. It won't mirror everyone's situation exactly, but the overall themes of life and loss are universal, and Lamott writes movingly about how  Read more...

...merry christmas

December 25, 2008

It's interesting how the story of Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus is rooted in hospitality: looking for a place at the inn and being denied it. When winter comes, the instinct is to come together for warmth and shelter. And to freeze out a young family...well, it's hard to miss the lessons of charity, empathy, and generosity embedded within the parable. Here's hoping you are surrounded by  Read more...

...best decorated neighborhoods

December 23, 2008

If you're not up for the grueling wait for your car to roll slowly through the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's Festival of the Lights in Griffith Park, you can cruise through the following Pasadena neighborhoods and admire the whizbang lights, moving reindeer, snowmen, Santa on the rooftop, and all the rest. It's cool that someone else does it--can you imagine the electricity bill?  Read more...

...happy hanukkah

December 22, 2008

I shouldn't have been surprised, but as I looked for stories of how Hanukkah came to be celebrated, I found so many conflicting versions, I was starting to get confused. In looking for some rabbinical words of wisdom about the meaning of Hanukkah, I came across Rabbi Jill Jacobs' words in "The Ghosts of Hanukkah's Future," Tikkun , the magazine of progressive Jewish thought: It has sometimes  Read more...

...best Hanukkah toys, books and activities

December 08, 2008

I credit my kid's crunchy-hippie preschool with teaching him to belt out, "Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of clay/ Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, then dreidel I shall play." They're very non-denominational and all-inclusive, which is partly why I chose the school. So if a Chinese American kid can lustily sing a basic Hanukkah song adapted from a game involving an ancient gambling device, I  Read more...

...rituals for the season

December 01, 2008

I guess it's time to put away the Halloween tea towels, huh? Once Thanksgiving ends, it's time to buy a wreath at Trader Joe's. Get the LED-lit "tree" (a metal structure in the shape of a tree) out from the garage, and put it on the porch. These are things we do every year. We put up our "icicle" lights, and--done! We're ready for the holidays. Except, we're not. We play Secret Santa to a  Read more...

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