Month: August 2011

What makes a good toy?

One of the reasons I was so excited to be a part of the Fisher-Price Canada playpanel team of bloggers has to do with my deep admiration for Fisher-Price. They don’t just make toys – they make toys that kids love, classic toys that endure and endear for generations.

Did you know the classic Fisher-Price Bubble Mower has been entertaining kids for more than 20 years? The inimitable Chatter Telephone has been a toybox staple for more than 50 years. And check out this clever timeline showing the history of everybody’s favourite Little People, now well into their seventh decade!

Dr. Kathleen Alfano is widely regarded as an expert in early childhood development. She is the Director for the Fisher-Price Child Research Department, which is the toy industry’s most respected Center for research on childhood development and play. A pretty spectacular woman, Dr. Alfano holds a Bachelor’s, Master’s, and Doctorate degree in Elementary Education as well as a Master’s degree in business administration.

So why does Dr Alfano think toys like the Bubble Mower, the Chatter Telephone, or the Little People sets have become classic toys across generations? “They are basic toys,” she says. “They meet the developmental interests of babies today. They appeal to parents. They also might trigger a happy memory from the parent’s childhood.”

According to Dr. Alfano, a good toy:

  • Is safe, durable, interesting and fun to use.
  • Stimulates creativity and imagination.
  • Encourages inquisitiveness and resourcefulness.
  • Is a tool for learning (challenging, yet not frustrating).
  • Invites repeated use.
  • Involves child interaction.
  • Addresses developing needs and emerging skills.

My friends at Fisher-Price must have been paying attention when I mentioned how much Lucas was enjoying the Trio play set they’d sent us, because one rainy day last week a giant box turned up on my porch. Inside was the new Trio Hot Wheels Super Stunt Builder set. I truly thought Lucas’s eyes would pop out of his head from excitement when he saw the box! It’s a great twist on the classic Hot Wheels set, because you can build and rebuild the set into any configuration that suits your fancy using Trio’s colourful and easy to snap-together and pull apart blocks.

I sat by with my camera while Tristan started pulling components out of the box. At first, I was going to intervene, maybe do a little guiding and directing while Tristan did the assembling and Lucas did the helping. After all, nine years old is a little early on the curve for new toy assembly. I held back, though, and to mine and Lucas’s mutual delight, he was able to follow the instructions and he assembled the full set on his own.

FP Trio Hotwheels 1

You can see in the above pic that Willie the cat also helped while Katie the dog supervised. 🙂 At first, Simon was more engaged with his handheld electronic game, but without any prompting from me, his curiousity got the best of him and soon all three boys were wrapped up in building the set.

FP Trio Hotwheels 2

Two thumbs up for the Trio Hot Wheels Super Stunt builder set! It kept my 3, 7 and 9 year old boys engaged for an entire rainy summer afternoon. And because it’s a building toy, we can rebuild it into dozens of different configurations of our own creation. I’m not sure that Lucas could have handled assembling the set on his own, but he could barely contain himself in waiting for it to be assembled. And while Tristan is pretty much beyond the car-driving age, he’s more than happy to build and rebuild the stunt ramp into new configurations. And when he’s done, I’m happy enough to take a turn, too!

So what do you think takes a toy from “good” beyond “great” and into the realm of “classic” toy?

(Disclosure: I’m part of the Fisher-Price Play Panel and I receive special perks as part of my affiliation with this group. However, as always, the opinions on this blog are entirely my own.)

Supersizing Timmy

Did you hear the latest? Starting tomorrow at select Tim Hortons locations in Kingston and Sudbury, the small coffee size will no longer be available, the medium and large will become the small (10 oz) and medium (14 oz) respectively, and the new extra large will be a whopping 24 oz — that outsizes Starbucks’ Venti by four ounces.

That’s more than 2/3 of a litre of coffee, folks, and the entirety of the daily recommended caffeine intake.

I have mixed feelings about this. I’ve always found the small size a bit of an anachronism, and Beloved and I refer to it as the “kiddie size”. On the other hand, I’ve got a 2XL a day habit, and I do love my coffee. There is no doubt in my mind that I have a bona fide addiction to coffee. In fact, it will be a conscious decision on my part to not supersize my XL with three milks, and to resist the the temptation to wring a few more milligrams of caffeine into my system.

63:365 Please play again

Apparently this brings the Canadian Tim Horton’s coffee sizes into alignment with the larger sizes south of the border in the United States. Nothing against my American cousins, but in the age of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution and all the general movement toward more reasonable portion sizes and an appreciation of restraint over gluttony, is this a smart move on the part of Tim Horton’s?

