Not Just for Kids

The How-To Cowboy™ Rides Again
This Week’s Secret, Magic, How-To Fun Trick:
How to Create Your Own Smiley Portfolio

Smiley is now a universal language with a gazillion font alphabet. Go to www.smileydictionary.com, download the smiley fonts to your computer and learn how and why French journalist Franklin Loufrani invented the Smiley in the 1970s.

But hey, you can create your own Smiley Portfolio using a standard computer graphic program (See humorous samples below). And, once you get the hang of it, you can create Smiley fonts for your own emotions, attitudes and feelings as well as those of your parents, relatives, pets, your school mascot, gym teacher, media specialist, principal and your friends and neighbors. Smiley on!

---

Accept the How-to Ranch Hand Challenge:

Send a unique how-to trick to IM Press, PO Box 5346, Takoma Park MD 20913.

Include step-by-step instructions and, if accepted, you’ll see your trick published in this space and receive a Little Ned Stories book and a $10 check.

Visit the How-to Cowboy, aka Edward Allan Faine, on his website: www.takoma.com/ned/home.htm.

---

This Week’s Kids’ Stuff

February 8
Fables Brought to Life
Kids 2+ enjoy favorite stories acted out on stage, such as “Ant & the Grasshopper,” “Boy Who Cried Wolf” and “Tortoise and the Hare.” Lunch noon (hot dog or PBJ, chips, drink, and dessert) & Show 12:30pm @ Chesapeake Music Hall, Busch’s Frontage Rd., Annapolis. $12: 410/626-7515.

Africa Comes Alive
Kids of all ages join w/Ananse the spider and other characters thru African folk tales. 1-2pm & 2-3pm @ Chesapeake Children’s Museum, Silopanna Rd., Annapolis. free w/museum admission: 410/990-1993.

February 9
Veg Out for Winter
Kids 6-10 w/parents–While frost covers the outdoors, plant seeds indoors and start your own veggie garden. Transplant them outside when weather warms. 11am @ Homestead Gardens, Davidsonville. $10; rsvp: 410/798-5000
• www.homesteadgardens.com.

Prep School’s Open House
Kids Pre-K–Grade 12 bring your families and tour the campus of College-Preparatory School, Calverton School. Meet w/teachers and students; learn what the school offers. 1pm @ Calverton School, Calverton School Rd., Huntingtown. rsvp: 301/855-1922 • www.calvertonschool.org.

February 11
Jeepers, Peepers
Kids ages 2 & 3 play a game of peek-a-boo and guess which eyes belong to which animal and where each animal lives. 10am @ Battle Creek Cypress Swamp, Gray’s Rd. off Sixes Rd., Prince Frederick. $3 w/discounts; rsvp: 410/535-5327.

One Zillion Valentines
Kids ages 2-6 make a special valentine to take home after joining in Valentine Day stories, songs and poems. 2pm @ Severna Park Public Library, McKinsey Rd. off Ritchie Hwy.: 410/222-6290.