WDCP Best of L.A. December Weekend Guide Part 2

WDCP Best of L.A.

Mount Waterman in the Angeles National Forest has skiing

Two Week December Weekend Guide Part 2

December 20th – 31st

There is all kinds of wintery fun to be had in Los Angeles this time of year! In addition to the calendar below you and your children can also…

Ski or take lessons at Mt Waterman . Where is it? Well, right here in our Angeles National Forest! About a 45 minute drive up Highway 2.

and

Ice Skate on Pershing Square in Downtown Los Angeles!

See links for more information

Saturday 12/20

Malibu Creek State Park is offering a little “Fun With Nature” in the form of crafts, exhibits, and games on the beautiful grounds of their visitor’s center from 12:30pm – 2:30pm.*

Sunday 12/21

The Conejo Valley Botanical Garden will have the usual Sunday fun at their “Kid’s Adventure Garden” from 11am – 3pm where your children can play in the treehouse, wander the “zoo garden”, and there is usually a fun craft or two!*

SPECIAL EVENT 12/26 – 12/31

Snowdays at Kidspace!

Every day there is a different fun-filled activity! Dancing, cooking, sculpting,  crafts and more. See the calendar below and just try to chose a day – you may have to go to them all. They even have a special “Noon Years Eve” celebration just for the little mortals!

Friday, December 26
Holiday Day Camp

Kids ages 4-7 will enjoy a half-day of Kidspace Day Camp from 9am – 1pm, participating in arts and crafts, games, Museum exploration and more. Registration is online at kidspacemuseum.org

Saturday, December 27
Ice Sculpting from 11am – 1pm

Free with Museum admission!  Watch a professional artist melt and carve a block of ice into a beautiful ice sculpture in the Kidspace Courtyard.

Sunday, December 28
Radio Disney from 11am – 1pm

Free with Museum admission! Jam with the Radio Disney 1110 AM Road Crew as they deejay a dance party at Kidspace.  Play games, win prizes, and hang out listening to your favorite music.

Monday, December 29
Puck’s Apprentice at 10am and 2pm

Mix, bake and decorate holiday cookies alongside professional chefs from Wolfgang Puck. Morning session is for ages 3-5, afternoon session is for ages 6-10. Must be accompanied by an adult; registration is online at kidspacemuseum.org.

Wednesday, December 31
Noon Year’s Eve at 12pm

A Kidspace tradition! Celebrate the “noon” year with your little ones with a countdown celebration in the amphitheater at 12pm that includes streamers, music and sparkling cider. Free with Museum admission.

Sunday 12/28

Malibu Lagoon State Beach is having a special hour-long “Beach and Wetlands Birdwatching” excursion just for young children and their parents from 10am -11am. It’s never too early to develop a passion for the creatures of these important local ecosystems and have some fun too!*

May your holidays be filled with many moments of joy and peace for your family! We’ll see you in the new year!

*FREE

-Ilana Gustafson Turner

WDCP Best of L.A. December Weekend Guide (part 1)

WDCP Best of LA

Los Angeles in Winter

Two Week December Weekend Guide

Saturday 12/6

There is plenty to do under the stars this evening. Vista Hermosa in Downtown is having their Family Campfire Night! Hear stories, sing songs, roast marshmallows, and enjoy a chilly evening  with fellow community families from 5pm – 6:30pm. *

It’s all about starts at Malibu Creek’s Young Naturalist meeting too! Bring a shoebox and a flashlight along and explore the wonders of Astronomy with experts equipped with telescopes. Pre-registration is required. Call (818) 591-1701 x 181. For ages 8 – 12, from 6pm – 9pm.

If you can’t make it out to Malibu to show your children the night sky,and you don’t want the camfire at Vista Hermosa to obstruct your view you can take them over to Griffith Observatory for their monthly “Star Party” from 2pm-9:45pm. *

Sunday 12/7

Satwiwa Cultural Center is celebrating the coming Winter Solstice with an artist show and sale, Native American storytelling, and music from 10am – 3pm. *

Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Gardens in neighboring Claremont is offering a chance for children to make Native American toys using natural materials in their “Toys Grow on Trees” workshop. $18 for children, accompanying adult free.

