It's fresh fruit season

May 29, 2024

Howdy, friends! Happy (unofficial) start to summer to all those who celebrate. If you’re trying to get in beach body shape, remember to track your performance and measure what matters, like this new parent who logged her childbirth on her workout tracking app:

To the newsletter!

Activity of the week

If you or your kiddo doesn’t like trying new fruits and vegetables, this activity is for you. If your kiddo does like eating anything you put in front of them, congratulations and please keep that information to yourself.

Across much of the US, many fruits and vegetables are reaching their peak harvesting periods during the spring and summer. Take advantage of all the fresh, in season produce by organizing a fruit and vegetable tasting activity for you and your kiddo.

Step 1: Buy the fruit and vegetables for the tasting. Pick out some things you or your kid haven’t tried before and ideally something in season. Use this produce calendar to see what’s fresh for the season in your region. If you can, visit a farmers market near you and ask vendors what seasonal fruit and vegetables they have for sale. Search for a farmers market nearby using this tool built by the US Department of Agriculture.

Step 2: If your kid might prefer dipping their food into something like yogurt, hummus or salsa, you can use this guide to check what fruit or veggie pairs with which dip. If you go to a farmers market, you can ask the vendor how they recommend serving the fruit or vegetable.

Step 3: When you get home, wash all of the fruits and vegetables thoroughly.

Step 4: Cut all of the fruits and vegetables into small, bite-sized pieces for you and your kiddo. 

Step 5: Have you and your kiddo try one piece of fruit or vegetable. Ask them to use descriptive words to explain what the fruit tastes, feels and looks like. You can ask the following questions to guide the activity:

  • Does the fruit/veggie taste sweet? Sour?

  • Is the fruit/veggie crunchy? Juicy? Hard? Soft? Fuzzy? Bumpy? Smooth?

  • What color is the fruit/veggie?

  • Do you think the fruit/veggie grows in cold weather? Hot weather? Underground? Above ground?

Step 6: Have the child place another piece of the same fruit/veggie on an index card and write the words they used to describe the the fruit/veggie. You and your kiddo can even rate it on a scale of 1 to 10 to find out what you liked/disliked the most.

Step 7: Repeat steps 5 and 6 with each of the other fruits/veggies that have been prepared.

After doing this activity, you might just be adding a new fruit or veggie to your next grocery list! Or not 🤷 

Book of the week

If your kiddo loves Richard Scarry books, then The Neighbors by Einat Tsarfati is for you. The Neighbors tells the story of a young girl guessing what could possibly be hidden in each of her neighbor’s apartments. Maybe one neighbor’s a vampire and lives in the dark. Another might be a retired pirate, living with a mermaid, and their apartment is completely submerged in water.

Using some clues and leveraging their imagination, kids (and grownups) have a chance to discover something new every time they look through this book’s pages.

Minor spoiler alert: there’s also a secret hidden in the young girl’s own apartment 🫢 She just doesn’t know it yet.

Not for tots

Here is this week’s not for tots segment where we share some internet finds/treats/toys exclusively for the adults in the room.

  • Have you ever shared a headphone or AirPod with a friend so you could see their reaction to a song? Maybe you’re old enough to have made a mixtape for a friend because you wanted to get their opinion about that one Coldplay song that no one appreciates. Well, you can recreate those feelings with Airbuds, an app where best friends share their music listening activity, on Android or iOS.

  • Every famous artist you like was a kid at one point. They probably weren’t that good at their craft before they could legally vote or drink alcohol, right? Well, some came out of the womb with their artistic abilities fully formed. See what Picasso painted at age eight, what Michelangelo painted at age thirteen, what Georgia O’Keefe drew at fourteen, and what Edward Munch drew at age twelve. Meanwhile, I’m still trying to perfect my stick figures…

  • Can’t remember that one word you overheard at a meeting because you were doing laundry while on mute? It’s on the tip of your tongue, but you just can’t seem to figure it out. Maybe this reverse dictionary will help.

  • Native languages are often lost between generations, especially when one generation emigrates to another country that doesn’t speak the same language. If you’re a Millennial, don’t lose out on passing down your native tongue to your kin by sharing this emoji phrasebook with them when the time is right.

