Top 5 Baby Items to bring when Travelling

by Amanda Over the past two years we have travelled with at least one child (and now have 2!) under the age of 2 to Florida, Toronto and Montreal (frequently!), cottages, Eastern Townships and a few other places in Eastern Ontario and Western Quebec.  With trips being for the day up to 10 days we are learning how to pack more efficiently and only bring what we truly need.  Here are my top 5 baby items that we don’t leave home without!

1. Baby Carriers- we don’t leave home without a soft structured carrier like our Ergo  or Onya  baby soft structured carriers and a woven wrap.  This way we always have a way to carry both children at the same time! Our woven wrap can also double as a blanket, something to sit on or a way to shade the sun.

2. Bumbo Chair - once baby is able to support their own neck and head this chair comes on all travels with us. It allows baby a place to sit when we are eating so they feel part of the conversation.  Note: DO NOT LEAVE baby unattended on any surface at any time! We use ours when sitting on the deck and put baby under the umbrella, at restaurants, to sit in the bathroom when we need a shower and many other times! We’ve also been known to leave it on top of our car when travelling and drive away leaving it behind in places like Hudson, Quebec ;)

3. Aden & Anais blankets - these light blankets are very big which allows a place for baby to lay down and play or can cover up our toddler and make the perfect sun shade when the kids are in a baby carrier and it’s a hot sunny day.  Also? These blankets are big enough to snuggle up your toddler!

4. Goodbyn Lunch containers - These containers have compartments that allow us to pack a variety of food for the whole family on a road trip.  We have adult size and kid size ones! Packed with raisins, goldfish, sandwiches, cheese and crackers the long drive is made a little easier so we don’t have to stop too often.

5. Planet Wise wet bags - Not only are these wonderful for cloth diapering families we use our waterproof bags for when we spend days at the beach and splash pads so we can throw our wet stuff in it. These bags are also wonderful for dirty laundry.

What are your most have items when travelling with a baby? What kind of adventurous family trips have you taken with baby?

Amanda is a mom to a 2 year old boy and 4 month old baby girl.  When she is not out having fun with the kids you can find her getting her yoga on at www.littlelotusyoga.ca

Early Years

by Amy We just moved to an entirely new neighbourhood and I have switched to being at home all day with the kid, so we've been looking for some activities to keep her busy and tire her out a bit. The last time I was at the doctor, she mentioned the community resource centre not too far from our new house, so I went in to pick up some information and found that it's also the location of an Early Years Centre.

Every Early Years Centre has scheduled drop-ins and special programs. I had previously been to one of the centres to see a lactation consultant and they actually loaned me a breast pump. My husband also took our daughter to a drop-in for Dads when she was younger. This week I decided to try the toddler drop-in, partly because I want her to play with other kids, which she hasn't done much of since she left daycare, and I wanted to meet people from our new neighbourhood.

When we arrived I was worried we would be the only ones there, but it was packed. The Early Years Centre was a big room with a place to hang you coats and leave your bags, a few shelves of books, and then a play area and a craft area with tables. There was also a play area outside. My kid spent most of her time in the play kitchen, but I don't think she noticed the dress-up area.

After a good long play and snack time, there was circle time with songs and movement. My kid was shy at first but got right into it by the end.

I think my daughter was the oldest kid there, so next week we'll attend the open drop in instead, that one is for kids up to age six. She got some play time, so fun and interaction, and I had a couple of nice conversations too. I'm looking forward to next week.

Amy is mom to two year old Maggie and a 6 year old schnauzer named Henry. You can read her blog at amyboughner.ca where she writes about motherhood and anything else that’s on her mind. She also shares a blog with her husband at boughner.ca where they talk together about parenting a daughter.

The beauty of a visual schedule

by Karen This is a post in an ongoing series I'm doing for Kids in the Capital to talk about our experience in going through the assessment process for our son, Brandon. My hope is to give ideas and insight to families of special needs children, as well as some creative ideas for families who want to incorporate different ideas, all while raising awareness and telling our story.

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A couple of months ago, we took Brandon to a speech pathologist for a series of assessments on his speech/language skills. It was an interesting process. I got to see a very concentrated view of his transitioning abilities, which is an area we've had challenges with for a long time.

And let's face it: Change is hard!

The speech pathologist gave us two really good tactics (and even made some of the tools for us to start with)!

First Then

"First then" is a shortened visual schedule method. We've used it to emphasize pieces of the overall daily schedule at times. Other times we use it to make it clear to Brandon that before he can do what he wants, there's something he needs to do.

Having a visual reference gives a more concrete understanding of what's going on, particularly for children who comprehend visual information more readily than verbal, as is the case with Brandon (based on my personal observations).

