Kid Events for September 2015

Saturday, September 19, 2015

Aaah. The smell of weekend. A friend once asked me if weekends still excited me after being home-based for quite some time now. The answer is: yes. I'm just another human being programmed to look forward to weekends even if our everyday feels so much like the weekend. The boyfriend works from home, the kids are homeschooled and I, the mother, hangs out while trying to find my way to zen one chore at a time.

If you feel like doing something more than just hitting the playground with the kids this weekend, I have a few suggestions that I'm sure will be worth your while. I also looked up the list of plays for our monthly field trip and my oh my, what a joy to discover that there is quite a number of plays running beginning this September!

WHY YOU SHOULD BRING YOUR KIDS TO LIVE THEATER

Watching live theater does more than just entertain. A study published in Education Next showed that students who watched high-quality theater production of either Hamlet and A Christmas Carol enhanced the students' knowledge of the plot, increased their vocabulary and showed an improved ability to read the emotions of others. Professor Jay Greene who specializes in education reform said, "What we determined from this research is that seeing live theater produced positive effects that reading a play or watching a movie of the play does not produce."

But what about the movies? Movies are good, too, but they don't engage viewers the same way, according to Greene. You can read more about the positive effects of live theater at Science Daily. There are also hundreds of sources if you want to know more about the positive effects of theater to young people.

Check out these events that I think your kids would enjoy. I'll be doing a monthly post of plays and kid events, so remember to come back for more. Do let me know if you want anything included on the list. Shoot me an e-mail at cure4mondays@gmail.com.