It’s the Spookiest Time of the Year: Always Amused October 2018 By Eric Chalhoub October is the start of the fall sea- son — the days become shorter, trees become bare, orange becomes the common color, and zombies start to roam the streets (in larger numbers, at least). It’s also one of the best, if not busiest, times to visit a theme park, and locally, we’ve got one of the best Halloween events around. California’s Great America’s 11th annual Halloween Haunt got the spooky season underway Sept. 21, and will continue to run Friday through Sunday nights up to Oct. 28. This year, the event sees a new maze (Tooth…
-
-
Help Kids Get to School Safely: Here’s How You Can Get Involved
Help Get Kids to School Safely: Here’s How You Can Get Involved By Karen Kefauver At times, we may wax nostalgic, and say, “Back in my day, we all biked and walked to school, because it was safe, but now…” While your kids may roll their eyes, it’s true; times have changed. According to the National Center for Safe Routes to School, in 1969, 48 percent of children ages 5 to 14 years old usually walked or bicycled to school. By 2009, that number dropped to 31 percent for the same age group. Is that steep decline just a sad fact of modern life? Fortunately, there’s a chance to help…
-
Trick or Treat: Halloween is Really Scary for Kids with Diabetes
Trick or Treat: Halloween is Really Scary for Kids with Diabetes By Tony Hicks Jenny Urban discovered her 6-year-old son, Chase, had Type 1 Diabetes – five days before Halloween. “It was a rapid adjustment,” said the Half Moon Bay resident, with a laugh. “It became a totally different holiday for him.” And for his mom, who suddenly found herself monitoring the now 14-year-old’s blood sugar, monitoring how much exercise he was getting, and how much candy he could have at night’s end, when kids traditionally sort and compare their loot. Celebrating what’s supposed to be the creepiest day on the calendar gets even scarier for some parents each year,…
-
What’s a Dentist’s Eye View of the Sweets Given Out at Halloween?
What’s a Dentist’s Eye View of the Sweets Given Out at Halloween? By Dr. Megan With the advent of the Trick or Treat, there could be some levels of concern, thoughts, or even fear in every parent’s mind, contemplating how to handle the situation with their children. It is considered a joyful experience to which many children are looking forward. How can we let them enjoy the full adventure without a constant concern about the volume of all the sweets brought in? Parents who have met me, probably know how I try to spend some time talking about what sugar does to the brain. You read it right. I’m not…
-
We Asked, You Answered October 2018
What Are Your Halloween Traditions? We Asked, You Answered: October 2018 By Ann Carin Niland “We usually go to the mall and roam around there. We don’t do the usual traditional neighborhood way. It’s just the thing to do.” Chris Ruelas, of Capitola, has two kids, Jacob, 12 and Anicia, 5 “We decorate our house. A little bit spooky but not too spooky because they’re still young. And then we do trick-or-treat at night. We usually go to the New Brighton area to trick-or-treat. We meet up with their cousin, who is Nathan’s age, we do a little bit of trick-or-treating and then we go home.” Jillian Mickel, of Live…
-
The First Baby Picture on a Camera Phone was Taken in Santa Cruz
The First Baby Picture on a Camera Phone was Taken in Santa Cruz By Brad Kava On June 11, 1997, Santa Cruz in- ventor Philippe Kahn was waiting dur- ing his wife, Sonia Lee’s 18-hour labor when the idea struck. He wanted to send out pictures of his daughter Sophie, when she was born at Sutter Maternity and Surgery Center. He had a cell phone and a camera, but up to then, no one had thought to link them. He thought about how clumsy it would be to take the photo and upload it to a laptop to email it out, and with time on his hands, he zipped over…
-
Where is this in Santa Cruz 6
Where is this in Santa Cruz? Where is this giant spoon and why is it there? First one to answer and give us a review of your experience in the comments section gets a free Growing Up in Santa Cruz baseball hat. Check Out the Answer to Yesterday’s Question HERE
-
Local Restaurant Owners do Their Part for Families
Local Restaurant Owners do Their Part for Families By Suki Wessling When your family is welcomed into a restaurant by the staff, that doesn’t happen by accident. According to the managers of local restaurant mentioned by parents as particularly great with kids, there are simple things that let families know that kids are welcome. “I’m a relatively new parent, I have a 17-month-old, and I know the challenges firsthand of dining out with a kid,” says Yogi Shapiro, manager of Dharma’s in Capitola. “I can see now why having something as simple as a toy, a plastic dinosaur, actually helps. It keeps them focused.” Parents mention that Dharma’s is a…
-
Kid Friendly Restaurants: Recommendations by Local Parents
Kid Friendly Restaurants: Recommendations by Local Parents By Suki Wessling In my years of taking kids to restaurants, I found that it was hard to predict which ones would be welcoming. One former beloved local institution, when we visited, claimed that their high chair was “broken.” It turned out that their high chair was always “broken”! One rather fancy Italian restaurant doted on our older child when he was a messy toddler and always had a clean chair for him. You can’t necessarily judge by the kids’ menu. “I’ve always found that even if there isn’t a kids’ menu, or if there is a lame one, just order sides!” points…
-
Your Letters and Thoughts October 2018
Your Letters and Thoughts October 2018 Vote Yes for Sales Tax On September 21st, the community will break ground on the long-awaited Felton Library project, the result of a decade of planning and a vote by Santa Cruz County voters to support Measure S, a 2016 library bond measure that is already providing funding for new li- braries throughout the county. While the Felton Library Friends are proud to see the new library come to fruition, we are equally proud of how it has evolved over the years. The project is no longer just a place to read, study, or connect with your community and the rest of the world.…
