Amy Johnson_NPN_Contributor

Keisha is a mom of two, therapist, coach, activist, parent, and the founder of radicallyBLended Services, PLLC. A few months ago, Keisha spoke with us on about raising a queer child in Chicago. We’re sharing some of our conversation here. This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. Listen to the full conversation on NPN’s podcast, Chicago Style Parenting. How can parents create a safe environment for our children to talk to us about anything? First, I'll say that a lot of the tips that I'm going to share I’ve learned through the relationship I have with my oldest child who identifies as transmasculine, born a girl. Even though I have years of professional experience working with all types of people, listening to my child has been the greatest start. Have open communication and pay attention to body language, listen for inflections. They could say one thing, but their body is doing another. For example, you can say, “Is it okay if I ask you, you’re fidgeting, but you're telling me you're okay?” Respect their privacy. Sharing whatever they share with you with random people, even a family member, is to say, “I don't value your privacy. I don't value your sense of safety with me.” Give them space to share their experience without adding your own. When we respond with something like, “Oh, I know that experience. Let me tell you about the time I went through this,” we are saying that their experience is not that valuable. Instead ask them, “What is it that I can provide to you?” What should a parent do when their child comes out to them or they suspect that their child is queer? Congratulate them on sharing this with you. It took a lot of bravery. Bring in your community to support you on this. I'm very much an ally, but I still felt very inexperienced in this area of parenting, so leaning on my support system and asking them to be supportive of my child was really helpful. Check in with your partner about their feelings. You shouldn’t go through this alone just like your child shouldn’t go through it alone. You need support too. Ask your child how you can support them. How can parents ensure that their child feels safe outside of the home? Be mindful of the friends that they're around and if they are allies or not. Communicate with your school. Reach out to the support systems within the school to help advocate for your child's safety. Talk with your child daily. Notice their demeanor when they come home. Seek out resources that help you understand what your child needs. How can parents advocate for their child at school? Institutions respond very quickly to documentation. If you write an email to the administrator about something that is going on, include dates and times. Understand your rights. When you can, point to a page in the school code of conduct that is relevant. When you send emails, cc whoever is valuable for that email. It ensures that everyone who is involved has the same information. Use soft language like, “I mean no harm, but this is my child, and I'm going to advocate for them. I trust your judgment as leader of this school to do what's right, and the right thing to do is in your school code of conduct. So I would like for you to do that.” Find someone who is a good balance and can help. If you're hot headed, reach out to someone who is calm. Have them read the email before you send it. If you're someone who has a hard time speaking up, reach out to someone who can help you speak up. What resources do you suggest for parents? There's so many organizations within the city that you can be a part of to volunteer your time or learn from. NPN has great resources. I've seen a lot of resources in Chicago Parent leading up to Pride month. Here are some other resources that are helpful. Resources within Chicago Public Schools The Trevor Project Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) Howard Brown Health Center on Halsted Good Kids Mad City These resources are for any adult who wants to be an ally. I'm sure there's a young person that would benefit from just knowing someone like you cares and really wants to impact change. I also want to share that my husband, our children, and I will each be sharing our wisdom and well read knowledge on topics we are passionate about on our new podcast, The radicalBLend Podcast which launches Thursday, February 6th on Spotify. Thank you, Keisha!

Noreen Walton-Valle is a mom of four and the Director of Marketing and Admissions at Saint Clement School, which is located in Lincoln Park. It is a Catholic school, educating students from PreK 3 through 8th grade, with two classes per grade level, and roughly 480 students total. In an NPN discussion panel, Noreen spoke with us about the private school application process. We’re sharing some of her valuable insight here. When should parents start researching schools and how should they start? I would recommend a year out if you're starting preschool or thinking about transferring from one school to another. It just allows you time to look at the schools, attend open houses, talk with other parents, and then also do the application and admissions process. When you're looking at either starting preschool or transferring, identify your educational priorities. Do you want faith based? Do you want a private school education? Are you looking for a specific curriculum? Are you looking for certain programs to be offered? Then I would recommend going to the school’s website and social media accounts. That is a great way to get a feel for the school community. Attend the open houses and talk with the parents and students that you meet during the open house. Ask parents why they chose that school. Are they happy with their experience? What grades are their children in? At what grade did they start at the school? Did they transfer in or did they start in preschool? The students are a wealth of knowledge as well. What is the application process at Saint Clement? The application process at Saint Clement is a little different depending on what grade you are applying for. Our application is on our website, and our application is due January 15th, 2025. We send out notifications mid February. For early childhood, pre k 3 through kindergarten, parents submit the application. It is always nice to include a letter of recommendation. I or principal Fink, or a pastor might then schedule an interview with the family. We just do random selections for early childhood since we have so many applications. Once a family is accepted, there is a mandatory play date in April. Families applying with children in 1st through 8th grade fill out the application and provide the child’s past two years of report cards and standardized test scores. If they don't have standardized test scores, that's okay, we can talk through that. The child’s current teacher also fills out a teacher feedback form and returns it to us. After everything has been submitted, we will schedule a shadow day for the child that would be a whole day at Saint Clement. After the shadow day, then we will set up an interview with myself and principal Fink and the family, so we can get to know the family and student a bit better and make sure it is a good fit for everyone. Thank you, Noreen! For more information about researching and applying to private schools, access the full panel discussion or browse through all of NPN’s school search videos and resources.

