Short days and long nights

I’m writing this on the shortest day of the year, Dec. 21, and I can only say how happy I am to know that every day from here on will grow longer. It’s draining to get up when it’s dark and to leave work when it’s dark also. I miss the light and don’t know anyone who doesn’t. Kids especially have a really difficult time in the winter, particularly now that most of them are engaged in after-school programs. By the time they too are finished, it’s dark and also cold, not the best recipe for outdoor fun.

Light is very important to our psyche and we have to take advantage of the weekends in the winter in particular to make sure we get enough outdoor light time. Getting yourself and the kids up early enough on weekend days to get outside and frolic is of the utmost importance. One of the glorious things about life in New York are all the wonderful parks that make our city so enjoyable in every season.

It won’t be long before we have a snowfall that leaves accumulation on the ground, and what kid doesn’t love finding a good hill in a park and sledding or snow tubing down? And what about those ice rinks? There are many wonderful rinks in all the boroughs and I urge you to make sure that your family begins this fun practice really early on in your child’s life.

The holidays were fun as they always are but now we’re on to a New Year and new experiences. New York is exciting all year long and winter is no exception. This issue offers a variety of ideas of how to stay healthy, eat well, and prioritize and make the cold months internally warmer.

Rolling out soon will be the “new look” of our website, NYParenting.com, and we hope you will visit it often. It works well with any device and offers a great calendar, helpful guides and of course all of our editorial, both recent and archived. Our Online Camp Guide 2017 will be launching soon. Be sure to look for it.

Wishing all of you and our staff and contributors a very Happy New Year! We hope you have started out the year right and that good health and prosperity will be a part of your every day life in 2017. Take nothing for granted. Enjoy! Thanks for reading.

The Gillen Brewer School

The Gillen Brewer School is a private special education school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, NYC, serving children ages 2.8 to 11 years old. Our mission is to educate and support students to become confident, independent, and engaged learners.&nbsp; Our individualized, academic-therapeutic approach to education incorporates speech and language therapy, occupational therapy, counseling, and social groups throughout each child&rsquo;s daily schedule. Students are immersed in learning which is developmentally appropriate and socially engaging.&nbsp; &nbsp; Our teachers and therapists are cross-trained in each academic and therapeutic speciality in order to provide a holistic and integrated program. Students benefit from small class sizes, and enjoy specials such as art, music, physical education, science, and technology.&nbsp; &nbsp; Central to our program is the home-school partnership, in which Gillen Brewer staff work closely with families to support the whole child in achieving their goals.&nbsp; Our Admissions Team is here to discuss how The Gillen Brewer School can partner with your family. Contact us at <a href="mailto:[email protected]">[email protected]</a> to schedule an in-person tour today!

The Ideal School

The only independent inclusion school in NYC. We enroll students from Kindergarten to Eleventh Grade in an environment of diverse abilities that inspires excellence, collaboration and growth

Enabling Devices

Enabling Devices is a family-run business that designs, manufactures and sells adapted toys and accessible devices that make life more joyful and fulfilling for children and adults living with disabilities. &nbsp; It started with a train set, a mercury switch, and a young boy whose therapist thought he couldn&rsquo;t play with toys. In 1975 our founder, Dr. Steven Kanor, walked into a room at United Cerebral Palsy/Long Island and saw a boy sitting in a wheelchair, his head resting on his shoulder. When he asked where the toys were, the OT said, &ldquo;He doesn&rsquo;t have the motor skills to play with toys, and he can&rsquo;t lift his head.&rdquo; But Dr. Kanor was not interested in what the boy couldn&rsquo;t do. He was interested in the boy's potential. The next morning, he was back. He&rsquo;d brought a train set, which he&rsquo;d connected to a mercury switch. The switch, the first capability switch he&rsquo;d designed, was attached to the boy&rsquo;s ear. When the boy raised his head, the switch made contact and the train ran around the tracks. After several weeks of playing with this toy, the boy was holding his head up straight, even when the train was not running. Dr. Kanor was elated. Since that day, he never stopped innovating, never stopped trying to make our products better, never stopped designing new devices. Today, our design team is just as passionate, just as creative, and just as committed to innovation as the man who founded this company. Enabling Devices is the place to find toys, devices and tools that help build more joyful, fulfilling lives. We have an extensive selection of adapted toys, capability switches, Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices, adapted electronics, mounts, iPad products, sensory items and products for the visually impaired. Over the years, the important constants remain. We&rsquo;re still the same small, family-run company Steven Kanor founded in 1978, with the same values of personal connection and deep product knowledge. We&rsquo;re still committed to providing caring, individualized service to each customer. And we&rsquo;re still grateful for the privilege of sharing in your journey.