Issue link: http://hvparent.uberflip.com/i/589389
6 Hudson Valley Parent ■ November 2015 Publisher TERRIE GOLDSTEIN tgoldstein@excitingread.com Editor BRIAN PJ CRONIN bcronin@excitingread.com Executive Assistant to the Publisher BRITTANY L. MORGAN bmorgan@excitingread.com Media Advisors KIMBERLY MAYER kmayer@excitingread.com MARY ZAK mzak@excitingread.com Community Liaison PAMELA PERRY pperry@excitingread.com Web Ad Designer LESLIE CORTES Advertising Assistant PAM SOSCIA Layout & Design ENGLE PRINTING also publishers of MY TripPlanner.com family MY TripPlanner.com family baby The HUDSON VALLEY G U I D E Hudson Valley Parent is published monthly by: The Professional Image Marketing & Public Relations Inc. 174 South Street • Newburgh, NY 12550 Phone: 845-562-3606 • Fax: 845-562-3681 hvparent.com This publication is copyrighted by the publisher. Reproduction without written permission of the publisher is prohibited. Hudson Valley Parent welcomes submissions, although we cannot accept responsibility for work submitted nor guarantee publication. A MEMBER OF W hile you're busy whittling down your kids' Halloween candy piles when they're at school, (I'm not the only one who does that, right?), your thoughts may turn to the next major holiday on the calendar, Thanksgiving. It's probably my favorite holiday here in the Hud- son Valley, as our region's agricultural abundance makes it easy to share a little bit of this place we love with family and friends at the dinner table. No doubt many of you were busy picking apples and pumpkins last month, enjoying the crisp fall air, making memories, and showing your kids where their food comes from. But what about the families who care for those apple trees, plant those pumpkins, and raise the turkeys that dress our holi- day tables? For the family farms of the Hud- son Valley, whose hard work and beautiful lands we all benefi t from, every day brings new challenges. We sent Kathleen Wilcox out to speak to some family farms here in the Valley to learn more about what it means to grow up on a farm, and what we all can do to help ensure that the farms that our children enjoy today are still around for our grandchil- dren to enjoy tomorrow. Words and pictures Another facet of the fall that I'm sure you've already experienced is having your kids home sick from school. The dwindling temperatures are tough on all of our immune systems, but once our children head back to school and run into an entire- ly new batch of viruses and bacteria, things tend to go downhill quickly. If you're looking for something that they can do at home while rest- ing —that doesn't involve hours and hours of screen time — it might be a good time for them to get a little reading done. In this issue, Jeffrey Simms took a look at graphic novels as a gateway to get kids hooked on reading. As someone who keeps a copy of Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics on their desk next to The AP Stylebook, I enjoyed read- ing about how educators in the Hud- son Valley are enthusiastically using graphic novels as teaching tools. If you're unfamiliar with the genre, head down to your library this week and use our article as a guide to checking it out. Go ahead and read them fi rst before passing them on to your kids. You may fi nd yourself developing a new shared interest that you and your children can enjoy together. Big problems, big books While your kids are curled up on the couch making their way through those graphic novels, you can turn your attention to getting them feel- ing better. We've got your back. Head over to our website and download our free Big Book of Health. This special digital issue col- lects some of our best stories about health and development over the past few years, covering everything from healthy eating on a budget to CPR classes. Before you know it, your kids will be back in school and you'll be back to eating their candy. So enjoy the season and save me a peanut butter cup if you can. My son never brings home enough of those. The future of farms BRIAN PJ CRONIN Editor's Journal