Parent Club is a friendly site for busy families. Family travel, food, activities, organization, parenting, reviews and more.
File this under: BBQ Ideas. Sub-head: crunch!
Click here for BBQ recipes that would go great with these salads.
Apple-Cheese and Toasted Walnut Salad
Honey-Lime Berries and Greens
Corn And Black Bean Salad
This is my 1,001 post on Parent Club (it deserves a cookie in celebration n’est pas?).
So here are some Parent Club fun facts (pay attention – this might be on a trivial pursuit card one day!)
The original Parent Club logo (2007) had a lighthouse on it. A beacon to families everywhere perhaps? No, the theme of the site had lighthouses and that is where the logo inspiration began.
Parent Club was named “Parent Club” because I thought that parenthood had all the aspects of a book club without the books. Adults gathering (virtually) sharing, drinking, eating, traveling, ranting, reviewing, and many other verbs. Thus, the idea of a book club morphed into Parent Club.
Want to know what Parent Club is about? I wrote this post all about that.
And amongst the posts in that 1,o00 these are two favourites…
Mourning A Baby is my most personal (and I still cry when I read it).
5 Things To Take To A Blogging Conference (a solid go-to list)
THE WHAT: Toronto Zoo
THE WHERE: World class zoo located in Toronto. Lots of parking. Stroller and wheelchair rentals available. Very family friendly – restaurants, picnic areas, restrooms and baby change stations. Open 364 days of the year.
THE DEETS: A super family field trip where you can see lions, tiger and bears (and more! Seriously, we spent 6 hours at the zoo and didn’t see all the animals. The Toronto Zoo has over 5,000 animals). Meet the keepers and learn from them about specific animals, what they eat and their habitats.
HANDS-ON DISCOVERY:
Stingray Bay
Touch real stingrays at Stingray (yes, it’s safe – we tried it). Explore Zellers Discovery Zone; featuring the Kids Zoo, a dynamic, Splash Island (a two acre splash pad), and the Waterside Theatre.
Ride the zoomobile, conservation carousel (pictured), camels and ponies
MEMBERSHIP: A year’s pass membership pays for itself in 2 visits!
MUST SEES: polar bears, gorillas, and the elephants (before they move!)
File this under: BBQ Ideas sub-head: Yum!
Easy grilling recipes for your family or even a larger crowd.
Glazed Beef Tenderloin with Herbed New Potatoes
Grilled Salmon with Sugar Snaps and Corn
Grilled Bacon-Cheeseburgers (Crowd Size)
Forecast for new cool game trends: Battleship!
With the upcoming BATTLESHIP: The Battle For Earth Begins At Sea movie set to release in a few weeks…watch for all new Battleship activities.
Hasbro has the The classic “board game”, a delux edition and KRE-O sets in the stores now.
Based on the official trailer (above) I call this action movie for older kids and tweens.
News!: I’m now a special contributor to CityLine.ca.
This month I’m sharing an easy family activity…Get Mom In The Picture This Mother’s Day!
Is Mom the family paparazzi? Is there any photographic evidence, at all, that she was present at the school recitals, birthday parties or family vacations? Forever behind the camera and never in front? Get Mom in the picture for Mother’s Day!
This is an easy, inexpensive family activity you can do at home. Break out the digital camera, group yourself together and set the self-timer (why didn’t we think of this before?!). Or give your smartphone to your spouse, friend or neighbour and have them snap some family pictures.
Family pictures don’t have to be the traditional ‘parents-sit-on-chairs-kids-stand-at-the-sides-now-everyone-SMILE’ pictures. Unconventional family photos can be great keepsakes. Consider these untraditional family photo-ops:
The beauty of taking your own digital family pictures is that is it low-cost (you can always delete the fuzzy ones).
Switch Up!
Give the kids an activity (to keep them busy while Mom relaxes on Mother’s Day!) with a MOM, I LOVE YOU mat.
You will need:
Have the kids arrange and glue their favourite pictures of Mom on construction paper. Using markers, have them write a special note to Mom (I love you, World’s Greatest Mom, Happy Mother’s Day…whatever they like). Be sure the child writes his/her name on the artwork!
Using scissors, cut contact paper (it comes in a roll) to the size of the construction paper. Peel the paper backing off of the contact paper revealing the adhesive. Line the contact paper up with the art-laden construction paper and lay it down, flattening the contact paper to eliminate any bubbles.
Mom can take the MOM, I LOVE YOU mat to the office and pin it to her corkboard. She could use it at home as her kitchen table place mat. It’s so light and flat, she could even pack it in her overnight bag on her next trip!
Moms are the family memory keepers. This Mother’s Day…make something memorable for her to keep.
Caroline Fernandez shares family friendly activities and tips on her site Parent Club.
THE WHAT: Cavalia’s Odysseo in Toronto, ON
THE WHEN: Opens in Toronto May 15 (great Mother’s Day gift idea!)
THE WHERE: 324 Cherry Street, Port Lands
THE DEAL: When ordering tickets be sure to ask about special pricing for young children — as low as $29.50!
What do horses dream about? The same thing we do: Freedom.
Let your kids paint with food and unleash their inner Picasso (or Dali or Kahlo – not Van Gogh though…he played with sharp objects…very bad role model).
Firm vegetables and fruit make great art-makers.
Think…
Use as a paint brush or stamp. These veggies are easy for little fingers to hold.
NOTE: Do not eat or cook with used-paint-laden-vegtables/fruit. Discard in organic garbage.
Name please.
Susannah Findlay
Your Website?
What’s your specialty?
