They strive to provide a well-rounded music education, which not only includes instruction on an instrument, but also rhythm, movement, singing, theory and history.  It is their goal to build a foundation of musical knowledge and vocabulary that will provide the basis for a lifetime of musical enjoyment.

They believe that music is a universal form of communication, and that the joy of making music should be shared.  Their programs are family oriented, and their students are given opportunities to share what they have learned in a nurturing, non-competitive environment.

Their curriculum is carefully chosen and developed to be age appropriate and to  foster all aspects of the well-rounded musician.  They encourage students to set goals and to take their RCM certificates.

It is never too early or too late to set foot on the path of musical discovery.  Their programs can accommodate students of all ages, from 8 months to 80 years.  They especially encourage parents, grandparents and caregivers to come learn along side the kids.

For the past 10 years, Do Re Mi for Kids has been providing a safe, cheerful, encouraging learning environment where the hard work of learning music can be a joyful experience for everyone.  Come join them for the fun, but stay for the education.

Crafts for Kids: Unicorn Sock Puppets

What you need:

Some old socks

Pipe cleaner of various colors

Googley eyes

Yarn

Scissors

White glue

Anything to decorate (we used sequins, but sparkles, markers and paints work just as well!)

Step One:  Gather all the materials you plan to use

Step Two:  Cut two small holes ont he top of the sock puppet’s head and stick any variety of twisted pipe cleaners through it.  Bring the two ends together and lightly twist them leaving a ring-like space at the bottom, inside the puppet’s head.  Your child will slip their middle finger through this to keep the unicorn’s horn upright.

Step Three:  put the yarn through the same hole to create a mane!

Step Four:  Glue on eyes, nose and decorations!  Be creative!

Step Five:  Put on a fabulous unicorn puppet show with your kids!

I hope you and your kids enjoy this little craft!  We certainly had fun with it and ended up with some great puppets to play with all evening long!

Single mothers are a far more common occurrence than they were even ten years ago.  However it still required a radical rethinking of dating practices.  Instead of nights walking by the lake and drinking wine, we had exhausted coffees and attempts to find babysitters.  Somehow we persevered and were married. Now, not only am I a newly wed husband, I’m a stepfather too.  Sometimes I’m lost. I know all new parents say this, but there was no period of adjustment for me – not 9 months of pregnancy, not the early months of sleeping babies.  Instead I jumped into a noisy, busy, talkative toddler.

Writing a blog about step-parenting seemed easy enough at first.  But the proposition is harder than it would seem.  I might as well attempt to blog about breathing, It’s some thing that has to be done and while not effortless it comes naturally enough. All
children are, by nature, loveable.  It`s hard-wired into our DNA. To be a step parent is easy. To be a good one is just as easy. The key is to let go of the idea that the child in front of you is not yours.  Though he or she may have come in a package with your significant other, they are still a child.  All you need to do is what comes naturally and simply love the child like they were your own. After all it`s not their fault they are part of a blended family.  Once you can do this, the rest is easy.  Just guide, teach, and parent and remember that you chose this life.  You owe it to them to be the best that you can.

- Drew Thomas (Guest Blogger)

So, some tips to get you through this:

• Be sure to write down all the tasks for each room/space that you want to tackle.  Crossing things off the list will help keep you motivated and remind you of how much you have accomplished!
• Enlist help!  You cannot do it all on your own and you will go crazy if you try!
• Get rid of as much stuff as you can!  Put away clothes for charity, throw out everything you have been hoarding over the winter, and find a place for everything so that you aren’t surrounded by clutter when you are done!
• Tackle one space at a time.  The completion of a space will help give you motivation to keep going!
• Create a realistic schedule!  You are not going to get it all done in one day!

Take the time that is required and try to have fun with it!  When you are done, your house will feel light and airy and amazing!  Martha Stuart has some great tips for Spring Cleaning!  Check them out!

Happy Spring Cleaning everyone! 

The services provided by this austere group of Momcierges range from nursery design and set-up, to lactation consultation, to event planning and everything in between!  God how I wish I had known about them when I first had my daughter and was so overwhelmed by all the things I quickly became responsible for!  I am sure we have all felt that moment of panic when we are all of a sudden in charge of another human life.  We want everything to be beautiful and perfect – so much so that we stress ourselves to the absolute limit.  In doing this, we deny ourselves the pleasure of these young years with our children and cease to be happy, healthy and whole!  The Joie Milan Group solves that feeling of being overwhelmed and unable to enjoy the monumental (and sometimes not so monumental) moments of our children growing up!

The Momcierges believe that each situation (and pregnancy) is unique.  That everyone should have the opportunity to have their vision of a great pregnancy become a reality.   They know the challenges that pregnancy and parenthood can present.  They are old moms and new moms, from all regions of the world, and have tackled anything you can imagine!  Being a parent can be very overwhelming without a good support system.  At Joie Milan, they can assist you in finding everything you need.

