That’s Show Biz, Kids!

For a lot of kids and teens, the best part of school comes when the school day is over and they can participate in their school’s theater productions.  This was the case for Yellin Center Learning Specialist Lindsay Levy, Ed.M. when she was in high school. Read her story and her reflections on what makes theater so rich with opportunity for children of all ages with a variety of strengths, challenges, talents, and affinities.

Lindsay remembers deciding against trying out for the school play when the opportunity was initially introduced to her in sixth grade because she didn’t want it to interfere with her studies.  She laughs now at what a needlessly serious middle schooler she was.  When she finally auditioned for a musical and was cast in a part, she learned that not only was she able to balance rehearsal with obsessiveness over homework, but also that she really enjoyed the experience, and found her fellow theater loving students to be a fun and welcoming group.  In college, where she spent most of her time and energy on her studies, she made time to include dance in her extracurricular activities.  While her psychology courses helped pave the way toward the interest that led her to The Yellin Center for her full-time work, her dance and choreography experiences started turning the gears that led her to what is now her work-outside-of-work (when she is not teaching Zumba) in community theater. 

As Lindsay prepares to choreograph and co-direct an upcoming community theater production of Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, she considers the ways that being involved in theater or other student productions can build important skills that students can use well beyond their senior play.

• Collaboration - Teamwork is a huge part of being able to put on any show.  In order to reach the shared goal of a successful performance, everyone needs to work together.  Personal achievement is contingent upon group achievement.  Because of this, theater naturally fosters an environment in which helping is the norm.  Rehearsals and behind-the-scenes work are great opportunities for socialization and building social skills.

• Listening - While speaking is clearly one responsibility of an actor, listening is a significant part of his/her work.  Directors frequently give “notes,” or constructive feedback and instructions, which are then expected to be incorporated into future rehearsals of scenes.  Cast mates need to pay close attention to each other’s lines and actions, in order to most effectively respond.

• Memorization - Learning lines for a show can be an excellent and inherently motivating way to figure out what type of studying works best for a particular child.  How much should he try to learn at once?  What tricks help the dialogue and movement stand out in his mind?  How can he be sure he knows it?

• Confidence- For children who may normally have a hard time with public speaking, saying lines as a character can actually be a less threatening way to practice.  For children who struggle academically, theater can be an opportunity to use strengths that they may not get to display during the school day.  For children who might not have done theater before, simply doing something new and seeing that they can take on and conquer a challenge can be confidence-building.

• A Place for Everyone- Putting on a show involves so much more than the action the audience sees taking place on stage.  Productions need set builders, stage crew, painters, costumers, prop masters, pit members, ushers, publicity, etc.  While school can often be filled with a sense of feeling out of place, theater offers an opportunity for everyone to find a niche where they are comfortable, where they can thrive, and where they can find satisfaction and joy.

Stone Barns Farm Camp

Attention New York parents: Worried your kids’ urban lifestyle is too far removed from nature? Stone Barns Farm Camp may be just the thing for your youngsters.

Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture  is located just 25 miles north of Manhattan. Set among idyllic rolling hills and graceful woods, Stone Barns is dedicated to growing healthy and sustainable food using an agricultural system that’s good for animals, plants, nature, and people, too. Not only do they provide humanely raised animals and pesticide-free produce, Stone Barns is committed to educating children about food and stewardship, and to teaching farmers about restorative farming techniques.

Farm Camp will give kids from kindergarten through eighth grade the chance to do things they’ve probably only read about, or seen on TV. They’ll get to explore the pastures, fields, and woods of Stone Barns Center, learning about farming in a fun, hands-on way. Your child may discover she loves reaching into the silky feathers of a mild-mannered chicken to collect a freshly laid egg. Or, he may cultivate a talent for helping move sheep from pasture to pasture. Campers will learn about growing and harvesting produce and cooking delicious, healthy food, too. Camp at Stone Barns will be packed with activities designed to help kids forge connections to food, farming, and nature in a way that’s nearly impossible in New York City.

If your child is already booked for the summer, fear not: Stone Barn offers other opportunities for kids (and everyone else) to learn about farming and safe, sustainable, and healthy food production. Your child’s teacher may wish to book a visit  for the whole class, where K-12 students will go on a tour of the farm and get to try out a farm chore or activity. And you’re always welcome to take a family trip to the farm, which is open from Wednesday through Sunday year-round. Any time of year is a good one to visit Stone Barns, even winter; for example, visitors from late February through early March can learn about the maple sugaring process. Take a guided tour, or explore on your own with a self-guided tour.

Registration for 2014’s summer Farm Camp begins January 15th, and we urge interested parents to act quickly! You must be a member of Stone Barns, but the membership fee gives you a discount on camp enrollment and on the fresh, organic farm products sold in the Farm Market. Visit Stone Barns Farms’s camp webpage  for more information.

photo of chickens: woodleywonderworks

photo of sheep: Martin Pettitt

Competition and Fun for Young Track Athletes

Today's sharp March winds and cold temperatures still feel very much like winter, but the fact is that it's the first day of spring, and perhaps we can all feel a bit more spring-like if we turn our minds to warm weather activities.

