THINKING ABOUT BRINGING YOUR CHILDREN WITH YOU TO SEE NEW ORLEANS AT THIS YEAR'S APA/AIA MEETING?

If you have children, and are thinking about whether to bring them with you to the American Philological Association's or Archaeological Institute of America's Joint Annual Meeting, here are a few things you should know about child care in New Orleans this year:

--YES, professional child care is available at a reasonable price: KiddieCorp, a licensed, full-service provider employing screened, experienced, CPR- and/or First Aid-trained and certified staff, will take care of children with a schedule of creative, educational, and age-appropriate activities, 8am to 5:30pm, right at the hotel, throughout the conference days ($5 per hour, per child).  Children must be registered for at least three consecutive hours.

--YES, you can apply for and receive money to cover day-care costs. The Women's Classical Caucus offers Child Care Grants.  WCC members in good standing, including graduate students, are eligible to apply. Applicants should write or email by December 1, 2002 to: Professor Ruby Blondell, 4544 4th Avenue, NE, Seattle, WA 98105.<blondell@u.washington.edu> (N.B. Grants are only for members of the Caucus.  Non-members can join for $12 [membership free for students for one year] and should contact Ruby Blondell at the above address for details.)

--YES, children can have a good time at a conference, without their parents' going crazy!  For first-hand reports on KiddieCorp's program from previous classicist/archaeologist customers, or a first-person account of bringing one's children to a conference, email Jeri Fogel (fogel@marshall.edu) for a list of WCC Contact Parents.  Reports and testimonials will also be published in the upcoming *Cloelia* newsletter of the WCC.

--YES, the city of New Orleans has family activities available that you will be able to fit into your schedule.  Here's the short list: the Zoo and the Aquarium, with a Zoo Cruise between the Aquarium and the Zoo along the Mississippi River, D-Day Museum, the Wax Museum (a must see!), the Cabildo (LA history), the Art Museum--with a special hands-on room for the younger set, Jackson Square with its buskers and street artists (a lot of caricature artists), Mardi Gras World (not an amusement park but rather a warehouse with floats, interpretive films and costumes to try on), and the Voodoo Museum, where visitors are introduced in a friendly and creative way to the modern-day syncretic religious tradition known as Vodun or Voodoo.