New Grant Assists Early Childhood Education Centers

On December 23, 2019, the Louisiana Department of Education announced it won a competitive federal Preschool Development Grant worth more than $11 million each year, for three years. The grant will start in 2020 and is going to be used to create more than 600 new seats at early learning sites for low-income children, from birth to age 3. It will also be used to improve the quality of programming in early childhood education and build the capacity of local communities to meet the needs of their youngest learners.

Since 2014, Louisiana has won two versions of this grant, bringing in a total of $40.3 million, not including this funding.

“Since Act 3 of 2012, Louisiana has positively transformed its early childhood education system, boosting it to No.8 in the nation,” said State Superintendent John White, citing a ranking by the Bipartisan Policy Center.“We are proud this hard work has again been recognized by the federal government in the form of funding support. This new grant award marks an important step toward solving the state’s crisis of access, particularly among children birth to age 3, who are most in need.”

“However, significant barriers remain for thousands of working families in need of quality care and education for their children. We must continue to work together to find solutions and close this gap.” White added.

This grant will allow Louisiana to:

  • In the first year, create at least 600 new seats in child care centers for children birth to age 3. Programs that provide infant care, meet teacher certification requirements, have achieved minimum quality rating scores will be prioritized. These seats will be offered as fully funded and additional seats may be added over the three years.
  • Double the number of Ready Start Network pilots. Currently, there are 13 pilots statewide. These locally-led pilot programs, which were created in response to2018 legislation, are responsible for increasing access to high-quality early childhood education in their communities. They are critical to sustainably solving Louisiana’s seat crisis for children birth through age 3.
  • Fund community-based guides to assist families. These Early Childhood Education Guides were created to recruit and support families to apple for child care assistance, as well as build a community level waiting list of eligible children for seats.
  • Strengthen relationships with family child care home providers. Expanding on a pilot already in place, Louisiana will establish and strengthen regional networks of family child care home providers. They will also measure the quality of these operations and offer support for improvement efforts.

Among other key initiatives outlined.

“Louisiana was one of just 20 states across the country to win this Preschool Development Grant. That was not by chance,” said Tony Davis, member of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education. “I applaud the efforts of the Department to win this award for our state, and I look forward to following the important initiatives this funding will support over the coming years.”

“This exciting news should serve as momentum for early childhood providers, advocates, and lawmakers to continue their progress,” she said. “While this funding is a positive step, more can–and must–be done for our children. Louisiana currently serves nearly all 4-year-old children, but only serves 7 percent of in-need children birth to age 2 and 33 percent of in-need children age 3.” said Dr. Libbie Sonnier-Neto, the executive director of the Louisiana Policy Institute for Children.

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Tulane University Provides Hands-On Experiences For The Visually Impaired

Tulane University Geologist, Nicole Gasparini and her undergraduate and graduate students brought visually impaired students from Louisiana Lighthouse a learning experience of a lifetime. Part of a $230,600 National Science Foundation Grant, Gasparini and her students were awarded, the goal is to study how soil is produced in different environments.

In the project proposal, Gasparini included service-learning, which is an academic requirement for all Tulane students. The idea was to help create a unique learning experience for special needs children so they could experience different types of soil and typography.

“The depth of soil is likely closely linked to the soil production rate and how rivers erode,” she said. “How rivers and soils interact has practical consequences for river infrastructure and human impacts on landscapes such as deforestation or forest fires.”

The first service-learning class, where students apply classroom knowledge to assist community organizations or address societal problems, was spent working with young visually impaired students and encouraging them to feel and touch models of volcanoes, waves, and other natural phenomena. The activities included whipped cream, wet sand, and play dough.

Alongside Gaspirini, four of her students at Tulane University participated in this exciting project; George Pratt, Kristina Leggas, Jenni Riggen, and Haily MacDonald.

“The students were worried about being able to hold the attention of the kids,” said Gasparini. “But the kids absolutely loved the experience.”

“This was my first experience teaching in a classroom setting, but I really enjoyed teaching the kids and also learning from them.” said Tulane senior George Pratt

The project included 3-D printing at the Scot Ackerman Makerspace at Tulane in order to create synthetic landscapes so the children could experience simulated volcanoes, tsunamis, and earthquakes.

