Early childhood, autumn and panellets: what can be done with children this week

We have a new weekend ahead full of activities and they are all starting to take on an autumnal hue. As always, we have prepared a selection of plans for you to do with your children on October 23rd, 24th, and 25th, such as enjoying Canalla!, the new children's and young adult book festival in Vic; participating in the Early Childhood Days in Cambrils, or taking an excursion to Montseny to visit the Autumn Fair and the Arbúcies Flabiol Festival.

We also offer a review of current events through the section To think about and we offer you the data and statements that have caught our attention the most.

Cultural and leisure activities

Vic premieres this weekend Canalla!, a cultural event dedicated to reading in the Catalan language, to books and illustration. From October 22nd to 25th, the streets of the capital of Osona will be filled with activities, workshops, exhibitions, and also book sales with a wide presence of publishing labels, bookstores, illustrators, magazines, and other professionals in the children's and young adult literature sector.

A new festival promoted by the Vic City Council, the Pilarín Bayés Library, entities and organizations in the children's and young adult literature sector such as bookstores, the graphic arts school, and a reference contemporary arts center in the city.

Cambrils hosts the third edition of the Early Childhood Conference on October 22nd, 23rd, and 28th. A program aimed at families and citizens with different proposals for each day. In addition, the activities on the 22nd and 28th will have a free childcare service with prior registration to encourage family attendance.

On Thursday, October 22nd, you can participate in the Community Family Space Let's build the Early Childhood we want together, which will be located at the Senior Citizens' Center. A space to build bonds, share, and learn about the city's community resources. On Friday, a family afternoon will be held with dynamic games and an artistic proposal by Marta Nolla at Parc del Pinaret. Finally, on October 28th, early childhood expert Romina Pérez Toldi will offer a talk aimed at families with children aged 0 to 3 years old on the importance of boundaries at the Cultural Center's assembly hall.

Every year, around All Saints' Day, Santa Coloma de Gramenet transforms into a stage for fairground arts with the Passatge Insòlit Festival. In this 21st edition, you will find street performances of magic, puppets, or circus. A total of 16 scenic proposals that can be seen at the Torre Balldovina Auditorium, at Plaça Pau Casals, and at the Torre Balldovina Gardens, where the emblematic fair with stalls and attractions will be installed.

One of the novelties of this edition is the festival's commitment to Miniature stories: four shows to enjoy in four small boxes, where every glance becomes an adventure. Most of the productions have free admission and those that are paid have popular prices between 3 and 6 euros. Head to Santa Coloma de Gramenet to experience a weekend of entertainment, fun and also many surprises for all ages.

These days in every home we make panellets. For this reason, you cannot miss the fun family activity they are organizing this Saturday at Mas Colom de Casa Borges in Tàrrega. A theatrical visit to discover the history and all the secret corners of Mas Colom, which ends with a very sweet activity.

Your guides will be the ancestors of the house, who are called upon to recover a forgotten recipe, the enchanted panellets, made with ingredients that speak of tradition, territory, and memory.

Now that autumn is here, the time has come to see its burst of colors in person. A good option is to go to Arbúcies, where this weekend they are celebrating a new edition of the Autumn Fair and the Flabiol Festival. Two proposals in one where you can enjoy typical products, flavors, and culture of the Montseny.

There will be a market for crafts and seasonal, local produce, as well as an exhibition of traditional trades, culinary demonstrations, participatory workshops and concerts, talks and informative activities revolving around the flabiol, one of the most emblematic instruments of Catalonia. For the little ones, there will also be parades and giants, family activities, and much more.

If you are in Barcelona and feel like listening to autumn stories, La Casa dels Entremesos has scheduled a storytelling session where the main characters are chestnuts, mushrooms, and panellets. With Assumpte Mercader, a woman of her word, you will learn a lot of curiosities about this time of year, such as why there are trees that lose their leaves and others that do not.

Activity designed for children from three years old. The price is 6 euros and advance booking is required because the capacity is limited. Don't miss out on your spot!

The Picasso Museum in Barcelona offers family activities that include a workshop and a visit to the galleries. This weekend you will be able to delve into Picasso's work from a bodily and interpretive perspective.

