Parents & Kids

Online Activities and Projects You Can Do at Home, from the Bruce Museum

For Kids in Grades 1 to 5: Bruce Museum Has At-Home STEAM Activities You Can Find Online

State Rep Matt Blumenthal Starts Facebook Live Seminar Series

Depot Youth Center Moves Online With These Webinars and Programs

Webinar: Academics and College Planning in Today’s New Environment

First Selectman to Those Gathering in Groups at Darien Parks: Don’t You Make Me Shut Them Down

Presenting the Maritime Aquarium Online: Including Live Q&As, Streaming IMAX Movies

You Can Register for This Weekend’s Darien Dash Scavenger Hunt Through Thursday

DHS Parents Association to Start ‘Senior Send-Off’ Party for Graduating Seniors

This Weekend, March 7 to 8, Is Lego Weekend at the Maritime Aquarium

Darien Library Introduces New Projects and Tech in Its TEA Room for Kids

DHS Students in Team Clean Darien Remove Garbage from Weed Beach Park

Thank You, Darien Police Officer Chris Jimenez, for Helping Those Shaken College Basketball Players

Four Fifth Graders Win Awards in Darien Daughters of the American Revolution Essay Contest

‘Stress and Pressure Surrounding Food’ Brown Bag Lunch at the Depot on Thursday

Community Organizations

By DARIENITE.COM | April 4, 2020

Education

By DARIENITE.COM | April 2, 2020

Education

By David Gurliacci | April 1, 2020

Darien Depot

By DARIENITE.COM | March 30, 2020

Darien Depot

By DARIENITE.COM | March 27, 2020

Healthy Living

By David Gurliacci | March 25, 2020

Education

By DARIENITE.COM | March 19, 2020

Parents & Kids

By DARIENITE.COM | March 9, 2020

Education

By DARIENITE.COM | March 6, 2020

Maritime Aquarium

By DARIENITE.COM | March 5, 2020

Darien Library

By DARIENITE.COM | February 19, 2020

Community Organizations

By DARIENITE.COM | February 14, 2020

Darien Depot

By DARIENITE.COM | February 14, 2020

Community Organizations

By DARIENITE.COM | February 6, 2020

Darien Depot

By DARIENITE.COM | February 4, 2020

News and features related to parents, parenting or kids and families

The Bruce Museum in Greenwich is presenting online short videos and descriptions of projects kids, teens and families can do at home as you socially isolate during the COVID-19 pandemic. Here’s the announcement about the program series, called “Digital Weekends,” from the Bruce Museum:

Digital Weekends with the Bruce are fun, hands-on art and science projects for you and your family. Over the next several weekends, teaching artist Grayson Kennedy and Youth and Family Programs Manager Megan Brown will lead you in an online activity based on exhibitions at the Bruce Museum. Use the linked videos and write-ups to make something fun and creative while you’re home. This week, for our first project, we will explore the artwork of L. A. Ring, whose paintings featured in the exhibition On the Edge of the World: Masterworks by Laurits Andersen Ring from SMK – the National Gallery of Denmark.

While closed to the public for now due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Bruce Museum in Greenwich is posting weekly activities involving STEAM (Science-Technology-Engineering-Arts-Math) for kids in Grades 1 through 5 stuck at home. From the museum’s announcement:

Manager of School and Community Programs, Corinne Flax has created weekly STEAM activities for families with children at home. These weekly activities will focus on basic STEAM concepts. Learners will get the chance to design, test, modify, experiment, hypothesize and much more. A little about the series, At Home STEAM Activities:

● The series is for children ranging from 1st through 5th Grades. Each activity can take as little as 30 minutes or as much as an entire afternoon, depending on the interest level of your learners.

State Rep. Matt Blumenthal has started a series of Facebook Live seminars for students of all ages. His next installment, at 1 p.m., Thursday, is on how to run for office. “I’ll talk about how to get politically involved & run a campaign, then answer questions. Students of all ages welcome. Tune in & share!”

