September Winona Area Family Events Calendar

Preschool Open Gym • 9-11 am Tuesdays and Thursdays, Sept. 11 – April 29 • East Rec Center, Winona
• Come play with your preschooler. Free.

Flood Aid Concert & Barbecue • Fri, Sept. 7, 5 pm • Saint Mary’s University Plaza
• Music, barbecued food, kids’ games. $10 per person; freewill offering for kids under 12. More info: 457-6936

La Crosse Storytelling Festival • Fri, Sept. 7, 6:30-9 pm; Sat, Sept. 8, 10 am-10 pm • Myrick Park, La Crosse
• Music, food, and nationally known storytellers. Separate stage for children’s stories and crafts from 1:15-5 pm Saturday. $15 per family or $6 adults, $5 children, free to age 3 and under. More info: www.lacrossestoryfest.com

Kellogg Watermelon Festival • Fri, Sept. 7 – Sun, Sept. 9 • Downtown Kellogg
• Burn-out races, live bands, street dance, carnival rides. Kiddie parade 1 pm Saturday; Grand Parade Sunday at 2 pm, with free watermelon afterward. More info: Wabasha-Kellogg CVB (800) 565-4158 or www.wabashamn.org

September Splash • Sat, Sept. 8 • 2 pm-5 pm • East End Rec Center, Winona

• Outdoor water games for kids. Free, no registration required.

Pickwick Mill Day • Sat., Sept. 8 • Pickwick, 12 miles south of Winona on Co. Road 7
• Food, music, dancing, antique tractors, blacksmith, wagon rides, live demonstrations at the historic mill. More info: www.pickwickmill.org/mill_day_info.htm

Laura Ingalls Wilder Days • Sat, Sept. 8 – Sun, Sept. 9 • Pepin, Wis.
• Demonstrations of traditional crafts like blacksmithing, woodworking, hand-spinning; craft market; food; children’s pioneer games; tours of Laura's birth site. Fiddle contest 3:30 – 6 pm Saturday, with bonfire and live music following; Grande Parade Sunday afternoon. More info: Pepin Visitor Center at (800) 442-3011 or www.pepinwisconsin.com

Winona Public Library Storytimes • Tuesdays beginning Sept. 11 • Children’s Dept., Winona Public Library
• Toddler Tales 10-10:20 am; Preschool Storytime 10:30 – 11 am. Updates and more info: WinonaKids.org

Toddler Tuesday at the Minnesota Marine Museum • Tue, Sept. 11 10:30-noon • 800 Riverview Drive, Winona
• Activities for kids not yet in kindergarten. Come and go as you please. More info: 474-6625 or minnesotamarineart.org

La Crescent Apple Festival • Thu, Sept. 13 – Sun Sept 16 • La Crescent
• Carnival, kiddie parade (11 am Saturday, Crucifixion parking lot), orchard tours, flea market, craft fair, live entertainment, King Apple Parade (Sunday, 1 pm along Elm St.). More info: 507-895-2800 or www.applefestusa.com

Winona Heritage Fair • Sat, Sept. 15 • Johnson St. between 3rd and 4th streets (by the Historical Museum)
• Saturday features a street fair with crafters, kids’ activities, and food; concerts will be offered on Friday and Saturday nights. More info: The Winona County Historical Society, 454-2723 or www.winonahistory.org/HeritageFair/

18th Annual Quarry Hill Fall Festival • Sat, Sept. 15 – Sun, Sept. 16 11am-5pm • Quarry Hill Nature Center, 701 Silver Cr. Rd. NE, Rochester
• Ladybug bowling, cave tours, big dig, bio bingo, food and more. More info: www.qhnc.org or (507) 281-6114

Kid's Fest • Sat, Sept. 15, 10 am – 4 pm • Omni Center, 255 Riders Club Road, Onalaska
• This year’s theme is “Woodland Wildlife,” featuring the Minnesota Zoomobile. Games, prizes, inflatables. $3 per person; 2 and under, free. More info: (608) 782-9710

Franciscan Fest • Sat, Sept. 22, noon - 4 pm • Assisi Courtyard, Viterbo University, La Crosse
• Medieval village featuring crafts, food vendors, music, and villagers wearing costumes from the time of Francis and Clare. Music includes Celtic Cross, 9th Street Singers, Prairie Smoke, and the St. Francis Choir. The Franciscan Joy area will be open to all ages with kid-appropriate crafts, music, and other activities. $1 per person. More info: (608) 791-5295 or http://www.franciscanspiritualitycenter.org/FranciscanFestPoster_TwoSmall.pdf.

