Parent Club Calendar

Say goodbye to the school bus (or hello if your kids are camp-ready). Here's what's on for this first weekend of school holidays...

• Chin Picnic, Better Living Centre - Exhibition Place
  
• CanStage TD Dream in High Park - A Midsummer Night's Dream, Open-Air Theatre in High Park
  
• The Pied Piper, Solar Stage Theatre
  
• Canada Dry Festival of Fire: South Asian Day, Ontario Place
  
• Coca-Cola ® Fun Day, Toronto Zoo
  Bring in a product label* from any Coca-Cola ® product (including Fanta,® Minute Maid,® Fruitopia,® Five Alive,® Dasani® and Powerade®) and receive ONE FREE Child's admission (up to 12 years of age). Cans are not accepted!
  
• Fire! Summer SUNday, Kensington Market

TD Summer Reading Club

This year’s TD Summer Reading Club theme, LOL (Laugh Out Loud) is designed to encourage the enjoyment of reading amongst children. All participants receive a FREE reading kit containing a colour poster, sticker sheet, and a logbook to keep track of their progress. To encourage participation, many local libraries will offer reading games, challenges and discussions, book-related crafts, author visits and storytelling sessions.

This is the 13th year TD has partnered with the Toronto Public Library to bring the reading club to children. TD has pledged $2.7 million investment to continue the program into 2011. In fact, the reading club is offered by libraries across the country - not only Toronto.

The program is available in English and French; a great incentive to continue language education outside of the classroom. The program is targeted to kids 4-12 years of age.

What kinds of books are age appropriate? Look at Oprah's Kids Reading List, the 2007 Governor General's finalists for children's literature or check out chapters.indigo

LeapFrog Literacy Campaign

A report by the Canadian Council on Learning states that; during the summer students typically lose on average the equivalent of one month of instruction. Wow.

LeapFrog Canada has launched a 1 Million Reading Hours literacy program to support children's literacy. "Reading just a few minutes a day can go a long way to building a child's enthusiasm for learning" says LeapFrog Canada General Manager Gord Terry. The premise of 1 million reading hours is for you to set aside 15 minutes a day - for 30 days - to read with your child.

It is valuable to note that, at the LeapFrog 1 Million Reading Hours literacy campaign kick off at the Bay/Bloor Indigo, young readers were the main audience - not the media. The children, accompanied by their teachers, enjoyed a field trip of snacks, singing and story books. Each child was provided a book, to follow the story, being asked to turn pages, look for objects and find words on the pages.

Every one of the children present were given a Tag Reading System by LeapFrog to take home. The kids smiled and cheered.

Find your 15 minutes of reading time this summer.

There should be nothing "poison" at school!

Do you remember, last week, I wrote about Thing 2's itchy burning mystery rash?...The point of origin is poison ivy and poison oak growing on the school grounds (insert surprise/horror here). The above picture is what a mild reaction looks like - multiple this by 10; move the rash to a child's face and you have an idea of the reaction of Thing 2.

Apparently, it is growing around the fence in the school yard. SOME staff know that there are poisonous plants on the grounds - and they have told SOME the kids not to play there.

The Weed Control Act of Toronto states any owner of land (be it a home, work - or yes, school) must destroy noxious weeds and if they fail to comply - the City will go in and remove the plants - at the offenders cost. btw - the number to post a complaint is 416 338 0711 - yes, I complained.

Wait, more outrage coming! Another child has also had a severe reaction to the plants. And one other had a reaction last year. The school has never sent out any information of the existence of these plants to the parents. Amazing, they send out many memos about head lice and requesting volunteers for field trips but nary one piece of literature that my child is exposed - 3 times a day - to poisonous plants.

Kids should be safe at school. Period.

Parent Club Blog Roll

Scroll down the left side bar and you will find a new tile - for mom ads exchange. Everyday,at this spot on Parent Club, you will see a new tile for another mom blog. No, none of us make $$ off of it - it's a traffic exchange - swapping readers if you will.

Somewhere, out there, the Parent Club tile is popping up on someone's blog today and will be somewhere else tomorrow. (hmmm, much like the rash covering Thing 2s body - pops up somewhere new every few hours). Well, the blog tile exchange inspired me to share with the Club some of the blogs I read often.

On the top of my list is Gone West - For Love and Money. Not a parent blog; but the blog that inspired me to launch Parent Club. This guy left the centre of the universe (Toronto) for a girl and a job. Plus, he added the Google analytics code to the Parent Club html. He got the girl, the job, and my gratitude.

Bargainista is a good spot to get the latest on sales. Though I'm not much of a style maven, this blog is straight to the point and well written.

Don Mills Diva is by far my favourite mom blog (other than Parent Club of course). Her blogging is funny and thoughtful. She's just started Don Mills Diva Recipes and Reviews which looks very interesting.

I knew I found a good read when I stumbled on Get in The Car!. On the top of the sidebar is says; "please click on an ad...it pays for Jen's birth control". 'nuf said!