One upcoming event this spring is the New York Road Runner’s Spring Youth Jamboree, to be held on May 5. The Jamboree, now in its 9th year, is open to students from pre-kindergarten through high school. The setting is a reason to go all by itself: the Jamboree will be held at the legendary Icahn Stadium on Randall’s Island, famed for being one of only five of the International Associate of Athletic Federation’s Class One certified tracks in the country. Kids will get a thrill from running on the same track where the world records for the 100 meters in 2008 (Usain Bolt, 9.72 seconds) and the 800 meters in 2012 (David Rushida, 1:41:74) were set.

Events include the 55-meter dash (pre-K only), races of 100, 200, and 400 meters, an 800 invitational run, a 4 x 200 meter relay, long jump, and shot put. Participants are allowed to choose two events in which to compete. Students may enter as individuals or join together with friends or classmates to form a team. Either way, registration is free.

Please visit the New York Road Runners webpage for more information. The deadline for early registration is April 22nd. This Cinco de Mayo, why not start a new family tradition by taking your children to participate in this exciting event?

Photo: CC by Andrew Siguenza

International Children's Film Festival Starts Today

It's not easy to find quality films for children, especially if you eschew commercialized animation and movies that feature a bit too much violence to make most parents comfortable. So, it is a particular pleasure to note that today kicks off the International Children's Film Festival, which runs through March 24th at seven Manhattan movie theaters. The festival features "100 animated, live action, and experimental shorts and feature films" from 35 countries.

Now in its 16th year, the Festival also sponsors classes for ages 6 to 16 in animation and live action filmmaking. The Spring 2013 one week classes run from March 25-29. The two week summer program runs from July 8-19. Registration for both programs is now open. 

Some of the films featured in the Festival can be seen as part of a slide show on the New York Times website. Tickets for individual films can be purchased online.

MoMath, the New Math Museum in Manhattan

Here at The Yellin Center, we've got math on our minds. While it seems that a great deal is known about what happens in the brain when people process language, comparatively little information exists about the way the brain conceptualizes numbers and amounts. So we've been reading new studies about the brain and numbers with great interest and are expanding our knowledge about what “number sense” actually is, how automaticity in number recognition impacts math performance, and the very real problem of math anxiety.

With all this background, we were especially excited to visit Museum of Mathematics, or MoMath, which is just a few blocks away from our learning center! Mo Math is the brainchild of Glen Whitney, a former math professor who now serves as the museum’s president. The museum, which focuses on abstract concepts without much emphasis on numbers, is the only math museum in the country according to the New York Times. It opened its doors for the first time on December 15, 2012, and has received rave reviews from visitors ranging from preschoolers to Ph. D. candidates.

According to its mission statement, the museum “illuminates the patterns that abound in our world.” Its exhibits are dynamic and are intended to spark visitors’ curiosity, inspire them to ask questions, and reveal the fascinating side of a subject many people find dull, obtuse, or downright scary. Whitney hopes to dispel myths that math is hard or boring with beautiful, exciting exhibits that may inspire some visitors to take a second look a at subject they thought they had pegged.

If our observations there were any indication, Whitney has met his goal and then some. “On a scale of one to ten,” we heard a father asking his family as they exited the museum, “what would you rate this place?” “Ten!” called out a boy who looked to be about eight. “Twelve!!” his older brother yelled. Everywhere we looked, children and adults alike were intent on riding square-wheeled tricycles (that actually work!), creating patterns with tessellation tiles, solving wooden puzzles by detecting patterns, jumping around on a dance floor-like space that lights up, and adjusting lengths of track to make a toy car race along it as quickly as possible. One of our favorite exhibits was a calculator that was two stories high and made of string; we enjoyed figuring out how it worked (but we won’t give away the secret!). Who’d have thought this level of engagement would exist at a museum? About math?

We thought we detected a caveat for a while; the museum was seriously lacking in meaty, mathematical explanations for the phenomena we were observing. Touch screens are available near many exhibits with explanations, and we could choose how detailed we wanted the explanation to be. But even the most in-depth explanations were pretty abstract, and this caused lots of fervent discussion within our group about the cold, hard data that would explain what we were actually seeing. Suddenly, it seemed that perhaps sparking this kind of discussion was the whole point. And the children around us were too busy having fun with rolling shapes and scattering light waves to miss the numbers.

To sum it up, you should visit the National Museum of Mathematics. It’s located at 11 E. 26th Street in Manhattan and is open seven days a week, from 10:00 A.M to 5:00 P.M.


*Chang, Kenneth. “One Math Museum, Many Variables.”The New York Times. June 27, 2011.