Did we miss your event for families with kids age 5 or under? You can note it in the comments box below, or e-mail WinonaECFEPTA [at] gmail.com to have it listed. This events calendar is sponsored by the Winona Early Childhood Family Education PTA. For more information about Early Childhood Family Education programs and events, call 494-0913.

EQUIPMENT AVAILABLE FOR LICENSED DAYCARE PROVIDERS AFFECTED BY FLOODING

Winona County DayCare Providers Association is offering all licensed daycare providers who suffered a loss due to the flooding a free membership to the association so they can take advantage of our toy lending library, to help with rebuilding their business with toys/and equipment.

Anyone interested in doing so can call Mandy at 454-1531 to set up a time to go to the toy library to look around. Our toy library is located at Coldwell Bank's basement at 104 E 4th Street, Winona. Coldwell Bank lets us use this space free to help us offer many toys--ages infant to preschool and equipment such as cribs, strollers, and high chairs. PLEASE pass this onto a provider you know that was affected by this terrible flood, and let us help them out.

Carolyn A. Goree, Vice President
The Winona County DayCare Providers Association

Free Childcare

FREE childcare (infant thru age 8) for families who have flood damage to their home and for volunteers who are helping with clean-up.
Where: Living Light Church, 850 Hwy 14 (just past St. Mary's University)
When: 9am-5pm starting Fri, August 24 thru Mon, Sept 3 (no care on Sundays)
Questions? Call 454-2732. If possible, please call ahead to let us know how many children to expect. We will have snacks, lunch, and fun age-appropriate activities!

Flood Relief for Child Care Providers

Child Care Resource and Referral has Emergency Grant funding available to Child Care Providers affected by the floods.

You can find the Emergency Grant applications at www.mnchildcare.org. Go to Programs, click on Resource & Referral, then click on For Providers, then click on Region 10 and finally click on the PDF file for Emergency Grant Application. You can also contact Maribeth Fair-Pingree (Grants Coordinator) directly and she will send you an application.

If you would like to know what would be covered and how much, please contact Maribeth directly. She is receiving a high number of calls at this time, so please leave a message. She will contact everyone who leaves a message for her . This is her direct contact information:

Maribeth Fair-Pingree
Grants Coordinator
507-287-2020 Ext 156 or
800-462-1660 Ext 156
Or email her at
maribethp@c2r2.org

The Importance of Play

The most recent installment of the public radio series "Speaking of Faith" spent an hour examining the importance of play, and how play shapes us as human beings. Here's an excerpt from a reflection that the host, Krista Tippett, wrote about the program:

[Dr.] Stuart Brown [director of the National Institute for Play], for his own part, says he spent too many years as a workaholic doctor; and he came to his fascination with play after observing play-deprivation in the lives of homicidal young men he had been given to study. These days, he gives himself three or four hours a day of "rogue tennis," reading, frolicking with his grandchildren. For work, he promotes better science on how play enriches us and nourishes human spirit and character. He believes this has implications for how we should structure our schools, workplaces, and family lives.

I am surprised, and eventually convinced, by the amazing list of virtues Stuart Brown associates with play across the span of our lives, drawing on a rich universe of play study in humans and intelligent social animals. (By the way, stop right here for a smile by looking at amazing pictures of animals quite obviously delighting in play.) It is established, Stuart Brown insists, that an actively playful life establishes the earliest sense of self; sustains trust; provides increased enthusiasm for effectiveness in learning; prevents violence; invigorates the body; lessens the consequences of stress; contributes directly to the capacity to approach and solve complex life problems; and rewards and directs the living of life in accord with innate talents..

You can read the rest of Ms. Tippett's reflection, read the transcript, listen to the program, or download it as an mp3 file, at http://speakingoffaith.publicradio.org/programs/play.