Where to Play Outside: A Map of our Local Playgrounds

Happy Spring, everyone!

Now that the weather is finally condusive to playground visits (most days anyway), I thought I would put together a map of all of my favorite parks and playgrounds in the area. I'll add a link to our site soon also so that it's easily available if you feel the need to escape the house.

This is a google map, so you can do all kinds of fun things like zooming in and out and getting directions to a particular playground (by right-clicking).

Let me know if I left out any of your favorite parks by commenting below. I'll be happy to add them!

Happy playing!

GAP Needs You!!

Well, we have reached 100 posts!! It's hard to believe this site was created just last September. We have grown and changed a lot in that time. For instance, we have launched our new meetup group! If you haven't joined yet, please do. We have 18 members so far and some fun activities planned. If you are concerned about paying the $5 dues, you are welcome to join and check it out for a while before paying. I only request that payment to cover the money I have spent on Meetup membership. I think it is well worth it. I keep discovering new features of Meetup; it's a great tool.

I hear from GAP fans constantly as I am out and about and it is always so nice to hear how much parents appreciate the site. I always hoped for a resource such as this, so I'm glad I was able to provide it for our area's parents.

Unfortunately, if I don't get a lot of good extra hands soon, GAP may disappear. I started off with a couple of consistent writers, but lost them due to other commitments, which I completely understand. I am so grateful to Angela, who is wonderful at keeping the calendar updated. If it wasn't for her, there would probably be no events listed. And Maria is a great contributing writer, along with a couple others who write occassionally.

But, I am still doing the bulk of the work myself and my kids are at an age right now that prevents me from being able to sit down at the computer AT ALL when they are around and not asleep.

So, if you don't want to lose GAP, please, please consider volunteering some of your time. No, it's not paid, but it's fun and your work will always be here to reference for people. I have found that working on a site such as this often leads to other opportunities that you wouldn't expect. It's well worth it. 

You don't have to be a writer to help out. Here are just a few ways you could help:

Write posts, of course (for those writers out there)

Edit others' writing

Take pictures for posts

Be in charge of the weekly garage sale lists (which we haven't done in a while)

Respond to emails sent to us through the site

Be an event organizer for our Meetup group

Help with advertising

Talk to local businesses about advertising on the site

Compile lists of information (classes in the area, etc.)

These are just a few of the ways you could help. It doesn't have to take a lot of time and you don't have to have any special skills. I know we are all busy parents (believe me, I know), but we have to work together now if we want to keep this great resource around!

Please comment below or click on the "contact us" link at the top of this page to send me an email if you are interested in helping!

Thank you for your support!

This Weekend: A Fun Family Craft Day

Looking for something fun to do this Saturday? Come to the Mindy Flexer Studio School, 5225 Greene Street on March 14, 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

The Workshop is free for Weavers Way Members; the cost is $10 for non-members. Join us in creating Japanese-style accordion books! This is the perfect opportunity to chronicle a family story or vacation! Help your little artist paint, draw or collage their own imaginary story. Come prepared with photos, drawings, and other mementos.

Also, mark your calendars for a Mother's Day Make-In on Saturday, April 25, 9:30 to 5:30 or April 26, 1:30 to 5:30. Come as a family or your children (over 6) can drop in for a couple hours to surprise mom with a special gift! Children under six are welcome with an adult. Light Refreshments will be served. The cost is $20 for families or $10 individuals; the fee covers all the materials you can use to create your own prints, cards, small books or stationary. In addition, blank tote bags, cloth lunch bags, wallets, and aprons will be available for $10 each if you would like to decorate.

Mindy Flexer is a professional artist and certified art teacher. She taught art for eight years at Greene Street Friends School. Mindy Flexer is currently pursuing her own work as a painter and a potter. For more information please contact maflexer@yahoo.com or call 215-991-5817. Please visit her website to learn about her art classes and half-day or full-day summer art camp!

GAP News: Our New Meetup Group!!