Photos: Beth Guadagni

Music Lessons Can Bring Lifelong Learning Benefits

Music lessons are a part of childhood for many young people, but it is not uncommon for youngsters to stick with their lessons for only a few years. Scientists at Northwestern University have looked at the impact of these early lessons on adults and have found that even a few years of lessons can have a positive impact on the brain years later.

The study, published in The Journal of Neuroscience, looked at 45 adults who were matched for age and IQ. One group had no music instruction, another between one and five years, and a third group had between six and eleven years of lessons. Those who had at least some music lessons generally began their studies around age nine. The researchers measured electrical signals from the auditory brainstem of each of the subjects and found that those who had even short term music instruction showed improved processing of sounds. They also noted that the more recently the music lessons stopped, the more significant the improved processing.

“Thus, musical training as children makes better listeners later in life,” said Dr. Nina Kraus, Director of the Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory at Northwestern, in an announcement released by the university. “Based on what we already know about the ways that music helps shape the brain,” she said, “the study suggests that short-term music lessons may enhance lifelong listening and learning.”

Photo: Till Westermayer / Creative Commons

Special Events For Your 2012 Calendar

It’s time to start adding events to our 2012 calendars, and we have some programs that you might want to take note of for the new year.

For the NYC child who has everything -- and a love of adventure -- an amazing holiday gift could be an overnight visit to the Museum of Natural History. Reservations for these sleep-overs for 6 - 13 year olds are limited and sell out quickly. Check out the schedule, details, and available dates by calling 212-769-5200.

Resources for Children with Special Needs will be holding its annual Camp Fair on Saturday, January 28, 2012 from 11 AM to 3 PM at the Church of St. Paul the Apostle, (entrance on Columbus Ave./W. 60th St.) in Manhattan. Admission is free and attendees get a copy of the extensive Camp Directory. The Fair will feature day camp programs in New York City and sleep-away camps throughout the NY, NJ, and CT area. Presenters include travel programs and remedial education programs for children with a broad range of learning and other issues.

Kids Night on Broadway takes place February 5th- 9th, 2012. This annual event offers free tickets to many Broadway and Off-Broadway shows for children from 6-18 when accompanied by a full-paying adult. The event also offers free dining for kids at participating restaurants and includes parallel events in other cities. Early curtain times make these evenings even more kid-friendly.

Subway Sleuths is a program for kids on the autism spectrum (primarily in grades 3-5, but they are flexible) that uses content about the New York City subway to practice and promote social engagement, collaboration, and problem solving. The ten session program begins in February, but there is a required 45-minute observation and orientation tomorrow, December 17th (and another one in January).

The Yellin Center will be presenting a number of special events throughout the year. For starters, Dr. Yellin will give a free presentation sponsored by CHADD of New York on January 9 in Manhattan. Stay tuned to our special events calendar for more information.

Find Events for Kids with New York Magazine

In New York City, finding great options to entertain and educate your kids is generally not a problem; rather, parents may find themselves struggling to choose between too many choices. An art class at the Met? A live band performance? Bouldering in the park?

New York Magazine provides a useful tool to help parents navigate the plethora of options. Check out their Kids Agenda (near the bottom right of their main kids page) for a list of all upcoming events in the city. Alternately, you can use the “Find Events for Kids” function to help narrow your search for great options for your little and not-so-little ones. For example, we used the drop-down menus to search for “workshops/classes” in the next 7 days and found 9 results, including a fire-safety tour and simulation, a chance to create nature crafts from natural materials in Prospect Park, and a pizza cooking class. Check-marks appear next to events critics have selected as being particularly promising.

Also on the site are reviews of family-friendly movies, a directory of recommended stores and restaurants to visit with your kids, and more.

Activities and Achievement

It turns out that all those clubs and activities you got involved in during
high school may have done more than just burnish your college applications. A new study by graduate students from the University of Nebraska looked at the impact of student involvement in extracurricular activities during high school. "Adolescents' expectations about their occupational and educational attainment as adults predict their eventual educational attainment, and these expectations seem to shape and be shaped by extracurricular activities -- which, in turn, contribute to young adult educational attainment," noted Sarah Beale, the lead author of the study.

Surprisingly, neither volunteer work nor holding a job during high school seemed to have the same impact as involvement in clubs and sports. As might have been expected, students who were involved with drugs or who had brushes with the law had lower levels of education and achievement.

So, what can we learn from this study? Thinking about the future is shaped by experiences. A student who is involved in the French club, or the math team, or plays on a sports team, learns about a new subject, or about teamwork and leadership. This kind of learning can impact educational achievement which can, in turn, have a positive impact on careers and adulthood. The benefit goes beyond the well known positive impact of high school activities on college admission officers. So, join a club or play a sport -- or urge your student to do so. It can be a helpful step in helping to plan for adulthood.