Exploring the Capital With Your Pre-Teen

by Ali As the mom of two pre-teen girls, my mom-status borders on the verge of semi-ok to lame. While I try and stay cool, my girls will tell you I’m fighting a losing battle.  That being said, I still love to spend time with them so I’m always on the lookout for things to do with them that will promote me to a semi-cool rank. This year, I’m happy to say that I actually came up with a few things to do that weren’t as boring and babyish as usual, and my girls were actually less embarrassed than usual to be seen with me.

The Byward Market

I love the market, especially in the fall. I love the smells and the colours and especially the maple sugar candies.  My girls do love to window shop and people watch so this fall we headed down to the Byward Market to do just that. One of our first stops was the Moulin de Provence bakery. The delicious smells will knock you over and the Obama cookies are always a hit.  On weekends at the market, there are buskers and musicians to watch and in the summer and fall, the fresh fruits and vegetables are incredible. And once there, you should definitely take a look at the street vendors for a pair of earrings or a new scarf.

Starbucks in Westboro

When my eldest turned twelve, she decided that it was much cooler to hang out, rather than spend time with me.  Since I wasn’t ready to just let her go off with her friends ALL of the time, I started taking her for coffee (read hot chocolate) at the Starbucks in Westboro.  While we sip our drinks and people watch, she really opens up and starts to talk about everything that’s going on for her – her life, her friends and pretty much anything else she can talk about while the hot chocolate lasts. She feels very grown up and I feel lucky that she’s still willing to sit and talk to me. Of course, window shopping through Westboro after our coffee is an added bonus.

The National Art Gallery

The National Gallery of Canada was definitely a plus. Both of my girls are budding artists and they do appreciate taking the time to explore the different exhibits.  There is plenty of Canadian art with exhibits by Emily Carr, Tom Thomson and the Group Of Seven, but it also has a really cool Modern Art Collection. We spent a fun afternoon doing a “Ferris Bueller” and just stared at the amazing paintings.

National Arts Center

With daughters who dance competitively and who love being on stage, one of the coolest things we did was the backstage tour at the National Arts Centre.  On October 2nd, (one of the Culture Days at the NAC), my girls got to experience many areas of the NAC that they had never seen before.  We got to saw the NAC stages, the dressing rooms, the backstage corridors and set-building shops on this self-guided tour. They also have tours on performance days for the first 12 visitors (first come, first serve).

The HI-Ottawa Jail

In this haunting season, the next adventure I have planned for us is a haunted tour of the Ottawa Jail Hostel. The jail served as Carleton County Goal from 1862 to 1972. After it closed, it was turned into a youth hostel.  Guests sleep in renovated prison cells or in the former offices of the prison staff.  Rumor has it that many a guest has told stories of ghostly apparitions appearing at the bottom of their beds, mysterious footsteps, and banging in the walls. It was even named one of the seven spookiest buildings in the world by Lonely Planet. Hopefully, this will be a hit.

So there are a few of the things I have found to do around Ottawa that allowed my girls to maintain their oh-so-cool and hip pre-teen status. I’m still on the look-out for more things to do that, when mentioned, won’t make them roll their eyes and groan “Aw, Mom!”  So please, help me keep my not-quite-cool-but-not-totally-lame mom status and share your favorite pre-teen haunts.

Ali is a psychotherapist, blogger, social media enthusiast and chocoholic. She is also a Dance Mom to two awesome girls. She is the owner of Second Act Consignment Dancewear and creator  of Therapy Stew. She blogs at AliGoldfield.

Rag & Bone Puppet Theatre

by Leah Before taking my daughter to her first Rag and Bone Puppet Theatre show, I worried.  Would she have the patience to sit through an entire performance?  Would the puppets scare her, or worse--would she be bored?  Could a puppet show interest a kid with access to animated movies and phone apps?

After the performance started, I quickly realized how little I knew about puppetry and about Rag and Bone in particular.  Co-founders Kathy MacLellan and John Nolan are award-winning masters of story-telling and their craft.  In their hands, the simplest objects became expressive characters.  Complex full-figured puppets breathed life.  The children in the audience were as fascinated by the technical aspects of puppetry, as they were by the stories being told. My daughter wasn’t scared by the puppets—if anything, she related better to the stories because it was “like playing with dolls”.