Okay, so this a big step for us. We have created a Germantown Avenue Parents meetup group! Woo-hoo!  You will see the new link at the top of the page and also at the top of our right sidebar.

This is kind of an experiment to see how many people are truly interested in this new addition to our site. Up until now, GAP has been purely a site for finding information. We have only had one event and that was really just to get the word out about the site.

Having a meetup group means that the people who join it will be able to view, rsvp for, and attend all kinds of kid and family-friendly events in our area.  Yes, you were always able to attend events on our calendar, but we didn't go as a group. We would officially be a group of parents who can go out and have fun together, with and without kids. 

So, how do you join? Click on any of the links in this post or on our site for the meetup group and sign up! It's very easy and quick. There will be a few simple questions about you since it is set as a private group (no one outside the group will be able to view events). There is also a $5 charge to join, purely because I am paying out of my pocket for the www.Meetup.com membership, which is at least $12 a month. I have only paid for three months for now, just to see how many of you are interested. The payment will be made through an account I created for GAP at www.Amazon.com . It will be very simple to do, especially if you already have an account with Amazon, and it is entirely secure.

Once you have requested membership and paid the joining fee, we will quickly approve you and you will then be able to view all events scheduled. You will see who has RSVP'd for which events and you can easily RSVP to anything also. Some events may have a limit so that it doesn't get too crowded; some will have no limit.

What sort of events should you expect to see? There will be library story times, movie nights for parents, playground play dates, kids' classes at environmental centers, trips to museums, and much more! You will also be able to communicate with all members via the message board and can sign up to receive all postings by email. 

This means you will be able to chat with members about anything, such as parenting issues, events you are attending, and questions about area schools. 

And, remember, this is your group. We are simply the facilitators. So, please, always let us know if you think we should add more events or try new kinds of venues or different times. Always give us feedback so that we can do our best to provide what you  need.

Some of you might be wondering how this is different from some other parent groups in the area. First of all, this group is for ALL parents. That means moms who stay at home, moms who work outside the home, dads, grand parents, and all care givers. We will also try and always have a very full calendar of events scheduled so that you will have a lot to choose from. 

And we really believe using www.Meetup.com will make it a lot easier to connect everyone. Being able to RSVP so easily and view who else is planning on attending any given event, will hopefully encourage more members to go. And if you don't want to clog up your inbox with emails, you don't have to. You can choose not to subsribe to the message board posts and simply visit the group when you want to check out events and who is going. 

We are very, very exited about this and hope you are too! Please sign up, RSVP for an event, and let us know what kinds of events you want to see in the future! Hope to see you all soon!

This Weekend: Winter Variety Show and Silent Auction

If you haven't decided what you're doing this weekend, try out this fun event Saturday morning at The Cooperative Nursery School in Germantown:

The Cooperative Nursery School at the Unitarian Society of Germantown, a part of the Mt.Airy/Germantown community for over 40 years, presents a Winter Variety Show and Silent Auction. In what promises to be another popular Coop Nursery sponsored event, the entertainment will feature: a puppet show with the Six Hands Puppet Troupe, dramatic storytelling with Miss Kala (formerly of the Please Touch Museum) and a children’s sing-a-long with local folksinger, Michael Mabry.

There will also be kid-friendly food to purchase and an auction featuring great items to bid on from our community!  

This fun-filled event will be held on Saturday, March 7th from 11-1pm. Admission is $5 per child over 1 year or $15 per family. All proceeds will benefit the Cooperative Nursery School. The show will be held at the Unitarian Church on 6511 Lincoln Drive. Entrance and parking on Johnson Street. 

For more information, please call the school at 215-844-5770.

Welcome to SEPTA-land

It was about 10:00 pm on a Sunday, and I was strapping my dozing child into her car seat for the last leg of our odyssey that had taken us on the rails up to north-central New Jersey and back in a day. Mommy was exhausted, also, but my face brightened and my long-term memory activated when my child murmured, "Mommy, I had fun on the train." "Well, we will have to do this again soon," I noted to myself.