Do we really need to supersize our coffees? And more importantly, will I be able to resist the siren song of four more ounces?

Hello

It’s quarter past six in the morning, and nobody else is awake yet, so I feel just a wee bit less guilty stealing onto the computer to say hello. I can’t believe it’s still dark out! Sigh. Summer is almost over.

Even though school doesn’t start for another week, the big boys are in circus camp (!) all next week and Lucas starts with a new caregiver, so it will be pretty close to our fall routine. And of course I’m still adjusting to the new and improved commute — soon to be in the dark, from the looks of things.

Can anyone tell me why I have a bazillion ideas for blog posts when I’m running around like my hair is on fire and can’t find two seconds to string together, and when the house is quiet and sleeping on a Sunday morning, I can’t recall a single darn one of them?

Anyway, just wanted to say hi and let you know that I’m thinking of my bloggy peeps, even if my crusty old brain can’t come up with a more compelling post than this.

Are you sad that summer is almost over, or are you twitchy for the back-to-school madness to begin?

Project 365: Joy and sadness and love and colour (aka the spectrum of life)

You might have noticed the sparse blogging this week. This past week and the one coming up mark a crazy end-of-summer transition time that encompass not only back to school for the boys and Beloved, but a new job for me, a new caregiver for Lucas, and an impromptu 24-hours-notice visit from my brother and his family. All very good things, but I kind of feel like I’m living in a whirlwind these days!

You’d never know it from the serenity of this picture, though. As the days get shorter and the nights get cooler, I’m seeing a lot of this delicious mist swirling on the Rideau as the sun crests over the trees. (I know the purple loosestrife is a pestilence, but it sure is a purty pestilence.)

239:365 Misty morning on the Rideau

Flowers like rain, even if rambunctious kids don’t.

240:365 Yellow, after the rain

I can’t decide if this one is overdone. The apples are great, but maybe the dollar-store fall garland pushed it beyond yummy into hokey? Hmmm, might have to revisit this one later in apple season.

243:365 Autumn apples

As I mentioned a few times now, I’ve gone back to my old job downtown. The 45-minute commute is a bit of a drag, but I have to admit that I am excited to be back down in the Byward Market again. The energy in the Market is the polar opposite of the serene tranquility in the misty river shot above, but it’s kind of nice having both in the same day.

My very first day was also the second day that Jack Layton was laying in state for public condolences on Parliament Hill. I had hoped that maybe I could make my way over there, but first days have a mind of their own and it didn’t work out. I was, however, able to stand at my new office window and pay my respects as the 15-gun salute was fired. Such a terrible loss for all of us. I’m glad I have this picture, to remind me of the excitement of my first day and the jaw-dropping shock of this gorgeous view all playing out against the backdrop of public grieving. Rest in peace, Jack.

244:365 Saying goodbye to Jack

On the other side of the building, of course, lays the bustling Byward Market, which is both a gustatory and visual festival of tastes and colours. Harvest season is a such great time to be near the Market!

245:365 Summer harvest

This is my niece sharing her discovery, a wooly bear caterpillar (which will become, I found out thanks to the Interwebs, an Isabella tiger moth.) I love the combination of the chipped red nail polish and the dirt on her hands — my kind of girl!

242:365 Look what I found!

You know I’ve hung out my shingle as a family photographer, and I have to tell you, it’s turning into a fun and lucrative little endeavour. But for all the great family pictures I’ve taken, I’ve never really gotten one of my own extended family that I loved. Until now, that is.

241:365 My crazy family

You can see that they genuinely love each other, and isn’t that what it’s really all about?

Hockey mom angst

With three boys, it was inevitable that the hockey issue would come up sooner or later. The time I have long dreaded has arrived. One of the boys wants to play hockey.

I am totally torn about this. My Official Canadian Parenting Handbook says that any boy child must endure enjoy at least one season of playing hockey in his lifetime. My Official Lazy Parenting Handbook says that a hockey rink is a hell of a place to spend two perfectly good hours every week. My bank account shudders at the idea of $550 just in registration fees alone, to say nothing of gear. My husband thinks I’m insane for even considering it, and although is opposed in principal, will likely be swayed if I set my mind to it. My barely repressed rejected inner child thinks this is the key to popularity — or at least, of not being marginalized among his peers. My already insanely busy life has no room for up to an hour of traveling to various rinks throughout Eastern Ontario on game day, to say nothing of practices that may run any time from 6 am to 8 pm.