The Depot Youth Center is using the internet to connect with youth and parents, with three webinars coming up and various Depot groups now online, the organization announced. Programs for Youth
“Teen programs and clubs have been moved to an online platform, including Jesse Lewis Choose Love, SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), GNO (Girls Night Out), The Garden Club, the Volunteer Club, Student Governing Board, Respect Works and more,” according to an announcement Darienite.com received Monday. “The hope is for the kids to better manage this crisis together and continue to have a forum in which to connect with one another to alleviate the natural rise of anxiety and depression that social isolation can bring,” the announcement said. Email links have been sent to Depot members. Webinars for Parents
From the announcement:

The Depot will remain a source of support for the parent community as well — we are focusing to provide webinars and online support on subjects that are top of mind right now.

In a live, online presentation, the founder and CEO of Carnegie Prep will discuss how families navigate the changing world of academics and college admissions amid school closures and standardized test cancellations. Starting at 7 p.m., Wednesday, April 1, Lynn Carnegie will discuss the importance of creating a plan for each student, from focusing on academics, online learning, and structure right now to preparing for the SAT, ACT, AP Exams, and Subject Tests this spring and summer. The event is sponsored by the Depot, Darien Youth Center and requires online registration. Register here and take a brief survey to help Carnegie tailor her talk to address your child’s situation. You will receive the link the our webinar upon confirmation of the online form.

First Selectman Jayme Stevenson says people using town parks need to avoid gathering in groups to prevent spread of COVID-19 — or she’ll have to shut them the parks down, which she said would be a shame. As of Wednesday, it partly started: The Darien Parks and Recreation Department has already shut down use of tennis and paddle courts at town parks at Stevenson’s direction, as announced in this tweet:

“Socially distancing is the most important thing for us to do right now,” Stevenson said. “We can stop this virus in its tracks if we all pledge to ourselves and one another that we’re going to follow the appropriate social distancing protocols.” Stevenson urged parents to tell their children to stop gathering in groups in their neighborhoods or elsewhere in town, and she said that at this time play dates are a bad idea, as well:

“It would be a terrible thing for any one of us to have the virus, not be symptomatic and transfer it to one of our friends, one of our loved ones, our parents, our grandparents — somebody with a medical condition. “So please: You cannot gather.”

The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk is offering special online ways for guests and educators to still connect and learn during the current COVID-19 time of closure, including live Q&As with staff as well as streaming IMAX movies. — an announcement from the Maritime Aquarium

On March 17, the Maritime Aquarium began offering live Q&As with members of its Animal-Husbandry team at 3 p.m. each day on the Aquarium’s Facebook page. Each session will mainly focus on an animal or topic shown via recorded video, but questions can be about any related Aquarium subject. Questions can be submitted any time between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. via the Aquarium’s social-media pages – Facebook, Instagram and Twitter – and then live on Facebook during the 3 p.m. “Watch Party” webcast. “We very strongly feel the need to make our resources available to our guests, members and schools, even though we are required to be apart,” said Aquarium spokesman Dave Sigworth.

Registration is open through Thursday, March 12, for the Darien Youth Commission’s third annual townwide scavenger hunt, the Darien Dash, which takes place on Saturday. — an announcement from the Darien Youth Commission

Teams partaking in the scavenger hunt will compete to score the most points by answering town-based riddles and visiting participating merchants based on clues. The Darien Dash takes place from 1 to 3 p.m., Saturday, March 14. It begins at the Town Hall gym and ends at The Depot Youth Center on Heights Road, where points will be tallied and prizes given to winners. Participation in the event is open to all ages, but requires a vehicle and driver to travel about town, based on answers to riddles.

