morning i'm erica francis with city of holland t v and today we're here at the downtown holland farmer's market an eight story right next to the civic center this is the second episode of a six part series titled market watch where we bring you the fun and exciting things happening right here at the farmer's market each wednesday morning the farmers market partners up with a local organization to help educate and entertain the children today we're going to learn about the children serious so to get us started we have aaron marsh here department we switched off the summer and all of us are taking turns doing firmer market story times this the season how fun so tell me a little bit about what you do here at the farmer's market we try to promote early literacy we get kids involved with songs and games we read them stories that are going to be exciting and funny and get the motivated to read well how fun what got you started in reading what the farmer's market honestly i don't know how long ago it began but i know we used to participate with the parks and recreation division and did story times going to different places all around the community different parks and now that we have consolidated and we're coming here as one central location where people can find us outdoors on a regular basis at such an awesome opportunity for the kids to have you know to get entertained educated by that you tell us what story you are reading the children today i have several one is called tops and bottom janet stevens which is one of my favorite folk tales i'm also reading too many pairs and the apple pie tree and one of those stories about the apple pie tree takes the takes the story of tells the story of a sound all right well i'm looking forward to watching you read the kids some stories i hope you have a great day thanks very lovingly interview thank you very much we'll be right back good morning lexie thanks so much for joining me today to tell me a little bit about what you do down here and the event coordinator for the holland farmer's market so we do a variety of activities and that includes the kids activities the chefs ca's the salsa showdown which is the big event coming up and also the carve event so a lot of different fun things that go through go on during the summer and then also in the fall it's very fun to tell me a little bit about yourself when i moved here just recently to holland i am from  iowa so yeah i moved back in march and took the position in june and i've been really loving it it's a it's a lot of fun to meet people this way and interact with kids and just just like i said a lot of fun fun will  activities is all about shared so the kids activities are every wednesday and it starts at nine thirty it kicks off with a story time and it's held under the big tree on the north side of the civic center and that's with eric district library and then after that starting at ten o'clock we have a different activity each week and it's led by someone or some organization that's in the community so this week we actually have ready for school here and so they're going to be doing a variety of things and probably highness there doing some music activities they're also going to be doing  caterpillar where they could we grow grass and match seed so it'll be a lot of fun and then next week we also have a different activity again we'll have story time but it will be led by her district library and then we'll have another activity as well so be fun while there's so many things to do that's so awesome what is your favorite part about the farmer's market oh boy i've got lots of favorite things about the farmer's market of course the different events but on saturdays we have what's called the chef series and that starts at ten o'clock again it's on the north side of the civic center and it's a ton of fun and we always have a different chef here they do a demonstration it's really cool because you get inspired to use some of the different fresh produce from the market and try to fit recipes so that's probably one of my favorite parts of it all  otherwise just getting to know the vendors and walking around and really enjoying the different produce that michigan offers so you know it's definitely a very cool thing down here what got this whole kids activities and farmer's market activity started you know with the chef series and everything what inspired that yeah well a few years ago when they were doing the farmer's market they're just looking in more ways to get kids and different people involved and so the kids active in the chef series came out of that they also started doing what's called the salsa showdown and that will take place on august eighteenth a share and it's a big salsa competition but it's also open to the public for taste scene so for three dollars you can come get a ticket and get all the chips and salsa that you'd like to try so different ways just to get people involved in apps the market was definitely working i could see how many people we have all the kids are right well what can you tell us we can look forward to later in the year join us for our kids activity they go until the end of august and again they're at nine thirty and then we also have a chef series and that starts at ten o'clock on saturdays and then we have our salsa show down in august eighteen and then we have an event also called the carve and that's our in october five and six and so just a lot of events a now four and it's always good to remember that the  isn't just in the summer but it actually goes until the first week in december so we'd love to see ya here right very fun we'll make sure to get down here and check out the farmer's market songs like wednesday mornings the kids activities are where to be so thank you so much for letting me interview you today interesting people tell me a little about a bit about who you guys are and why you guys are doing here i am shelley degrees and i work for the city hall and i run the city greenhouse and i e today i'm helping tour these two other wonderful people on knowledge you meet them  my name is i'm from the city of chicago and we're here with american bloom to judge the city of holland for a number of different things your landscaping your urban forestry  community involvement and we're going to spend the next couple days just meeting the wonderful citizens of holland and seeing all the wonderful things you're doing it sounds like the coolest job ever like how much fun is that traveling around and about what you think about the us well any time that you get children involved in a community activity it's always it sets the routes for the future and we just think it's a wonderful thing to do to get them started  understanding what community is all about and getting them involved in and finding out some of their passions perhaps i see over here that they're planting some seeds and you never know in ten years from now where that activity will take them so it's always it's always great to have the kids learn new activities and you know you never know where it takes them exactly so you're here from the greenhouse how exciting is that to see these kids playing with