Welcoming Our New Sponsor: Puppets Up! International Puppet Festival

On August 10th and 11th, puppeteers from all over the world will descend on the beautiful town of Almonte, Ontario to provide world-class family entertainment both in the quaint theatres of the town and all through the streets. Puppets Up! International Puppet Festival offers a daily parade, a visitor-friendly festival site that provides plenty of activities for the little ones and, of course, the great local shops and festival vendors of Almonte.

In keeping with this year’s “Family Reunion” theme, many familiar faces will be back in Almonte for Puppets Up!  Some of the most popular shows include The Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers from Bar Harbor Maine with their hilarious “Legend of the Banana Kid,” Massachusetts’ Tanglewood Marionettes and the exquisite  “Dragon King.” Some new faces to the Puppets Up! family will be Toronto’s Heath Tarlin Entertainment’ with “Spin Cycle,”  and Metaphysical Theatre with “Pierrot and the Moon.” For a full lineup, you can visit their site here.

My daughter and I went to Puppets Up! two years ago and it was an experience not to be missed. There was fun, food, friendly faces and of course puppets all over the streets of Almonte. There was an awesome puppet-theme parade during the event, featuring many costumed performers and some puppeteers helping their favourite marionettes walk along the route. The festival grounds held something for everyone including a kids puppet-making station, crafts, food and lots of fun. Last year, after the kids went to bed, there was be a special gala for adults on Saturday night held at the town hall with a pretty cool "puppet cabaret" show.

All the theatre venues are wheelchair and stroller accessible. Theatres are located within an easy stroll of each other, and there are plenty of shady places to sit for lunch and to let the children run in the grass.  Children's single passes, adult single passes and weekend passes to the festival are available through online outlets and on-site at the festival gates. A day pass for Saturday or Sunday from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. for an adult is $20, children three-to-12 $10 and children under-three are free. For a weekend pass for both days, for adults it is $30, children three-to-12, $15 and children under-three are free.

Puppets Up! is an amazing experience for kids and adults of all ages. It’s definitely something not to be missed so get out your inner puppet and we’ll see you August 11th and 12th in beautiful Almonte!

Welcome to Our New Sponsor: Laura Daub - Artist

I’m so happy to have the chance to welcome our new sponsor. After several years of teaching out of her basement studio, Laura Daub has just recently moved to a big, bright art space in the beautiful Britannia Beach area. Even though the studio is new, Laura has been on the Ottawa Art Scene for many years. In fact, the reason we met was that my two daughter’s have had the pleasure of taking art lessons with her for the past few years.

Formally trained in Art and Design, teaching others to love and appreciate art and creativity has always been one of Laura’s passions. She truly believes that exposing children to the arts promotes creative thinking, problem-solving and aids in mastering fine motor skills. As well, she feels that nurturing a love for fine arts in all children allows them to explore their imaginations, express their creativity in all aspects of life and aids in them becoming more well-rounded young adults.

In her new studio, located at 2728 Howe Street, Laura is able to offer so many different ways for both children and adults to connect to their inner artist. She has drop-in Saturdays, where you can take some time out for some creative play and learn the art of doodling and there is also a whole list of classes for both children and adults to choose from.

Between the classes, drop-in art times and workshops, Laura still finds time to offer private classes to children who have a passion for art and are looking to further explore their talents. From personal experience, I know that she takes a very nurturing, hands-on approach with kids of all ages to help guide them in their exploration of many different art mediums. Laura’s dedication, gentleness and passion are infectious and she can truly help those budding artists reach their full potential.

If you interested in perusing through her gallery, or want to find out more about the classes she offers, please check out her website and connect with her on Facebook, Pinterest or Twitter. Welcome to the neighbourhood, Laura. It’s nice to see you here.

Welcome to the Mabelhood

  While those of you without kids may roll your eyes at labels, those with kids understand how much easier (and cost-effective) labels really are. It makes keeping track of your kids stuff SO much easier. Today, instead of those cheesy self-made, never-stick labels, we have Mabel's Labels to make sure you come home with everything you let leave your front door.

