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Bill Bowerbird is my favourite new picture book

Giveaway closed. This post is also a giveaway! Enter to win a copy of Bill Bowerbird and the Unbearable Beak-Ache.

Bill Bowerbird And The Unbearable Beak-Ache

Bill Bowerbird and the Unbearable Beak-Ache is a delightfully fun and quirky picture book with vibrant, playful illustrations and rhyming story that your kids will want to hear over and over again. Male bowerbirds build elaborate structures in nature to by collecting colourful scraps and tidbits that will attract female attention. So when Bill Bowerbird wakes up with a beak-ache he sets out to visit friends and collect items that might help him feel better. Toronto-based artist Tyler Clark Burke’s talent is on bold display here with bright and colourful zebras, frogs, yaks and other animal friends that children love to look at.

But the best news is that Tyler and her team have come up with THE MOST FUN BOOK LAUNCH EVER! And you’re all invited!

It’s a scavenger hunt with clues released at noon via social media. After you and your kids have finished the hunt, you can head to Indigo at Yonge and Eglinton for even more fun. Here’s the event’s Facebook page and the deets are below:

Saturday, May 27th • Indigo Yonge & Eglinton
Clues released 12 pm • In-store event:  12:30 – 2:30 pm

Bowerbirds love to collect colourful items for their nests. Celebrate the release of Bill Bowerbird and the Unbearable Beak-Ache by finding 10 objects with your family. The list of objects will be released at 12 pm (details on reverse). Once you’ve collected them, make your way to Indigo Yonge & Eglinton to meet the author, win prizes, and more!

All you need is a phone or camera that records video,
a bag, and the clues!  Prizes for everyone!

Follow @Owlkids on Twitter, or download the GooseChase app for details!

Clues released at 12 pm on May 27th!

AND, AND, AND!

Flash contest! I’m also giving away a copy of Bill Bowerbird and the Unbearable Beak-Ache. To enter please leave a comment and tweet about the scavenger hunt for an extra entry. This giveaway ends Saturday night, so enter now.

Bill Bowerbird And The Unbearable Beak-Ache

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Visit the ROM for the Holidays

Giveaway closed. This post is also a giveaway! Enter to win a family membership to the ROM.

Families visit the ROM.

The kids are off school for a full two weeks after Christmas this year and you will be wanting something to do. Don’t worry, the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto has got us covered. This year they have put together 14 days of programming for families to enjoy throughout the winter break.

From Monday, December 26th to Sunday, January 8, the ROM will become a winter wonderland, displaying glowing lights, festive traditions, exclusive galleries, and the last chance to visit the breathtaking glass sculptures of the CHIHULY exhibit. Other highlights include inflatable balloon sculptures, touchable objects like volcanic glass or a polar bear skull, a musical show with Sonshine and Broccoli, and decorating a holiday tree. The museum is also open for extended hours; 10 to 7 most days (10 to 5:30 on Dec. 31 and Jan. 8).

And know that if you have young kids and live in Toronto, a family membership to the ROM is a veritable lifeline. How wonderful to have a warm and enriching place to escape from the cold or duck into for a couple hours on a rainy afternoon. The ROM has a great hands-on kids area as well as, you know, a large display of dinosaur bones and actual Egyptian mummies. ROM Members get express entry and unlimited free access to exhibitions and galleries, attend exclusive previews, enjoy members-only discounts, plus much more. Now is the time to pounce on this for yourself or as a gift. Until December 31, save $20 on a Family/Dual Membership for up to two named adults and four kids under 17. Visit rom.on.ca/membership and enter the promo code HOLIDAY.

Giveaway closed. Enter below for a chance to win (1) ROM Family Membership that is valid for one year.

Playground Confidential ROM Family Membership giveaway

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Not going to lie, I once thought mat leave would be a “meternity” leave, too

Giveaway alert! (I have a copy of the novel to raffle off at the bottom of the post.)

It’s true. In the years before I got pregnant I would often fantasize about having a baby, taking a maternity leave, and finally having enough time and head space to pursue my dreams.

I know.

Of course, I wasn’t climbing the corporate career ladder, either. I was working as a bartender and trying to find writing work on my off days. And since mat leave in Canada pays about half of your salary (up until a set maximum), we wouldn’t be able to make ends meet on half of my server’s wages (since tips don’t count toward mat leave income). So, first I would need to find a new job, then get pregnant, then go on mat leave, and then I would have a whole year to figure things out.

