Packing List for Family Trips

Whether it be a trip south or a trip up north...here are some tips for packing for the family.  You might remember my Yummy Mummy Club article on "Double Duty Packing" - this post is more reading on that subject.

• Passports?  You can download Canadian Passport applications and renewal forms online.  (Bonus: they now mail passports to you so you only have to go to the office once!)
• Drugs. (not the illegal kind)  Always take your medications with you on the airplane.  When travelling with kids it's helpful to carry along your trusted kid-pain/fever medication (Tylenol, Advil, etc).  Other helpful drugs: kid antihistamines (to reduce swelling for bug bites) and gravol.
• Pens & Paper.  No mother ever said "geez, I wish I hadn't brought those pens and paper".  Bring them!  They are great bordom busters (think: tic tac toe), teachable moment tools (think: travel journal for the kids) and important for leaving notes for your spouse as to why they are waking up alone with the kids (Think: went to the gym)  

On subject yet aside: read my other Yummy Mummy Club article on Hot Travel Tips for family trips...it starts like this..."DON’T pack the naughty drawer. The only thing vibrating in the night should be your phone (and really you should turn that off)."

Family February Get-Away

We are heading out on a family February get-away next week.  Why?  Because of THIS, also because it is my prince's birthday (a big one) and some family time sans blackberry is very much needed.

We knew we wanted an island -- a warm Spanish island.  I had some other family requirements too:

• Location - not a long plane ride from Canada
• Activities - no shooters in the pool thank you
• Accomodation - comfortable yet kid friendly
• Entertainment - (see no shooters above)
• Budget - friendly

After considerable research, I decided RIU Hotels & Resorts was a fit to all our requirements.  On the beach, daily kids' club activities, many food options - something for everyone in the family. 

We've had our Hep A & B shots, I've got bug spray to ward off malaria-mosquitos and sun hats are at the ready.

Oh, and as you all know - I'm compulsive at making teachable moments (seriously, there should be an intervention). So I created my own crossworld puzzle (click the link to go to the cite - bookmark it for your next trip) and made an english/spanish vocab. sheet  (phrases for Thing 1 and cartoons + words for Thing 2). 

Aside: one year we went to France, the teacher sent homework to do on the plane.  The last thing I wanted on my vacation was to cut and paste (as IF the airline would let us bring sissors on the plane!).  However, my crossword puzzle and vocab. list are specific to what WE will be doing, seeing, celebrating on our trip.  (and for those who know me "where are the bathrooms?" is, of course, one of the translated phrases - along with a picture of a toilet).

Parent Club Winners

Here are your random winners for the: "E is for Ethics" - by Ian James Corlett (published by Simon & Schuster Canada)

Loukia
Sarah S.
billiondollarprincesss
vivaglampink

Congrats to all! Please e-mail info(at)parentclub.ca with your mailing information to have the books delivered to your door. (remember to tweet @ParentClub that you won!)

Keep Reading

The January blahs aren't keeping me down people...oh no...we must drudge on...

Perhaps some upbeat reading is in order...

Read my "New Year, New Leaf" article over at wondermoms.ca

Find some inspiration for this weekend in my article on "Winter Break Activities" over at everythingmom.com.

My latest Home Base blog on todaysparent.com is on "Accounting 411" all about freelancers getting their accounting house in order (my actual house…forget it…never will be in order).

And finally, if paper-based copy is better (because it is hard to take a laptop into a bubble bath) pick up a copy of December's Blush magazine (available at West Coast Kids, UC Baby and Please Mum) for my feature article "Breathe clean and easy: Natural cleansers for your home"

Blaming January

Dear January:   It's all your fault  ~from: moi

Reason the kids are melting down = January

Reason we are all tired = January

Reason the laundry fairy doesn't visit = January

January is the leech of the calendar - it just sucks.

January just seems to take more energy to get off one's duff than the rest of the months.  Extra effort to get out of the flannel sheets (flannel to me is what beer is to Homer Simpson).  Extra push to tackle the laundry mountain.  Extra coaching to get the kids to do their homework.

Perhaps my grey mood is because I am thinking of THIS and THIS these days (February was the due date...not that I should be harping...I know I shouldn't be harping).

Is it wrong to blame January?...because it feels so right...

P.D. Day Activities

This Friday is a p.d. day (which some of us realized just yesterday).  For working parents p.d. days are a bit of a crunch because child care (the paid or unpaid kind) needs to be sourced out.

If a parent is at home (or choses to be at home) that day we've come up with a few activities to enjoy:

• Grocery shopping for lunch (not your whole week's grocery shopping - just for lunch - give kids a list [give pre-readers pictures] of what to buy for lunch.  It can be a fun activity of giving your kids the opportunity to find and seek healthy foods.
• Indoor playplace (actually should be last on the list because they get so busy on p.d. days - but the kids like them)
• Movie date (what is more of a treat than having a friend come over, eat popcorn and watch a movie...in the middle of the day?!)
• Skating (public skating rinks = FREE)

Please share your favourite p.d. day activities in the comments...(we LOVE coments and we love activity ideas!...)

Flip Winner video to Parent Club

Field Trips: Discuss

Field trips:  Good? Bad? Discuss amongst yourselves (or comment below - because comments make our day - really comments and chocolate.

Recently, I received 2 field trip forms...one for Thing 1 and one for Thing 2...here is the killer -->same field trip!  Now, anyone who has gone on a field trip knows you sign up to go with ONE respective class.  Here was my quandry:  whose class do I accompany?  (complete lose/lose situation there - if I go with one child - the other child will be upset and vice versa - isn't parenthood grand?)

I have a theory about field trips - they were the reason happy hour was invented (and invented by June Cleaver).  I bet June cracked out a martini, while making roast beef on a Wednesday night, because she spent all day at Beaver's field trip.  It's a theory.

I have gone on more than one field trip.  The positive is that you spend time with your child.  You also get a look into the class life.  Child's friends & frenemies.  Teacher organizational skills.  What the other kids get in their lunchboxes (my 1st kindergarten field trip: a kid had a can of coke, a baloney sandwich and a dunkaroo...despite my nudges...the sandwich was the only thing not eaten).

The negative of a field trip is that you are on a field trip.  A day off paid work.  Noisy school (or TTC) buses.  Sketchy-clean-factors of public bathrooms.  The responsibility of 4 or more kids on public transportation/in public spaces (that's 4 or more uber-excited-on-a-field-trip kids who are probably not on best behaviour).

I'm putting it out to the Club - what do you think about field trips (make my day and comment).

*re. my field trip quandry - Thing 1's teacher chose two other parents so I'm off the hook, available for the other class.

Parent Club Giveaway: WIN "E is for Ethics"

"E is for Ethics" is a new title from new title from Simon & Schuster Canada, by Ian James Corlett, an award-winning children's TV writer, who was inspired to write this book as he and his wife grappled with how to instill core morals and ethics in their two young children.


Armed with years of children's television experience, a seasoned knowledge of how children and parents interact, and a knack for lively storytelling, Corlett offers an inventive, whimsical book to help parents navigate important issues of ethics and morality that all kids are sure to enjoy as they learn.


Simon & Schuster Canada wants to give 5 lucky Parent Club readers a copy of "E is for Ethics".

The Giveaway:WIN one of 5 copies of "E is for Ethics" by Ian James Corlett

To Enter:

Leave a comment to this post naming a ethic or moral you are teaching your kids and share how you are doing that

Rules (because life has rules)

* you can comment once per day
* Tweet the contest once per day: @ParentClub using the #Simon&SchusterCanada hashtag (comment that you did so) = an additional entry
* Blog about this giveaway once with a link back to Parent Club (comment that you did so) = an additional entry

* Giveaway only open to Canadian residents.

* Giveaway runs until January 30th.(*winner will be randomly drawn)

Haiti hits close to home base

Read my Today's Parent post about how Haiti hits close to home base.

