Going with the Flo

by Alanna

Wow,  I was truly amazed and impressed when walking through the Flo Studio one Saturday.  Not really sure what to expect, I was greeted by two wonderful people who have a real love for their craft and their business.  If you are not aware of this new business, let me fill you in. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.



The Furnace

Brownwen Co-Owner giving us a demo

Flo Glass partners Melody Jewitt of Red Om Glass and Bronwen McKnight of Kiss My Glass {Merrickville},   have brought 27 years experience in Glass blowing to Ottawa.  They are a glass arts teaching facility, providing multi-level workshops to the public in the forms of glassblowing, flameworking, fusing and casting.



What does this mean to parents, caregivers and children?  Well, let me tell you.  These two teaming up is a coup for us.  These wonderful artistic people are over the moon excited about sharing their knowledge with us and our little people.  Bronwen is so excited about teaching after years of running her store.  She is ready to share her love for the art with everyone and does so regularly with her own grandchildren.  Yes, that is right, glass blowing for children. Fear not, it is safe.  After being told this I had a few questions.  I am sure that it can be safe after a few lessons? or if the children are above 10 right?  No.  In fact it is safe from the get go.  There is a cordoned off area away from the furnace.  The children are about three feet away from the molten glass while they are rolling and blowing.  In fact, as long as they can blow through the blow pipe children can join in on the fun.  Bronwen and Melody are offering classes, drop-ins and (get this) Birthday parties.

You can bring a group of children to the studio to make an ornament or paper weight OR a Fuzed art piece.  They can accommodate up to 6 children.  With the party they will do a lesson with them including hands on making and designing of their own piece all for 25$ per child.  Although they won't be able to take their creations home with them right away, they will take a memory and experience that won't soon be forgotten.  Pieces are picked up the next day after they have been in the kiln for 3 - 18 hours depending on the piece.

How does it all work?  According to Melody, as long as the furnace is up and running (call ahead to make sure) the children can drop in and make something.  If you are thinking about bringing a group through for a party, they would appreciate at least two weeks notice.

Why not drop in to make something for Mom for mother's day - and hey why not Grandma too!!  I am positive that the children will be over the moon with this experience.

If you give it a go let me know.  I would love to hear your thoughts.

Alanna is a mother of two beauties, Nora age 3 (aka coconut) and Avery 5 (aka polka dot). Former ECE turned mother, party planner and blogger.  Never a dull moment around this house.

Taking a trip to Chinatown

by Brie

One morning during March break the kids and I made a visit to Chinatown. Walking down Somerset towards Bronson I told the kids to watch out for the huge arch announcing the beginning of Chinatown. Neither had any idea what I was talking about as I tried to explain the arch but they sure knew it when they saw it!

The arch was our first stop and we spent some time taking a closer look. I was blown away by how vibrant the colours are. My four and a half year old girl was happy to pose in from of the lion statue. My two and a half year old boy wanted nothing to do with the lion and stood as far away from it as possible.

arch

We took a walk down the street looking in the store windows on our way to the Kowloon Market. Inside the boy sat in the front of the shopping cart and the three of us started to wander the store. It was great to be in a new shopping environment, one where the kids don't know every aisle by heart and try to rush through as fast as possible. The kids were happy to wander each aisle looking at the items on the shelves. I heard a lot of "What's this mama?".

We stocked up on tofu and some yummy noodles. The kids wanted to get a treat so we also left with a big bag of fortune cookies. As soon as we paid and made it outside the kids wanted to eat their cookies. They couldn't have cared less about the fortunes, but I thought they were funny.

fortune cookies

Unfortunately we had to leave before the restaurants opened in order to make it home for the boy's nap. But I am already planning our next trip to Chinatown. This time I'll make sure we go in the late afternoon so that we can end our visit with  dinner!

Have you visited Chinatown with your kids? Where do they love to go?

Brie is the mom of a 4 year old daughter “the girl” and 2 old son “the boy”. You can read her blog at Capital Mom.

Polar bears and penguins, oh my!

by Zach My kids love the Canadian Museum of Nature, but there's been a distressing new development: as they get more familiar with the place, they're making their way through the exhibitions faster and faster. One day a couple of weeks ago we had flown through the Blue Water, Fossil, and Mammal galleries, and I was wondering if we were going to finish early, and how exactly I would keep things afloat for the rest of the afternoon.   Then, on the third floor, we bumped into a sign in front of the Special Exhibition gallery that stopped the kids cold. This wasn't any old foam board-in-Plexiglas sign. It was a mini-display in itself, with a large, rotating model of the earth slowly turning over and over. Sitting on the south pole was an oversized penguin, and on the north pole was a polar bear. We had found the new temporary exhibition, Ends of the Earth: From Polar Bears to Penguins.   After convincing the kids not to try wrenching the penguin and polar bear off the globe, we made our way in. The first thing that greeted us was a life-sized polar bear (a relative of the one in the Mammal gallery?), surrounded by several other interactive displays and games. The kids were a bit nervous of this new polar bear, but quickly moved past, and started exploring. And what a lot there was to explore.   The highlight of the exhibition was probably the penguin slide, in one of the back corners of the exhibition. It's a low, gently-sloped ramp, shaped like a big chunk of ice hauled up from the Antarctic. The really adorable part, however, is the many penguin costumes stored on benches to the side. The idea is for the kids to dress up as penguins and slide down the ramp on their bellies, using the soft fabric of the costumes to go a touch faster than they otherwise would.   The first time we went, the kids were game for the costumes, and I bitterly regretted not having my camera as they waddled around the exhibition, pretending to be penguins. I also tried not to think about how often the costumes might, or might not, get washed.   We've had a couple of visits since, and my kids, like most others, don't really attempt the costumes anymore, but just start launching themselves down the slide, running back, and doing it again in this kind of perpetual motion machine thing that young kids are capable of. You can really see the different parenting styles coming out in these kinds of situations; do the parents wander off and look at other displays? Do they hover (like me)? Do they let the kids climb directly back up the slide, or do they have to go around? Note there's no attendant here, and no posted rules, so it's something of a Darwinian playground.   There's a whole lot else to see, too. There's a replica of the kind of scale that scientists use to weigh polar bears, and that visitors can use to see how their weight matches up to that of polar bears at different ages (there's no numbers, just a chart). The kids together weigh about as much as a six-month old polar bear cub, while I'm the equivalent of a remarkably mature bear. Yay.   There's loads more to see and do, including a mini-den for kids to crawl into, a penguin-chick feeding game (with a guilt-inducing message when you don't manage to feed the chicks), a replica of the hut used by early explorers of the Antarctic, and several video displays describing the animals and geography of the two poles. At least I think that's what they do, as the kids tend to run by videos of scientists talking, however passionate they are about their work.   The exhibition began way back on January 28, and is only open until April 10. If you want to check it out, head out there soon.   If you've seen the exhibition, what did you think? And, what are yours and your kids' favourite sections of the Museum of Nature?

