Music, stories and boats made of wine corks are some of the many activities offered to Palouse children at Co-op Kids.

Every week, children and their caregivers can visit the co-op for a variety of activities, such as craft making, music and food tasting. Most of the materials for these programs are donated by the Moscow Food Co-op.

Started ten years ago by Palouse Prairie Charter middle school teacher Rebekka Boysen-Taylor, Co-op Kids is a time for Moscow residents and those from around the Palouse to socialize.

“(The families) don’t have to sign up or be members of the Co-op,” she said. “Everybody is welcome.”

Boysen-Taylor said many of the families visiting the Co-op for this program become friends in the process.

This week’s Co-op Kids had the kids making cork boats. Using corks, pipe cleaners, toothpicks and wax tissue paper, the children could make little cork sailboats that actually floated well in water. There were also trays of water set out to race the cork boats.

Heather Heward, who has worked with Co-op Kids for five years, said the activities they do sometimes relate to the season. They’ve made snowflakes in the winter, gifts for Father’s and Mother’s Day and planted seeds in the spring.

“Every year, we go to the fire department,” Heward said.

Experts have also come in to talk to kids, from an herbalist teaching about tea to farmers showing the process of making yogurt from their cow’s milk, Boysen-Taylor said.

Heward said one of the things she enjoys about doing the program is putting into action the crafty ideas she hears about, trying them out and meeting new people in Moscow.

“I do a lot of research to figure out what activities will work,” Boysen-Taylor said. “I end up doing a lot of these activities at home.”

Co-op Kids is held from 9 – 10 a.m. every Tuesday at the Moscow Food Co-op. Visit the Moscow Co-op website for information about future Co-op Kids events.

Reporting by Catherine Kruse