Featured Events, Resources, & Opportunities

InfinityEd is an instructional organization devoted to providing students with what they need to succeed by providing an education that goes beyond the limits of the public school system. By fostering an environment that encourages discussion-based learning over lectures, InfinityEd nourishes a student’s love of learning and promotes a deeper understanding of content. Click here to schedule a free trial/consultation and intro lesson for the program of your choice. They offer programs via multiple formats: remote, in-office (Amherst, MA), and in-center (Hampden, MA). Prospective students also have the choice of individualized, one-on-one instruction or working within a small group of similar-minded students. Remember: education makes life better! Learn more at infinityed.us.

The fourth annual Arcadia Folk Festival returns on September 17, 2022, with Bonny Light Horseman, Brett Dennen, Heather Maloney, and many more! This 100% solar-powered outdoor festival will bring the community together around music in the heart of the Pioneer Valley to support the work of Arcadia Wildlife Sanctuary. Carrie Ferguson & The Grumpytime Club and ten-year-old Louie Phipps will perform music for the entire family. There will be nature activities and nature art and craft projects just for kids. The festival will also feature the best in local plant-based food, and Makers Market craft vendors will have work inspired by nature or environmentally friendly / up-cycled art. Kids 10 and under are free. Tickets: www.arcadiafolkfest.com

List of Weekly Suggested Events

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Self-Directed Learning: Mid-Autumn Festival

The Mid-Autumn Festival, also known as the Moon Festival or Mooncake Festival, is a traditional festival in Chinese culture which celebrates the end of the fall harvest, often marked with Mooncakes. Mooncakes, or yuebing, are a delicious Chinese pastry made with red bean or lotus seed paste, formed in wooden molds with carved symbols holding various meanings. Typically eaten during the Mid-Autumn Festival, each region of China has its own version of mooncakes, including recipes that contain whole salted egg yolk in the center to represent the full moon. The meaning of mooncakes runs deep. From molds to patterns, how mooncakes are made holds just as much meaning as does the sharing of this delicious treat. Get curious and discover more about this annual Chinese (and Vietnamese) tradition! Considered the Chinese Thanksgiving, Mid-Autumn Festival happens in September to celebrate the harvest, but you can enjoy mooncakes year-round. Tran’s World Food Market in Hadley, MA, sells premade Mooncakes in the autumn, but you can also find all the ingredients you need to make your own at home. Explore recipes to get you started, or you can ask the helpful staff at Tran’s World Food Market for ideas and the location of ingredients in the store.

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Self-Directed Learning: Walking Tours

We’re rich in walking tours here in western Massachusetts, an excellent community-based educational learning activity families can do together. Unlike scheduled tours guided by interpreters, self-guided walking tours offer lots of flexibility and opportunities for learning. We are also fortunate to have easy access to nature in our communities through local trails, nature preserves, and forests. This diversity of options inspires naturalists and conservation-minded enthusiasts to lead guided walks, hikes, and river paddling trips, teaching our local landscapes and biodiversity. Find out more about these local resources in our post, Over 25 Walking Tours Support Community-Based Education in Western MA. Find out about guided & self-guided hikes and vistas in our Sept/Oct Season edition of Learning Ahead: Cultural Itinerary for Western MA. Thanks to the internet, we can take a virtual walking tour of places worldwide, learning about natural history and cultural heritage through their landscape and cityscapes. Discover walking tours you take from the comfort of your couch. Destinations include Kuromon Ichiba Market in Osaka, Japan; Nami Island in Chuncheon, South Korea;Back streets and shopping streets of Le Marais, France; and Beverly Hills.

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Self-Directed Learning: Hawk Migration Season

Autumn is the season of Hawk migration. But Hawks aren’t the only bird of prey you can spot migrating this month. According to Mass Audubon, “Most numerous is the broad-winged hawk, which can sometimes be seen in flocks, or kettles, of hundreds, occasionally thousands of birds, “boiling” high into the sky. The next most commonly seen early fall migrants are the feisty sharp-shinned hawk, American kestrel, osprey, northern harrier (marsh hawk), and turkey vulture.” This seasonal phenomenon can be a catalyst for learning about ornithology and meteorology. Knowing the differences between various raptors and how weather patterns impact migration conditions supports interests and education and can also help us connect to seasonal changes through native species and local habitats. Learn more about hawk migration, what to listen for, and other raptors of the world to compare and contrast. Then, depending on where you live in Western MA, select a spot nearest your home for an outdoor morning adventure watching hawks, including Mt. Tom State Reservation (Easthampton, MA), Fobes Hill (Windsor, MA), and Mt. Greylock State Reservation (Adams, MA)

