Keep The Kids Busy Over Winter Break With the Good Citizen At-Home Challenge | Inside Seven Days

Wednesday, December 23, 2020

Keep The Kids Busy Over Winter Break With the Good Citizen At-Home Challenge

Posted By on Wed, Dec 23, 2020 at 10:30 AM

click to enlarge Keep The Kids Busy Over Winter Break With the Good Citizen At-Home Challenge
Jeb Wallace-Brodeur
Good Citizens with Gov. Phil Scott at the Statehouse in March, 2019.
Looking for fun, educational projects to keep the kids busy over winter break? Help them take the Good Citizen At-Home Challenge!

This statewide youth civics initiative is organized by Burlington-based Seven Days newspaper and its parenting publication, Kids VT, with support from the Vermont Community Foundation. Since 2018, the Good Citizen Challenge has encouraged young Vermonters to learn about history, government and news literacy, as well as ways they can pitch in to help out their communities.
click to enlarge Keep The Kids Busy Over Winter Break With the Good Citizen At-Home Challenge
Mary Jane Oszurek
Sophia Oszurek with a colorful sign made to cheer up neighbors and passersby


Adult-child teams are encouraged in the new Challenge, which launched December 9. It includes more than 40 activities designed for this pandemic winter — many of them provided by Good Citizen partners. Participants choose which activities to do. All of them can be completed at home or from a safe social distance.

At-Home Challenge activities include:
  • Listening to episodes of VPR’s “But Why: A Podcast for Curious Kids” and "Brave Little State," as well as “Before Your Time,” a podcast from the Vermont Historical Society and Vermont Humanities
  • Shoveling snow for neighbors
  • Reading five articles in a local newspaper
  • Making a poster for Green Up Day
  • Organizing a donation drive for a local charity using Front Porch Forum
  • Streaming films including The Social Dilemma, Boys State, Coded Bias, Ethan 2018 and The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords

Participants also need to pass a 20-question civics test to be entered to win prizes, including a $50 gift card to a local, independent bookstore, a one-year print subscription to The Week or The Week Jr. and a $500 gift card to a locally owned business.

The deadline to complete the Challenge is Friday, March 5, 2021, but prize drawings will happen monthly, on December 30, January 24 and February 17. A grand prize drawing for the $500 gift card will occur on March 10.

Good Citizen At-Home Challenge partners include VPR, Front Porch Forum, Vermont Humanities, the Vermont Historical Society and Green Up Day.

Find more information, as well as the civics test and a list of activities, at goodcitizenvt.com.

One or more images has been removed from this article. For further information, contact [email protected].

Cathy Resmer

Seven Days’ deputy publisher and co-owner Cathy Resmer is a writer, editor and advocate for local journalism. She works in the paper’s Burlington office and lives vicariously through the reporters while raising money to pay them. Cathy started at Seven Days as a freelance writer in 2001 and still has the Rolodex...

About the Artist

Jeb Wallace-Brodeur

Jeb Wallace-Brodeur

Bio:
Jeb Wallace-Brodeur was born and raised in Montpelier, Vt., and graduated from Middlebury College. A full-time photojournalist for more than 30 years, he's also a longtime ambassador for the... read more »