December 2011

Can You Name All the Things That Will Drop This New Year’s Eve?

If you said “A big crystal ball in the middle of Times Square” and thought you were done…FAIL! At last count there are hundreds of things – from a giant beer bottle to several pieces of giant candy – dropped from all sorts of heights all over the world. Some are raised, rather like a flag, in [...]

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It’s So Easy to Start Homeschooling

by Sandra Foyt

If I had a nickel for every time a parent told me that they wished they could homeschool their child; well, I might be able to buy a soda with it. No, seriously, homeschooling isn’t hard. The difficulty is in contemplating jumping into the unknown. Last spring, when my son and I were well into our [...]

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Boxing Day and the Feast of Stephen

by Cie McCullough Buschle

Good King Wenceslas looked out on the Feast of Stephen… So begins the strains of a familiar old English Christmas Carol. It’s the story of Saint Wenceslaus I, Duke of Bohemia (907–935), a saintly king who goes out in a storm to give a poor man not just the bare minimum of fuel, but also [...]

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On The Night Before Christmas…

by Sandra Foyt

As we settle into a quiet night at home, I would like to share with you one of my favorite holiday traditions – a reading of Clement C. Moore’s poem, “The Night Before Christmas.” Wishing you a most joyous holiday from our family to yours!

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A Photo Tour of the St. Thomas Synagogue

by Sandra Foyt

A walk through downtown Charlotte Amalie on the US Virgin Island of St. Thomas is a lesson in religious freedom like none other. Within six blocks, and often side-by-side, you will pass numerous churches, many with a rich colonial history. One of the most interesting is the St. Thomas Synagogue. Declared a National Historic Landmark [...]

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Behind the Scene Secrets of Santa’s Sleigh

by Cie McCullough Buschle

This year, with the help of NORAD, Albany Kid is pleased to bring to you some of the facts about Santa’s sleigh. It wasn’t all that easy, as you can imagine. After all, Santa Claus has been around for hundreds of years, and is well known to be camera shy. However, throughout history there have [...]

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Evolution of a Road Warrior

by Sandra Foyt

If it were up to my teenage daughter, we would replace my beloved Chevy Suburban with a $1000-or-less jalopy. Experience and hard-earned wisdom tells me that that isn’t the best way to resolve the family car dilemma. Car shopping for a family car that can handle outdoor adventures and adventurous road trips is never THAT [...]

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Olympus Pen: Pro Photos from a Tiny Camera

by Sandra Foyt

Have you ever sacrificed a once-in-a-lifetime photo opp because you didn’t want to carry a bulky camera? Wouldn’t it be amazing if you could take pro photos from a tiny camera? Now you can. Anybody can capture stunning photos with the Olympus Pen – and The Pen Ready Project proves it! To show how easy [...]

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A Tale of a Munchkin Giveaway In Rensselaer County

by Sandra Foyt

As longtime readers of Albany Kid know very well, we like to do giveaways on our blog. But we don’t just do any kind of giveaway. They are a lot of work to host, and we’re not going to do it unless we think that it will be of great interest to our subscribers. Albany [...]

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Teach a Child to Read, and You Feed Him For Life. Help Build Libraries In Zambia & Win Great Prizes Too!

by Sandra Foyt

I have seen many sad things in my travels. Children begging on the streets of Bogota, Colombia. Families huddled along roads leading to Delhi, India. But the saddest thing I ever saw was a bare school in the Mekong Delta of Vietnam – no computers, no art supplies, and saddest of all, no books. Libraries [...]