plants that so early the program and we expect good things well good to hear thank you so much for letting me interview you and i hope you have a fantastic day well thank you oh we'll be right back welcome back joining us is colleen health from ready for school  and thank you so much for being here with me today tell me a little bit about yourself about myself or about ready for school tell me about yourself i'd love to know about you ok well i am the development director for ready for school i'm also as you can see a mom and then expecting mom so that's exciting so i believe very much in what ready for school does which is getting kids ready for school all right so is going to say tell me a little bit about ready for school can you go more in depth with that sure we are a community initiative serving holland zealand in hamilton and our mission is to get kids prepared for kindergarten very fun how did you get involved with the farmer's market here well our mission is to connect with parents so it's important for us to be where parents are and in the summer months parents are at the farmers market as you can see with their children so this is just a great place to connect with families that's a great opportunity what are some opportunities actually for ready for school well here one of the messages we're trying to get across is the importance of  just like i said getting your kid ready for school so making sure that we're getting that message to families and what it means to be your child's first and most important teacher in addition to that right now with the timing here it is we're looking to talk to parents about getting their three and four year olds and rolled in preschool and we know that that's a major budget buster for a lot of families so we have a jewish in assistance program so we really want to communicate that message to families here too that you know we have assistance that's available so that all kids can have a preschool  experience have you had success connecting with families down here recently oh we certainly have as you can see it's just a great place to connect with families could get to hear what is your favorite part about the farmer's market oh what isn't there to love about the farmer's market i mean it's just one it's a great place to get fresh ingredients but also it's just i mean in holland zeal and it is absolutely a community event i mean people just come out just when you come here just kind of this can be seen what do you think is the best thing about engaging these kids in these active activities at such a young age well i think it's important particularly with the activities that we offer that we keep them educational so it's an opportunity for families to connect with their child to learn a new activity to play with their child to connect nature and education so it's just a really good opportunity i think so till so anything else you would have to add today well tell you a little bit about the activities yes please do tell me what they're doing today well what we've got going on today is first it started with a movement movement music activity so to kind of connect everything with the farmer's market and make it the same theme we have bobby kerns here was singing a song about being a seed growing into a plant and then they've come over here and they are building grass caterpillars so they're actually seeing how that seed will grow into grass which is just kind of a fun activity and then they're actually learning how to match seeds were specific plans that they might find around the farmer market as well wow so this really is very educational while they're having fun so that is awesome anything else you would like to add i think that just things like that you know it just teaches families that i mean you can you can teach and interact with your child anywhere you are the farmer's market is a fun and educational place to be well you heard what she said you should come down here and check it out all right we're going to see now if we can interview one of the little ones and see how much fun they had today at the farmer's market banks and her back and i'm here with julie one of the parents that bought her children down to the farmers market kids activities today good morning to lay thanks so much for being with me today can you tell us what your kids did today at the farmer's market  we've got a shy one on our hands activities i think there's always something for them to do so whether they're coloring or they're making something and i think those are the best it's a great way to engage the kids well i hope they had fun today and looks like the craft is very cool very well thank you so much thank you very back all right we are back with a few more families that are down here for the kids activities hello and welcome did you guys enjoy today's activities yes they're great yeah how much fun did you have today on a scale from one to ten super awesome what did you make today do you make anything or you just drawn with chalk put it you made plants what kind of and did you have fun what about you what's your favorite part about the kids activities down here  you never heard that one before you like blueberries why do you like blueberries it is so good they taste so good well well do you would enjoy bringing your kids down here this is just an op awesome opportunity what's your favorite part about it  we like the story time and just you know doing the different activities of different ones every week so yeah lots of fun oh do you come down to the farmers market often we do almost every wednesday that we're in in town to do something to get out of the  house did you have fun today oh sometimes they get so shy oh i'm all right well thank you so much for letting me interview the guys obviously the kids had a great time and it's a great time to for you guys to get outside with the kids and have fun thank you so much all right and we're back with another family hello what is your name i'm the one nice to meet you so you're here down at the kids activities have you ever been here before and we try to come every week so we have been for the past two weeks really well what did you guys do this week we usually just bring them around have them we have a specific color who want them to look for today it's yellow they have a yellow circle around their and their hand and then they dislike for food what do you think is their favorite part about the kids activities they like to go to the bubbles have been on them before and so they like to do that they just they like to go for the walk or use the it's a lot of the the yeah it's a great opportunity for the kids and it's awesome for the parents to get down here all saw such a great opportunity and anything else you would like to add about what you love about farmer's market well that concludes today's episode of thanks so much for joining us today at the down town hall in farmer's market we'd like to give a big thanks to remax like shore for their sponsorship of the kids activities at the farmer's market and thanks again for watching i'm erica francis with market watch prachi by city of holland t v have a wonderful day