I remember a bar regular warning me that maternity leave probably wasn’t the bastion of creative and financial freedom I seemed to think it was, but I wasn’t about to take life advice from someone who clocked more hours at my bar than I did.

I know!

So when I first read that New York Post article about Meghann Foye’s new novel, Meternity, in which a childless career woman decides to fake a pregnancy just for the mat leave, I didn’t roll my eyes quite as hard as the rest of you. Foye says that when she worked as an editor at women’s magazines she would see colleagues take maternity leaves and seem to come back with a renewed sense of direction. She also complained about working long hours while colleagues left to make daycare pick up and got work-from-home days to accommodate sick kids and doctor’s appointments. (She probably didn’t see those same colleagues clocking another hour or two on their laptops after the kids went to bed, but all right.)

She said, hey, if moms get to take some “personal” time off, shouldn’t everybody be entitled to that? And it is true that many professions do offer people the chance to structure their pay to allow for a year off (or a sabbatical, if you will), so the idea isn’t entirely off-the-wall.

But let’s look at this mat leave comparison a little harder.

I’m going to take a step back and squint real hard … and nope. Like, I understand where she’s coming from, but still no. Here’s what it’s really like.

Meternity dream break from work

Image credit.

The mat leave dream: A much-needed break from the unrelenting and exhausting demands of your job.

The mat leave reality: You actually learn the meaning of the word unrelenting. Holy crap, your job never woke you up every two hours all night long and sucked your nipples raw. You start fantasizing about returning to work so you might one day be able to enjoy a coffee while it’s still hot while at the same time sobbing because now you are financially responsible for this little creature and now you really see what it’s going to be like to be trapped in a job you hate.

Meternity dream flex schedules

Image credit.

The mat leave dream: Have a kid and then reap the rewards of those sweet, sweet flex schedules.

The mat leave reality: “Flex time” is actually code for “you will never be free from work again.” Sure, you “get to” leave work and fight against rush hour to pick up your kids from daycare before rushing home to cook a meal that will be picked over and discarded and then spend another hour fighting/begging/pleading/singing/crying them to sleep before you sit down at the computer at 9pm to make up for the work you left undone. Yes, you are able to hop onto conference calls from home while deftly catching your child’s vomit in a bowl at the same time. It’s certainly a privilege to never be able to leave your work behind while simultaneously earning the disdain of all your colleagues.

Meternity dream new direction

Image credit.

The mat leave dream: Those months off will help you remember what your priorities are and give you the breathing space needed to go after your dreams.

The mat leave reality: You will lose all sense of self as you give yourself over entirely to keeping a helpless little baby alive and well. In fact, you’re on the verge of a full-blown identity crisis: you won’t fit into any of your clothes, you’ll pretty much need to make all new friends (unless your bestie also just happened to have a baby), and spontaneous getaways will become a thing of the past. When it takes over an hour to get out the door to go grocery shopping, ideas like “breathing space” and “dreams” start to sound like punchlines. Oh, and that mom you know who decided to go into business for herself was actually just trying to figure out how to avoid the astronomical costs of childcare, but now works around the clock, is barely keeping afloat, and second-guesses her decision every single day.

meternity dream me time

Image credit.

The mat leave dream: You finally get to put your own needs first and enjoy your life.

The mat leave reality: You love your children to bits and pieces, but spending all your waking moments cooking, cleaning and wiping butts is hardly what you call a “lifestyle choice.” It’s a trade off and a bloody steep one at that. There are moments of pure joy when your baby smiles for the first time or when he snuggles happily up against your chest and your heart is so filled with love that you think it might burst. Then again, you haven’t slept for weeks, so you’re probably just delusional.

But hot damn does that dream STILL sound good to me. I’m totally in favour of a “meternity” leave for everyone; especially moms who are just coming off mat leave! They’ll need it the most. In the meantime, a book about a woman who fakes a pregnancy just to take the mat leave sounds like a pretty good escape from my own reality.

Giveaway! Giveaway! Giveaway!

The good people at Mira have offered a free copy of Meghann Foye’s new novel, Meternity, to one lucky winner. Let me know what you would do with your own “meternity” leave in the comments and I’ll draw a random winner next Wednesday, May 11 at midnight.

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Ooka Island was the difference for us

Thanks to Ooka Island for being the perfect sponsor for this blog. (Psst. This post is a GIVEAWAY, too!)

Reading with Ooka Island

“It’s crazy, Mom! Every time I look at a word, I just automatically read it.”

Oh, how my heart soared when she said that.