Most importantly, though, my boy asked for it. This is the boy who gamely endured two years of (expensive, lengthy) skating lessons and can still barely stand on the ice. The one who is already reasonably popular among his peers. The one who would rather sit on his hiney and play video games than do just about anything else.

24:365 Skates

I had no idea this choice — to register for hockey or to not register for hockey — would be so filled with angst. And that’s if you can even find the information you need to register. Thank goodness for this great post for rookie hockey parents from Kids in the Capital and a little handholding from a BTDT friend of mine, because you can’t find ANY other useful information online.

What I’m realizing is that really, it’s not even about the hockey. It’s about being part of the team, and the status that somehow infers on the rest of his life. I come from a place where I was the odd kid out, and still bear the scars today in an almost unreasonable anxiety that the same things may happen to my boys. Six hundred bucks and a couple dozen hours out of my year seem like a small price to pay to mitigate that possibility.

And then, my stubborn side kicks in and voices agreement with Beloved, who is vaguely resentful of the implication that you must join the giant hockey machine and fork out that ridiculous sum of money just to be part of some intangible club. I think of all those hours of lacing skates (OMG how I hate lacing skates) and lord knows I probably won’t escape without getting sucked into some infernal volunteer role with the club.

I wonder if he’s totally forgotten the tears, the cold, aching feet, the crazy rush through dinner to make it to the rink on time. I wonder if he, so like his mother, likes the idea of hockey more than he will enjoy actual hockey. I wonder if we’ll get as far as October and face a twice-weekly battle of wills, where I have to battle both my own inertia and his reluctance to play. I wonder if I’m overplaying the importance of this silly game in his peer culture. I wonder if I’m doing the other brother a disservice by not signing him up while I’m at it, which would be twice as awful all-around, unless I was wrong and it is that important.

249:365 Hockey skates

I dithered about this for a month, and finally found the right person to ask about registration for our league. To my relief, she promptly replied that the novice level is completely full for the season, so very sorry. I breathed a huge and regretful sigh of relief. The decision was no longer mine to make, it was out of my hands.

Until the e-mail she sent just now, saying they just had some spaces free up. Did I want to register my son now, before they disappeared again?

I honestly don’t know. Do I?

Project 365: The delicious light of late summer

No big themes, no new toys this week, no deep thoughts; just rich saturated colours, cute kids and yummy light. There is something to be said for keeping it simple.

Nothing says ‘summer’ like a dripping kid fresh from the pool, wrapped in a colourful towel, right?

232:365 Fancy feet

Then again, a kid on a swing is another great way to define summer. (I love his smile, but I may be biased.)

236:365 Simon on the swing

If you read my post from a few days ago, you would be correct to assume these are not my flowers. Luckily, I have neighbours who are far better gardeners than me!

235:365 Yellow

I have a real acorn thing. I can’t help but collect them if I happen to see an oak tree shedding them. But, I’ve never actually noticed one growing on the tree before. I am ridiculously pleased about both this discovery, this photograph, and this quote I found to go with it: “Every oak tree started out as a couple of nuts who stood their ground.” Ha!

233:365 Every oak tree started out as a couple of nuts who stood their ground. ~ Unknown

Another joy from nature this time of year is the bullrush. I don’t know why I am fascinated by these things, but I am! I like how desaturating this turned it from a bullrush in a ditch beside the school into something more about shape and form.

234:365 Bullrush

One of the other great things about late summer, aside from the golden, delicious light, is the morning fog that is a gift from the cool nights and humid mornings. I love how this looks almost like a fairy garden to me, and composed it so you feel invited to let your eyes walk from the dark foreground, through that gate and right into the light.

238:365 Morning mist at the park

This last set is a trilogy that I wanted to put up as its own blog post, but I clean ran out of time.

This shot is the keeper. Lucas loves kitty, but I do suspect the love is unrequited.

237:365 Lucas loves kitty

Five seconds before:

Lucas loves kitty-3

Five seconds after:

Lucas loves kitty

(I think the expression on Willie’s face is priceless. And the fact that Lucas’s face is still attached to his head is a testament to Willie’s good nature!)

I hope your week is filled with delicious colour and gorgeous light!

Friday Family Fun: Movie night! And, a giveaway!

Here’s a quick and simple idea for Friday Family Fun: pop some popcorn, find some sugary snacks and pop a movie into the player of your choice. Such a simple pleasure, and the boys LOVE it when we do this. It’s especially delicious if you’re willing to let them stay up half an hour or an hour past their bedtime on movie night. Is there anything better than snuggling under a blanket, sharing a popcorn bowl and watching a movie together after a busy day of summer fun?

To give you something new to share on your next family movie night, I’m happy to offer brand-new-in-the-wrapper copies of Diary of a Wimpy Kid and the sequel, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules, thanks to our friends at GCI Group.

Want to win one? Here’s how!

  1. To enter, leave a comment on this post suggesting a great movie choice for a family movie night.
  2. One entry per person.
  3. The prize is a set of two DVDs, Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Roderick Rules.
  4. Contest opens today, August 19 and runs through Tuesday August 23, 2011 at noon EDT.
  5. One winner will be chosen via random.org and announced on this post by Wednesday, August 24.
  6. Winners must reside in Canada or the USA. You must be willing to share your mailing address with me to receive the prize

    7. .

Good luck!

Edited to add: It pays to be quick! Congratulations to commenter #1, Steve Wynn! Enjoy the movies!! 🙂

The garden that wasn’t to be

In the dark, cold days of January, I wrote this ridiculously optimistic list of things that I couldn’t wait to do this summer, and at the top of that list was a garden. I’d imagined tilling up a meter or two of grass (we can certainly spare it) to put in a little kitchen garden. As winter melted into spring, I watched the light travel across the yard, carefully selecting the spot that would get the most sun exposure. By this time of year, I’d speculated back in the deep cold of January, we’d be heading out to the yard before dinner to pluck our own carrots, harvest juicy tomatoes, and slice fresh-from-the-vine cucumbers into our evening salad. My mouth still waters when I think about it.

The idea of the tilled square of garden fell by the wayside early in May when I realized that the vast majority of my spare spring hours were to be spent taming the rampant growth of the lawn. As the torrential spring rains gave way to a warm, dry summer, I adjusted my expectations accordingly. I’d clear space in the existing beds for some tomatoes and cukes, and maybe next year I’d have more time to cultivate the verdant kitchen garden of my dreams.

With expectations appropriately tempered, so far this year I have planted:

  • two cherry tomato plants
  • one beefsteak tomato plant
  • three cucumber plants
  • one green pepper plant
  • one jalapeno plant
  • two packages of sunflower seeds
  • one package of pink coneflower seeds
  • two potted pink coneflower plants
  • one potted black-eyed susan

As of today, we have harvested exactly one jalapeno pepper. There is one malformed yellowish cucumber the size of a pickle trying to turn itself into a doughnut shape. The sunflower seeds, including one seedling we sprouted in the house in a pot, never made it beyond two inches tall. The coneflower seeds were absorbed by mother earth never to be seen again. Not one but TWO potted coneflower plants turned black and shrivelled up for no reason I could see except that I completely forgot to water them. And I accidentally snapped the stalks of the poor black-eyed susans as I was planting them. I guess now they’re black-and-blue-eyed susans. And the tomato plants are still the exact same size they were when I planted them in May. They have neither died nor grown, but exist in a perpetually frozen flowering state.

I mean seriously, who can’t grow sunflowers and tomatoes? Now when I go to the garden centre, I can see the plants leaning back, scurrying into corners, trying to hide from my sight. “Please, lady, don’t choose us! We want to LIVE!” Hell, even the produce in the grocery store trembles on my approach, so far-reaching is my reputation for plant-based cruelty.

Did I mention I also failed to sustain the potted basil plant I bought in mid-summer when I discovered tomato-basil-bocconcini salad? We had two great salads within the first week, then the plant withered up and died — and I even remembered to water that one!

Clearly, my entire allotment of nurturing has been expended in the effort of sustaining three boys, two pets and a Beloved. It’s a good thing they’re almost old enough to be self-sustaining!

Project 365: Lensbaby week

I had fun with my Lensbaby Composer Pro this week, and left it on my camera for the whole week. I’ve learned a lot about getting the best possible images from it, but I may have developed a permanent crick in my left eyebrow from squinting one-eyed through the viewfinder, trying to find the focus. (Do you shoot with one eye or two? I’m so impressed by people who have mastered shooting with both eyes open, but I simply can’t do it!)

I also happened to read online that finding that focus spot is a lot easier if you use the “live view” LCD preview on the back of the camera instead of the viewfinder, but I’m not sure that’s a habit I can comfortably develop either. I think I’m just destined to have more wrinkles on the left side of my face as I squinch my eye closed! I’m also finding that my D7000 is underexposing my Lensbaby shots by at least one stop, sometimes as much as two stops, so I’ve started to shoot a bit more in manual mode. Ah, back to the good old days — manual focus AND manual exposure control. Glad I learned how to do all this stuff years ago!

