Puzzles, Costumes and Games, Oh My!: Kamloops Children’s Museum

Aug 05 2010

Posted by Elizabeth as Adventures in Parenting, Curled Up with a Good Book, Family Time, One Parents Perspective, Ongoing Events, Parenting Resources, Reviews, What's Going on in Kamloops

July 10th marked the grand opening for the Kamloops Museum & Archives’ Children’s Museum. After much planning the bottom floor of the museum is now kid-friendly and featuring a number of hands-on displays, as well as lots of great educational opportunities for young children.

My kids and I took my Mom along to check it out, just last week. It was a nice and cool place to spend a hot summer morning! We really liked it. As I was tucking my son into bed he asked, “Mom, can we go to the Children’s Museum again, tomorrow?” I think he was hooked by this:

The kids loved the big prehistoric water table with all kinds of real heritage secrets hidden within it:

My daughter loved the vintage costumes and the cute little house to play in:

And we all enjoyed the fantastic selection of great books to read together. There was a little outer space reading nook, but we chose to take our story onto the ocean…

The kids had so much fun checking out all the different things that there were to do in the Children’s Museum. We didn’t get to spend much time doing any one thing as there was so much for them to look at and to try out. There are tables of games for older kids, drawing frames, big hula hoops to play with, a puppet theatre, a huge play-space with gorgeous wooden paddle boats and other rolling vehicles… the list goes on! There seemed to be something for kids of all ages to enjoy! My 5 year-old, and almost-3 year-old and my littlest (10 months) even enjoyed himself just crawling around on the floor, watching the big kids play with the boats!

We had so much fun there, in fact, that we didn’t even get upstairs into the rest of the Museum! I know that we will go back, soon, to see what else we can enjoy, and then once we have done it all – we will go again and again. It is a really affordable way to have a great time with the kids and a hours pass before you even know it!

The Children’s Museum is located at 207 Seymour Street. Parking has a fee and you can park on the street or in the lot beside the museum. The Museum is open year-round, Tuesday to Saturday from 9:30am to 4:30pm. Admission is by a recommended donation of 1$ for children or 3$ for adults.

Anyone want to go with us?

Don’t forget about the Giveaway from Dirk Vissers Ltd. Dirk just e-mailed me that he would like to offer free consultations to anyone who says they read it on KamloopsParents.Com. Wow! So, give Dirk a call at 250-320-0293. If you book by the end of the month (August), Dirk will come and do a solar assessment at no cost. What a super way to find out about reducing your carbon footprint!

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Reading Rocks: The TNRD Summer Reading Program

Jul 05 2010

Posted by Elizabeth as Adventures in Parenting, Curled Up with a Good Book, Family Time, Ongoing Events, What's Going on in Kamloops

Fact: I used to ride my bike to school while reading a book.
Okay, this is not really important, but it sort of gives you a peek into this post. Sort of. Plus, it’s kind of hilarious. Hey, at least I wore a helmet!!

Fact: When I was fifteen years old my family drove across Canada in our big van. It took six weeks. How we managed to live for six weeks in that small space and live to happily share the stories is a mystery… a mystery solved at the Kamloops Public Library.

Books.

Books, books and more books. The kind people at the library in July 1996 were wonderful enough to forgive the massive late charges on a Rubbermaid bin full of books that my family brought on our trip. We read our way across the country, stopping on the way, adventuring the most wonderful and memorable adventures and playing crazy games as we went (and I’m sure that we fought sometimes, too). Summer meant reading – whether at home or not.

I remember every summer for… ever, being a part of the summer reading program at the Kamloops library (because I’m an old-time Kamloops-girl). I remember enjoying the different themes and seeing the different mascots, I remember eating cake with too much icing at the wind-up party. I remember stressing out because I couldn’t find my booklet to record my reading. I remember when there were three pages of Sweet Valley titles and I think I was accused of cheating by someone (maybe my younger brother) because… “those weren’t really books.”

Imagine my booky excitement at realizing that I have missed out on four summers of summer reading programs that my kids could have been enrolled in. Because you don’t have to have a reader to join the Summer Reading Program, you can sign your little ones up for the Summer Read-To-Me Program, too!

So, we did. My son is in the Reading Program and my daughter in the Read-To-Me Program. They are both excited about getting to fill in their booklets and getting to check out the cool stuff that will be going on at the library!

We met Miss Morgan and got to pick out our musical notes.

Then we wrote our names on them.

Then, we learned about how the program works and what we have to do after we read for 15 minutes every day.

Then, we stuck our musical notes onto the big mural with lots of other kids’ notes.

Yahoo!!

It’s going to be great fun to read together, this summer.

If you haven’t gotten out to the library to register, today is the first day of the programs. Today is free comic day! So, if you go in at any time today, your little reader (or read-to-me-er) will get a free comic book!

There are lots of great events happening over the summer weeks, be sure to catch as many as you can!

July 5 – 9 Readers Roar

Name the mascot

Comic Book Giveaway, July 5th * Chris Tougas, author and illustrator will be in the library at 10:30am on July 9th*

July 12 – 16 A Rocky Read

Create a “Rock Star”

Learn about dinosaurs

July 19 -23 Riddled Readers

Scavenger Hunt

Brain Teasers and Guess the number of rocks

July 26 – 30 Rock ‘n’ Roll Read

Guitar Hero and Games

Make and instrument or write a song

August 2 – 6 Read a Ruckus

Bring in a joke for display

Read a funny book

August 9 – 13 Rise Up Readers

Share a good deed

Write a letter to someone who inspires you

August 17 – 21 Risky Reads

Create your own superhero

Spice up sentences

August 23 – 28 Catch Up and Wrap Up

Wrap-up party on Saturday, August 28th

For more information about the Summer Reading Program, you can stop by either branch – Kamloops or North Kamloops, or call 250-372-5145

***

Don’t forget to enter this great giveaway!!

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The Gruffalo: Curled Up With A Good Book

Mar 11 2010

Posted by Elizabeth as Adventures in Parenting, Birthday Party Guide, Crafting with Kids, Curled Up with a Good Book

Title: The Gruffalo

Author: Julia Donaldson, Alex Scheffler

Age group: I’ve read this one to lots of age-groups. My intermediate (grades 4 – 7) students enjoyed The Gruffalo just as much (yes, yes they did) as the primary students that heard The Gruffalo. My kids love the story and the illustrations. In fact, my daughter sometimes will keep it in her place of honour… under her pillow.

What’s To Love: The rhythm of the words. The verses and rhymes are so easy to read and easy to listen to. The illustrations are awesome; bright and clear. The story is great, there is so much to talk about and it leads to great conclusion-making for the kids. There is even a website, which I just found! Unreal!! It’s got games and fun finger puppets and lots of cool party ideas. I think we may just have a Gruffalo-themed party in our house, just because!! We are definitely going to try these out and I will let you know how they go!

What’s Not To Love: Sometimes I get a little into “the terrible teeth and terrible jaws…” and the kids get a little freaked out. Pretty much, an awesome book.

Where to Find It: The Gruffalo can be found at Chapter’s for only $9.99. It’s a pretty good deal for a family classic, I think! Or, if you want to borrow it from me, you can bribe my kids with chocolate

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Alex the “Pig”: A Tutorial

Sep 29 2009

Posted by Elizabeth as Adventures in Parenting, Crafting with Kids, Curled Up with a Good Book

This morning I was feeling a little sorry for myself and in a bit of a 39-weeks-pregnant-messy-house-fighting-a-cold funk. After my daughter went down for her nap, my four-year-old and I pulled out some books to read, together. One of his choices was this:We’ve read it a number of times and had seen that there were instructions, in the back, on how to make your own pig! H is in a stage where he wants to “make” everything that he sees, and “build” all kinds of diggers after reading our digger books from the library and so this fit perfectly. I thought I’d break out of my feeling-sorry-for-myself funk by trying a little crafting with him.Here are the instructions to make your own pig (or whatever it ends up being).1) Cut a 25 cm length of stocking, or a sleeve from an old knit sweater.. whatever you have lying around.2) Sew one end off with loosely stitched embroidery thread so that it can be pulled tightly and knotted.3) Turn it inside out and stuff it with fiberfill.4) Sew a button onto the knotted end.**My instructional pictures from here on out didn’t really work… all I got is my son – oops. So, you’ll see the parts I’m describing but only in the finished product.**5) Again with embroidery thread, sew a mouth, then eyes.6) Put a small ball of fiberfill into the body of the pig and knot some thread around it to form a foot. Repeat four times (unless you wanted a different number of legs, go ahead).7) Cut out two triangles to be the ears and sew them on.8) Twist off the open end into a tail, or tightly tie thread around the opening to close it off. We decided to make the tail into little strips so that it was kinda fuzzy.Voila!!Cool, eh? Our creation is definitely not very pig-like, but my son doesn’t care.His name is Alex. Alex, meet the world. World, meet Alex. Alex

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9 Ways To Bring Out the Best in You and Your Child

Feb 16 2009

Posted by Krystal as Curled Up with a Good Book

I absolutely loved this book I read it ages ago and realized that I didn’t have it’s title posted anywhere on the site. It is a must read for any parent who is concerned about their relationship with their child.

This is a review from Amazon.com:

“Maggie Reigh is a relatively local, she’s from Kelowna, parent educator who has spoken at numerous seminars all over the world and regularly appears on a local Canadian television news program. Her book is unique and provides real solutions for you to deal with your children from toddlers to teens. She never makes you feel like a bad parent or like you aren’t good enough. Instead she gives you this wonderful book filled with ideas & stories that will inspire you to be the parent you always wanted to be.

Each of the 9 sections is laid out clearly in an easy to read format. I tore through this book and frequently pull it off my shelf for another look as I search for new ideas on how to deal with my head strong children. It shows you ways to be friends with your kids while remaining the parent and helping them to make decisions on their own. Something you will want to pass on to your own children & friends.”