For many kids, that kind of instant word recognition clicks into place on it’s own sometime around age five or six. They look at signs, book titles, or magazine headlines, and basic words start to pop out at them. It almost feels like they’ve simply figured out how to read all on their own.

But for my middle child, this is something that we have been working on for a very long time. Reading has been a puzzle for her. By time she began grade two this year, it was one she could often solve through sheer determination and perseverance;  slowly sounding out syllables and using pictures and the context of a story to help her decode the letters. She was improving, but it was painstaking hard work and I was afraid she was being put off reading altogether.

So I jumped at the opportunity to work on a campaign with the Canadian reading app, Ooka Island. Both my seven-year-old and four-year-old daughters started to play on separate accounts that automatically adjust to their learning levels. Right away, as I wrote about in this post, I was thrilled by how engaged in reading both girls were when they opened Ooka Island. You can also read all about the decades of research and experience that have gone into developing the educational platform for Ooka Island here. It is not just another video game dressed up as a learning tool to sell more copies. Ooka Island is the real deal.

After three months of engaging with the app a couple times a week, both my daughters have grown into stronger readers. My four-year-old is able to pick out sight words on a page and pair basic sounds with their letters. She is also starting French Immersion this year, so it’s amazing to see how she is able to process the English and French letters and sounds fairly seamlessly. She also cannot get enough of Ooka Island and I look forward to seeing much she learns at the end of a year.

My seven-year-old has truly had a breakthrough, though. I can feel it. Words are leaping out at her. She can read simple sentences with ease, and I’ve even caught her reading simple books all on her own for pleasure! We haven’t been playing Ooka Island in a vacuum, of course. She has been attending school and reading with me and her dad at the same time. We take reading seriously in this home, and we have been working very hard on reading for a very long time. But I absolutely credit Ooka Island with making learning fun for her and effectively building a stronger foundation for her literacy. I think it has given her exactly the push she needed.

At seven, she is starting to be less excited by the Ooka Island program than her little sister, but she still loves the stories and books she has unlocked. I was especially excited to learn you can order paper editions of the Ooka Island stories, and my daughter loves that she can sit down and read those all on her own.

This is my final blog post about our experience with Ooka Island, but it will definitely remain part of our life.

If you have emerging readers on your shopping list this year, an Ooka Island gift subscription will truly be the gift that keeps on giving.

Gift Ooka Island

And as my gift to you, I have TWO one-year gift subscriptions to give away to readers. This is seriously an amazing gift for children ages four to seven who are still developing their reading confidence. Simply leave a comment telling me who you want to give your Ooka subscription to.

I will draw the two winners at midnight on Wednesday, December 16.

 

This is the last post in a three-part series sponsored by Ooka Island. I wrote about why reading is so important the first post, and what sets Ooka Island apart in the second.

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Sleeping Beauty on Ice at the Sony Centre: GIVEAWAY

SBOI3_Small

*Contest closed.*

Sleeping Beauty on Ice is coming to Toronto’s Sony Centre with a limited run of only three shows the weekend of November 20 to 21.  This performance by the Imperial Ice Stars is set to Tchaikovsky and promises to be a breathtaking evening of ice dancing, acrobatics, aerial gymnastics and stunt skating.

BUT ONE LUCKY READER can win a prize pack of four tickets to the Friday night (7:30pm) performance. Enter by leaving any comment below (and make sure you leave your email address). I will do a random draw for a winner on Wednesday, November 18 at midnight.

Contest closed: Congrats to Chantal for winning!

 

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Holiday magic is passed down from one childhood to another so let’s try to do this right

A heartfelt thanks to Sears Canada for sponsoring this holiday post.

When I was a kid, we’d lay out our Christmas stockings on the back of the living room couch because we didn’t have a fireplace. We’d put out milk and cookies for Santa (but never a carrot for the reindeer!). Then my parents would tuck us into bed where I lay trembling with anticipation, sure that I’d be lying there awake all night long.

Of course, I would fall asleep eventually only to spring out of bed at the crack of dawn. My siblings and I would rush into the living room to see what Santa brought and then go bounding down the hall into my parents room to wake them up too.

“Mommy! Daddy! Santa brought me a She-Ra doll. Can you believe it?!”

My parents would stagger out of bed, bleary-eyed, and put on the kettle for tea as we pored over the contents of our stockings.

Santa’s presents were never wrapped in our home. They were laid out in front of our stockings, the sheer number of them already making an impression on me from across the room. Santa’s magic must have been real because there was no way my parents could ever afford to buy so many toys.

Finally, we’d settle in and take turns opening the wrapped gifts under the tree. Those were from my parents, grandparents and assorted other relatives. Eventually we started to wrap gifts for one another, too.