One of the projects, lead by Kristina Leggas, centered around surface waves. She created this experience by incorporating sand and water to create a wave tank, and then invited the children to feel the different materials so they could understand how waves move over different types of soils and surfaces.

“I just had to use different prompts and focus on the sensation of touch instead sight,” said Leggas, a junior majoring in environmental science. “Watching them get excited about science made it all worth it.”

The volcano activity, led by George Pratt, a senior majoring in geology and anthropology, encouraged the young students to examine volcanic rock samples and prompted a conversation about how they were formed. He also made a model of a volcano for the kids by using stacked laser-cut plywood. Then, he taught them how lava flows by having them mold homemade play dough along the sides.

“If there was one thing that was challenging, it was conveying information in a way that visually impaired kids could understand. But they asked a lot of questions, and I could tell they were having a good time.”

Gaspirini spearheaded the earthquake activity by utilizing graham crackers and Cool Whip. In a tweet following their service based learning class, Gaspirini tweeted “’I almost started crying when one of the kids said, ‘I wish I could stay here all day.’”

Overall, the project was a massive success.

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The Best Tours to Take in Louisiana Food

We all know by now that Louisiana food and cuisine is some of the best and most authentic in the South. Backed by several generations-old recipes, it’s hard to go wrong when dining in Louisiana.

One of the best ways to get a true taste of Louisiana and everything they have to offer is through food tours. Thanks to Louisiana Travel, here is an extensive list of the best food tours you can take all throughout Louisiana.

Lafayette, Louisiana

Also known as the “Tastiest Town in the South” according to Southern Living, Lafayette is the unofficial capital of Louisiana’s Cajun heartland.

With everything from local mom and pop shops to high-end dining and everything in between, you’ll never run out of options – which can also be a bad thing. Being overwhelmed with choices and having a limited amount of time to try them all can be frustrating.

Enter: Cajun Food Tours

On this deliciously exciting tour, company founder Marie Ducote-Comeaux will take you on an approximately three-hour tour of at least five locally-owned restaurants. You can choose from four different tour options: the Original Cajun Food Tour, the Breaux Bridge Food Tour, the All-Day Cajun Experience, or the Around the World in Acadiana Taste Tour.

On the tour, you’ll hear stories about the history and culture inhibiting Acadiana (which is another name for Cajun Country) while eating a variety of Louisiana specialties like gumbo, étouffée, cracklins, and boudin.

Baton Rouge

The actual capital of Louisiana, Baton Rouge is known for its eclectic characters, rich history, and amazing Cajun cooking.

Baton Rouge Food Tours invites you to the opportunity to try all of the sweet, savory, and unique flavors they have to offer. A two and a half hour C’est Si Bon walking taste tour takes you through a stroll of downtown Baton Rouge and to at least five restaurants for sampling true Cajun cooking, where you’ll also learn about history, music, art, and so much more.

Avery Island

Avery Island is infamous for being the origin of the famous pepper sauce known as TABASCO. To learn more about the story of TABASCO and the McIlhenny family, click here.

Naturally, the best food tour in Avery Island is the TABASCO Food Tour. Not only will you learn about the company, but you’ll also have the chance to taste dishes that pair perfectly with the sauce. You’ll visit an array of restaurants, like Bon Creole Seafoodand R&M’s Boiling Point.

New Orleans

The best-known hotspot for tourists in Louisiana, leave it up to the perfect guide to enchant you on the fascinating history of New Orleans’ famous ghosts and even more famous (and delicious) cuisines.

Here, you have your choice from three top-rated food tours; Destination Kitchen, Tastebud Tours, and New Orleans Culinary History Tours.

Destination Kitchen’s expert guides will take you on tasting tours of the French Quarter, the Garden District, and Uptown.

Tastebud Tours will guide you to the best known French Quarter restaurants and have five themed tours ranging from fresh seafood, sunset tours, and even a haunted restaurant tour.

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Top Christmas Recipes from Around the World

The holidays are a time of feasting and laughter, with new and old Christmas traditions to be done. Each family has their own “special” traditions, from matching Christmas Eve pajamas to making generations-old Christmas recipes.

With Christmas at our heels, we thought it would be a great idea to explore Christmas recipes from around the world. Who knows, maybe you’ll find a new recipe you love that will become a special tradition for yourfamily!

Saveur put together an extensive list of how the world eats Christmas, and here are a few of our favorites!

