There are a couple of hours left until a new performance ofThe ferryman At the Teatre Lliure de Montjuïc in Barcelona, ​​eleven-year-old Bruna Luz is restless and starts dancing before going on stage, while she waits for her turn to have her hair done, change, and put on her microphone. Beside her, ten-year-old Bruna Armengol joins in her games and laughs nonstop while waiting for the same. In a little while, they will become Mercy and Honor Carney, and their characters will travel to a rural area of ​​County Armagh in Northern Ireland. It will be a day in late August 1981, and the Carney family will be celebrating Harvest Day. But the festive family day will end in tragedy.

Next weekend, L'Hospitalet de l'Infant will once again become a meeting point for construction enthusiasts with the fourth edition of HospiBrick & Click, the largest joint LEGO and Playmobil fair in Catalonia. Last year's fair welcomed nearly 6,000 visitors from the town itself, other parts of Catalonia, and cities such as Zaragoza, Bilbao, Valencia, and Seville. The event will take place in the sports pavilion and will feature over 300 square meters of exhibition space. Visitors will be able to admire twelve Playmobil dioramas and approximately 120 square meters of LEGO creations—forty square meters more than last year—assembled by members of the Somosclicks (Playmobil) and Hispalug (LEGO) associations. In addition to the exhibition area, there will be two specialized sales stands and a play area. bricks LEGO for the little ones.

Around 1,500 people, according to municipal sources – 3,000, according to the organizers – demonstrated this Saturday in Barcelona despite the rain to demand improvements in the working conditions of staff in the 0-3 age group. The demonstration, which began in front of the Post Office building and ended in front of the Catalan Parliament, was organized by the 0-3 Platform of Catalonia under the slogan "0 excuses, 3 reasons: justice, equity, and future." Chanting "We are education, not daycare," the demonstrators not only demanded better conditions for professionals in the sector, but also advocated for a reduction in the student-teacher ratio and the right of children to a quality, equitable public education from the first day of life. The Platform's spokesperson, Joan Cela, stated that Catalan daycare centers have the highest ratios in Europe and demanded that "children be put at the center." "We want to be treated like the second cycle of early childhood education; we want to have the same rights," Cela asserted. Throughout the march, various signs could be seen, such as "If there's a shortage of staff in schools, children and adults alike suffer," "Childhood policies with pedagogical criteria," "Lower ratios, more hugs," and "We fight for the 0-3 level." "We have a very complicated situation, with five different models, involving private companies and city councils," Cela emphasized. However, she affirmed that people came to the march from all over, in an unprecedented demonstration. "An improvement in working conditions is necessary, as well as lower ratios and the creation of a 0-3 age group chart so that all of this can begin to be discussed," she concluded.

At Marta's house, with two girls, clothes haven't been a big expense. Throughout their childhood, they've made use of everything that friends' or cousins' daughters no longer needed. It's come to them through the seams, and that's why, even as little girls, both have been able to choose what they like and discard what they don't. They only bought the most basic items, like leggings, which are difficult to pass down. Both the older girl, 12, and the younger one, 8, have agreed on one thing for the past few years: they haven't worn skinny jeans because, apart from not finding them comfortable, they arrived just as wide-legged or flared trousers were back in style.

Once a week, seventy preschool and primary school children at the Betània-Patmos school in Barcelona's Sarrià-Sant Gervasi district participate in a midday chess session. This activity has been offered as an extracurricular activity by the school to students from the fourth grade onward since 2011. "Parents really like it because it helps clear their minds and concentrate. But the children are also drawn to it," says Uriel Jiménez, the school's extracurricular coordinator. He adds that this is because the instructors teach chess using a playful methodology. For this reason, he says, it's one of the extracurricular activities with a higher enrollment rate than dropout rate throughout the school year. The Betània-Patmos school is one of 150 educational centers in the metropolitan area where the Catalan Chess School (ECADE) teaches chess. In most schools, chess is offered as an extracurricular activity, although some centers also hold regular classes during school hours and others offer occasional workshops. ECADE was founded in 2022 through the merger of two existing chess schools: the Barcelona Chess School and the Miguel Illescas Chess School. It also functions as an academy, with around 80 children attending afternoon classes at its premises, and as a club, with 40 members. In addition, they organize chess, board game, and strategy camps during Christmas, Easter, and summer breaks. In total, they have 38 instructors on staff who teach chess to 4,000 students each year.