  • How do you pronounce gif? Does a straw have one hole or two? Is cereal a soup? These are the questions that have led to countless internet wars over the years. Much digital blood has been spilled, and for what? Thankfully, the internet has spoken and we finally have answers to end the madness.

Kidult of the week

If you don’t know who Caitlin Clark is, you should. For years as a member of the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team, Clark’s skill and style of play amplified an already upward trend of fan interest in women’s basketball. This past year, she became the all-time NCAA Division I scoring leader for men and women and she set the NCAA single-season record for 3-pointers made. I can’t cover all her records and awards here, so take a second to watch Nike’s attempt at covering all of Clark’s collegiate accolades:

Clark’s appeal during her collegiate career culminated in the final game of the NCAA Tournament when, for the first time ever, more people watched the women's NCAA basketball championship than the men's final.

The game also had the highest average viewership of any televised basketball game in the last five years. Not only did the final surpass viewership numbers of the 2023 World Series, but it also came close to the 22.3 million viewers in the United States who watched the 2022 World Cup Final on television in English and Spanish, according to Sports Media Watch.

Simply put, she was must watch television in college.

Clark’s impact, however, goes beyond the court and the tv screen. Soaring attendance at Iowa women’s basketball games during Caitlin Clark’s career is estimated to have contributed between $14.4 and $52.3 million to Iowa’s economy.

After being drafted by the Indiana Fever in the WNBA draft this past April, Clark officially became a kidult and her popularity has only continued to grow as a professional athlete. Here is a rundown of just how much she’s helped accelerate the already growing fandom in women’s professional basketball:

  1. In April, the WNBA draft (which is by definition not even an actual basketball game!), with Caitlin Clark the first pick, averaged a record 2.45 million viewers, a 307% increase from the 2023 draft (which had increased 42% from 2022). Previously, the most watched WNBA draft had been in 2004 with an average audience of 601,000.

  2. Her season opening game generated 2.13 million viewers, the most watched WNBA game since 2001 and the highest ever on cable television.

  3. Average price of tickets sold across teams in the league jumped by 80% for Indiana Fever games.

  4. Indiana Fever away games are the ten best-selling games of the season so far, with the exception of one Las Vegas Aces game. It’s like Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, but for basketball.

  5. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert hopes to capitalize on the unprecedented interest in the WNBA and “at least double” the value of its existing domestic broadcast rights deals when they come up for renewal in 2025. There are also plans to expand to 16 teams by 2028, with the aim of adding a 14th franchise in 2026.

Caitlin Clark isn’t the only reason the WNBA and women’s sports in general are increasing in global popularity, but she is accelerating that growth. It may be premature to talk about Clark’s legacy, and who knows how her WNBA career will turn out. One thing is clear, though: the only thing rarer than talking about an individual’s legacy less than a month into their professional career is finding someone to stop Caitlin Clark on or off the basketball court.

Stat of the week

Have you ever found yourself lamenting how bad music is now? Then you’re probably over 35 years old.

Across every single generation, quality of music peaks at age 17 and you begin to start hating any music made after you're 35.

Thinking about tomorrow, today

To be a good parent or caretaker, be a good partner to your coparent or significant other.

According to Gallup’s 2023 Familial and Adolescent Health Survey, parents who report a high-quality relationship with their spouse or coparent are much more likely to report an excellent relationship with their child compared with parents who report a lower-quality spousal or coparent relationship (67% versus 50%).

Invest in your relationships outside of the one you have with your children, especially the relationships with those closest to you. You’ll be a better caretaker for it.

Parenting-ish Headlines

We’ll google it for you

If anyone mockingly responds to you with a “Yes, chef”, 1) be mildly offended and 2) appreciate that the person has good taste in television shows.

The phrase “Yes, chef” has become ubiquitous since the airing of the popular television series The Bear in 2022, so it’s about time you know what it means. “Yes, chef” is a sarcastic response used to mock an authority figure giving unreasonable instructions or unconstructive feedback. Chefs at high-end restaurants are notoriously difficult personalities to work with, so the phrase works seamlessly in situations when responding to similarly difficult individuals, like overbearing parents.

Think of the phrase as a verbal eye roll 🙄 

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