Welcoming the NAC French Youth Theatre

Giveaway Closed It’s pretty cool that we live in the Ottawa Capital area, home to the National Arts Centre and some amazing children’s theatre. As Ottawa is a fully bilingual city and many of our Kids in the Capital readers are French or have kids in French immersion or French language school, we are particularly pleased to be able to introduce our new sponsor - the NAC French Youth Theatre. What a great way to get your kids to fall in love with both the theatre experience and to be able to practice using their French in an everyday situation. And since it’s French theatre, this post will be in both French and English - a first for Kids in the Capital.

The French Youth Theatre season has a pretty awesome lineup this season. The first French theatre event this month is Pomme, a delectable tale brilliantly told solely in French by Isabelle Payant in a performance that brings to mind the popular children’s television character Fanfreluche, who liked to retell stories and legends—in her own unique way!

In rhymes and images, through the interplay of shapes and objects in an ingenious set made of giant boxes that captivates young audiences ages 3 and up, the show unfolds an evocative fable about the great adventure of life. Through the magic of puppetry, Isabelle skillfully guides her engaging protagonist through a host of exciting adventures.

Un délice de spectacle à savourer en famille

Une délicieuse épopée menée brillamment par Isabelle Payant. L’interprète a un petit quelque chose de Fanfreluche : À l’aide de poèmes et d’images, de jeux d’objets et de formes, surgissant au milieu d’une ingénieuse architecture de cubes qui émerveille les enfants, le spectacle compose une fable évocatrice sur la grande aventure de la vie. Pomme a de beaux et grands rêves. Elle voudrait bien défier les lois de la nature et devenir un homme… À travers mille et une péripéties, l’épopée de ce sympathique personnage compose une fable évocatrice sur la grande aventure de la vie. À croquer!

As a kid, I loved the idea of getting dressed up and going to the NAC and I’m so excited to be able to share it with my children as they get older. Each month, the NAC French Theatre will host a spectacular presentation of poems, puppetry and fun for kids of all ages. The lineup includes Cendrillion, Le Grand Mechant Loup and Gretel et Hansel and your kids will have a blast and get to hear French at it’s finest. Take a look at the full lineup here.

And to get our readers involved, we’re giving away tickets for one play in the lineup. To win, just tell us in the comments why you’d like to see Pomme, or any other of the the awesome plays in the Youth French Theatre Lineup. We will pick one winner at random on October 15th.

Welcoming Just Play Toy Rental

Have you ever stood in your playroom and looked around at the toys and thought “Am I crazy?” I know that when my kids were small, no matter what toys they had, they only held their attention for a month or two before they were ready to move on. That can get really expensive. Which is why our new (well, technically returning) sponsor Just Play Toy Rental is a pretty awesome idea. New to you toys delivered right to your door! It’s pretty simple. You can go online and pick out the toys you want. They have all kind of developmentally appropriate toys, both big and small. Just Play Toy Rental focuses on purchasing high quality, open ended toys that will stimulate your kid’s imaginations. The toys are thoroughly cleaned using a product called Benefect - it is a 100% botanical (non-toxic) disinfectant. Typically, the standard rental period is 4 weeks (although daily rentals are available upon special request).

To make life even easier, you can even enroll in the Just Play Toy Rental subscription service. When you do, you will receive new to you developmentally appropriate toys on the selected delivery date. The number of toys will vary slightly depending on their individual retail value. The rental period is 30 days, starting from the day the toys are delivered. The toys will be picked up and another toy package delivered 30 days later.

How awesome is that? Just when your kids are starting to get bored, boom! A brand new delivery of toys. And don’t worry if your child just cannot bear to part with a toy. If that happens, you can actually purchase said toy. All problems solved.

Welcome back Just Play Toy Rental. We’re so excited to be able to promote your awesome service. And stay tuned, we will have a reader review of Just Play coming really soon.

Frogs – A Chorus of Colour

By Tracy Bigelow My son and I recently had the opportunity to preview the newest exhibit at the Canadian Museum of Nature called Frogs - A Chorus of Colour, thanks to Kids in the Capital!! The exhibit officially opened today, September 25th, however we had the chance to see it a day ahead of schedule!

I'll be upfront and say that our review is probably biased - my son (Luke, age 7) adores frogs and so no matter what, he would have given this exhibit two thumbs up. I, on the other hand, am a little harder to please. Yet, I too give this exhibit very high scores!

The most engaging parts of the exhibit were actually the frogs themselves - with almost 80 live frogs to view in very natural, native habitats! Most of them are species that we'd never get the chance to view in the wild. There were colorful dart poisonous frogs, tomato frogs and my son's personal favorite: Jabba the African bullfrog! They were, in every sense, the stars of the show!