Reserved especially for special occasions (like weddings or the holidays), these polish bow tie fritters, also known as angel wings, are baked to crispy perfection with a doughy inside, then sugar-dusted (hence the angel wings).

This Icelandic dish is a combination of ptarmigan, or wild grouse, and a sweet-tart sauce commonly made with thyme and blueberries. To get the full Icelandic Christmas dinner effect, pair with cooked cabbage and potatoes.

As is true Filipino fashion, this slow-roasted pork belly is the perfect stand-in for the main entree of your holiday feast. Topped with a chicken or pork liver sauce, Chef Tade states it tastes like “liverwurst mixed with sweet and sour sauce.”

This Danish dish offers a bite of something sweet and savory with sweet red apples roasted with onions, then caramelized in bacon fat, and served up under a blanket of smoked belly bacon. Make sure to use apples like the Braeburn or Gala to make sure they hold up and keep their shape.

Crab for Christmas? Yes, please! Also known as chupe de centolla, this Chilean dish is a favorite. Comparable to South American chupe, which is made with milk-soaked bread and an assortment of shrimp, scallops, shellfish, meats, and cheeses, this dish shifts it’s focus to the massive local king crabs.

A Puerto Rican spin on classic chicken noodle soup, this hearty recipe is filled with starchy vegetables and shredded chicken.

Made from battered and fried veal scaloppine and topped with anchovies and fresh-grated horseradish, this Austrian schnitzel is the perfect brunch after a long night with family and friends.

You can find this dish gracing the tables of families from Goa, a small state on the western coast of India. This recipe incorporates fresh seafood, most often shrimp, and coconut curry. Sounds like the perfect Christmas Eve dinner to us.

An American classic, this dish is often labored over the day leading up to Christmas dinner and used as the centerpiece for an entire spread of delicious recipes. If you aren’t a fan of turkey, ham or chicken can be used instead.

The ultimate Hungarian comfort food, this dish is prepared by preparing a thick cornmeal and smoked ham filling, rolling it in blanched cabbage leaves, and smothering it in a paprika-spiced tomato sauce.

For more delicious recipes, click here.

The Best Places To Travel To In 2020

A new year is quickly approaching and with that comes new year’s resolutions. Whether your resolution is to travel more, stress less, or spend quality time with friends and family, this list is for you! Travel + Leisure released its top places to travel in 2020 and they included a little something for everyone. Here are our favorites!

Austria

Now a favorite spot for the younger crowd, Austria is in the midst of reinventing itself. Enjoy their cutting-edge arts institutions and then head to the Andaz Vienna Am Belvedere, a $240 million development project that surrounds the city’s central train station. You can also tour other venues like Belvedere 21, the Freud Museum, Musikverein, and end up at the Salzburg Festival. – John Wray

Travel to Barbados

Visitors to Barbados in 2020 will be able to participate in a 52-week festival called “We Gatherin”, which will launch in January and travel to all 11 parishes before ending in a country-wide bash in December. You can expect lively street parades, traditional dishes, live soca music, and plenty of festivals within the festival. If you want to miss out on the action but still vacation on the island, head to Cobblers Cove.– Nora Walsh

Big Island, Hawaii

The island’s biggest resort opening in years is set to debut in January 2020 — a reimagining of Mauna Lani by Auberge Resorts, the first Hawaiian venture by the Bay Area-based luxury hotel brand. The resort will have a redesigned spa that incorporates Hawaiian botanicals and Canoe House, a beachfront restaurant.  – John Wogan

Botswana

Take your pick from a slew of new safari lodges. The Okavango Delta just saw the opening of Natural Selection’s Tuludi, a treehouse-inspired camp with seven tented suites connected by elevated boardwalks, and come June, the solar-powered Xigera Safari Lodge will debut in the delta’s Moremi Game Reserve. You can also check out a six-tent mobile camp called Linyanti Expeditions or the Great Plains Selinda Camp.– Madeline Bilis

Brisbane, Australia

Family-friendly Waterline Park courts outdoor enthusiasts with a climbing wall and other sporting equipment; Mangrove Walk focuses on indigenous culture and local wildlife, with educational signposts stationed throughout the quarter-mile path; and the initial section of a rehabilitated Bicentennial Bikeway features wider lanes, better sight lines, and improved traffic flow. Choose from your choice of high-profile hotels like the Calile, Ovili Inchcolm, the Fantauzzo, or the Ritz-Carlton or Rosewood in Queen’s Wharf. – Sarah Bruning

