Giveaway Closed: Go Green with terra20

While some of you (lots of you, hopefully) have already heard of Canada’s first eco-friendly department store, we’re hoping that in the very near future many more will recognize the name terra20 and will want to experience the strength of their commitment to both the consumer and the environment.

These days, many of us are trying to live a bit more mindfully and shop a little greener. That means thinking about where the products we use come from, how they impact the environment and whether the products support fair trade initiatives by sourcing products made with fair trade ingredients. Living mindfully means thinking about where to shop and how and what to buy in order to leave the world in a bit better shape for our children and grandchildren. That’s where terra20 comes in.

Upon entering their store, you’ll be amazed by their warm and welcoming layout, with easy to understand logos and labels on all of their products to let you know what you are getting from an item. But even more than that, you’ll be wowed by their friendly and knowledgeable staff who are more than willing to answer any question you may have, no matter how basic it is.  You can chat with their resident eco-parenting blogger, stay for in-store demonstrations and take a visit to their huge eco-bar.  In fact, we’re so sure that your experience will be a great one that the folks at terra20 are giving two lucky Kids in the Capital readers a $50 gift card to help them start making more eco-friendly choices in their daily lives.

Giveaway Guidelines

In order for your entry to qualify you must answer the following questions in the comments below:

• Have you ever experienced terra20? If yes, what brought you into the store?
• If you haven't visited terra20 yet, why not and what would encourage you to do so?

One entry per household please. We want lots of families to have the opportunity to win. The winner must pick up the gift card at terra20 in a timely fashion. If it’s not picked up within 14 days we will draw again and choose a new winner.  The winner will be drawn randomly on Friday, May 30th, 2013

Saluting the Sun and Climbing the Walls

  A little while ago my daughter saw me doing yoga at home. I have a DVD that I pop in occasionally and she was very interested in what I was doing. The next day we looked up some videos online, but I wanted to take her to a real class and I got the opportunity when my friend Amanda told me about a Little Lotus Yoga parent and preschool class at a new location in New Edinburgh.

When I asked her if she wanted to go she got very, very excited and made sure to ask when it was happening.

When it was finally time to leave the house she wanted to carry the yoga mat.

We got there early and settled in as the other moms and kids arrived. The instructor, Nicole was excellent with all the kids. I was worried that my daughter wouldn't be able to stay still for the class, but quickly found out it didn't matter, the kids were allowed to roam and invited to talk. The first portion of the class when we played a game called Huckle Buckle got my daughter into the class. She had been shyly hanging on to me, but when we were told to get ourselves belly to belly I took the opportunity to pick her up by her feet and hold her upside-down to do it.

After that, when she was given the opportunity to be a butterfly, a spider on the wall and a starfish on my back she went for it.

Yoga is something that I need to do for myself more, and it was wonderful to be able to do it together. It didn't have quite the same calming effect, but I like to think it's something we'll grow into together.

Closed: The Ottawa International Children's Festival Giveaway

This giveaway is now closed

The Ottawa International Children’s Festival is an annual 5 day celebration of the best in live performing arts for children ages 4 to 15. For over 25 years, the OICF has been attracting award-winning artists from around the globe. THe OICF is made up of free and charged events for all children. Events, shows and activities take place both indoors and out, so it goes on despite the weather! As usual, the lineup this year looks fabulous. Some of the scheduled shows, programs and events taking place in the 2013 festival are:

• A Sonatina
• Where the Wild Things Are
• Medicine Bear
• Ghosts and Ladders
• Family Games Pavillion
• Kromatik
• Long and McQuade Instrument Petting Zoo

The Festival is also jam-packed with tons activities and attractions for the whole family, complete with an interactive play-space designed by YOWlab, the 100 Watt Earth Stage, the Baobab Community West African hand drum workshop, circus workshops and so much more! And don’t even get me started on the face painting. When we went a few years ago, the face painting was not only amazing, it was a truly interactive experience as well!

The Festival runs from May 28-June 2 at LeBreton Flats Park and the Canadian War Museum. Showtimes vary so be sure to check out their website for more information.

Giveaway Details:

We’re so excited about the Ottawa International Children’s Festival that we’re offering tickets to one awesome show at the festival.  In addition to the show, you will have access to all the other activities and programming.  To enter just leave a comment below telling us you’re interested and what you’re looking forward to doing.  Giveaway ends May 24th at 8pm.

MWF Seeking New Friends

I am not good at making friends. Before Twitter I just had a small group of friends, but connecting online has brought me into a whole community. The problem is that the majority of the community I built as a mother lives across the city from me. (Stittsville–Orleans is not always doable, and once the kid starts school we're screwed).