After years of discussions with the high school’s administration, parents and community leaders, the Darien High School Parents Association got the green light earlier this fall to start a new tradition — the “Senior Send-Off.”
Taking place right after the Darien High School prom on Friday, May 15th, the Senior Send-Off will be a fun, inclusive, substance-free celebration for all DHS seniors that provides a final opportunity for them to celebrate with their entire graduating class before they head off to senior internships the following week. — an announcement from the Darien High School Parents Association
Whether students attend prom or not, all DHS seniors are invited to attend. The party’s theme will be a closely guarded secret until students step through the door of the still-secret location that evening, but clues will be given in the weeks leading up to the night full of food, games, entertainment, raffle prizes, memories and more. This celebration is a Darien High School Parents Association (DHSPA) sponsored event being planned and organized by a parent volunteer committee that already boasts nearly 100 parents sworn to secrecy. It will be funded entirely through donations from parents and the community.

Piece together a shark, jellyfish, seal or other marine animal to add to an enormous ocean scene March 7 and 8 during “Lego Weekend” at The Maritime Aquarium at Norwalk. Editor’s note: This is a prudential question for individual parents to answer: Do you mind if your kid goes to an event now or in the very near future where your kid might pick up COVID-19? Or is it better to get your child to some events now, before we find out that COVID-19 is already nearby and it may be much less safe for a while? Now is safer than later, when the pandemic inevitably comes here, but is it safe enough? On the other hand, will you be keeping them at home (when they’re not in school) for months, perhaps well over a year, until a vaccine is created?

Does your kid use the TEA Room at Darien Library? If your boy or girl in Grades 3 to 6 does use it, here’s what’s new; if they don’t use it, consider this a list of reasons why they might want to. In an email Tuesday the library announced “new, fun projects and tech to explore in the TEA Room,” the library’s mini-makerspace/learning lab/artist studio for kids in Grades 3 to 6. What the TEA Room Is
The library offers classes in the TEA Room on subjects from circuitry to printmaking (learn more about scheduled classes here — although there aren’t any for this week). You’re also welcome to reserve the room to explore all of our supplies and technologies.

The first beach clean up of Team Clean Darien was a success! It happened Friday between 11 a.m. and 12 noon. Several Darien High School students braved the cold and wind to help the cause! — Text and pictures sent in by Mary Wade

They were surprised at the amount of garbage! Next month we will hit Pear Tree Beach!

Dear Chief Anderson,

This past Friday was a normal Friday night at the Depot; lots of kids, lots of noise. Officer Chris Jimenez walked in the door and came straight over to me and said there had been a bus accident on the thruway; would it be possible to bring the people on the bus to the Depot as it was bitter cold, and the wind was relentless. Within 15 minutes Officer Jimenez returned with the entire Merrimack College girls basketball team, state troopers, Post 53 and a host of responders. There are no words that can truly explain the faces of the girls that walked into the Depot Friday night. Every outlet in the building was being used to call parents.

Ox Ridge student William Curtis won first place in Darien’s Good Wife’s River Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution’s 2020 Fifth Grade Essay Contest. He was one of four Darien fifth graders who won awards in the contest. — an announcement from the Good Wife’s River Chapter of the DAR

Since 2020 marks the 400th anniversary of the voyage of the Mayflower and the founding of Plymouth Colony, this year’s essay topic was: “The Voyage of the Mayflower.” Curtis’s winning essay is now entered into the CT State DAR Essay Contest. The DAR chapter hosted a reception for the winners, their families, teachers and administrators in the parlor of the Noroton Presbyterian Church, where each of the students were presented with gift certificates from Barrett Bookstore and a DAR certificate. Membership in the DAR is open to any woman over the age of 18 who can trace her direct lineage to a Patriot whose last act was to serve or furnish material aid to the cause of American Independence during the Revolutionary War.

« August 2022 »

Darien Depot Youth Center invites you to a brown bag lunch on Thursday with a discussion about “Stress and Pressure Surrounding Food — Where Does It Come From? And how to Destress.”

— an announcement from Darien Depot Youth Center
Daisy Blakney will be leading this lunch discussion from 11:30 to 1 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 6 at the Depot, 25 Heights Road. She is a health and life coach, a mentor with the National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders, and a teacher/studio manager at Pure Barre, Diet Tech at The Center for Discovery. She’s a firm believer that what you eat is a big part of what you are on the inside and out.