Here's a look at NPN’s year-in-review as well as our plans for 2025! Childcare Support: Members posted nearly 300 childcare listings in our Childcare Classifieds. Our Summer Camp Directory grew to 28 camps for parents to consider, many offering discounts to NPN members. We partnered on The Ultimate Baby Shower, offering new and expecting parents resources and education on childcare and more. School Research: Local educational experts partnered with us to bring seven education sessions to families We updated our School & Daycare Directory, connecting families with current information on more than 1,100 schools With the help of our sponsors, the Preschool & Elementary School Fair was held in September at the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum with 47 exhibiting schools, two sessions on Chicago Public Schools, and more Building our relationships with south side families, we participated in the South Side Early Childhood and Grade School Fair in October Developmental Differences: We worked with local experts on two parent education sessions on executive functioning in middle school and clinical assessments Our Developmental Differences Parent Support Group, met twelve times, thanks to our volunteers Kandalyn, Beth, and Sarah Providers updated their information in our Developmental Differences Resource Directory (includes 150 providers) With the help of our advisory committee, we hosted the Developmental Differences Resource Fair in September, featuring over 30 exhibitors and a panel discussion with individuals thriving with developmental differences NPN staff contributed to the planning and success of the Every Child Ready Chicago Strengthening Inclusion Symposium in December at Malcolm X College Parent-to-Parent Support: Partnering with local schools, we organized 9 preschool playdates and launched Screenless Saturdays for older children and families Members created 1,650 threads in our discussion forum and contributed to our newsletter, Parent to Parent which was mailed to members in March With the goal of supporting more families in a bigger way, we launched the Chicago Style Parenting podcast, offering expert insights on parenting topics To benefit our members, we continue to build the Member Discount Directory. Forty-six discounts are currently available with more to come We shared our resources with families at Bubblespalooza in September Looking forward to 2025 Next year, we’ll expand our partnerships and programming to bring families more playdates, educational sessions, and podcast episodes while building our online resources and directories. We're excited to introduce a new kids' classes directory and continue our partnerships with community organizations. We will bring in new donations to our online auction coming up in March, and we are excited to be working with a grant writer with the hope of opening up new funding streams to support our work. How you can help. NPN is a nonprofit, and we need your support. Our goal is to raise $32,000 this year to continue offering these vital resources. Meeting this financial goal is critical. Should we miss this goal, NPN will not survive. Please consider donating $50 today. You can donate by clicking here. Click here for NPN’s IRS Exemption Letter. Thank you for being a part of NPN! Your membership keeps NPN vibrant and your donation will keep NPN going strong in 2025.