I’m creative, a multi-tasker, organized and a bit anal. Comes in handy because I’m a SAHM/part time working mom/mompreneur.
What’s your shameless plug?
Well, Colours To Go products of course for all the kids in your life but I LOVE my H2O Steam Mop. I know, not sexy at all but soooooo useful. See, even my favourite product multi-tasks.
Best thing about your work:
The best thing is that I can work from home and my schedule is really flexible. This is what allowed me to be at home with my kids, be here for them when they’re sick, go on field trips, etc. I love that they see me contributing to the family and doing something creative that I enjoy too.
Parent or not a parent?
Parent – Mom to two creative, fun and kind kids, daughter 7, son 5-3/4 (he insists on the 3/4)
Share a typical Tuesday.
Tuesdays are actually my quietest days. Up at 7ish, shower if lucky/necessary, lunch packed for daughter, check emails, breakfasts made & eaten, teeth brushed then off to the bus for her, into the car for my son and I as we head to swim class. An hour or so later we’re back on the road eating a snack en route. Most days include a quick side trip for an errand but home to play together (lots of mini-hockey) for an hour or so before lunch. At 12:45 I put my son on the bus for afternoon kindergarten, run in, check emails and spend the next 3 hours doing work. My part time job can be done from home as well as my blogging and making my Colours To Go products so there is always lots to do. Of course as a multi-tasker I always mix in a little laundry, house work and personal emails here and there. I’m also on my iPod checking mail, twitter, FB, and Pinterest throughout the day. Kids off the bus at 4. Snacks and dinner prep. Dinner on table around 5:30 with whole family. Baths, stories, bedtime by 8 for the kids. Most Tuesdays I’m home in the evening but I have my much loved book club once a month and parent council meetings every 2 months or so. Hang with my hubby until about 10:00 when we both collapse into bed.
Do you blog?
Yes, I started last year and love it. http://www.colourstogo.ca/apps/blog/
Do you tweet?
Yup but I’m really inconsistent. @ColoursToGo
Wallflower or social butterfly?
I’m a social butterfly but I am a bit of a homebody too. I love spending time with my family and sometimes the urge to stay in gets the best of me but get me out and I’m no shrinking violet.
Name 3 people you would like to meet-in-person from Twitter (add why so we can follow them too)…
@ButterflyFilm – this short film is really moving, has a great message and really should be seen by everyone.
@brookeburke – okay, I’m a closet DWTS fan (not so in the closet anymore) and I love that she seems to have a really good family/career balance.
@torianddean – yup, another closet fan of Tori Spelling. She’s so creative and puts family first. Can’t explain it but I love a crafty girl.
Growing sprouts is a great kids’ activity! It’s “planting”, growing, watching and learning all at the same time (also teaches patience!).
You will need:
Have the kids wet 2 squares of paper towel (not soaking wet – just moist) and place in bottom of dish. Sprinkle dry lentils on paper towel. Cover with another wet paper towel.
Set by a window and watch for the lentils to sprout (first signs of growth come in about 48 hours).
Keep the paper towel moistened throughout the growing process.
More fun: the kids can use kid-safe scissors to give their sprouts a haircut!
Funny Mummy Column Kathy Buckworth
I’ve always believed in the parenting principle of finding out what your kids like the most…andthen taking it away from them as a form of punishment. The thing is, kids are very transparent,or “authentic” in today’s social media terminology. They simply cannot hide when there is a toy they really love, a friend they prefer over all others, or an activity they can’t wait to do.
Favourite things vary for each child, and of course this changes for the child themselves as they go through different ages and stages. I have four children, and taking away Star Wars Lego is a much bigger punishment for my nine year old son than it is of course for his 18 year old brother.
On the other hand, they’d both feel the pain from an imposed Xbox ban; something that wouldn’t bother either one of my daughters at all. I even have one child who would be extremely unhappy if I didn’t let him mop the kitchen floor anymore. (I rarely use this as punishment; why deny him such fun?)
But as kids outgrow their personal preferences, and you start to think about resorting to the age old parenting technique of grounding them, remember that this action results in them spending more time in the house (you want to think this one through, trust me). We can also run out of ways to follow through on the verbal threat, simply exhausting the list of appropriate non-permanently damaging course of punishment actions. This can sometimes result in the empty threat, such as “You’ll never watch TV again”. At this point, all of your threats and promises become meaningless, and they know it. Kids sense indecision like dogs sense fear.
Which is why I love parenting in this digital age. While many parents (rightfully) bemoan the challenges of guiding their children through the online complexities of email, Facebook, Twitter and the internet as a whole, I embrace these challenges as a small price to pay, to encourage my kids to get online for the simple reason that it gives me a whole new set of punishment tools.
“Don’t want to clean up your room? No Facebook for you.”
“You’re going to talk to me like that? I guess you won’t be emailing with your friends about how unfair I am.”
I even once made my teenage son friend me on Facebook as a type of punishment. They really don’t want to be your friend, and they really don’t like it when you comment “Cute top!” under a icture of them at a party.
And we haven’t even begun to discuss the pure parenting enjoyment that comes from taking away a smartphone. Or simply letting their pre-paid cell phone run out as a more passive aggressive form of digital punishment.
Forget the Time Out Mat; let their phones time out instead. And tell them everyone you connected with on Twitter agrees with you. You might want to even “favourite” it yourself.
Follow Kathy Buckworth on Twitter @KathyBuckworth; visit www.kathybuckworth.com. Kathy’s latest book, “I Am So The Boss of You” will be released by McClelland & Stewart in March, 2013.
