I have been a big fan of the Lincoln Kids Newspaper for at least a dozen years ago.  Probably around the time my oldest son was mobile I started to realize that I needed to find something to occupy that kid.  So I would pick up a free copy at the Lincoln Children’s Museum or at other places around town and scour through it to find inspiration and ideas on how to relate to my toddler, then my preschoolers and so on.  Their summer issue is often their biggest one since there is so much going on.

Here are some of the regular Lincoln Kids Newspaper columns and features.

  • Pioneer Park Nature Center
  • Lincoln Music Teachers Association
  • Lux Center for the Arts
  • Pet Talk and Allison’s Book Bag (Both with Allison Hunter-Frederick)
  • Lincoln Children’s Zoo
  • Capital Humane Society
  • Nebraska Dyslexia
  • ArtReach
  • Dance
  • List of Summer Camps
  • List of Childcare and Educational Centers
  • Lessons & Activities around Lincoln
  • Capital Birthday Parties
  • “Close to Home” with Gretchen Garrison

That’s right.  Little did I know that one day I would be a regular contributor to this newspaper that I read so often.  This is the first issue where my column has an official name.  So fun!  By the way, you can pick up free issues of the Lincoln Kids Newspaper all around town.  If you are not close enough to Lincoln but would still like to read the newspaper, you can read issues online.

How I started writing for the Lincoln Kids Newspaper

Back in the fall of 2013,  I sent then publisher Mark Martin an article idea for the Lincoln Kids Newspaper.  My first feature?  The December Christmas open houses that happen in downtown Lincoln every year.  He gladly accepted my article, so I pitched him more ideas for the upcoming issues.  After I had written several articles, he asked if I would plan on writing an article for every issue.  I have been honored to do just that.  Mark’s son and daughter-in-law took over the Lincoln Kids Newspaper last year, so now I have been working with Karla to get my articles submitted.  The Martins are a wonderful Lincoln family!

For my quarterly article this time, I wrote about the Nebraska passport program and listed the six Lincoln locations.  While passport places can be found across the state, this year more seem to be concentrated in this general Southeast Nebraska area.  In my Lincoln Kids Newspaper article, I promised to post the list of all of the passport places that are within an hour or so of Lincoln.  Soon I will be putting that list up on the blog.  Stay tuned. 🙂

Author: neodyssey

My name is Gretchen Garrison. I started this blog about Nebraska in 2013. So far, I have written three books about Nebraska and Lincoln.