This is a commentary article from Crain's Chicago Business written by NPN's Executive Director, Amy Johnson. --------------- The recent resignation of every member of Chicago’s Board of Education, three weeks after CPS unveiled its new five-year strategic plan, underscores the challenges that many Chicago parents face when navigating their child’s public school education. A strategic plan should provide an agreed-upon path to reach goals that the majority of stakeholders believe in. Such stability has been hard to find in Chicago schools, and parents are concerned. In conversations I have with parents across the city, whose children attend all types of schools, they are concerned about the instability of the district. Among other concerns, the new five-year plan has ramped up parents’ conversations about selective enrollment schools, magnet schools and charters. Although parents agree with providing greater support to neighborhood schools, particularly those in underserved communities, many wonder if that priority will result in disinvestment of schools that are currently thriving. Fears over the future of selective enrollment, magnet and charter schools may be unfounded. After all, the CPS five-year strategic plan doesn’t explicitly call for eliminating them. However, in a system that is filled with surprises, parents look for clues about what comes next, and they see warning signs. They point to the ongoing lack of busing for magnet schools, the new funding formula tied to CPS' Opportunity Index and Mayor Brandon Johnson’s strong focus on bolstering neighborhood schools. To some parents navigating the current erratic environment, these signals suggest that selective enrollment and magnet schools may indeed be at risk. Overall, the five-year plan has been overshadowed by other troubles. Unfortunately, it may seem pointless to worry about the strategic plan when the people who approved it have all resigned. Parents are baffled by this development and embarrassed to see it in the national news. They wonder how it will impact the city and their children’s education. Adding to parents' unease is Mayor Johnson’s proposal for a massive loan. Parents are worried about CPS' ability to repay it, leaving the future of their kids' education in even more uncertainty. Parents understand that disruptions happen occasionally. Many say that their frustrations with the district are small compared to the quality of their child’s education. That has been my experience as well. Still, I wonder, do parents have the stamina to keep hanging on amid so much uncertainty? I’ve gritted my teeth through dozens of smaller unknowns over the years. I’ve waited for preschool offers, entertained my kids during two teacher strikes, plodded through dire budget scenarios at Local School Council meetings, fretted over the cleanliness of schools when those services were contracted out, watched my kids languish during online learning and listened to mayors make promises about public education that they would not keep. I’ve talked with parents who were prepping for IEP meetings, adjusting 504 plans and waiting for services, all hoping for the best, never knowing what was next. It’s possible to have a great experience in CPS, but it’s filled with quandaries big and small. The new five-year strategic plan lays out CPS’ priorities clearly, although parents are concerned about exactly how CPS will implement them. Unfortunately, the plan is overshadowed by the lack of funds to execute it and the upheaval of the Board of Education. Mayor Johnson seems to feel that he needs to shake up CPS by creating chaos. I want Mayor Johnson to know that many parents voted for him because they thought that along with positive change, he would bring stability to the district. Unfortunately, right now we have chaos. Mayor Johnson needs to find a way to implement his vision without embracing so much disarray. To truly support families, he needs to calm this storm.

NPN is known for helping families find childcare, research schools, navigate developmental differences, and get parent-to-parent advice. Helping families navigate developmental differences is one part of our mission that is especially meaningful to me and the rest of the staff team. NPN’s Developmental Differences Resource Fair (DDRF) began about thirteen years ago. After listening to parents discuss the need for easy access to resources and information, NPN felt compelled to help. With guidance, direction and support from Lorell Marin from LEEP Forward/ Quantum Leep Academy, and leaders from respected providers such as Tuesday’s Child and others, DDRF was born. The goal of the first DDRF was to help parents of children with a range of developmental differences including developmental delays, sensory processing disorder, Autism, ADHD, PDD-NOS, mixed receptive-expressive language disorder, Down Syndrome, physical disabilities, and more. That mission remains the same today. Traditionally, DDRF is an event with an exhibit hall of vendors (therapy providers, therapeutic schools, enrichment activities, medical professionals, and more) and educational breakout sessions for parents on topics such as IEPs, paying for services, managing challenging behavior, and more. This year’s event will be similar, with some exciting changes. DDRF will kick off with a drum performance from Victoria Boeteng at 2:00. Opening remarks will start at 2:30, followed by a lively, intimate, and casual panel discussion, hosted by advocate extraordinaire, Kimberly Johnson of Chicagoland Autism Connection and Board President of The Arc of Illinois. In the panel discussion attendees will hear from teens and adults who are living and thriving with developmental differences. Before, after, and between speakers, families will be able to talk with expert professionals at the exhibitor tables. (See our growing list of exhibitors here.)Throughout the two-hour event, families will have an opportunity to have a professional family photo, connect with old and new friends, win raffle prizes, and enjoy refreshments. I hope you will join us at DDRF this year. It is happening on Saturday, September 7th from 2:00 - 4:00 pm at Wolcott College Prep Arts & Athletic Center, 1950 W. Hubbard St., Chicago, IL 60622. There is a free attached parking lot and plenty of free street parking. NPN members have free entry. Non-members are asked to make a $10 donation, or join NPN for $20 and then attend DDRF for free. Registration is required. You can learn more and register here. Because NPN is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, DDRF is only possible through the support of our parent, business, and non-profit community. We are grateful for the support of our parent members and our sponsors. DDRF’s growing list of sponsors includes Black Bear Academy, Blue Bird Day, CST Academy, Dabney Behavioral Health, and Lyons Family Eye Care. We are also grateful for the support of the professionals and parents who make up our Developmental Differences Advisory Committee: Evelyn Perez-Horita, Family Child Advocate at North Shore Pediatric Therapy; Kimberly Johnson, Board President The Arc of Illinois; Laura Baginski, former chair of NPN’s Developmental Differences Parent Support Group; Lorell Marin, founder of LEEP Forward and Quantum Leep Academy; Michelle Paris, Founder and Clinical Director at Patterns and Threads: Psychotherapy & Consultation; and Tareema Jean-Baptist, Early Childhood Special Education Family PD Specialist Starnet Region V.