Kids love public transportation, so I have been integrating it into our family activities whenever and wherever possible. It's true that rail and bus travel is not always cheaper than car travel, but if you add in entertainment value and time that you are not driving and can instead interact with your kids, then it is cost effective or, as the credit card adverts used to read: priceless.

It is also a value-add that, on SEPTA trains and buses, children enjoy special free fares: on weekends and major holidays, up to two children under the age of 11 traveling with a paying adult ride for free. On a daily basis SEPTA offers up to two children under 42 inches tall with a paying adult a free ride.

On New Jersey Transit, the Family Supersaver Fares are available on trains, light rail, and buses during weekends and holidays from 7:00 pm Friday (or the day before a holiday) until 6am Monday (or the day after a holiday). Two children ages five through 11 may travel free with a passenger paying any valid fare. Also on New Jersey Transit, children ages five through 11 save at least 50% off regular one-way fares at all times. Up to three children ages four and under ride free with a passenger paying any valid fare.

The websites for SEPTA and New Jersey Transit are moderately helpful with providing schedules and fares (see “Septaland” below), but I do not recommend their trip planner. Instead, I recommend looking up the bus and train routes that are near your starting and ending points. In Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy, and Germantown, the R7 and R8 regional rail lines take travelers into Center City Philadelphia. Some trains go one stop past 30th Street Station to University City, which deposits you right next to the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropolgy. The R7 has convenient links to, and on the weekdays takes you right through to, Trenton's Transit Center, where you can catch trains up to New York city, which is another trip we will take within the next year in order to visit the Museum of Natural History and the Staten Island Ferry.

Finally, I have not tried this yet, but a GAP family could also take the R7 downtown and then catch the PATCO high speed line into Camden to the Adventure Aquarium and Camden Children’s Garden. Sadly, the bus routes from Chestnut Hill, Mt. Airy, and Germantown into Center City are less convenient than those from neighboring Roxborough, from where you can take the 9 or 21 bus to and from Center City, and the 27 bus in the other direction to the Plymouth Meeting Mall. You can park and ride from the Wissahickon Train Station on Ridge Avenue.

Knowing the importance of avoiding setbacks when traveling with toddlers, I had researched the train schedules and fares online up to the day before our odyssey. But, when we had boarded and were told we would have to switch trains in Center City, the conductor responded to my quizzical look with the incantation “Welcome to SEPTA-land.” So, be flexible and ready to ask questions – conductors and ticket sellers are helpful and knowledgeable – and sympathetic.

The third leg of our odyssey, which saw us boarding the New Jersey Transit train (after we had to run upstairs to buy tickets), offered its own reward: the train was very clean and bright, and it was a double decker! We sat on the upper deck for a better view and rode 40 minutes to our destination.

The New Jersey Transit trains do have restrooms, but I brought diapers just in case and limited pre-travel imbibing. Also, for the ride home, my child was dressed for bed. I recommend, just as on plane trips, bringing along a few new paperback books and a few markers with a coloring book or blank paper. However, we also entertained ourselves with sugar free bubble gum and hand-play games, people watching and taking pictures with our cell phone.

Here's wishing you happy trails!

Great Pediatrician Coming to East Falls!

Dr. Charlene Brock, one of the pediatricians we have featured in our earlier list of doctors in the area, is moving closer to our area. She will be in her new office in April with Dr. Eileen Tyrala. They will be at 3300 Henry Avenue in East Falls (19129). 

Dr Brock is a wonderful pediatrician, great with kids and understanding of alternative vaccine schedules in case that is an issue for you. She takes her time and is happy to answer any questions you have. She is a big supporter of breastfeeding and does not over-prescribe antibiotics when they are not needed.

For more information or to get a head start on scheduling your child's next appointment, you can call them at 215.438.3300.