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Self-Directed Learning: Apple Season

Apples, one of the earliest (and most delicious) signs of fall, have been an essential part of New England agriculture for centuries. McIntosh apples are undeniably the most iconic of New England’s apples and makeup over two-thirds of the region’s apple crop! Macs and countless other delicious and fascinating varieties of apples are grown at orchards across western Massachusetts. Families can enjoy this year’s apple crop by visiting an orchard to pick or purchase a bushel. Participate in the tradition of apple-picking and support local agriculture! Check with these local apple orchards for PYO conditions and opportunities this year: Park Hill Orchard (Easthampton), Outlook Farm (Westhampton), Bear Swamp Orchard & Cidery (Ashfield), Quonquont Farm (Whately), Clarkdale Fruit Farms (Deerfield), and Bashista Orchards (Southampton). Before heading out, learn about the history of the apple pie, and then while visiting these properties, take a picnic lunch and read Robert Frost’s “After Apple-Picking” and William Cullen Bryant’s “The Planting of an Apple-Tree.”

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Self-Directed Learning: Harvest Season

During the autumnal months, communities celebrate the change of season with activities that bridge agricultural and cultural traditions. Teaching our children the value of connection with seasonal traditions through self-directed learning can help them learn and grow in endless ways. Children who understand and connect with their local landscape are much more likely to value environmental conservation as adults while building awareness of various cultures represented within a community and across time. Connecting to where we live through the seasons can help children appreciate and understand the places(s) they call home. In addition to participating in seasonal patterns of community engagement, learning about harvest seasons in other parts of the world is a point of entry for self-directed learning that can help us to better understand culture through the harvest lens, including cinnamon, pecans, seaweed, cork, and kalo.

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Self-Directed Learning: Bluejays & Crows

Bluejays and American crows fill the early soundscape with their jeers and caws, warning one another of migrating broad-winged hawks overheard. The grey squirrel’s kuks & quaas can be heard from the branch-highway of oak, aspen, and maple trees they scurry upon as these deciduous trees slowly begin to drop their leaves. These are some of the sounds and movements of late summer and early autumn. Paying attention to our soundscape changes as we move through the seasons anchors us in the present moment and allows for investigation and appreciation. Take the time to stop and observe, seeing what thoughts and curiosities arise when you pay attention to your soundscape. Why are bluejays so quiet in the summer but not in the fall? How does the fall hawk migration influence their behavior? Can you tell the difference between a male and a female bluejay? How about crows? Do you know how long they live? Let these questions lead your learning this week, following your interests and connecting with the seasonal changes and behaviors of native species.

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Self-Directed Learning: Autumn Foliage

Autumn in Western Mass is when nature literally takes center stage; a destination visitors outside the area flock to because of the gorgeous dynamism of the season. The trees and their changing foliage are excellent connectors for kids (in a sense, they connect to themselves!) to the outdoors and their sense of place. In this change lies fantastic community-based educational opportunities tied to art and science. Read our post, Autumn Leaf Collecting Supports Art & Science, to see how you can get your kid hooked on fall by collecting, creating, and learning in their backyards, local parks, and nature conservation areas! Also, check out these videos to support learning about botany, chemistry, dendrology, and ecology through the lens of fall foliage!

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Weekly eNewsletter

Online and in-person events and resources shared above are done so as a courtesy and not as an endorsement. While we do our best to share accurate and up-to-date information, please take the time to confirm information, age appropriateness, registration requirements, safety protocols, and associated costs.

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Hilltown Families’ list of Suggested Events is supported in part by grants from the Agawam, Amherst, Becket, Bernardston, Buckland, Chester, Chicopee, Colrain, Cummington, Easthampton, Goshen, Granby, Greenfield, Hadley, Hatfield, Heath, Hinsdale/Peru, Huntington, Leyden, Montgomery, Mount Washington, Northern Berkshire, Orange, Otis, Palmer, Pelham, Rowe, Shelburne, Shutesbury, South Hadley, Tolland, Tyringham, Westhampton, Windsor, and Worthington Cultural Councils, local agencies which are supported by the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency.