Treasure Hunting

by Alison It seems that our indoor activities need variety, especially as we’d rather be outside. To shake things up, I planned a treasure hunt for my daughter and her friend during a recent play date.

Our hunt consisted of five clues spread around the house. Each clue led to them to the next location, and the final clue brought them to the treasure. The girls are both new readers so I made sure that the clues contained words they knew or could sound out. This was more difficult than I'd expected. I wasn’t sure how engaged they’d be in solving my riddles so I only planned five. Also, my clues weren’t very difficult. "I wash dirty clothes" led them to the laundry room. The girls got very excited when they figured them out and would run off to the next location. The fifth clue brought them to the kitchen and a treasure of stickers and fresh cookies.

For older children, the clues can be more complex or be written in simple codes that need to be broken. This also makes a great activity for a detective or spy themed birthday party.

Alison is a mom of two energetic children, ages 5 and 1. She just started a blog, Ali’s Adventures.

Salsa, Baby!

by Krista My second child was born in the month of November, just as winter was settling upon us. I had grand plans to go for daily walks, and spend as much time outside as I had with my first born, but the fact that winter is COLD and the reality of having two children under two set in pretty quickly. It was much harder to keep both happy outside than I thought, and we didn't go out as much as I liked. I missed the exercise, and the interacting with other moms and babes as I walked through the neighbourhood.

A friend of mine suggested that I join a Salsa Babies class with her, as it would give me an opportunity to get out and exercise with my little girl, and interact with some other new parents. I was interested, but not convinced, as I am not a dancer, and have no rhythm at all. The classes we took were offered through Salsa Babies Ottawa-Gatineau, who offer a free trial class before you commit. All it took was that one class and I was hooked, signing up for several sessions that lasted long past the end of winter. The classes weren't a difficult workout, but they got me moving, and my little Goose loved them.  The sessions were six weeks long, and cost $80.

It is recommended that you start the classes when your child is at least 6-8 weeks old, or at least has some pretty decent head control. You need to have a carrier that you will be comfortable in for about 45 minutes, keeping in mind that you will be dancing around for the duration of the class. I was happiest in a baby bjorn, but there were a variety of other carriers in use. You also need to dress comfortably, and have runners or other indoor shoes, as you are moving around, and tend to get warm (especially with a warm baby attached to you!)

The music is also great. Salsa music is lively and uplifting, and was pretty much guaranteed to make me smile. Goose also love the music, the tempo, and all the fancy maracas she got to play with. The music and the movement were also great for soothing her if she was cranky, sometimes when teething she even slept through the entire class!

One of my big concerns with signing up was my complete lack of skill when it comes to dancing, but this really wasn't a problem with the classes. It is expected that you are not able to dance when you sign up, and you are taught the basics right at the beginning. They then review them every week. The three or four different dances are broken down into simple steps, so that you are not overwhelmed each week, and that you can build on what you have learned. If you are like me and you turn left when you should turn right, and move back instead of forward, you just laugh a lot, enjoy the great music and do what you can do.

Goose and I, having fun!

Krista is married to Willy and mom to a 4 year old son, Woo, and 2 year old daughter Goose. You can find her at Life in the Hutch or on Twitter @kgraydonald

Painting with Marbles

by Sara Every two weeks I volunteer in my son's Junior Kindergarten classroom and I will admit that it's a great source of inspiration for art and craft projects.

On my most recent visit we used marbles to paint pictures, something even I remember doing in elementary school!

Once you decide how many colours you'd like to use, choose small containers to pour the paint into.  You only need enough paint to cover a marble.

Place a marble into each container and use a plastic spoon to cover the marbles with paint. We used our 'for food' spoons and it was a bit of a disaster: they were too heavy and kept tipping the paint containers over and spilling the contents all over the kitchen table.

We used three different tin trays for this project: one with shallow edges, one with edges that were about 1.5 inches high, and another with edges over 2 inches high.