Here's a look at NPN’s year-in-review as well as our plans for 2024! Successes in 2023 We stayed true to our mission to connect a diverse community of families by providing support and resources to solve the challenges of parenting in Chicago. As you know, NPN helps Chicago families research schools and navigate developmental differences through parent education sessions, our annual Preschool & Elementary School Fair, and the Developmental Differences Resource Fair. In October 2023, we held our first Education & Community Fair at Kennicott Park in Hyde Park, complete with performances by the Kenwood School of Ballet. We created and relaunched even more opportunities to foster connection within our community. NPN members find social support and parent-to-parent advice at our monthly playdates, in our Developmental Differences Parent Support Group, on virtual Parent Chats, at in-person Member Networking Coffees, and New Parent Group meetings, not to mention the discussion forum and our Parent to Parent newsletter. (Stay tuned for the next issue of Parent-to-Parent which will hit your mailbox in March!) Looking forward to 2024 Goal: Grow our membership while providing more support to new and expecting parents and parents of older children. Our challenge this year is to increase membership, especially among new and expecting parents. To that end, we are planning a special new and expectant parent event this spring with some of our favorite partners. Stay tuned for more information! We are also developing a new format for our parent education sessions (a podcast!), and creating new programming for parents and their older elementary school children to enjoy together. We look forward to planning more support for post-high-school planning as well. There are so many new things in store for NPN and I’m excited to share them with you throughout the coming year. How you can help. Invite a friend to join NPN? Our strength is in our membership, and every member counts. NPN welcomes families of all cultures and backgrounds, gender, gender identity, race, ethnic origin, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, age, and ability. Your friend is welcome here, so please invite them! Share promo code Member30 with them so that they can save $30 on their first year of membership. Here is a blurb you can use for inviting friends to join: Thank you for your support of NPN. Your membership keeps the organization going and provides resources to families across the city. We are so grateful for you and hope to connect with you online or in-person in 2024.

Many of us have experienced that warm and fuzzy feeling that comes with giving. During this fundraising season, the NPN staff team asked ourselves how can we as an organization be generous while doing the critical work of raising money? Enter the NPN Dreams Come True Family Vacation Sweepstakes. In the spirit of generosity, we’ve put a twist on our end-of-year fundraising campaign. This year, for every $40 you donate, you will have a chance to win the NPN Dreams Come True Family Vacation Sweepstakes. If you win and you are an NPN member, we will give you an additional cash prize of $100 - $1,000 depending on the amount of money raised. You can donate to enter the sweepstake and see all of the details here. The funds that we raise in November and December are critical to NPN’s operations. As a member, you are just as critical to NPN’s success. Every time that you engage with NPN by renewing your membership, attending an event, commenting in the discussion forum, sharing social media posts, or forwarding a resource to your parent community, you help NPN flourish. I hope you catch that generous feeling every time you engage with NPN, because every engagement is a form of giving. When you win the sweepstake (why not you?) NPN will celebrate three times. Once for having raised the funds we need to operate next year, once in celebration of your generosity and support, and finally, we’ll celebrate because you won a dream family vacation! I hope you have fun with this campaign and share it with your friends. Should you make a donation and enter the sweepstakes, I hope you win! Truly, you make a difference in the lives of every Chicago family who depends on NPN for support and resources. I can not thank you enough for your generosity. With gratitude, The NPN Team

