playdate

Teens and Gun Violence

Last week, a grade nine student was killed in a Toronto high school, the first shooting death in a Toronto school.  According to some reports, the shooting was the end result of a dispute that started with a roman candle fight followed by a fist fight.  (According to another report, the shooting was an accident while the boys played with the gun in the bathroom.)  Two teens, also students at the school, have been arrested and charged with first degree murder in the case.

Handling The Baby Shortage

In what is a slight departure from the trend around here, today's article comes not from a Toronto-based newspaper, but instead from Macleans, a national Canadian publication (which in fact is published out of Toronto).  The subject comes from the May 28, 2007 issue's cover story, and discusses Canada's baby deficit in great detail, as well as looking at how other western countries are battling the same problem.

Fail is not a four-letter word.

In my second year of theatre school, our voice teacher got a request from Stratford to send students from the school out to their auditions for The Music Man.  They were auditioning for the chorus of school-aged children who would have no speaking role, but would have to sing and dance.  The voice teacher, who was not my biggest fan, quietly went 'round and told some of her favourite students about the auditions and suggested that they try out. 

Year Round Schooling

During a recent commute into work one morning, I heard a discussion about one Toronto District School Board (TDSB) trustee who proposed a year-round school program.  I did some online research and could only find one columnist who talked about the proposal.

Games aren't just for rainy days

If you're anything like me, there comes a point when playing with your children that you (and they!) are bored with all the usual games and activities, but you just can't think of something new and exciting to do.  For me, this usually happens in the winter.  When summer comes, we just head out to the park or the water for a change of scene.  Sometimes, though, even the park doesn't seem all the enticing.  If that happens to you, why not try out some theatre games?  It occurred to me in the wee hours of this morning (when I was unfortunately still awake) that many of the games that actors play to get the creative juices going could easily be done by small children.  All you have to do is adjust the difficulty level to their abilities:

Freezing The Biological Clock

A Toronto clinic is offering an egg freezing service for women who are biologically ready to have children but would prefer to delay having a family for later in life.  The premise of the service is that a woman is more fertile when she is younger, so freezing eggs as a young woman is an alternative to seeking an egg donor later in life.

Tony de Luca

Chef Tony de Luca is a respected cookbook author as well as founding chef at Hillebrand Restaurant.
His new restaurant is located in the old town of Niagara-on-the-Lake in the Oban Inn.

So when Santa left me a $200 gift certificate in my stocking this past Christmas for dinner there, I was really looking forward to it.

Not only would I get the chance to dine somewhere new, but even better, it wouldn't cost a penny.

I spend a fair bit of time in Niagara On The Lake, and over the years  I've enjoyed many a pint at the old Oban Inn before it was redone and turned into what it is today.

A is for Adoption, C is for China: Part II in a Series

Foreign adoption, which used to be a rare niche in the world of adoption, has now become more common and a better-known practice. Because not much had been written about the experience prior to the late 1990s, we are in the last ten years seeing a number of books written by parents who have adopted from overseas themselves (marked with an *) and now want to address the topic for their children and for other families.

Many countries are home to children who need families, and adoptions from Eastern Europe, Africa, South America, and Eastern Asia are becoming more prevalent, particularly as celebrities open their homes to children from around the world. China, in particular, has seen a large number of its baby girls leave its own borders, while Korea has also had a relatively high rate of foreign adoptions. This translates into stories readily available about adopting from these countries, so today we shine a spotlight on a few of these.

Mommy Blog Marketing

A recent article in The National Post had a discussion about mommy-bloggers, and how they represent a coveted marketing demographic.  The article went on to discuss how companies are using (and trying to use) the community nature of blogging to market their products.  It was a very interesting read.

Play = Learning

This is the hardest post I've ever had to write.  Ugh, now I feel like The Bachelor at a rose ceremony...Let me start by saying that I am deeply committed to idea that children learn best through play.  This is an issue I plan to explore in more detail in later posts.  Technically, it's not off topic for Mama Drama:  play not only forms the basis for creative thinking, but also for drama itself.