The Tres Pins School in Barcelona is located in the heart of Montjuïc mountain. The tranquility of this idyllic setting has been disrupted since last October by a man who has been throwing stones at the school, neighbors, families, and buses, as has been reported. The world on RAC1 And the ARA has confirmed it. Since then, the families have lived in fear: "We've been living in fear for months," explains M., the mother of a girl at the school and a member of the AFA. Now the Mossos d'Esquadra have arrested the individual who matched the described profile, and they assure that, since the arrest, "no similar incidents have been recorded."

In 2022, Daniel A. Abrams, professor of psychiatry at Stanford University, published in The Journal of Neuroscience Research on what happens in the brains of boys and girls at age thirteen shows that the neural centers involved in feelings of reward stop activating when they hear their mother's voice. Conversely, when they hear unfamiliar voices, the neural networks associated with pleasant sensations are activated. Therefore, when parents believe their children aren't listening to them, it's not just a guess; science has shown that they most likely aren't.

"For me The Tatano It's a fun and magical memory from my childhood. I spent many family moments sharing recipes, crafts, imagination, reading, and lots of laughter," says Xavier, from Alella, who is now 23. "Roser has arrived." The Tatano"What a rush there was when I heard that phrase! There weren't enough hands to tear open the plastic wrapping of the magazine and start reading Pere Sense Miedo," recalls Roser Maria, 25, from Ferreries.The Tatano It connected me to the world of reading. My older brothers read the Strong Horse And I imitated them by reading. The Tatano",” says Martí, from Maçaners, who is 24 years old. The three of them tell their story in issue number 241 of the iconic magazine, which is celebrating its twentieth anniversary on newsstands. And like them, a series of tataners Those who grew up with the stories of Pere Sense Miedo, Rita Pinyada, and Nono and Petunia, among many others, share how being readers during childhood shaped them and the fond memories they cherish.

I have borrowed the title of the book written by the educator Philippe Meirieu to write these reflections on the complexity of introducing children to the world of writing. It is a short book, included in the new Minerva collection published by the Rosa Sensat Teachers' Association, reviving the name of the collection offered at the beginning of the 20th century by the Barcelona Provincial Council and later by the Commonwealth of Catalonia.

Before becoming a mother, I had very firm convictions about who I was and what my path would be. I didn't imagine the extent to which motherhood transforms you completely, the extent to which I myself would become a different person. I thought it would be harder for me to stop prioritizing myself, and that I would sometimes experience it with unease or as a loss.

Fourteen-year-old Fiona Olivé lives with a constant cough and runny nose. It's as if she's always sick. During the cold season, her family is always on high alert to prevent her from getting seriously ill, as any respiratory infection can easily become complicated and develop into pneumonia. The young girl is allergic to various types of dust mites, grasses, and cats, and for a time, there was also a suspicion that she was allergic to eggplants, which was recently ruled out after controlled food exposure at the Sant Pau Hospital's day hospital. However, for the two years she lived with this suspicion, she had to act like a person with allergies. de facto to this vegetable. During this period, explains Karla Islas, her mother, the hardest thing for her was having to constantly be aware of the allergy "and, before eating anything, having to ask or be alert in case it contained eggplant." The young woman "also found it difficult at school," she adds.

Some medical terms are more difficult to understand than others, especially when discussing complex pathologies or rare tests. Children, however, may initially encounter this difficulty with even the most basic vocabulary, encompassing everyday health terms and related concepts. For this reason, medical vocabulary specialists from Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) in Barcelona have collaborated with over 3,000 children and young people from schools and institutes throughout Catalonia to develop a platform to explain medical terms to children in their own words, using new digital and multimedia formats. This platform, called Diximed, is aimed at children and families, as well as pediatricians and educators. "You have to approach the child's needs, but keeping in mind a psycholinguistic theory that says nothing is learned in leaps and bounds, but always from what is already known. And if what a child knows is incorrect and no one explains it to them, they will always end up carrying that misconception," says Rosa Estopà, principal investigator of the Lex project, a research group at Iulaterm. To carry out this initiative, the participating children were asked to explain what they knew about certain words, such as flu, louse, vaccine, coronavirus, cancer either chickenpoxAmong many others, they were asked to draw them. "We told them they had to do it as if they were explaining it to a child their age who came from another planet," Estopà recalls.

You truly become an adult when your first child is born. But I've discovered there's another boundary you cross, when your children no longer need you as much. Then you become a kind of supervisor or firefighter, someone they call on in an emergency. I'm realizing now that my daughter is almost nineteen and already in university, and my youngest son is almost fourteen and practically halfway through secondary school.