This year, we’re taking our 2025 Annual Online Auction to the next level with BetterWorld, a new, user-friendly auction platform designed to make bidding easier than ever. What to Expect with BetterWorld: Seamless Bidding Experience: Bid from your phone, tablet, or computer with ease. Real-Time Notifications: Get instant updates when you’re outbid, including text notifications when you’re outbid to help increase your chances of winning. Simple Checkout: Winning bids are processed automatically, making checkout a breeze. Not only does BetterWorld make the auction experience effortless, but it also helps maximize our fundraising potential—so every dollar raised goes directly toward supporting NPN! How to bid: Go to https://npnparents.betterworld.org/auctions/2025 Scroll through the full page to view the items that are available to bid on Once you find an item that you’re interested in, click on the item to learn more about it and make your bid. This is the perfect time to enter your maximum bid! On the next screen, you’ll be able to input your personal and payment information. **If you already have a BetterWorld account, click the Log In button to sign in. If you’d like to receive text message notifications, be sure to check the box to opt-in to receiving text updates on your bid. Click Place Bid and you’re all set! If you’d like to view a video of these steps, click here for a quick tutorial on Desktop Bidding and/or Mobile Bidding. Frequently asked questions: Do I need to enter credit card information into the system in order to bid? Yes. Your bid is considered your commitment to purchase the item at that price. If you win the item, the credit card used will be charged for the item you purchased. What Is a Max Bid? A max bid is how you can tell the platform the most you are willing to bid on an Auction item so it can bid on your behalf until that amount. If you place a max bid, you can lay back and relax as the platform will bid for you incrementally whenever another bidder makes a bid! If your max bid is outbid you will receive an automatic email notification that you have been outbid. The email will contain the link to return to the bidding page, so you can bid again or set another max bid! If two individuals place the same max bid, priority will go to the individual who placed it first, and the second individual will be notified that they were outbid. Will I be notified via email if I am outbid? If you're outbid, you will receive an email that will easily direct you back to the bidding page where you can bid again! You will also be notified by text message if you have a phone number attached to your account and opted in to receive text message notifications. Can I Retract a Bid I Have Made? BetterWorld’s formal policy is that all bids are final. Bids are final because retracting bids can cause complications in the experience of other Auction bidders and the organization as a whole. That being said, mistakes happen! For example, there have been instances where someone accidentally bid $1,000 on an item when they meant to bid $100, in cases like this, you can contact BetterWorld by clicking the chat bubble at the bottom right of your screen. But don’t delay - contact BetterWorld quickly for your best chance at them being able to go in manually and resolve things. How to Know if You Are the Winning Bidder Shortly after the Auction ends, if you have won an item, we will send you a congratulatory email and receipt letting you know which items you've won and what happens next! Alternatively, you can find out if you're the winning bidder by going to your My Items page. Here you will find every item you have bid on, and whether or not you have been outbid. Have more questions? Check out the full FAQ here. Mark your calendars, and get ready to check out all of the incredible items up for grabs. We can’t wait for you to join us online and make this our most successful auction yet! Please contact Amy at amy@npnparents.org if you have any questions or need any help.