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One true story and five reasons I’m addicted to the new LGG3 (plus giveaway!)

You can thank LG Canada and Mom Central Canada for this post, the giveaway and all the selfies I’m suddenly posting all over the place.

True story: when my son was born in 2006 I didn’t even have Facebook. Twitter was barely a thing and Instagram was yet a glint in some guy’s eye. I’d never heard of WordPress, I used a flip phone and I had to upload pictures from my digital camera to my computer using an actual cord.

At the same time, this was the golden age of blogging. New moms would cope with bitter isolation and anxiety by logging onto their computers late at night, during naps, while baby wearing or whenever they could. Some started their own blogs as outlets for raw and honest feelings and opinions. Others left comments, creating a new online community for moms. Still others of us, logged on day after to day just to read and to know that we were not alone.

There will always be a place for honest and timely long-form expression of our experiences — especially those of motherhood. But, to a large extent, social media and mobile technology have changed the way we connect. I love to wax nostalgic about the good old days when blogging was honest and real, before it became tainted with corporate greed and littered with sponsored posts. *Cough, cough.* I also talk about the dangers of tech taking over our lives. I worry about the lasting impact it has on my kids and how it affects our real one-on-one connections.
But, honestly? Mobile tech is more good than bad. That’s why we all have a phone fused to our hand, after all. Blogging was wonderful when I had my first two kids, but catching up with Twitter on my phone while nursing my third to sleep was a game changer. Ultimately, phones connect way more than they isolate. They make it possible for me to answer business emails while taking my kids to the park. They help keep track of a busy family’s schedule and they let me share pictures with all the important people in my life at the click of button.
And the better the tech gets, the less invasive it it. Snapping a couple quick pics with your phone is much easier than fumbling around in your bag for a camera. Quickly replying to an email from a park bench is way better than taking out your laptop. And we can put them away just as fast as whip them out. We have our phones out so much, not because we’re addicted to our phones, but because they are our cameras, day planners, computers, TVs, libraries, personal trainers, notepads and so much more.
Okay, fine. I MAY be a little bit addicted to this latest phone. The LG G3 is really blowing my mind. I didn’t even think I wanted a new phone until I tried this baby.
1. It’s so pretty.
LGG3 with case
Looks aren’t everything but good design is both stylish and functional and this phone delivers on both fronts. Love the rear power and volume buttons, the super high-res screen and the removable battery.

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Stuff I’m Digging: Seventh Generation (Giveaway)

Stuff I'm digging Seventh Generation

 Image source: SeventhGeneration.com

I’m not an eco-nut by any stretch. I live in a world constrained by budgets and time and the fragile limits of my sanity. So I do use paper plates for kiddie birthday parties and disposable plastic freezer bags, and I don’t make my own soap.

The good news is that I don’t have to make my own soap to do the right thing by mother nature. Seventh Generation makes plant-based, environmentally responsible cleaning products that are free from toxins and safe for your family. They’re the real deal, guys. You can trust these products.

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School’s out. Let’s go to the movies. (Mega giveaway)

Words and Pictures giveaway

I wanted to celebrate the end of the school year with a big movie night at my house. Everybody can come over and we’ll have a huge pajama party. Pizza, popcorn, prosecco and Mean Girls  on repeat. Whaddya say?

On second thought, that sounds like a lot of work.

New plan! I’ll just give out all kinds of free passes to an early screening of a brand new rom-com that’s happening in your very own city. Words and Pictures stars Clive Owen and Juliette Binoche as two quirky high school teachers (one’s a writer, the other’s an artist — get it?) who are pitted against each other in a school-wide war. I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess they end up falling for each other. Here’s the trailer:

Screenings are happening on Wednesday, June 25 at 7:00pm in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax. I have two double passes for each city to give away. If you want one, just leave the name of your city in a comment and I’ll email your pass. (Make sure you leave an email address too.) First come, first serve.

Aaaand GO!

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Win advanced screening tickets to Disneynature’s Bears

Bears is the latest feature-length film put out by Disneynature. Set in Alaska, it’s the story of two mother brown bears and their cubs. I’m pretty sure this is as close to a bear as I’m ever likely to get and know my kids will love it. We’re really looking forward to it.

Bears opens in theatres on Earth Day, April 18.

But you can win a family pass (4 tickets) and join me at the advanced screening this Saturday, April 12 at 10am at SilverCity Yorkdale in Toronto. Contest closes Wed. April 10, at 11:59pm.

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