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

Teachable Moments

A Martin Luther King Jr Tribute, in Serving Others

January 19, 2009

It's one of many famous words uttered by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve." What wisdom there is in that insight. We'll hear it again and again over the long holiday weekend, especially as urged upon us by our president-elect and his new website that connects volunteers with projects in need of help, USAservice.org . And for those not  Read more...

...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...

...teaching kids about charity and giving to others

December 15, 2008

It occurs to me that in general, fall is a good time to take stock. For eons, it was harvest time and you had to know how much you had on hand so you could make it through the winter. So just as you're blessed with abundance (hopefully), you also prepare for scarcity; fall is when we hold those two contradictory notions in our minds at the same time. At our house, we don't wait for  Read more...

...five toys that make great gifts

December 02, 2008

Five toy reviews for holiday gift-giving: My First Quatro Set , Lego: Colorful, chunky, rounded-corner blocks just right for little hands to mash together and pry apart. Great for 1-2 year olds! Note, the Quatros and Duplos (for slightly older toddlers, 2-4) dont really stick together well, so they aren't really reuseable when your child grows into the other sets. Little Tikes Ride 'n'  Read more...

... books essential to kids where you live

November 25, 2008

Here in Pasadena and thereabouts, we're known world-wide for a few key things: beautifully-preserved Arts and Crafts- or craftsman-style houses the Rose Bowl, complete with roses, and floats, sometimes both together in a huge new year's parade world-famous Huntington Gardens, with all kinds of foliage real-live rocket scientists at nearby JPL (the Jet Propulsion Laboratories) the Norton Simon  Read more...

...book picks for the holidays

November 24, 2008

Here at Savvy Source, we'll be offering some picks for beloved and road-tested books and toys for the holidays. Watch for these throughout the month and into December. Some of my favorite books: Blueberries for Sal , by Robert McCloskey: A little girl on a berry-picking trip with her family has a gentle encounter with a mama bear and her cub, also foraging for berries. Delicious to read with  Read more...

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