Our kids had so much fun this year sharing their creative writings with one another. Our workshops are a relaxed way to explore different genres, to learn about the origins of the written word, to think about audience, and to practice literary skills. Most importantly, our workshops are a supportive environment that encourages creativity and comradeship among peers. In City Kids, we stress the importance of really listening to one another rather than just waiting for one's

Architecture dominated our Exploring Arts program this year; led by Phaedra Siebert, an Art Historian and City Kids parent, our kids have explored the architecture of D.C.'s buildings, mosques, and art works, to name a few lessons. For our last Exploring Arts class of the year, Ms. Siebert took City Kids to visit Do Ho Suh: Almost Home. The exhibit is a study in the beauty and painstaking efforts of what it means to bring a sense of home with us wherever we go. As Phaedra

City Kids spends a lot of time learning about the environment, including our rivers. We took a two hour boat ride on the Anacostia so that the kids could learn about water pollution and clean up, local wildlife, and city conservation efforts. Young kids are natural environmentalists--they tend to care about animals' habitats, for example, and they have a hard time understanding why grownups would pollute the environment when we can do better. If we educate our kids when th

For our unit on Asia in our World Cultures and Geography program, one of our parents led an engaging lesson on the origins of tea and how it spread from China across the world. She covered the Etymology of the word "tea," how the teas of the world originated from a single plant species, and how different ways of processing the same tea leaf result in different types of teas. She covered a lot of geography, but she also had a lot of tea samples--the kids had a great time tas

This year, City Kids has gone on adventures all over the D.C. metro area, and a big part of our science curriculum is our Nature Program. Often, we work with the knowledgable and welcoming rangers in our nearby parks; recently, our kids visited a local mill for the second time, building on what they previously learned about the mill, how the science of mills developed, and how the surrounding landscape has changed over the years. Local rangers are a great resource, and they