It was easier when we lived a bit less west, but a year ago we moved into Stittsville, which makes even meeting centrally difficult when there pick-ups and drop-offs to manage as well.

And so I am trying to find a way to make friends, and find friends for my daughter and I feel like a stalker at the park.

Any time the kid talks to another child or seems to get along with them I have to try to find out a name, push myself out of my comfort zone and try to talk to the mother, and I've gotten friendly with a couple of parents, but then it's time to leave and I just can't seem to, as they say, close the deal.

After gymnastics last weekend my daughter ended up playing with another little girl while I talked to her mom. The girl is in the same class and we had exchanged pleasantries waiting for them to finish over the three classes they've had so far. It was thrilling to see my daughter play so nicely with someone, making up games, building sand castles and swinging. Behind me my husband kept hissing "Get her number!" – A West end play date! A friend!

In the end I suggested that next week my kid could bring her sand toys and maybe they could play again, hoping to build up a relationship and move things forward.

Meanwhile, my daughter invited the girl over to our house to play on her play structure.

So how do you do it? How do you 'date' friends for your children?

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.

Star Wars Identities opens in Ottawa May 10

by Tanya On the last day of our vacation last summer, we took a special trip to the Montreal Science Center to visit Star Wars: Identities.

What is it?

Yes, yes, a Star Wars exhibit. Big surprise, I know. But this was more than just costumes and props. Identities is a socio-psychological look into what makes us who we are.

The tour requires a headset and RFID bracelet, which allows for an interactive component. The exhibit consists of a dozen stations with monitors which play videos on a loop. Each video explains some component of personality and individual identity, exploring how our identities form from our upbringing, our social networks (IRL, not online ;) and our choices. [Yes, they do talk midichlorians. Can't ignore those, sadly.]

There are RFID stations where you get to build a character by selecting their appearance, their planet of origin, and then responding to a series of questions about their behaviour and actions. You can associate your character with that of other visitors, so in our case, hubby, The Dude and I are all connected. What I loved was that the final choice is whether to join the dark side: in the end, it's always a choice regardless of where you come from :)

The final station is where you can see your character as a whole and email their backstory to yourself for future reference.

This is my character, ElanalE. (I decided I wanted to create a name that was a palindrome; you know, balance in the force and all that). #nerd She's a senator who fights with the good guys. [Click on the image if you want to see what a full profile looks like.]

The Verdict

This was a lot of fun. First of all, we'd never been so close to so many Star Wars props and costumes in our lives. In addition to our excitement over seeing the Yoda puppet and Anakin's podracer (which is HUGE), we were stunned by the size of the battle droids, which were over 7 feet tall! They always seemed so much shorter in the movies.

The audio-visual stations were all interesting, even for the Dude. Granted he is 9, and this was not his first audio tour. I did wonder whether the content would go over his head, but his knowledge of the movies helped keep him interested. There are definitely some younger kids who couldn't care less about the audio portion of the tour, and who could not read so the RFID stations were redundant for them too. I'd suggest that this is best for kids who can read and who have enough attention span to listen to 20+ minutes of audio broken into 10 stations.

The RFID stations were the most fun. The Dude worked alone, which forced him to read the quizzes and answer questions himself. In the end, we all enjoyed comparing our characters and our selections. The dinner conversation consisted of comments such as, "Da-ad! I can't believe you joined the dark side!!!"

It took us about 90 minutes to get through the entire exhibit, reading a good majority of the panels, listening to all the stations and doing all the interactive components. We arrived early and took in the other two science activity rooms open in the museum (think Toronto Science Center, only much smaller) which kept us somewhat busy but didn't fill the entire time we had before our tour. All in all, we totally loved it. (And before you ask, since we did such a comprehensive tour, once was enough for that exhibit.)

Tips

• If you don't know the movies, you can still enjoy the exhibit. The psychological approach means that the content is relevant to anyone interested in humanity, not just the movies. Although knowing the movies does make the content much more relevant.
• Little kids seemed pretty bored. And when they tended to get loud, it made it hard to hear the audio tour. If you're little one has no attention span, best to keep them out of the way of audio stations.
• If you get to a station when a video is already playing you're better off touring the neighbouring displays and coming back when it starts over.
• Buy tickets in advance; it's too busy to just show up and hope you get in right away. People commented on the site that they arrived early in the day and got turned away until mid-afternoon. Some days are even sold out.

(Editor's note: the exhibit opens in Ottawa this Friday, May 10th and runs until September 2)

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