August 2006

Publisher's Note: Celebrate the Fullness of August!

In this, our “second childhood” of local ownership, we continue to explore and expand ways to connect with the many communities of Puget Sound. This summer, we were delighted to participate in Seafair – and we met many of you at the Baffle Gab Milk Carton Derby, the Hispanic Seafair, the Triathlon and the Torchlight Parade. Congratulations to Virginia and Audrey Van Zee, Devin Dalton and Kaelyn Feavel of Eckstein Middle School in Seattle, who won the Seattle’s Child Award for their “Bubble Boat” at the Milk Carton Derby and received a party for 10 at Illusionz Magical Entertainment Center in Issaquah.

For those of you who haven’t yet heard of Baffle Gab, I recommend you check out this cool new family game. I spent a week with my grandnieces (ages 6 and 8), who loved to write out their imaginative stories, learn new words and collect “bone-bucks” as we sat around the kitchen table laughing together. (Frankly, they were relentless in wanting to play at every spare moment!)

The Hispanic Seafair was an especially wonderful event in which to participate. This spring, we joined the Washington State Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to connect with a significant part of our local community – Hispanic families. With this August issue, we now have our monthly articles online in Spanish as well as English. Soon you will see a few pages in Spanish, as we prepare to publish a new, separate magazine completamente en Espanol, by January 2007. This is especially rewarding to me as I spent several years growing up in Spain and Peru and will always feel a special kinship with Spanish and Latino cultures. If you’d like to be informed when we launch our first all-Spanish publication, please let us know so that we can alert you. And if you can help in any way – or would like the new magazine distributed in your business or community center – please contact us with that information.

In this issue that traditionally focuses on “back to school,” we are still holding on to summer fun with our article on places to play in the water, from the International Fountain at the Seattle Center (on the cover) to water parks, pools with slides, fountains and spray parks. We also take a look at things to do on the southern beaches of Washington state. To prepare for back to school, we offer information on exactly what you need to do as parents to get your children physically ready for school, including well- child checks, eye exams, hearing screenings and vaccinations.

To get yourselves ready for the busy fall season, we bring you information on ways to spend “Less Time in the Kitchen,” with chefs who come to your home to do your cooking, make-ahead meal services that deliver to homes, and places where you can go to assemble two weeks’ worth of dinners from prepared ingredients.

All of our families and communities make up the larger community that is the Pacific Northwest. It is our intention to serve all of the community with information that all parents can use to raise healthy, happy and well-educated children. It is my belief that peace comes from understanding that we are all “we” – that when we let go of separating ourselves from “them” and “they,” we create wholeness within ourselves and throughout our community.

Linda Watson
Publisher

©2006
Seattle's Child, a publication of the Washington Post Company
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