Zach is a dad to a four year old girl and two year old boy. He sometimes blogs. He is often blogged about by his wife over at Capital Mom.

RCMP Stables Open House

By Vicky On Saturday, March 5th, the RCMP Musical Ride Stables are having an open house from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.

This annual event raises food and funds for the Ottawa Food Bank. It's also a great opportunity for you and your children to see the  world famous Musical Ride up close! Admission is free, however, donations of canned goods for the Ottawa Food Bank are always welcome.

We first went to this event last year, and it was a learning experience for the whole family! RCMP officers were on hand to answer questions on the care and training of horses. We got to see what a typical day would be like for an Officer on tour with the Musical Ride - everything from Ride training to mucking the stalls!

We were fascinated to see that above each horse's stall there were the names of its' parents and the birth year. We had fun walking around trying to figure out which horses were related!

The Musical Ride Visitor’s Centre and stables are located on the grounds of the Canadian Police College at the end of St. Laurent Blvd. North and Sandridge Rd. The grounds can also be reached via the Aviation Parkway. On site parking is free. The stalls are quite cool, so make sure to dress warmly.

Throughout the day there are also demonstrations and displays by various RCMP services and branches, as well as the Explosives branch and the Ottawa Fire Service.

There are many photo opportunities to be had with the mounted riders, Safety Bear and the RCMP mascot! On your way out you can stop by the Mountie Shop and the Musical Ride Visitors’ Centre too.

For more information visit the RCMP web site.

Vicky is the mom to 4 year old son named Joel and 20 month old daughter named Mieka. You can read her blog at blog Some Kind of Mom.

Canada Science and Technology Museum

 by Yumi There's something about the smell of the trains that takes me right back.

 When I was little, there wasn't much that I enjoyed more than a trip to the Canadian Museum of Science and Technology. I loved teetering through the Crazy Kitchen, exploring the locomotives and peering through the windows of the various train cars and playing with the telephone switchboard. And oh, my goodness, the buttons you could press. This was a museum where not only were you allowed to touch things, it was encouraged! (Any museum worth its salt now encourages interactivity, but thirty years ago, that was a pretty exciting thing.)

 Today, an outing to the museum brings me as much joy as ever, but for different reasons. I'm introducing my one-year-old son, “Moe”, to this amazing museum. I'm not going to lie – the museum is old and underfunded and would greatly benefit from a new space. But they have been able to work some real magic with their artifacts in the space they have. The artifacts I remember are in new and relevant exhibits, which are hands on and great fun. (And the train area smells as wonderful as ever. My husband and I were trying to identify the smell – it's like engine grease combined with old books. We both grew up in that museum, so we joke that it smells like childhood.)

 For a little guy like Moe, one of the best parts of the museum is the bright and colourful Mini Science Area, for kids under five. There's a train table, Duplo blocks, puppets, puzzles and more. It is a safe place for him to explore. He's also a fan of the locomotives and the canoe ride simulator. He can sit patiently and watch a demo in the amphitheater – we especially enjoyed watching the interpreter play with liquid nitrogen!

 Older kids will love Connexions – The Plugged in World of Communications, which traces communication from 19^th century telegraph to current digital networks. The Search for the Canadian Car, and Canada in Space also provide food for the imagination for little minds and lots to do for little hands. There's also a space simulator that will blow kids away.

 As a parent, I love the gift shop, which is a wealth of educational toys and games. I'm also a big fan of the free parking. We recently got a family membership for the museum – and it's paid for itself already. It allows you entry into the Canada Agriculture Museum, the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, as well as more than 290 museums and science centres across Canada and around the world.

 The museum is a great spot to hold a birthday party – they even have sleepovers! There are day camps, family workshops and programs specifically for preschool groups.

 For more information, visit the museum's website at www.sciencetech.technomuses.ca.

Yumi Webster (@yumikid) loves her job, but is dreading her return to work after a year off with her incredible son “Moe”. You can read about Moe’s adventures at kidsquared.livejournal.com, and about Yumi’s own adventures at yumikid.livejournal.com. Yumi has lived in Ottawa all her life.