Gish Picks: Week of February 10, 2010


Welcome to this week's "Gish Picks", where I highlight family-oriented cultural events, products or services. Please note that I "highlight" events, but I don't know if they are appropriate for your particular children, so choose wisely based on age, maturity and interests. I know many of you go to events based on GISH PICKS recommendations; PLEASE remember to tell the organization that you are there because of us. Word-of-mouth like yours helps our business to grow. In the same spirit, please also feel free to share GISH PICKS with friends and families. Do you have something you would like to promote on Gish Picks? Advertisers can promote family-friendly events, products or services to Houstonians all over the city and the surrounding area who are active parents, involved citizens and great shoppers. We love doing this community service and want to keep it free for our readers but in order to justify the hours spent researching, writing and designing this newsletter, we need advertising support. If you'd like to learn more, please click below. SUMMER'S ALMOST HERE. We're busy putting together THE SUMMER BOOK: A GUIDE TO HOUSTON DAY CAMPS AND CLASSES FOR KIDS AND TEENS, so if you are the director of a summer camp program, please check our website for details. The book will be available in bookstores March 1. Stay tuned for details! TWEETIN' FOR CULTURE! Hey tweet peeps! Follow me on Twitter and you'll get lots of PICKS of fun times in Houston – news you can use. I look forward to being stalked by you! Now, GO FIND FUN!

HAVE A LITTLE PIZZA WITH YOUR CLASSICS!

The River Oaks Chamber Orchestra has been opening its proverbial arms to youth with ROCOrooters, a music education/childcare program for kids between 2 months and 10 years that is held during and after their concerts at The Church of St. John the Divine. Kids enjoy fun music and art instruction along with a trip into the concert hall for 5-10 year olds. Thankfully they now offer a similar program for tweens and teens called “Club ROCO,” which offers yet another way for the whole family to explore the world of music. Kids ages 10-14 will attend the full ROCO concert with their families then have a chance to meet ROCO’s musicians before enjoying an evening of pizza and games while parents enjoy a night out. Like ROCOrooters, Club ROCO will run in tandem with all Saturday evening concerts at St. John’s. Club ROCO will kick off with this weekend’s “Conductorless! Concert” featuring Simone Dinnerstein, piano soloist, on Saturday, February 13th at 5pm. The River Oaks Chamber Orchestra is comprised of 40 all-star musicians, distinguished guest conductors, and famous composers who come together from all over the world to present unexpected classics, original compositions, and delightful performances that dissolve the barriers between audience and orchestra.

Reservations for Club ROCO and ROCOrooters are $20 for the first registration and $15 for each additional registration; Club ROCO’s registration includes a student ticket to the concert and can be combined with ROCOrooters to receive the multi-child preregistration discount. Club ROCO may also be purchased at the door for $25 per child. Pick up time for both age groups is 9:30pm.

A Salute to Hollywood: Mardi Gras Galveston 2010

MARDI GRAS GOES TO THE DOGS...AND KIDS...

This Sunday, February 14 at 1pm, it's time for the "12th Annual Krewe of Barkus and Meoux Mardi Gras Parade"! Bringing out the best in people and their pets, this parade begins at 27th and Seawall and proceeds west to 47th Street, to the Academy parking lot. Pets of all sizes, shapes, and species are welcome (costumes optional). There will be a pre-parade costume contest, with the winners making up the Royal Court. This parade benefits the daily operations of the Galveston Island Humane Society. Tickets to be in the parade are $20/advance registration and $25/day of parade. For more information and to register, contact Cynthia McEldowney at 409.744.0102 or cynthiamce@aol.com.

And on that same day, kids can join in or watch the "Mardi Gras Children’s Parade" which starts at 2pm at the Firefighters Local 571. The 2010 parade celebrates “A Salute to Hollywood”, with costumed kids and decorated floats. It begins at 27th Street and Seawall and proceeds to 47th Street to the Academy parking lot. Pre-registration for parade participation is required; please contact Charles Olsen for more information at 409.789.1265.

HIP HOP POETRY FUN

Head out to Talento Bilingüe Houston this Saturday, February 13 from 2-5pm for a free and raucous “Hip-Hop Poetry Workshop” inspired by Havikoro, a Houston Hip-Hop dancing crew! Families will create poems and embed them into rhythmic hip-hop routines with the help of writers and Havikoro. The first few families attending will have the opportunity to receive tickets to TBH’s next production, "Nobody." Snacks and drinks will be provided.

TBH offers one literacy workshop for families each month, free of charge, as a way to encourage communal involvement with the arts. TBH teams up with professional artists to facilitate these workshops. Due to the high demand, they have limited these free workshops to 25 families per session. Families that participate in at least 6 workshops by the end will be acknowledged with a special gift from TBH and Target.

Upcoming free workshops for families are on March 6 at 2pm (literacy + visual arts + French poetry with Et Voilà Théâtre Group) and on April 3 at 2pm (literacy + photography to celebrate México and its bicentennial). Kids are encouraged to come dressed as their favorite hero to pose for a portrait.

Pre-registration is highly recommended. To register, send an email to literacy@tbhcenter.org with your contact information (name and telephone), the workshop you would like to attend, and the number of family members participating.

THIS WEEK'S ATTRACTION...HOUSTON ARBORETUM & NATURE CENTER. For more attractions, go to www.gishcreative.com/attractions.htm.