Whether or not the marble will fly out of the tray (which it did from all 3 of our trays) depends more on the enthusiasm with which the painter rolls the marble around than the depth of the tray.  Although based on the enthusiasm to depth ratio, I'd suggest the 1.5 inch deep tray :)

While we rolled the marble around we talked about the directions you could move the tray in (in a circle, square, back and forth, side to side) as well as the colours we created by mixing different colours of paint.

Even the 2.5 year old monkey got in on the marble rolling action.  Despite giving him the deepest tray he still managed to launch the marble onto the floor the most frequently!

This is definitely a messy activity so I'd suggest a table in the kitchen away from the walls (when the marble launches it tends to splatter) but I think that the colourful paintings we created were well worth the mess!

Sara is a photographer and mom to a 5-year-old ” firefighter” and 2.5-year-old “monkey”.  You can also find her at her blog, My Points of View.

Andrew Haydon Park

by Sasha Andrew Haydon Park is ready for spring.

The snow has melted from the paths. Well, almost.

And the geese are struting around in pairs, fiercely defending their territory.

Pretty soon, the chains will be off the gates. Water from the waterfall will fill the pond, and the delightful chaps at the shoreline will race their remote-controlled sailboats. And if you ask, they will be happy to show you how they work, perhaps even pluck one out of the water and point out the magical gears inside. (This has been known to happen.)

There will be kids on the play structures, and water in the water park. There will be concerts in the bandshell on Wednesday evenings, and fireworks on Canada Day. The geese will rule the ponds, but if you're lucky, you may spot a heron.

Are YOU ready for spring?

Sasha is mom to 2-year-old Miss Bea, and 4 month old Baby Em.  Her ramblings can also be found on her blog, The Rambling Stroller.

Spring's here. Planting time.

by Alanna

Do you smell that??  Ahhh the sweet smell of spring.  "Yuck, it stinks"  is the reply I get from my two darlings.  Yes, they are right.  That smell of mold and mud isn't really that yummy a smell, but to me it is sooooooooo beautiful.  Those that know me know that I am not really a winter person, but boy oh boy, come spring there is a bounce in my step and a long lost smile on my face.  That smell means longer days, sunny days and that defrosting mud, well, that means gardening.  Yippee.

There is something so wonderful about gardening with children.  No matter how small or old they are, everyone can find something to like about gardening.  After years of working with children I found that it is the one activity that everyone gathered around to participate in.  My children are no different.  Over the past couple of years we have started our seeds at this time of year.  I can remember my father sitting at the dinning room table sorting seeds and meticulously placing them in a wet paper towel to get the started and then, once they root, transplanting them to some nutrient rich soil.  It is this type of fondness that I want to instill in my children.

From watering the plants in the house, to picking out seeds from the seed catalogue, my children are eager to help.  This year I have something different in store.  Usually we plant the seed in that black container with the clear plastic lid that acts as a greenhouse of sorts.  Somehow it is lacking, not enough excitement if you know what I mean.  This year, however, I think we will knock it up a level and plant in different containers.  Even though they have already picked out their favourite seeds (watermelon, pumpkin and cantaloupe) we will start with some easier and faster growing seeds.  It will work better in our orange peels, yogurt containers and egg shells.  Once we get these seeds growing away, we can then just plant them along with the planters in the ground (except the yogurt containers), but of course before we do that we need to draw on some faces.

These were made with yogurt containers, nylons (used), soil and grass seeds. FamilyFun.com

We don't have a lawn, so grass seed is just what we need right now.  We also are starting lettuce in orange halves, but we haven't gotten any pictures yet.  These can go right into the ground once they are started.  All you have to do is temper them outside for a day or two and they can go outside quite early.  Both the grass and the lettuce are excellent choices for children.  They grow rapidly and are very simple to take care of.  With the grass they can actually cut the grass with scissors and watch it grow back.  You know, give it a hair cut.  Now what could be more fun than that?

A word of caution - make sure that the eggshells are well cleaned out before the children handle them.  You can even put them in the oven to burn off any of the excess residue.  Once this is done, they are safe to use.  You can also put them in 1/3 of toilet paper roll to hold them stable.

Have fun starting your seeds,  Remember, getting dirty is part of the fun. 

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.