Saturday 12/13

Franklin Canyon’s Sooky Goldman Nature Center is hosting their monthly “Speak for the Trees!” interactive and entertaining class all about… you guessed it… trees, from 2pm – 4pm, for kids ages “8-88″. *

What happens in the L.A. Zoo at night? Well, children 7 and up can find out for themselves by taking part in the “Zoopendous Night” from 6pm Saturday to 9am Sunday. For a fee of $45 – $55 children will get food, fun, games, animal trivia, and a chance to have the zoo all to themselves. How often do you get the chance to wake up to a howler monkey in Los Angeles? I can say I never have – not even once.

Sunday 12/14

Descanso Gardens is kicking into the holiday spirit with their “Winter Weekend”. Children can meet santa, ride the train, listen to music, make crafts, all while they stroll the beautiful wintery gardens! From open to close. (On Saturday also)

*FREE

-Ilana Gustafson Turner

NYT – Media Use and Health in Children

Yet another reason to get your children outside!

Report Ties Children’s Use of Media to Their Health

Published: December 1, 2008

New York Times

by Brian Stelter

“The average parent doesn’t understand that if you plop your kids down in front of the TV or the computer for five hours a day, it can change their brain development, it can make them fat, and it can lead them to get involved in risky sexual activity at a young age,”

The National Institutes of Health and a nonprofit advocacy group, Common Sense Media, have another reason for President-elect Barack Obama to keep urging parents to “turn off the TV.”

In what researchers call the first report of its kind, a review of 173 studies about the effects of media consumption on children asserts that a strong correlation exists between greater exposure and adverse health outcomes.

“Coach potato does, unfortunately, sum it up pretty well,” said Ezekiel J. Emanuel, chairman of the bioethics department at the institutes’ clinical center, one of the study’s five reviewers.

The report should compel lawmakers to underwrite media education efforts and public service advertising campaigns and should motivate the entertainment industry to be more “responsible and responsive,” said Jim Steyer, the chief executive of Common Sense Media, which helped to finance the study.

“The research is clear that exposure to media has a variety of negative health impacts on children and teens,” he said.

Dr. Emanuel, Mr. Steyer and others plan to brief Washington policy makers on the study on Tuesday. Joined by researchers at Yale University and California Pacific Medical Center, Dr. Emanuel’s team analyzed almost 1,800 studies conducted since 1980 and identified 173 that met the criteria the researchers set.

In a clear majority of those studies more time with television, films, video games, magazines, music and the Internet was linked to rises in childhood obesity, tobacco use and sexual behavior. A majority also showed strong correlations — what the researchers deemed “statistically significant associations” — with drug and alcohol use and low academic achievement.

The evidence was somewhat less indicative of a relationship between media exposure and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, the seventh health outcome that was studied.

Dr. Emanuel, whose brother, Rahm, is the president-elect’s chief of staff, said he was surprised by how lopsided the findings were. “We found very few studies that had any positive association” for children’s health, he said.

Researchers sought to look at the health effects of a wide array of media and distill 30 years of research into a simple message. “The average parent doesn’t understand that if you plop your kids down in front of the TV or the computer for five hours a day, it can change their brain development, it can make them fat, and it can lead them to get involved in risky sexual activity at a young age,” Mr. Steyer said.

Acknowledging that socioeconomic status and other factors can affect children’s health, Dr. Emanuel said the researchers chose studies that controlled for outside variables and ranked the strength of evidence accordingly.

Mr. Steyer said he was surprised to find an absence of research into the impact of new technologies. “Media has evolved at a dizzying pace, but there’s almost no research about Facebook, MySpace, cellphones, et cetera,” he said.

His organization, which was founded in 2003 and provides family-oriented reviews and ratings of Web sites, television shows and video games, intends to push for more research into the media’s effects on children and the setting of limits on advertising to children.

Mr. Obama has shown interest in the subject, telling parents to “turn off the television set and put the video games away” in speeches and running a commercial during the campaign, “Turn It Off,” that focused on education.

While Dr. Emanuel wouldn’t say if the study was a subject at Thanksgiving dinner with his brother, he said that more research into media’s effects on children’s health was necessary.

“We have to be concerned about what’s on TV, but we also have to be concerned about how much of the day kids are actually interacting with TV and other media,” he said.