The writer Jane Lazarre, one of the first to write about the ambivalence of motherhoodShe stated: "I firmly believe that stories of motherhood, of any kind and stage, must be explained if we are to make our way between idealization and demonization."

Photographer Fadi En Thabet captured an image that speaks volumes: the army's eagerness to destroy a childhood, and the resilience of a little girl, Amira, who ran from her home as bombs fell, clutching only one thing: her textbooks, her future. Amira's story is recounted in A cry for the children of Gaza. Voices, images and testimonies of the genocide (Ara Llibres), coordinated and with a prologue by Txell Feixas and Cristina Mas, was read yesterday at the Teatre Lliure. The book features the voices of people from Gaza itself, as well as from elsewhere, who speak of childhood under the bombs and how the Israeli army has erased the future of some 20,000 children and teenagers. With this reading, directed by Alícia Gorina, the Lliure joined a solidarity action that is part of the Actúa x Palestina (Act for Palestine) campaign.

Days of wishes, smiles, and surprises are coming, and for parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles, days of nerves and often, not knowing what to choose from so many options. We've put together a carefully curated selection ofevolutionary toys which guarantee many hours of play and a wide selection of toys to choose from, depending on their interests. There are also options designed for children with special needs. Four key points to understand this guide:

The Lemon class and the Strawberry class from a Barcelona school take their places on benches placed on the same stage. Teachers and chaperones ask for silence and order because the show is about to begin. "Don't tap your feet." "It's starting now." "Pay attention." "Xxt. Let's be quiet, please." Before them begins a simple and tender puppet show, with live music, careful lighting, and minimalist sets that transport them to a completely new universe: the life of Numa and the rag rabbit his mother gives him, with whom he lives imaginary adventures.

We spent four years with the kids living in Brooklyn, the neighborhood of my childhood. My children went to my elementary school, and Judith even did a year of my school there. middle schoolNow I think they understand me better as a person and know more about what it means to be American, although I wouldn't say New York is entirely typical of the country in general. We've traveled the world and now we're back living in the Raval neighborhood of Barcelona.

Why do some women only have girls or only boys? This is a question many people ask when they observe that some families with three or four children all have the same biological sex. Is there a genetic factor that determines this? In human populations as a whole, if no external discriminatory factor is at play—such as sex selection at birth or wars, among others— The ratio of biological male to female sex is very close to 1:1Certainly, there is a slight increase in the percentage of boys compared to girls among newborns, but after one year of life, these percentages are already equivalent. The fact that humans have few offspring makes it difficult to analyze whether there is any genetic factor skewing the proportion when we are only looking at the progeny of a single couple. With two or three children, statistically it is difficult to distinguish the action of chance from the action of some genetic or environmental factor, which must be subtle.

The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) have arrested a 42-year-old woman in Barcelona, allegedly linked to an organization that charged migrant children up to €10,000 to help them reach Northern Europe. Investigators concluded that this criminal group followed a "perfectly organized" method of charging minors for travel from Somalia to Nordic countries, accompanied by an adult who provided them with passports, mobile phones, and bank cards. The officers confirmed that the woman had entered and left Somalia numerous times using different identities, and in April, police had already investigated her for similar incidents at Girona Airport. In that case, the woman arrived at Barcelona Airport with two minors on November 19. The following day, the Mossos received a tip about her location and went to the hotel where she was staying in the Sant Martí district, as there was an outstanding warrant from the National Police to identify her. The same report stated that the woman already had a record for similar cases involving other minors. The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) took both the woman and the two minors to the police station and, once there, verified that the passports the children were traveling with were genuine, but not their own. They were using the documents of another person, with similar physical features to avoid raising suspicion, and with nationalities from Schengen Area countries to evade cross-border security controls at airports. Under the protection of the Generalitat (Catalan government).

This organization, dedicated to transporting migrant children, also provided the victims with a mobile phone so they could stay in contact with their families during the journey. In the case that led to the arrest in Barcelona, ​​once the children arrived in Spain, the first person they had contact with disappeared. From that moment on, the woman who was ultimately arrested took charge of accompanying the children and providing them with accommodation until their flight to their final destination. The two children who were with the arrested woman at the time of her arrest have been transferred to the Directorate General for the Prevention and Protection of Children and Adolescents (DGPPIA) so they can go to a protection center. The woman is accused of a crime against the rights of foreign citizens for economic reasons and by taking advantage of the victims' vulnerability.

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