Parent Club Calendar

• Beaches International Jazz Festival
  
• Purina Pro-Plan Dog Stars at Ontario Place
  
• Visit a pick your own farm (fruits & veggies people NOT noses)
  
• Just for Laughs Festival at Yonge Dundas Square - Saturday Night - FREE

Or you could;

play a board game on the porch

pack a pique nique and go to a beach or park

walk a city trail

VOTE

invite friends over for a family Q (bar b Q - that is)

Learning a Sense of Urgency

Why are children not born with a sense of urgency?! We need to go. Put down the toy. Seriously - walk AWAY from the toy. We have to go. Any kid under the age of 12 just doesn't get this.

I don't want those shoes. Where's my other hat? I'm hungry. Makes me just want to scoop up those darlings; Thing 1 and Thing 2, like when they were infants in car seats. I didn't know the bliss I had when they were immobile and non-communicative.

It could take hours just to get from front hall to the front door itself. Somehow, the steps between inside and outside are intertwined with a deep black hole - which just sucks time and energy out of you and the situation.

Ever gotten into the car, and realize you are 10 minutes late for that play date?! It was the black hole just inside your front door. SUUUUUCK. There you go - you will be 10 minutes behind everything for the rest of the day.

Back to the sense of urgency. Those sucked 10 minutes of your day -- 10 little minutes - will throw off nap times and snack times, get you stuck in traffic, make you late instead of early for appointments with doctors that overbook, make the grocery store errand just a bit longer because now the choice is to eat well and then rush to Karate -- or drive to Karate but eat crap later.

All due to the fact that the children just didn't understand the sense of urgency TO GO NOW.

Perhaps, someone should take me for a coffee and tell me that I should relax about my parenting style. I'd like that. You - do - know I'll be 10 minutes late though right?!...

Vote for me -- pah-leez!!!

EVER LEARNING By Caroline Fernandez has been entered in the momcafé Summer Writing Contest.

At stake is 15 minutes of fame and $500 shopping spree at Please Mum!. (In contrast to the blogger awards vote for which I only get the fame).

Pah-leez...click on the link and vote for me. As a writer, I never really know if anyone - anyone - reads my rants...this would be a nice way to show the love.

Ever Learning
Category: Mom-moments
Author: Caroline Fernandez

Parent Club Product Test: Oliebollen.com

The Parent Club test panel was quick to participate in a product test from Oliebollen.com. First off, this U.S. website is simple yet very parent friendly. Buttons are organized for quick clicking in mind; gift ideas, classic books, top brands and more. Perfect for shopping during nap time.

Parent Club reviewed two items from the Oliebollen.com website - from Green Toys; this toy manufacturer creates classic toys from 100% recycled plastic milk jugs. Green Toys products are non-toxic, save energy, reduce landfill waste and lower greenhouse gas emissions. Big plus, they are all BPA-FREE.

Green Toys - Recycled Plastic Sand Play Set contains a shovel, rake, sand castle mold and bucket. Parents liked that the play set was; "...sturdy and solid. It's a set that can be shared between my kids and then passed on to friends." Parents also agreed that the set had nice texture for sensory development.

Kids liked the fact "The bucket can hold lots of rocks from the beach". They also agreed with the child who said; "...we can do lots of fun things like build castles."

Green Toys - Recycled Plastic Tea Set contains 17 pieces. (Note; The image is of the deluxe dining set) Parents appreciated the assurance that there was no phthaltes, BPA or lead. "This inspires me to actually do real tea parties" said one parent.

Out of 9 kid testers (whose ages ranged from 3 to 9 years old); the tea set got 9 big thumbs up. "I like the colours" said many of the children. When the topic of the recycled plastic came up; many of the older kids agreed with the child who said..."...it's good for the environment to recycle. This is a good toy."

From the result of this test, Parent Club highly recommends the toys & gear at Oliebollen.com . This is a company that inspires creativity, development and play through dependable products.

Follow-up on FREE AVENT cups

You may be wondering whatever happened to the FREE sippy cups from Avent.

(If you were reading Parent Club in May/June of this year; you would have know about this great family deal).

We followed up with Avent and found out that due to the overwhelming demand - the BPA-Free cups were being mailed out in two orders. One of the bulk mailings was sent at the end of June and the other was sent in early July. If you have not yet received your cups - but you did sign up when you read it here on Parent Club - then your order will be sent in the July shipment.

This offer is now closed. For more information from Avent and their BPA-Free bottles (coming to retailers this summer) go to Avent.com.