Many worthy causes are vying for your donations and many organizations tug on your heartstrings, so you may be wondering - why donate to NPN? After all, as a member of NPN, you likely understand that there is a level of privilege here. Topics on our discussion forum include luxurious vacations, elite universities, private jets, and more. But NPN means a lot to many families around the city and we are continuously working towards our mission to connect a diverse community of families by providing the support and resources they need to solve the challenges of parenting in Chicago. Did you know that with the help of the Chicago Park District/Special Olympics, Illinois Action for Children, and Carlson Community Services, NPN has distributed more free memberships in one year than ever before? Sixty-five and counting. Or that we help provide free and discounted membership renewals to parents who couldn't join without one? Or that all of our developmental differences resources are free to anyone, anywhere. We truly strive to be here for every new or experienced parent in Chicago who is researching schools, navigating developmental differences, and looking for parent-to-parent advice. NPN makes life more manageable for parents in Chicago, and every parent who comes to NPN comes with a need. They need a school, a diagnosis, advice, or a friend. One parent might come to NPN and quickly find school information or summer childcare and smoothly move on to tackling the next parenting hurdle. Another parent might come to NPN and find ongoing emotional support in parenting their special needs child, along with expert help in finding special services and therapies. NPN is here to help parents find whatever they need, and NPN is here for you. You are the reason we do what we do, and your membership makes this work both meaningful and possible. However, membership fees don’t cover all of NPN’s expenses. Can you give a little bit more to keep NPN going? Your donation truly matters to NPN. Our financial outlook is challenging. Despite gaining dozens of new members every year, NPN's membership has been declining slowly every year for several years, following the trend of membership organizations in general. We attribute this to families moving out of the city and an increase in parenting resources overall, but we also want to do better. I will explain more about that below. At this moment, a slowly declining membership, an abrupt and extended loss of in-person events during the pandemic, and the continued economic uncertainty faced by our advertisers and sponsors creates the most challenging financial future that NPN has ever confronted in our 42 year history. With that in mind, you may have noticed that NPN has turned to focusing on what we do best: helping parents research schools, navigate developmental differences, and find parent-to-parent advice. This coming year we will partner with local education and special needs experts, add new programming for parents of teens, create hybrid school fairs and developmental differences resource fairs, and elevate parent-to-parent advice. At the same time, we are intentionally working to make NPN more inclusive and relevant to every parent in Chicago, regardless of culture, background, gender, gender identity, race, ethnic origin, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, financial means, age, or ability. We want every parent in Chicago to feel welcome and supported here. As an NPN member, you are savvy, smart, and doing your best for your family. You also want to do the best you can when you give. Please consider what you could do for NPN and the parents who come here for information and support. Even five dollars a month goes a long way right now, while Meta is matching all recurring donations made by 12/31/22 via Facebook. Please consider setting up a recurring donation today by clicking here. The NPN staff team, board of directors, your fellow city parents and I are truly grateful for your support.

During a week in July, my husband and I hosted his family for vacation. Spread between three houses (including ours), were 19 family members, ages 6–70 years old. With a small backyard and a basement only a teenager would love, we had to get out and about in the city. To help inspire anyone who's in a position to play host this fall and beyond, I'm sharing what we did and how it went — both the "goal" and the "reality." Chinatown on a (sweltering) Tuesday ⭐⭐ Goal: Drive to Chinatown, take a water taxi to downtown and back, shop, eat, drive home. Reality: The water taxi was only running on weekends over the summer. Bummer #1. Parking was easy in the Chinatown North Parking Lot (2001 S. Wentworth Ave.). After parking, we met inside the beautiful, air-conditioned library (2100 S Wentworth Ave.). So far so good. We ate lunch at Triple Crown Restaurant (2217 S. Wentworth). Amazingly, they sat all 19 of us right away, at two big tables right next to each other. The dim sum was delicious but it was a severely hot day and the A/C couldn’t keep up. I sweated through lunch. [Related: Chicago date-night ideas that go beyond dinner and drinks] After lunch we tried to stay together, but as a big group on a narrow sidewalk trying to make a decision about where to go next, this was not fun. Eventually we all made it to the plaza together and that was much better. Bubble tea, shopping, finding some shade…everything was OK again. Except for the fact that when we got to the parking lot, we realized that we had neglected to get our parking tickets stamped at the restaurant, and had to pay full price for parking. Sigh. Downtown on a Wednesday ⭐⭐⭐ Goal: Take the El downtown, go to the Skydeck Ledge in the Willis Tower, then to Millennium Park and Maggie Daley Park. Eat lunch along the way. Reality: We purchased tickets to the Ledge ahead of time and took the train to Willis Tower. There was no wait to get into the elevator. So far, so good. The winding line that we stood in to actually walk out onto the Ledge was long, but moved quickly. We were a group of 20 and they allowed 14 of us on the ledge at once. Pictures turned out great! Back down at street level, half of our group went home. The rest of us (ages 6-70) ate lunch outside at Willis Tower and then walked to the Crown Fountains at Millennium Park. Everyone had a good day. Climb Zone on a Thursday ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Goal: Let the kids burn some energy while (some of) the adults do other things. Reality: We had eight kids in our group, ages 7–16. They all climbed and played video games, bumper cars, and laser tag. We ate pizza, chicken strips, and salad. Parking was tight in the lot (2500 W Bradley Pl.), but we had the inside almost all to ourselves. Easy and fun. [Related: Chicago venues that cater to kids with special needs] Miko’s Italian Ice on a Sunday ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Goal: Walk to Miko’s (4125 N. Kimball Ave.), eat Italian ice, be happy. Reality: Exactly as planned!