Canadian Museum of Nature 2013-2014 Season Preview

By Helene The Canadian Museum of Nature is largely defined by its impressive collection of prehistoric fossils, so with the 100th anniversary of the museum’s fossil gallery this year, it is a great time to visit. The museum celebrated the milestone at the recent launch of the 2013-2014 season. It has interspersed photos and short stories about the fossils on display, telling the story of how far they’ve come. The gallery easily impresses all ages; however, with primarily framed black & white images, this programming will mostly appeal to adults.

More intriguing for kids will be the live fossil preparation Saturdays from 1- 4pm only in November. The winner of last spring’s Dino Idol “Canadian Club” will be among the fossils to be prepared for study (right in the fossil gallery!). They have been sealed in large plaster field jackets since they were collected in Alberta about 100 years ago.

Other highlights this season include Farmers, Warriors, Builders: The Hidden Life of Ants, from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, looks at how ants live, work and play through photography.

Also, the return of a favourite - Frogs: A Chorus of Colours, 25 Sept 2013 through 11 May 2014, was a highlight of my family’s visits to the museum in 2010. Finding frogs from around the world camouflaged in their “natural habitat” is fun for all family members. Hint: bring a stroller or folding stool as many of the displays are out of a toddler’s sightline. A number of hands-on activities such as frog mini-golf complete the experience.

Looking ahead:

For adults and children alike:

Creatures of Light: Nature’s Bioluminescence, from 3 May – 9 November 2014, focuses on organisms (from the typical fireflies to fish and mushrooms) that light up or glow in the dark and promises to be awe-inspiring. On view for the first time in Canada, it is organized by the American Museum of Natural History Museum in collaboration with the Canadian Museum of Nature and The Field Museum in Chicago.

For the culturally-minded:

Arctic Fest, 2nd Edition (April 2-6, 2014) and Arctic Voices (Nov 2014) First introduced last April, this festival aims to connecting Canadians young and old to Canada's northern heritage through fascinating stories. A collaboration with Science North.

For the science-buff:

X-rays of Arctic Fishes (Jan – June 2014) A small exhibit looking at the architecture of Arctic fishes.

For the explorer:

Passenger Pigeon – Extinct for a Century (June – December 2014) This once common bird in eastern North America became extinct with the world's last Passenger Pigeon dying in 1914.

For the visual:

Canadian Wildlife Photography of the Year, 6th Edition (May –September 2014) Award-winning photos from Canadian Geographic’s 2013 national photo contest.

For the movie buff:

3D movies Penguins 3D and The Ultimate Wave Tahiti 3D round out any visit.

A surcharge applies for entry to the special exhibitions, Frogs and Creatures of Light, as well as 3D movies.

Send Us Your Halloween Pictures!

Halloween is coming and there's nothing cuter than kids dressed up as monsters, ghouls, princesses, pirates and minions. We'd love to see pictures of your little monsters as they get ready to trick or treat. Send your photos to kidsinthecapital@gmail.com and we'll post them here!

Stay tunes for some cuteness.....

No Carve Pumpkin Decorating Ideas

My favorite season of the year is fall. I love the changing leaves, the cooler temperatures and the need for funky looking blazers. And, of course, fall means Halloween. I love carving pumpkins and roasting the seeds. It’s a tradition we've had in our house for a long time. But when my girls were small, carving pumpkins was a tricky and scary ordeal. So, we came up with some other alternatives that our girls could help with that didn't involve sharp knives.

Candy Pumpkins

Instead of carving faces in this Jack-o-Lantern, we would use candy instead and glue or pin it to the pumpkins. It’s a great way for kids to be able to decorate the pumpkins themselves - and a sweet way to do it. From experience, hot glue guns don’t work so well - it melts the candy but craft glue or push pins will do the trick.

Potato Head Pumpkin

If your toy box was anything like mine, the Mr. Potato Head pieces are always floating around. Using the pieces to create fun and goofy faces is always a fun job for the whole family. The pieces go in fairly easily by twisting back and forth.

Foam Pumpkin

You can get those packages of sticky foam pieces at any craft or dollar store. You can get them in all different shapes and sizes to decorate your pumpkin. Even the littlest fingers will have fun helping with this.

Painted Pumpkin

Paint, glitter glue, puff paint and even glow-in-the-dark paint can all be used to decorate After you’ve painted, you can spray glitter paint to make the whole thing sparkle.

Do you have any other ideas? We’d love to hear them.

Girls Rock

By Amy Music is a great skill to have in life, and being able to play an instrument can boost a kid's confidence and help them to express themselves. My daughter is only 3 right now, but her father and I are already planning music lessons for her.

For older girls there's a pretty awesome option.

Ottawa Rock Camp for Girls is an annual three-day camp for girls ages 13-17. The camp is run by volunteers, all local musicians, who encourage campers to express themselves through music .

Registration is now open for a camp taking place November 1, 2 and 3.

Registration is open to 25 girls this year thanks to an IndieGoGo campaign. Campers spend three days not only learning about playing electric guitar, bass and drums, but they also learn all sorts of other skills involved in being a musician, like sound checks and vocals, even stage presence. The goal of the camp is to encourage self-esteem at one of the roughest times in any girl's life.

There is a fee of $20 for the weekend but that can be waived if it makes it inaccessible to a girl who wants to attend. Parents or interested girls can find more information on the website here.

When Your Kid Goes to a Co-op

By Amy My daughter was born in January, two weeks past the cut-off date for kindergarten for September 2013. We decided to put her in preschool and found a good fit at Katimavik Cooperative Nursery School.

We took her to an open house during the summer and she started the afternoon program in September.

Katimavik has three excellent teachers, and my daughter has made fast friends. They do lots of crafts, which is her favourite thing, they play outside every day and they sing and tell stories. Some days she doesn't want to leave.

But this isn't about our great nursery school, this is about a cooperative.

When your child goes to a cooperative preschool, you as a parent become responsible for a lot of the things that happen with that school. Each family at KCNS has duty days, where a parent actually hangs out and helps out in the classroom. We have cleaning duties, we provide snacks for the whole class and we help supervise the kids when necessary.

The parents also make up the school executive – I accidentally volunteered for a position on ours – and committees. As cooperative parents we fundraise to help the school budget for resources and supplies.

I was a little overwhelmed when we went to our introductory meeting and learned about all the things we would be involved with at KCNS, but now that we're a month in I feel great about the school we chose. I got to spend a day watching my daughter interact with her peers and I've had the chance to have some great conversations with the teachers and other parents.

I think there are a lot of things I'll miss about the cooperative environment when the kid starts kindergarten next year.