If you want to learn more about Haiti - or donate - please visit these web resources:

Canadian Red Cross

World Vision Canada

Médecins Sans Frontières - Doctors without Borders Canada

If you are trying to contact a family member in Haiti - call the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade emergency operation centre at 1-800-387-3124, or inquire by email at sos@international.gc.ca for their help.

Just listen the 1st time

Last night, as I was making dinner - my prince decided to start playing guitar.  At the kitchen table.  Then gave guitar to Thing 1 to practice.  At the kitchen table.
(the kitchen table is our eating place, homework nook, craft area, reading corner and all around bowling alley).

My prince then started to dust-bust the various and sundry specs of dust/hair/snack crumbles on the floor.  I plated dinner.  Then put dinner on the table. 

(1) "dinner's on the table" said I gently (and stating the obvious)

Still guitar and vacuuming.

(2) "Dinner is on the table"

Still guitar and vacuuming.

(3) "DINNER is on the table"

Still guitar and vacuuming.

(4) "DINNER IS ON THE TABLE"

Still guitar and vacuuming.

(5) "DINNER. IS. ON. THE. TABLE!"

(and I would like to note to my mother, children's services and the spirit of Michael Jackson that I resisted the great urge to swear)

Perhaps the obvious of me making dinner, setting the table, plating dinner and serving it was not so obvious...perhaps one of my superpowers is invisibility and I just hadn't realized it before.  I am SO using my invisibility the next time I hear "there's no more underwear in my drawer!!!"

People - if I have to invite you to the table 5 times again...dinner will be self-serve...out of the garbage can.

Today's Parent Post

Read my post on how "I broke up with my gym" over at Today's Parent...

Dear Gym: I'm just not that into you anymore...

Accomplishments

Funny how something like clearing out your spam folder makes one feel powerful and accomplished (just did this morning!).  Same thing goes for cleaning out the kitchen cupboards (which I did this past weekend - and not-so-funny - found some pickled beets - good ghandi!? in what YEAR did I make pickled beets?!).

I am one that gets all flustered at a barrista counter..."um...can I have a small...no make that a medium...um...tea...oh, regular tea...sugar please...um double sugar...milk too...oh, um...triple milk?" I am well know for making simple decisions very complex.

Which is why - simple accomplishments thrill me.  Like tossing the beets.  I also gave up seeing New Moon* with my bud bc of THIS (which started off the massive accomplish frenzy this weekend - ironic THIS was dated around the same time last year). 

Spam folder = empty.  Kitchen cupboards =  purged.  Laundry = beast in progress.

*I gave up seeing New Moon because of the invasion visit of the extended family over the holidays, and now again this past weekend...dear magical creatures and deities alike - don't I deserve a little Team Edward after all this?!

What's S'new since last

Forgive my pause in Parent Club over the holidays...it was I call could do to post the Visa Gift Card winner, the Flip in the Family episodes and moderate the, loverly, 211 comments to the Flip Camcorder giveaway (every comment brought a smile to my face!).

Above and beyond the school break and usual holiday excitement - we had to find sleeping nooks for 14 people in my house.  That's a whole lot of corners to clear!  Yes, my prince's entire extended family decided to visit - CANADA - this year.  We had 6 kids under the age of 13.  My in-laws dressed in +5 layers of clothing.  We spent a lot of time hearing about the religion of expresso and why North American coffee is disgusting.

I was tempted to send up the bat signal a few times (though I wonder if batman, the laundry fairy or any other magical creature could have really, really, helped).  Being a fairly anglosaxon type of person...I am not used to having a latin family around...all...the...time. 

How ironic the night they all left...Thing 2 projectile vomited 4 times in the course of 2 hours.  (Didn't Alanis Morrisette write a song about irony?! I think she forgot to include projectile vomit).

However, getting back to routine.  Read my guest post on wondermoms.ca "New Year, New Leaf" about how "This year, instead of making resolutions – become resolute – in celebrating the good."