Saturday, December 5 and Saturday, December 12 from 10am – noon at the
Toronto Eaton Centre
Your kids can make Swarovski crystal ornaments and support The Children’s Wish Foundation of Canada. Swarovski is holding 30 minute workshops every Saturday morning until December 12 (which means there’s only two more mornings left) in which children create ornaments to take home for $20, every penny of which is going to the Children’s Wish Foundation. Continue reading 'Swarovski’s Stars For the Wishes Workshops'»
Saturday December 5th & Sunday December 6th at The Delta Chelsea Hotel (Located at 33 Gerrard Street West). 10am – 2:30pm
You can build a gingerbread house with your kid and donate to Habitat for Humanity, helping to build homes for families in need, at the same time. Continue reading 'Habitat For Humanity Toronto Gingerbread Build'»
Saturday, December 5 from 10am
It’s your second chance at a Santa Parade. If you missed the big one, or if you’re just clamoring for more parade magic, consider checking out the Etobicoke Lakeshore Christmas Parade. (Colum asked if we were going to see the Santa parade again the very next weekend. He said, “But you said it happens every year.” We’re working on chronology.) Continue reading 'Etobicoke Lakeshore Christmas Parade'»
Update: Congratulations to Pam for winning the 4 free tickets.
Disney on Ice is coming to town and this year’s theme is Princess Classics. I’ll be attending the opening show at the Rogers Centre on December 18th with my family (for free) and will write all about it in this space shortly after. Even though I tend to balk at anything “princess” I have enjoyed many a Disney animated feature in my time. I also like to revel in long abandoned dreams of becoming a pro-figure skater and big adventure trips downtown with the kids. Continue reading 'Disney On Ice Giveaway & Coupon Code'»
Fundraiser: Tues, Nov. 24; 1 – 5pm for families, 7 – 11pm evening concert; Tranzac Club 292 Brunswick Ave.
There was a horrible fire on Halloween night that engulfed a building near Bathurst and Dupont and burnt it so badly it needed to be torn down. That building had been home to the Children’s Storefront since 1975. It was a free drop-in centre for parents with babies, toddlers, and pre-schoolers, yes. But one Continue reading 'Fundraiser to Rebuild the Children’s Storefront'»
Santa Claus Parade Sunday, November 15 12:30pm
My mom used to take us to see the Santa Claus parade when she worked as a secretary at the Sick Kids Hospital Emergency Department. I remember it being crowded and having to crane my neck to watch the floats and marching bands go by. There was Santa at the end, of course, which was a pretty big pay off. My favourite part was always the upside-down clowns who walk on their hands. How do they do it?! There were some brutally cold parade days back in the ’80′s and we would warm up over steaming hot chocolate in the hospital before going home. Continue reading '150th Santa Claus Parade'»
You can file this under more shameless neighbourhood plugging and free Halloween fun for the family. Brought to you by the Junction BIA and the Rue Morgue House of Horror:
To recap:
From 10am – noon Pumkin carving/decorating
From 6:30 – 8:30 Scary family movies
Treats Continue reading 'Junction Halloween Fest'»
The Toronto Symphony Orchestra is kicking off this season’s
Young People’s Concerts on Saturday. Each season boasts five one-hour-long concerts aimed at children aged 5 to 12. Colum and I attended
their last concert in May and it was entirely memorable and worthwhile. We’ve been given media passes to attend this weekend as well and are bringing a couple cousins along for some age appropriate feedback.
Continue reading 'Open Season for the Toronto Symphony’s Kids’ Concerts'»
Are you the kind of person who likes to have everything arranged well ahead of time? Do you like to know where, when, why, and how-much-will-this-cost when traveling? I am starting to see how that might be nice — particularly when traveling with children. Packing for a family is so much more involved than packing for yourself it turns out. You need clothes and toiletries and lots and lots of underwear/diapers. You need lots of games and toys for them to throw onto the floor of the car, never to be retrieved. You need snacks. You need pillows and blankets and a playpen and special snuggly blankets and the where-the-hell-is-it soother. And always, always you need a contingency plan. Continue reading 'Montreal and Back in Under Two Days'»
I was ten or eleven years old the first time I saw a real play. It was a university production of
Our Town and it was like nothing I’d ever seen. The set was minimal — a few props moved around on a black stage — and the acting was different from anything on tv or in the movies. The characters — their words, their movements, their emotions — were projected into the audience and part of you was carried up onto that stage. I loved it.
A few years later I happened upon an extraordinary drama program in an ordinary high school. My teacher, Kathleen Gallagher, went on to earn her PhD in theatre education and is now a professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University (OISIE, as we like to call it). I studied drama under her in Grades 10 through 13 and learned everything from Stanislavski to set design. Perhaps most important was the introduction to a real local theatre scene such as we have in Toronto. Every year we would see one or two productions as a class, but also had to go to see plays on our own and submit critical reviews. (That’s how I learned about Pay What You Can Sundays at the theatre. Really, check it out.) It wasn’t just about acting, as so many high school drama programs are, but about all aspects of creating, critiquing and enjoying theatre. I thrived in those classes — we all did. Continue reading 'Toronto Fringe Festival For Kids'»
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