Visual Schedule

A visual schedule is portable, flexible and gives an overview of the entire day or a block of time that has a series of transitions. When we use it (and admittedly, we don't always think about it), transitions go more smoothly. We discuss the schedule as we're laying it out and Brandon gets to provide input.

(It cracks me up when he removes bedtime from the schedule, though I'm always super serious and never let him know it's funny. Yeah, right. ;))

Our visual schedule consists of an odd mish mash of items, but as we get deeper into using this as a tool, I am thinking of lots more to add to it.

Getting Brandon involved gives him a sense of control about his activities. This is important for him. He needs to feel safe and secure in knowing what's coming next. We don't like to plan our weekends and often regret not having a plan because we haven't equipped ourselves to adequately prepare Brandon to move from one activity to the next. (We're a work in progress!)

The visual schedule and first then tools would be useful for any child, though some clearly benefit more than others. If you're interested in putting one together, here are a couple resources to help you get started (Google can tell you loads more!):

Factsheet for autism therapy: visual schedules, by Healing Threshold

How-to Templates: Visual Schedules (PDF), by HANDS in Autism

Because we're a tech geek family, I was keen to find out what was available for our iDevices. Turns out there's quite a bit! GadgetsDNA.com did a review of "10 Revolutionary iPad Apps to Help Autistic Children" and I think there's one I'm going to check for a free trial version with the intent to buy if it's good. They range from free to nearly $200 for more sophisticated functionality. (Depending on a child's needs, that $200 may be a cheap expense. iPods/iPads - we've found - are fantastic for helping Brandon explore and learn.)

These tools were my first glimpse of how the pros would end up helping us learn to cope differently. There is a heightened level of attention to detail required of us to accommodate Brandon's needs, but he's worth it. Besides, the right kind of attention mixed with the right frequency has never been known to hurt a child.

*****

Karen Wilson is a wife to Matt and mom to Brandon (4), who blogs about her life at Karen’s Chronicles. She can be found at Wellman Wilson, helping businesses use social media more effectively. Karen is also committed to doing her part to keep the coffee industry alive, because who needs sleep?

Flashback: Riding the Rails Ottawa Style

This post originally appeared last August and we thought we'd share it again! Going for a trip on the O-Train is such a fun idea for kids. And you get to spend two hours going back and forth over and over, as long as the kids stay interested! :) by Alison

My son is into vehicles. He loves to point out buses as they go by, and garbage day is cause for huge excitement. But trains are his favourite! He enjoyed taking the Metro on a recent trip to Montreal, and we thought that maybe the O-Train would have the same attraction.

It did!

We drove to the Greenboro Park and Ride, besides the South Keys shopping area on Bank St. The parking lot was quite full in the mid-morning, but we found space. A ticket for the O-Train costs $2.85, children 11 and under ride for free. This ticket is then transferable to the bus. We waited at the platform for less than 5 minutes, good timing on our part as the trains run every 15 minutes.

The O-train was very spacious and pretty quiet. The seats are in sets of 4 or 2, so you can ride forwards or backwards. There was enough space under the seat to store our umbrella stroller. The train ride was just over 10 minutes each way. The train makes 5 stops in total and goes through two tunnels and a trench. It also crosses the Rideau River at Carleton which is pretty. At Bayview Station we stayed on the train and rode it back to our car.

All in all, for less than $3 we had a very enjoyable morning. Our next task is to track down the elusive double-decker OC Transpo bus and go exploring.

Alison is a mom of two energetic children, ages 5 and 1. She just started a blog, Ali’s Adventures.

Coming Up This Weekend: Rideau Canal Festival

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED This year the Rideau Canal Festival is celebrating the 180 birthday of the canal. The celebration starts this Friday and the weekend will be fill of events for all ages.

The events take place at two sites along the canal - the Bytown Myseum and Dow's Lake.

At the Bytown Museum Site you can see stone carvers, acrobats visiting from China, dance performances and puppetry. Meanwhile, at the Dow's Lake site there are activities for older kids, including workshops on stop motion animation and robotics.

The celebration wraps up with a celebration of Colonel By Day on August 6 at the Bytown Museum, a free event starting at 11 am. The celebration will feature theatrical performances, crafts, musical performances and demonstrations.

You can find a full schedule for the two sites here and read what one parent thought of last year's festival here.

We have two family passports to give away for the Rideau Canal Festival this weekend. The passport gives a family of four access to festival VIP areas,  free entry into the Bytown Museum and the Canadian Museum of Nature, discounts on specials at participating restaurants and tons of savings on city-wide activities on festival weekend and throughout the year. Leave a comment and you're automatically entered!