I was actually trying to cut the grass when I noticed the light hitting Tristan as he played on the rope hanging from the treehouse, and stopped the lawnmower to go inside and get my camera for this one. I simply can’t resist delicious light!

225:365 Tristan on the rope

There’s not a lot of explanation for this shot, I just find myself drawn to fences and fence posts and things like this. Go figure!

228:365 Fence post

Speaking of things to which I’m drawn, oh look, it’s Watson’s Mill again! This is a reflection in the river turned upside-down so it’s right-side up.

231:365 Oh look, it's the Mill. Again. :)

One of these days I’m going to write a post about all the flowers that didn’t grow in my garden this year. These are courtesy of a neighbour. (Even after fixing this up in Lightroom, this one still seems a little muddy and underexposed to me. Hmmm.)

230:365 Black-eyed susans

This would have probably worked much better if I’d had a normal lens on my camera, but the Lensbaby was all that was within reach. Every morning around 6:30, Katie and Willie have a little play. I loved how Willie ended up in the MouseTrap box that Lucas had been playing with.

226:365 Cat trap

It’s been a while since my beautiful old Underwood has been in my photostream!

229:365 Vintage typewriter lensbaby love

And finally, I took this shot one evening last weekend when we were at the Manotick aquatic club. I like the near-abstract quality, and the sense of motion that the stretched Lensbaby bokeh gives to the image. (It’s Simon riding the cresting Daddy-whale!)

227:365 Lensbaby splash

So what do you think of the Lensbaby shots? I’m really pleased with it, although I think it has a reasonably limited utility. I’d like to try some more portraits with it, and it should be fun to take downtown with me to explore the Byward Market one lunch hour. And I think it’s the perfect lens for fall colour. But let’s not rush into fall just yet!

Friday Family Fun: Karter’s Korners

In a way, it feels like summer is almost over. I’m back at work this week, while Beloved has one week left. The boys have another two weeks after that, but really, the sun and warmth of summer carries on for weeks after that.

Today’s Friday Family Fun is a great summer treat, but you might want to choose one of those fresh fall days instead of the breathlessly muggy day we chose. We trekked out to Karter’s Korners go-karts and mini-golf and had one of our best adventures of the summer.

I’ve known of Karter’s Korners, eastern Ontario’s largest go-karting track, for years. We have friends with older boys, and have heard them talk about how much fun they had. I was a little concerned about whether our boys were old enough to enjoy — or even accomplish! — go-karting. As usual, I needn’t have worried.

They have two types of go-karts. Riders taller than 54” tall can drive their own kart, and they have a handful of doubles so younger riders can ride with a parent. It worked out perfectly for us that Lucas and I shared one kart while Simon and Beloved shared another, and Tristan drove his (eek!) own.

O!M!G! Did we ever have fun! The track is just a smidge short of a mile long, with a couple of bends and corners and at least one hair-pin turn. We’d bought one of those groupon-type deals that gave us each four loops around the track and a round of putt-putt, which was just the right amount of fun for us.

At first, I was concerned that Tristan might not be able to drive his kart on his own, but he did a fine job. This is me taking a picture of Tristan while zooming around in my own kart, one arm around Lucas, one hand on the camera, one hand on the wheel, tearing down the track at a speed I’d rather not consider. Don’t tell my mom!

KK (1 of 4)

After that, we got the boys each a ball and putter and set them loose on the putt-putt range, one of those fun old-skool ones with a windmill and a loop-the-loop and other classic obstructions. It was pretty much pandemonium, and I’m sure the boys managed to break every official rule of mini-golf (Lucas was especially funny, picking up his ball randomly and placing it within six inches of the hole so he could putt it in!) but they had a good time and didn’t bother anyone else so we didn’t care.

KK (2 of 4)

Karter’s Korners also has a mini-ATV track where kids under 54″ can drive their own vehicles, a driving range, an arcade, and a little canteen. In other words, pretty much everything you need to keep the kids engaged for a full afternoon of fun. It’s not an inexpensive family outing, but it’s frankly comparable in price to what it cost to bring everyone to the movie theatre last week, and way more fun. Plan your trip for a discount Tuesday and save a few pennies — or play a little longer!

I don’t know who had more fun, the kids or the grownups. Beloved is already talking about heading back and trying a few more laps. Karter’s Korners truly is an Ottawa adventure the whole family can enjoy!

KK (4 of 4)