As the mom of a home-schooled child, I appreciated all of the educational elements within this exhibit. The virtual dissection really brought back memories of my junior high biology class and my 7 year old son really played around with that feature for a while. He recently learned that humans have four heart chambers and so it was neat for him to learn that frogs have three.

There are recordings of various species of frogs for the kids to listen to; and my son especially appreciated the mini putt game where you need to dodge frog predators. Luke also loved the art station, and I was reminded of yet another school day memory - do you remember the paper origami frogs from grade school?! There are instructions to make one!

This exhibit totally captured my son's interest and engaged him from start to finish. It’s quite rare for us to say this - but there were no parts of the exhibit that we wanted to 'gloss' over! It is obvious that it was designed with children in mind, and yet all of the adults in the exhibit with us were just as equally enthralled as the children were. A definite winner!

I'm glad that this exhibit will be here till May 2014 - because we already have at least one more visit planned before it ends.

Winter Soups: Chicken Tortilla

One of my favorite winter meals is soup. There is something warm and comforting about sipping a hot bowl of soup while the temperatures drop outside. I like to make big batches and freeze some for later. This makes it easier on the days that I just don’t feel like cooking (which, if I’m honest, is most days). One of my favorite (and easiest) soups to make is chicken tortilla soup. I love the slight spiciness and the crunch of the tortilla strips on top. I've found recipes that need you to mix all the spices together but one of my tricks is to use the canned tomatoes with the chili spices already mixed in.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 small onion, diced
2 tablespoons minced garlic
3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 (14.5-ounce) can of chili spiced diced tomatoes
1 (14.5-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (8.5-ounce) can of corn, drained
3 raw chicken breasts, boneless and skinless cut into bite sized pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 stalk of green onion for garnish
1 (8-inch) flour tortilla, grilled, cut into thin strips (or for us lazy ones, use the store bought tortilla chips, crushed)
1 cup shredded Monterrey cheese (optional - we aren't a cheese family here)
 

Directions

In a large saucepan heat the vegetable oil. Add the onions and cook for 2 minutes. Once the onions have softened add the garlic and cook for another minute. Pour the chicken broth, tomatoes, beans and corn into the pot and bring to a boil. Once at a boil lower heat to simmer and add your chicken breasts. Simmer soup for about 2-3 hours. The chicken will be nice and tender.

When you’re ready to serve, ladle the hot soup into bowls and sprinkle the chopped onions and tortilla strips on top. If you’d like, you can add the cheese (or not).

What's your favourite winter soup recipe?

Talking to Kids About Tragic Events

It was an abnormal day. Daddy was home when the Kid woke up and she got to spend some quality time with him and I got to sleep in. A little after 8 am we left to take Daddy to the train station so that he could go to Toronto for work. The Kid wanted to stay in the parking lot and see the train so we waited, and then she declared she had to go to the bathroom. I picked her up and walked to the station and just before we reached the doors I saw the train coming, so I pointed it out to her and that's when I realized that something was wrong – the train was coming towards the station on an angle. My immediate reaction was to say "oh my god." By now everyone reading this has heard about the crash between the train and the bus that morning. We didn't realize at that moment what was happened on the other side of that train. We went to find Daddy and check in because clearly his plans would have to change.

I'm a news junkie as it is, and seeing an incident made me want to know that much more about what was happening and the news got worse and worse through the morning, but I knew immediately that I had to be very careful about what my three year old saw and heard.

She knew from my immediate reaction that the train wasn't supposed to do that. She said she wanted to stay to see the next train and we had to explain that trains probably wouldn't be moving any time soon.

But at an age where she picks up on everything we're saying, how to I continue to protect her from the news? And what about as she grows older and understands more?

When I dropped her off at preschool I informed the teacher of what she had seen, and that she had mentioned the train again a couple of times and might bring it up at school. The first question I will need to ask her when she gets home will be if she has any questions and doing my best to answer them. I will be mindful of things she says over the next few days.

If she were older I would tell her that a bad accident happened and people got hurt, that there are ways people like us can help, like checking in with our friends, donating blood and sending thanks to our emergency services workers.

I don't believe in shielding my child from the world because I know that someday it would all come crashing down around her, but I do believe that there are things she can handle at this moment in time and things she cannot. This is a house where we pay attention to the news so I can't just keep her in the dark.

At any age talking to her will be key. Talking to her about these things will teach her that talking helps and is always allowed.

I sought out some resources that I wanted to share:

• Sesame Street has a parents section on their website with tool kits for dealing with different issues and they have produced some videos for parents as well;
• A handout for parents from the National Association of School Psychologists;
• A post on the New York Times website for teachers about helping students deal with difficult events in the news;
• A post from PBS Parents with strategies for speaking to your children and
• A post from the Mayo Clinic about talking to children at different ages.

I'd love to get a conversation going about this to find more.