Travel to Costa Rica

Several just-opened eco-retreats are offering more ways to unwind in Costa Rica. Perhaps the most-anticipated is Nayara Tented Camp, a safari-style retreat inside a sloth sanctuary. Then there’s Kasiiya Papagayo, which opened as an adventure-focused getaway; walkie-talkies and headlamps are distributed at check-in. Farther south isKinkára Luxury Retreat, built on the slopes of the Talamanca mountain range. – Madeline Bilis

Dominica

This 290-square-mile teardrop is an outdoorsy traveler’s oasis, claiming 365 rivers, 300 miles of hiking trails, a dozen waterfalls, and the world’s second-largest hot spring. You’ll have your pick from the Cabrits Resort & Spa Kempinksi, wellness resort Jungle Bay,Secret Bay, and Anichi Resort & Spa. – Sarah Greaves-Gabbadon

Dubai

Expo 2020 Dubai, the first World Expo to be held in the Middle East, is set to change the face of a city whose face is always, already, constantly in flux. About halfway between Dubai and Abu Dhabi, the 1,000-acre “District 2020” will eventually have multiple parks, a dedicated metro station, and more than 200 restaurants and food venues. —Hannah Walhout

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The Best Holiday Lights in the US

Regardless of your location in the States, watching the twinkle of the Christmas lights is sure to spark joy and get you in the holiday mood. With a long and dated history, Christmas lights have become a symbol for an exciting and giving season.

Finding the best Christmas lights display within driving distance is a fun activity for the whole family, where you can watch the flickering of green and red dance to the best Christmas music. A few weeks ago, Travel + Leisure shared an updated list of the best Christmas lights in every state. Here are a few of our favorites!

Arkansas

Originally, the best Christmas Lights display belonged to the Osbourne Family Spectacle. Now that Disney laid their claim and moved it to Florida, you can get your Christmas fix at the Arkansas State Capitol Building.

Connecticut

Head to Hartford for the Holiday Light Fantasia, a drive-through animated Christmas display with larger-than-life scenes for Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Year’s Eve. Make sure to look out for Flurry, a puppy wearing a Santa hat, hidden amongst all the lights.

Georgia

Whether you want a self-guided walking tour or a Christmas-themed getaway, Barnsley Resort in Adairsville is the place to go. Here, you’ll find millions of bulbs illuminating the manor house ruins.

Hawaii

Are you ready for a multi-house, synchronized holiday experience? Then head to the Waikele neighborhoodto see the grand Christmas lights show lead by the Yoshida family. There are shows daily from 7pm to 9:30pm, and the lights are usually up till early January.

Iowa

Make sure to swing by the Jolly Holiday Lights, a 2.5 mile ride through over 100 light displays. All proceeds from the Jolly Holiday Lights are donated to Make-A-Wish Iowa.

Louisiana

Head to New Orlean’s to see the lights at Celebration in the Oaks. With over 165,000 visitors each year, there are hundreds of thousands of lights dancing throughout the oak groves in City Park. You’ll also have the opportunity to ride on the antique wooden carousel, so make sure you get a great look at “The Cajun Night Before Christmas” display.

Maryland

Prefer your Christmas celebrations to be on the extreme side? Check out Baltimore’s 34th Street. Each house on the block dresses up in light displays ranging from candy canes and Christmas trees to Mr. Boh, Poe the Raven, and Chesapeake crabs.

New York

Nope, we aren’t talking Rockefeller Center. The hidden Christmas lights gem is actually in Dyker Heights, where homeowners in this Brooklyn neighborhood have an unspoken competition to see who has the best over-the-top lights, professionally crafted displays, and inflatable lawn ornaments.

Ohio

For a unique experience, head to Ohio’s famousClifton Mill, where 3.5 million lights decorate  the building, the gorge, and nearby trees. Make sure to take in the 100-foot “waterfall” of lights, and be good, because there’s a good chance Santa is checking his list in Santa’s Workshop.

Tennessee

The Opryland Hotel in Nashville morphs into a literal winter wonderland over the holidays. You’ll see over 2 million twinkling lights, acres of holiday decor, and indoor winter wonderland (made with over 2 million pounds of ice), and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical.

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