Watching Kathy and John weave among the audience members, performing, responding to the children’s reactions, and seeing the older audience members lean in closer, it is obvious that they have an exceptional ability to connect with audiences of all ages and different backgrounds.

Since that first time, we’ve now gone to a number of Rag & Bone performances. With an emphasis upon classic children’s stories like The Wind in the Willows, combined with dance, music, and video, they create theatre that’s fresh, memorable and definitely fun.  After seeing The Flying Canoe, I watched my daughter and her friends come up with their own stories about talking cats, howling like wolves, and sailing over the trees.

If you haven’t taken your child to see Rag & Bone Puppet Theatre, you are missing an extraordinary experience.  Their next performance is an adaptation of the Canadian children's classic, Zoom at Sea, by Governor-General Award Winner and Member of the Order of Canada, Tim Wynne-Jones.  We can't wait to see how Kathy and John create a whole ocean in a room!

Creepy Crawlers & Alligators….in Ottawa!

by Amanda Alligators, Turtles, Snakes and Marmosets…….oh my! Okay, well the marmosets are super cute but the snakes are a big OH MY!  Where can these all be found in the Ottawa area? Little Rays Reptiles of course! If you haven’t been in a few years like me then you will be pleasantly surprised to see they have undergone some renovations and the place has received a nice facelift both inside and out.

We took our two year old and 6 month old (she came along more for the ride then because she has an interest in gators lol) out to Little Rays on a Saturday early afternoon with plans to spend some quality time as a family enjoying a new place and allow our son to explore and discover.

We got there just in time for a showing where they feed some of the animals.  Our 2 year old was definitely more interested in walking around and a little young to sit still throughout this so we continued on through discovering the rest of the creatures.  During the eating shows it is extremely important and continually reminded that everyone must sit quietly and still. These shows are probably best for the 4+ crowd. It did work out to our advantage to see the rest of the creatures while everyone else was watching the feeding show as there is not a lot of space inside when there are a lot of people.

With a two year old and quick attention span (unless he’s watching his favourite movie Cars, over and over and over…..) we saw everything and were ready to leave in 30 minutes.  For our family and our sons current interests we definitely will not  be back paying full admission until we know that we will be spending more time there.

I would definitely recommend taking children who are older to explore and if it is nice out there is a little area out back where you could enjoy a picnic lunch.  Their daycamps also seem very interesting if you have a child who enjoys snakes, lizards and creepy crawelers!

Amanda is a mom to a 2 year old boy and 6 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

Fall tye-dye cupcakes

by Carly

I really wanted to make something nut-free for the Little Man to eat for dessert at our Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow.  Since I knew the pie I was bringing had nuts, I decided to make some fall-themed cupcakes.  I didn't have time to fuss with fondant, creating fancy turkeys or pilgrim's hats (not that we really do the pilgrim thing here in Canada anyway).

Since Jake really likes rainbow coloured cakes and cupcakes, I used that as my jumping off point.  We made white cake batter, then divided the batter into three bowls.  One bowl of batter was tinted yellow, one orange and one terra-cotta (I'd run out of red but had terra-cotta lying around for some reason).  I used food paste as you need less of it to get a nice strong colour.

To make it easier to get the batter into the cupcake liners, I put it in plastic baggies and snip a tiny bit off one corner.  I started with the lightest colour, pouring some into each cup.  Then we added the orange and finally the terra-cotta.  Don't mix the colours as the batter will turn out muddy - just leave them "piled" on top of one another.

While the cupcakes were baking in their plain white cupcake liners, I nosed around our cupboards looking for some pretty fall-themed liners to put them in for added colour, but I came up empty handed.  So I tinted some extra white liners I had with yellow, orange and terra-cotta food paste mixed with water.  Using a spoon I poured the different colours over the liners while they sat upside down on a wire rack nestled in a rimmed cookie sheet to catch the run-off.

