6
BROOKLYN WEEKLY, JAN. 27, 2019
RED ALERT: The music videos in Skela’s “ Project 10 ” were recorded
during a six-day period in 2018, and the songs refl ect
her personal and professional growth. Rachel Turley
There’s now a new online home for all of your Brooklyn news
It’s Bklyn’s babysitters’ club!
Website helps parents fi nd free childcare, arrange play dates
ONLINE PLAY DATING: Kids Club website founder Manisha Snoyer hosted a play date with tots Vir,
center, and Yuri, right, that she arranged via the online service. Photo by Trey Pentecost
SKELA
This newspaper is not responsible for typographical errors in ads beyond the cost of the space occupied by the error. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2019 by Brooklyn Courier
Life LLC. The content of this newspaper is protected by Federal copyright law. This newspaper, its advertisements, articles, and photographs may not be reproduced, either in
whole or part, without permission in writing from the publisher except brief portions for purposes of review or commentary consistent with the law. Postmaster, send address
changes to Courier Life, One MetroTech Center North, 10th Floor, Brooklyn, NY 11201.
and do nothing but make
beautiful things that
mean something to you. It
was a lot of fun to be with
my friends and exorcise
my thoughts,” she said.
Finishing “Project 10”
will also let Skela concentrate
on a new chapter
in her life — literally!
The fi rst section of her
novel “Building You Up,”
about a teenage girl dealing
with sorrow, is online
now, and she plans to release
new chapters, each
with an accompanying
song, over the next year.
“It is a coming-of-age
story about a young girl
dealing with grief and
losses in her life and what
it means to navigate the
world with these porous
holes in you,” she said.
Skela said she has been
writing novels since she
was 15, but that releasing
her prose for the world to
see is a new adventure.
“I’ve never done this
before so I’m still fi guring
it out,” she said.
Skela at Rough Trade
64 N. Ninth St. between
between Kent and Wythe
avenues in Williamsburg,
(718) 388–4111, www.
roughtradenyc.com. Feb.
9 at 8 pm. $15.
Continued from page 1
BY COLIN MIXSON
Goodbye wife swap, hello
baby swap!
A new free website
makes it easy for borough
parents to connect for play
dates and fi nd other willing
moms and dads to watch
their kids, according to its
Brooklyn-based creators,
who sought the help of dozens
of experts to put their
platform together.
“We met with 100 families
from ‘Bococa’ and developed
a website we thought
would meet their childcare
and early education
needs for free,” said Manisha
Snoyer, using the unoffi
cial portmanteau to refer
to Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill,
and Carroll Gardens.
Parents who sign up to
host one play date a month
on the new Kids Club site
in exchange receive unlimited
access to a calendar
of other get-togethers
hosted by moms and dads
living nearby, which include
a healthy number of
“movie night and pizza”
gatherings, along with
arts-and-crafts sessions,
board-game playing, egg
painting, cooking and baking,
and something called a
“develop your mindfulness
super power” workshop,
which Snoyer described
as a sort of pint-sized wellness
retreat.
“It’s a combination of
meditation and yoga,” she
said.
Would-be hosts can also
fork over $50 to $100 and
submit to a criminal background
check to assure
other moms and dads of
their ability, according to
Snoyer, who said parents
are encouraged to swap kids
with folks they know.
Still, some do leave
their tots with people they
haven’t met, but in those
instances, participants
typically bond over their
shared experience of, well,
being parents, the Kids
Club creator said.
“We’ve had people book
play dates with parents
they haven’t met already,
but generally their kids are
the same age, or go to the
same school,” she said.
More than 80 families
from across the borough
joined the service
since it launched earlier
this month, Snoyer said,
and she believes that even
more residents will take
advantage of Kids Club to
avoid the burden of paying
for babysitters, who
can charge moms and dads
more than $20 an hour,
according to a New York
Family report .
Read all about it!
Brookynites now have
one go-to website to get
their daily dose of hyperlocal
news, with Brooklyn-
Paper.com offi cially incorporating
its sister website,
BrooklynDaily.com.
The new BrooklynPaper.
com’s coverage incorporates
the reporting of
its eponymous newspaper,
as well as stories published
in print in the Bay
News, Mill–Marine Courier,
Park Slope Courier,
Brooklyn Graphic, and
Brooklyn Weekly.
The website creates
a single destination for
Brooklyn’s more than
2.7-million residents to get
breaking news from both
their neighborhood and
across the borough, offering
unparalleled coverage
of what will soon be
the country’s third largest
city, according to BrooklynPaper.
com’s editor-inchief.
“Publishing our stories
on a single website will
not only make it easier for
our readers to immerse
themselves in the breadth
of our neighborhood-byneighborhood
reporting,
it will also provide even
more context as to how
what’s happening in one
area may directly affect
the lives of Brooklynites
living nearby,” said Anthony
Rotunno.
So bookmark BrooklynPaper.
com now to keep
up with our Kings County
coverage, and don’t forget
to follow @brooklynpaper
on Facebook, Instagram,
and Twitter, to ensure you
never miss a story.
— Moses Jefferson
/roughtradenyc.com
/www.roughtradenyc.com
/www.roughtradenyc.com
/Paper.com
/BrooklynDaily.com