-
Adjusting to Parenthood: Ask Nicole October 2018
Adjusting to Parenthood: Ask Nicole October 2018 Nicole M. Young MSW When my son was a newborn, I remember feeling frustrated that I couldn’t make sense of his eating and sleeping patterns – because there were no patterns yet. I couldn’t tell if he was crying because he was tired, hungry, wet, or had gas. Every time I tried to take a nap while he was sleeping, he woke up as soon as my head touched the pillow. When my daughter was a newborn, she was colicky and could only be soothed if we wrapped her tightly in a blanket and turned on the vacuum cleaner – even in the…
-
Editor’s Note October 2018
Editor’s Note October 2018 Of course, there’s no cutest baby. All babies are the cutest. But we wanted to see who could take a photo that really showed how cute their baby is, and man, we got some winners. All of them. We left it to you to vote and you really turned out to the polls and kept the race close. One baby ended up on the cover, but we put all of them in this issue. They were all great photos. The winner of the contest, Michelle Bell, said she was sad for the other contestants when she found out she won. She was also happy to have…
-
Where Is This In Santa Cruz 5
Where is this in Santa Cruz? Where is this sea sculpture and can you tell us more about it? First one to answer and give us a review of your experience in the comments section gets a free Growing Up in Santa Cruz baseball hat. Check Out the Answer to Yesterday’s Question HERE
-
September Baby Photo Contest
September Baby Photo Contest Voting has ended! Check out our cute little winner! Whichever photo gets the most votes by September 19th will be on the cover of the October issue of Growing Up in Santa Cruz! Voting ends on September 19th Only 1 vote per person Please vote by leaving a comment on this post with the number of the photo you are voting for
-
September Student Art
September Student Art Ivory, 10, did this mixed media art on canvas at Cherryvale Art Farm. The underwater scene combines collage and acrylic painting. This 5 by 6 inch acrylic and water color drawing is by Mata Overby, 9, a third grader at Tara Redwood School as part of the Creative Compassionate Cultures program. Mata says “It Is the perfection of the colors in the rainbow and it reminds her of all the colors that are represented with the CCC,” according to her teacher Lisa Dreyer-Campiglia. Fifth grader Jianna Muzzio’s owl painting was done at Good Shepherd School and was on display at Cafe Ella in Watsonville. It will be…
-
What Do Theme Parks Do When Summer is Over?
What Do Theme Parks Do When Summer is Over? Always Amused: September 2018 By Erik Chalhoub Photos by: Erik Chalhoub. ALL NIGHT LONG it’s a bit like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when Santa Cruz kids get a chance to camp at the boardwalk all night this month. School is back in session, summer is nearly over and the weather is mild. September is here, and that means it’s one of the best times to visit a theme park. Yes, there may be fewer days and hours the parks are open, and the kids are busy with homework, but now is the time to hit the roller coasters, take a…
-
From the NFL to Soquel Dwight Lowery is Inspiring Soquel High Players
From the NFL to Soquel Dwight Lowery is Inspiring Soquel High Players By Bryce Stoepfel In Soquel Knights Head Coach Dwight Lowery’s office, two things may give a clue to his approach to coaching, after nine years playing safety in the National Football League. An Xbox, and a dry erase board bearing the names of 20 players ineligible to play. It’s a carrot and stick approach. There are consequences to not keeping up with grades, but, there’s also a place to relax, to laugh, and to learn about life and football. For Lowery, coming back to Soquel was his way of using what he knows, football and training, to give…
-
Why One Child Turns Out So Well, But Not the Other
Why One Child Turns Out So Well, But Not The Other By Chris Jackson Have you ever thought, “I just don’t get why all my kids didn’t turn out well; I parented them all the same, so what went wrong?” Bingo. That’s just it: if you want all your kids to turn out the same (well-adjusted), parent them differently. When you parent them the same, they can and do turn out differently (and often not in a good way). You may have heard the recent news about a local police chief’s son who was arrested. On the department’s Facebook page, the chief stated, “His sisters (one corporate and the other…
-
Five Ways to Build Your Child’s Critical Thinking Skills
Five Ways to Build Your Child’s Critical Thinking Skills By Jan Pierce Everyday life involves a lot of prob- lem-solving. How do you encourage your children to get along with others? What’s the best way to help your child learn to manage money? Should you let your kids play video games and which ones are off-limits? Without realizing it, you’re making logical decisions every day, and your kids need to learn how to make sound, logical decisions as well. Not just in their social and emotional lives, but in their reading, their writing, and their math and science explorations as well. In short, the child who knows how to think…
-
Around Town September 2018
Around Town September 2018 Gift of Straight Teeth On Friday, August 3, a young woman’s life was changed forever. Dr. Brian Schabel and Dr. Vivian Chan, a husband and wife team of orthodontists and owners of North Coast Orthodontics in Capitola, gave a 16 year old foster child the gift of a lifetime: free orthodontic treatment. Earlier this year, the orthodontists launched a new community initiative they coined, ‘Spread the Aloha.’ Through this program, they will be giving back to the community on a grander scale. The first ‘Spread the Aloha’ initia- tive was a free braces giveaway. The community was encouraged to nominate a deserving individual to receive free…
