Community Art

One of the great things about city homeschooling is the wide availability of various arts programs for kids. City-sponsored art programs, art museum classes, and private art center offerings can lead to a robust and engaging art curriculum.

We have enrolled in various art classes around our city, but my current favorite spot is a popular local drop-in art studio for kids called Mucky Kids. The freedom and flexibility that drop-in, pay-as-you-go art sessions offer are invaluable to us as unschoolers. For city parents in particular, a dedicated community crafting spot offers the space and supplies that small city homes sometimes lack.

Today my five-year-old created ornaments and holiday accessories, while my two-year-old played with modeling clay, and my 11-month-old sat contentedly with some jingle bells and pipe cleaners.

The cost of kids creating, crafting, cultivating an appreciation for community art? $12 per kid.

Not having glitter in my kitchen? Priceless.

Gingerbread Days

One of my favorite things about this time of year are the wonderful winter stories that emerge from our back closet and from the library shelves. Two family favorites are the Gingerbread Boy, by Paul Galdone, and Jan Brett's version, Gingerbread Friends.

Gingerbread Friends is particularly engaging because of the gingerbread cookie recipe that lines the borders of its pages and invites us to follow along and create our own batch of gingerbread men each year around this time. We started our December gingerbread-making tradition when my oldest was three, and at the time I came up with a little song that we continue to sing each time we make these cookies, sung to the tune of "Jingle Bell Rock:"

Gingerbread, gingerbread, gingerbread man,
Gingerbread man, oh, gingerbread man,
We roll you, we pat you, we bake you today,
We hope you come and play!

Holiday cookie-making is such a fun and delicious way to celebrate the season and involve our children in new family traditions. Happy baking!

Friday Nightlife

My Friday night ritual this fall has been to take the kids on the subway in the afternoon to meet Daddy at his downtown office building and then all go out for a yummy Italian dinner in the North End. The mildness of this New England autumn has made these excursions extra fun, but regardless of the weather, Friday night family dinners are anticipated all week long by both the kids and the grown-ups.

Throughout this fall, we have ventured to many North End restaurants, some recommended by local North End parents and others that we just happened upon in our wanderings. I have to say that of all the spots we've been to this year, Mother Anna's on Hanover Street is by far the most family-friendly. Good food, great service, spacious and accommodating of little ones, this place might now become our "regular" Friday night hang-out.

For grown-up-only nights, there are other great places in the North End, and of course elsewhere in the city; but with lots of kids in tow for an early weekend dinner, Mother Anna's has my vote.

Boston parents: Will you share your favorite spots in the city for dining-out with kids?