Did you know that the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center is one of the largest urban parks in the country? It is a 155-acre nature sanctuary on the edge of Memorial Park just inside the loop that is a treat to visit any time of the year (it stays cool under its canopy of trees even in the summer!). The mission of the Houston Arboretum & Nature Center is to provide education about the natural environment to people of all ages and to protect and enhance the Arboretum as a haven and as a sanctuary for native plants and animals. The idea to create an arboretum began with local ecologist and educator Robert A. Vines who advocated carving out a piece of land from Memorial Park to serve as a nature sanctuary in the 1950s. Today visitors can enjoy over 5 miles of nature trails, including forest, pond, wetland and meadow habitats. The Discovery Room, inside the Nature Center building, offers hands-on interactive exhibits, microscopes, touch screens and more for learning about the habitats and plant and wildlife found at the Center. The building is open Tuesday-Sunday, 10am-4pm and the grounds are open daily from 7am-7pm.

HANC has a huge variety of activities on a daily basis, including cooking classes, yoga, camps for kids and this Saturday, February 13 they are hosting “Tapas on the Trails” from 5-8pm. Couples can celebrate a very special Valentine's Eve with gourmet food and wine as they meander from one delectable table to the next along the recently restored Willow Oak Trail. The ultimate destination of this forest feasting will be on the Meadow Deck, where guests will enjoy champagne and a romantic dessert in the company of a special guest…a live owl. Note: in the event of rain, everything will be moved indoors.

FAMILY MUSIC FOR BABIES AND PRESCHOOLERS!

Your children will love Musik-Go-Round, an early childhood music studio located in Bellaire that promotes music development in children birth to 5 years old. It uses the acclaimed Musikgarten curriculum that offers a sequential plan of musical development to grow with your child all the way to group piano lessons. Activities will include bouncing and rocking songs, finger play and body awareness, and singing, listening, and imaginative play. Musikgarten classes stimulate the brain, foster physical and language development, and cultivate listening skills. Director Jill Vaughan has a degree in music education from Miami University and taught private piano lessons to both children and adults for over 12 years before becoming certified and licensed in Musikgarten.

Musik-Go-Round currently offers classes for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers, with parent (or caregiver) participating in class with their child(ren). Encouraging families to grow together musically is a primary goal of the program.

Sign up your kids now for classes that are available in 7 or 14 week sessions. Classes meet at Bellaire United Methodist Church, 4417 Bellaire Boulevard, Room 220, on Tuesday mornings at 9am, 9:45am or 10:30am. Visitors are welcome to attend a free demonstration class with advance notice; see website for details.

MOMS LOVE SOCIAL MEDIA AT HOUSTON'S "MOM 2.0 SUMMIT" FEBRUARY 18-20.

Sign up now for the coolest cyberfest in the nation: the Mom 2.0 Summit, taking place February 18-20 at the Four Seasons Downtown Houston. Founded by 2 smart Houston mommies, Carrie Pacini and Laura Mayes, Mom 2.0 is for moms (and they'll let dads in too!) who want to talk shop with social media influencers, industry leaders, and leading brand makers as they share best practices. You'll get to discuss ways to create smarter web-based marketing and discover social media tools that engage your audience and build relationships.

This year’s Summit discussions will focus on three paths you can take for even more enlightenment:

The Professional Path.

Each panel discussion in this path will revolve around hot topics, growth trends, and new ideas to enhance your network, your brand, and your professional online presence.

The Product Path.

Each gathering in this path will focus on your online product. We’ll discuss new ways to further develop and enhance your site’s platform, functionality, structure, and optimization.

The Personal Path.

This path will cover a variety of ways to develop your personal passions and to enhance your work as a content creator, a documentarian, a mother, and a community leader.

Be sure and check out the Mom 2.0 art exhibit "Defining a Movement" which is on display now through February 20. The Summit will feature a Friday night private viewing event for conference attendees, at which a silent auction for the art pieces will be held to raise money for earthquake recovery efforts in Haiti.

There's also plenty of networking fun and great speakers including Brené Brown, Katherine Center, Beth Irvine, and Katie Laird – amazing women and mothers all!

I’ll see you there!

For more about my marketing company, Gish Creative, and the services we offer, please click here. You are on this list because I thought this e-newsletter would be helpful to you or because you signed up for it. However, if you want off this list, click here and you're a goner. Please feel free to tell your friends to subscribe by clicking here.My goal is to serve as an information resource for Houston parents through my various endeavors, including:

GISH PICKS, which is online (www.thesummerbook.com/gishpicks_archive.html) and in the Houston Community Newspaper group (www.hcnonline.com);

THE SUMMER BOOK®: A GUIDE TO HOUSTON DAY CAMPS AND CLASSES FOR KIDS AND TEENS (www.thesummerbook.com) which comes out annually on March 1 and is sold at bookstores all over Houston, including Barnes and Noble and Borders; and

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS, INTERACTIVE WORKSHOPS, PRIVATE CONSULTATIONS, and ART PROGRAMS that cover topics such as summertime fun, passion-finding (for adults, children and parents and children together), marketing, historic preservation, art classes, and activism. All of these services can be tailored for any audience and budget.

The purpose of GISH PICKS is to help parents become aware of all the fun things they can do with their children in Houston and the surrounding area, so HAPPY TRAVELS! Please do give me feedback and ideas, as you are out there in the trenches also looking for interesting things for your family and I want to hear what you find. If you are having trouble getting to a website listed here, try hitting the “Ctrl” button and left-clicking on the web address, which should make it “live”.


Sarah Gish Gish Creative 1940-A Fountainview, PMB 116 Houston, Texas 77057 phone/fax: 713.532.1173 email: sarah@gishcreative.com web: www.gishcreative.com and: www.thesummerbook.com and: www.saveourlandmarks.org © 2010 Sarah Gish Designed by West of the World