I didn't want to completely cover the liners, so I left a fair bit of white showing.  When I had tinted all the liners, I poured any excess dye off them, then put them right side up in a cupcake pan.  After taking out the baked cupcakes, I turned the oven off and put the liners into the warm oven to help them dry.  Keep a close eye on them - they only need a minute or two.  The bottoms were still damp, so I turned them upside down on the wire rack and popped them back into the still warm oven for another minute or two.

While the cupcakes cooled I made some buttercream frosting and divided that into three bowls.  I coloured each bowl using the same colours I'd used in the batter.  Each colour was then put into it's own individual piping bag and twisted closed at the top using a twist-tie.  I loosely attached the three bags together around the middle using a pipe cleaner, and put all three into another piping bag with my largest round tip attached.

I did a test swirl on a plate to make sure the three colours would come out nicely and fairly uniform, then piped the cooled cupcakes, starting at the outer edge and moving toward the middle.

Ta-da!  Tye-dyed cupcakes with tye-dyed frosting and tye-dyed decorative liners.

Carly has red hair and occasionally the temper to match.  She loves potatoes, rainy nights, photography, her husband, her 6 year old son, Jacob and her 10 month old son, Noah.  Probably in reverse order.   She also blogs.

Kids and Technology

I read an article the other day talking about how kids today have too much too soon and are too plugged in. The article advocated simplifying your kids’ lives, ridding them of stuff and eliminating their screen time. I admit I’m a little biased. I work in social media. I will also admit that I’m a helicopter mom who feels more comfortable knowing where my kids are and knowing that they can get in touch with me if they need to.  But I also really believe that if parents limit the access their child has to the technology out there, they will be at a real disadvantage as they grow.

I know we all hear about the downside of kids using the Internet. The concerns range from less imaginative play and less outdoor time to the potential dangers that are inherent from going online. As a mom, I do want my children to be well rounded. However, I worry when I hear other parents say that they don’t let their kids watch TV, use the Internet and that they will not be allowed to get cell phone.

Let’s face it. We live in a digital age. I enjoyed playing computer games with my girls when they were little to help them learn their numbers and letters; I love that the Internet makes a wealth of information available at their fingertips and I sleep better at night knowing my older daughter has a cell phone. Here are some reasons why I love my digital kids:

Keeping in Touch

My girls use email to keep in touch with far away friends and family. They can email, chat, text and share pictures with their friends. They are improving their communication skills by writing to their friends in their emails and they use their imagination to create videos to share with each other. I do keep a close eye on their communication with their friends but I like the fact that my girls are finding new ways to stay in touch with their friends.

Knowledge is Power

Look it up is a familiar refrain at our house. When my girls ask a question that I can’t answer (which is a lot, unfortunately), I will tell them to look it up. By using the Internet to find out about their world and the people in it, I really think they are expanding their world view. My girls love look at pictures and videos of other cultures, they like finding out about new places and they love looking up recipes to try in our kitchen.  I also think that needing to look things up helps my girls to develop the ability to think critically as they learn how to navigate the search engines.

Safety Issues

As I said before, I’m a helicopter parent. I’m not proud of it and I am doing my best to overcome this affliction but the fact that my 12 year old has a cell phone certainly helps.  Because of her cell phone, I let her go to the mall, movies and walk to her friend’s house on her own. All I ask is that she texts when she gets there.  Her having a cell phone lets me breathe (a very slight) bit easier. But still.

We are living in a world where computers and technology are part of almost every job out there. It makes sense that kids today need to have the skills that will help them later on in life. I do limit my girls’ screen time and in our house there is a big difference between using the Internet for school research or for fun. But I do admit that I think it’s really important that they are learning how to access information they need and that they are learning how to communicate properly in this digital age. I also like the fact that I’m around to monitor their activities so they learn proper Internet safety. I won’t always be there so, in my opinion, the earlier they learn how to stay safe, they better.

What do you think about kids and technology?

Ali is a psychotherapist, blogger, social media enthusiast and chocoholic. She is also a Dance Mom to two awesome girls. She is the owner of Second Act Consignment Dancewear and creator  of Therapy Stew. She blogs at AliGoldfield.

Image Source: Morguefile