Monthly Archives: June 2011

July Events in Westport

July 1: Independence Day Fireworks Celebration at Compo Beach, sponsored by the Westport Police Athletic League.  Be there or be square!  (Rain date July 5)

Saturday July 9th  Annual Family Tennis Festival at Longshore Club Park.  Lots of activities including instructional clinics, tournaments and giveaways.  Tennis vendors with state of the art equipment, food, drink and lots of family fun.  For further information contact Dave Kardas at the Longshore Tennis office at 203-341-9239 or visit www.playtenniswestport.com

Saturday July 9 (Rain date Sunday July 10) Point to Point Swim:  Annual one mile open water race that is held at Compo Beach.  The event is open to ages 10 and up.  T shirts for all entrants and awards for the male and female top three finishers in 14 different age groups.  For further information contact Bridget at 203-226-8981 or visit www.westporty.org

Saturday and Sunday July 16 and 17:  Outdoor Art Show.  Over 125 artists display original fine art along the sidewalks of Parker Harding Plaza. 

Saturday July 16-Tuesday July 19 at 9 a.m Westport Library Book Sale

Children’s Activity:

Dream Catchers – Native Americans used dream catchers to keep bad dreams away and let good dreams come in.  Simple to make for 5 year olds and older, this is a fun craft activity that can then be hung in the child’s room. Take an ordinary paper plate and cut the center out of it leaving just the rim of the plate. Color the rim the child’s favorite color. Next, punch holes with a hole punch every inch or two all the way around the plate. Then, string the yarn back and forth from one side of the rim to the other forming a web like design inside of the paper ring. Decide which is the top and which is the bottom of their dream catcher. At the bottom of the dream catcher attach small feathers.

Child Care Focus

Getting children to help you:  Ask your host parents how much time they think it should take your host kids to complete a certain task that you and your host kids struggle with.  Then set the timer and have a race against the clock to get things done before the timer beeps.  There is no reward, just a high five and a challenge to do it faster the next day.   This makes it fun and exciting!  Once the behavior has changed and the struggle is over, you will not need the timer as the expectation has been set and met.  Use a timer for things like

  • getting dressed
  • room cleaning–set the timer for five or ten minutes and challenge your host kids to clean as much of the toys” room as possible before the timer beeps
  • playtime before doing homework or chores

Summer Safety Cluster Meeting

Westport aupairs said farewell to some old friends and hello to our new arrivals at our June 6th cluster meeting at my house.  We reviewed some summer safety tips and had a great time socializing and getting to know one another.  Our next cluster meeting will be a rock and country blues concert at Westport’s open air Levitt Pavilion.  Summer is finally here!IMG_0002IMG_0001