In the workshop, you will imagine identities through the body, drawing, and observation. In a space of complicity, play, and discovery among family members and workshop participants, you will be able to play and create your own characters in a free and expressive way. To finish, you will take a tour of the museum's galleries to observe Picasso's most representative characters. Activity led by artist Glòria Vives and aimed at children aged 6 and over.

The 21st edition of the Cornellà International Clown Festival - Charlie Rivel Memorial is already being experienced in the streets, theaters, schools, and other spaces of the city.

Until October 25th, up to 44 shows by 52 companies have been scheduled in Cornellà de Llobregat, some local and others international. There will be galas and awards, and you will be able to see companies such as Cia. Albert Vinyes, the award-winning Txema Muñoz, or the French group Les Bleus de Travail.

With autumn, going to the cinema is more appealing. This Friday premieres Emilie and the secret of the storms, courtesy of the Catalan children's film distributor Rita & Luca Films. Emilie is an intrepid and sensitive eight-year-old girl who has just moved to the mountains with her family. She soon discovers that something strange is happening in the lush valley where she lives. During thunderstorms, the village animals suffer inexplicable attacks and fall ill. The film's protagonist investigates the phenomenon with Manon, her neighbor, to whom she confesses a secret ability: the storms emit music that only she can hear.

An enigmatic adventure recommended for ages 6 and up that awakens the senses and invites us to reconnect with the languages of nature and with what makes us special. It is also accompanied by four stories about diversity, acceptance, and empathy.

Things that happen (to me)

Musical recommendations

This month of October, the short film La bici de la Lola (Lola's Bike) has been released, based on the picture book by Laia Pibernat Mir and Alba Barbé Serra. A piece that combines real scenes with animation scenes taken from the drawings by Judit Piella. On a stormy night, Lola's bike breaks. The next day, the protagonist of this story and her group of friends help her repair it with resources and imagination. It is only missing the bell, and this deeply worries the girl. One day at the beach, Lola spots it underwater when she is reunited with her old bicycle. Together, they identify the abuse suffered at the hands of her uncle and find a way to explain it to her mother and ensure that the uncle does not return home.

The short film was made possible thanks to a Verkami crowdfunding campaign. Tándem Lola SL, Belino Production, and Aragonés Media Consulting are part of the co-production. And the partnership between AMC and Antaviana VFX completes a team that has paid special attention to the quality of the animation and post-production. La bici de la Lola will be presented at various festivals and will surely become an essential awareness-raising tool for working on and helping to break the silence and impunity surrounding sexual violence against children.

Food for thought

For years now, we have been seeing intense migratory movements around the world that respond to complex structural, economic, and demographic factors. Societies are becoming increasingly diverse and also more unequal. This reality is reflected in the school segregation that occurs when there is an unbalanced and unequal distribution of students among educational centers in the same neighborhood or town, a fact that causes the concentration of a high number of vulnerable students, whether for economic reasons, cultural origin, educational needs, or others. This is how educational centers of maximum complexity appear. In Catalonia, there are 350.

This reality is the subject of the report The schools of the "others", which premiered last Sunday on the TV3 program 30 minuts. Its authors, Bernat Ferrer and Joan Salicrú, visit schools and high schools throughout Catalonia where school segregation is most evident (Granollers, Sabadell, Barcelona, Salt, Reus, Tortosa, Igualada, and Vic) and talk about it with teachers, families, and also with former students with immigrant parents but born in Catalonia. The causes of this phenomenon are clear: families "from here" with university studies often choose their children's school not for the school's educational project, but for its quota of vulnerable students, "the others." A reference measure that emerged with decree 11/2021 of the Government of Catalonia with the aim of combating school segregation after the Ombudsman made a formal complaint. The social, economic, and political consequences are shown very well in the report when they visit the neighboring country, France. School segregation causes worse academic results, a higher risk of school dropout, and, in the long run, a significant social fracture.

School segregation is a problem for everyone, which is why we need to invest more in public education and believe that only by betting on diversity will we obtain more social cohesion and better results for all.

He said

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