Mabel’s Labels began 2003 when 4 very innovative moms got frustrated enough with their children’s belongings leaving the house only to never return home, that they started to create personalized ID labels.

With Mabel's Labels you can label any and everything from water-bottles, shoes, back packs and clothing. They have thin labels, thick labels, sticky labels, iron on labels and even allergy alert and 411 wristband tags for kids you can personalize with vital information and contact details. The labels are colorful, durable, waterproof and come in sizes and shapes that can fit on virtually anything your kid needs labeled.

For me, as I start to get my girls ready for sleep-over camp, I have to say the Tag Mates have become my new best friends.  You simply apply the tag mate to the tag on your child’s clothing.  There is no ironing or sewing which is a huge time saver!  They wash up fantastic as well.

If you're looking for a way to make it a little easier to keep track of your kids belongings, you should give Mabel's Labels a try. You won't be disappointed.

You can connect with Mabel’s Labels through their website, Twitter, or Facebook. Have you tried them? What do you think?

I received samples from Mabel’s Labels to facilitate this review and Kids in the Capital is now an affiliate with Mabel’s Labels.  All opinions expressed in this post are 100% mine.

Question of the Month: Money Sense

  My daughter turns thirteen this week and for me, it's pretty scary to think I'm the mom of a teenager. She's generally a pretty good kid and has a good head on her shoulders but it seems that with a growing sense of self, my daughter also has a growing sense of the "gimmies."

At the beginning of the school year, I decided that we would start an allowance. Instead of a weekly allowance, however, we went for a lump sum at the beginning of each month. That way, I figured, she'd be able to budget her money throughout the month and start to learn a sense of money management. It's been working pretty well so far and when we're out, and those gimmies strike, I get to tell her that she can absolutely buy that brand new X, Y, or Z. It is, after all, her money (of course that does, at times, stop the gimmies in their tracks).

The question for this month is at what age did you (or will you) start to give your child an allowance and how much do you feel is appropriate for each age? Inquiring minds want to know.

Review: Lola's Math Train

By Rebecca For his 5^th birthday, my son received a new 3DS.  It’s a Nintendo hand held game system that reminds me of when I had a Game Boy. Clearly, the new system has better graphics, more games, more tools like a camera, but the fun is still the same.

It was a great fit to have a chance to review the new math game for the 3DS called ‘Lola’s Math Train’.  Any time there’s an opportunity for my kids to learn while having fun, it’s a bonus. He was happy to have a new game to check out.

The one area that my son needs a little extra push in is math. He can do it, but often he doesn’t want to.  Subtraction seems to be trickier for him at this stage and while he’s great with patterns, he’s far more interested in language than numbers.

The game is leveled into easy, medium and hard. Easy identifies numbers, medium has more counting and hard has patterns, addition and subtraction.

The game is recommended for ages 3-8.  My kids are 4 and 6 and it was great for them, but likely even more so for my 4 year old.  The math problems in the easy and medium levels aren’t super challenging for my son, but they are really good for him to practice simple equations and build confidence (something that is half the battle for him).  Since he’s still needing help in some subtraction and problem solving areas (such as ‘which two numbers add up to 6), the hard level was a really good push for him. The beginning levels (easy and medium) were perfect for my 4-year-old who is just learning math concepts and loves to count.

I asked my six-year-old what he thought of the game and with beaming eyes he answered ‘really good!’.

His favourite part of the game is getting to the end of the level and selecting an animal friend to hop on the train with him.

His least favourite part of the game is subtraction (no surprises here!)

The game is a really fun, cute way of learning numbers and doing simple math.  It will soon become less challenging for my 6-year-old who continues to learn math and improve at school, however, for my 4-year-old the timing is perfect and the game will grow with her for some time.

Rebecca writes about parenting, food and family fun on her blog A Little Bit of Momsense.  She was compensated for her review but the views are her own.