Be sure to pop over to their website and have a look at their fabulous gallery!  And don’t forget to follow them on Twitter and Like them on Facebook!  This is a company you will want to contact as your pregnancy gets into the difficult last trimester!  We are so happy to have them as Supporting Sponsors at Baby Steps Fair!

All you have to do to win is this:

*  Send your Cutest Baby Photograph to info@babystepsfair.com.  We will post it onto Facebook in the right album for you!

*  Go to our Facebook Page and like the page.

*  Promote your baby photograph so it gets the most likes by sharing it on your page and getting your friends to like the Picture and Baby Steps Fair!

*  The baby photograph with the most likes at midnight on March 9th wins!!!!  The winner will be announced on Facebook and Twitter.  The winner will have to send in their address to receive their prize.  IF no address is sent in within 24 hours of winning, a new winner will be announced!

The exhibit was truly wonderful for kids and adults alike!  There were amazing facts at every station and great visuals for all of the kids to look at!  They also gave every kid a dinosaur activity book to take home.  To be honest, I think my hubby enjoyed the exhibit as much as my little one did.

They had a scavenger hunt prepared for the kids and my daughter had a great time running around trying to find all the items!  There were huge dinosaurs all over, that the kids could touch and check out.  The little one enjoyed all of the informative videos.  There were huge Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus Rex heads that the kids could look through to see the difference in their vision.  My little girl left this exhibit spouting off tons of facts about these two dinosaurs.  It was the most adorable thing ever!

On our way out we even stopped by the table of dinosaur memorabilia and bought a book on how to draw dinosaurs!  We have spent every day since scribbling with pencil crayons while she talks to me about the amazing qualities of dinosaurs!

So check out http://www.rbg.ca/dinos for the hours and prices!  The exhibit runs until April 7th, 2013.  You are guaranteed to have a great time!

Valentine Crayon Hearts

We began by searching the house for any broken or old crayons that were no longer in use.  I was surprised by how many we found!  Then we started cutting all of the old scraps of crayons into little bits.  We cut them into pieces approximately 2 cm by 2 cm and that seemed to work just fine!

When we had crumbled all the crayons we had (and we were making 30, so we used a lot of crayons 6+ packs and all the crayons we could find in the house)we put them into silicone baking cups in the shape of hearts.  We only filled the very bottom of the cups, about 3 – 4 cm deep so that they would not be too heavy to affix to cards later on!

The silicone cups were great because we didn’t have to try to pry them out of a metal sheet.  Rather we could just move the silicone around to get the crayon heart loose.  We bakes them in the oven at 250 degrees for 10 minutes.  This was the perfect amount of time to melt the crayon but not lose the great pattern on the front of the hearts!  We were so pleased with the way they turned out!  Each heart looks completely unique and the are incredibly bright and colorful!

To turn them into Valentines for her classmates and teachers, I had my daughter cut out circles from this super bright construction paper I had kicking around.  On each heart we wrote “You are Special” or “Happy Valentine’s Day” or “Be my Valentine” and my daughter signed the back of them!

To complete them, we used double sided tape to make the crayon stick to the construction paper.  The only really finicky thing I found about this craft was that the crayon hearts do not end up level when they cool off.  We ended up having to take a knife and level them off by scraping them down.  It was a little arduous, but I think it was worth it in the end!

Apart from the scraping at the end, this was a pretty easy craft and it really kept my 5 year old entertained and occupied for a few hours!  The crayon cools way quicker than you would think.  The silicone muffin cups can be found at Michael’s (though I am sure you could find them at any baking store, this time of year) and were a little bit more than I was expecting!  However, at Michael’s you often get a discount on a single item, so we used it for these!  All in all, a great experience, and we got to re-purpose all those old crayons instead of throwing them out!

1. Create a heart-shaped template, or print out the heart garland template, and place it on a stack of 4 sheets of card stock. Staple the center of the hearts and cut out the shapes.

2. Make a 1-inch vertical cut at the pointed end of a heart; cut heart to about 1 inch wide all the way around the inside. Make two 1/2-inch horizontal cuts from the center of the point of the heart. Repeat with other hearts.

3. Link two hearts through the cuts at the points; glue and trim the cut ends to create a point. Continue the process until all the hearts linked.

This was a really cute craft to with little one and it was fun to be able to decorate the house with pretty ornaments she had made!  She was very proud of them!  I hope that you and your little ones enjoy them!

The traditional role of disciplinarian and advisor basically has to be relinquished in a long distance parenting situation. While you do have some influence on the general nature in which your child will be raised, for the most part, it is up to the full time parent whether they agree and follow the same parenting techniques you would use. In my case, my ex has many parenting techniques I agree with and some I don’t as well. Unfortunately there are few options available besides discussion and compromise. There was a time when I never thought my ex and I would ever agree on a single thing regarding our daughter. Time has a way of working things out.  Now I feel we agree on many things and are at a point where we parent together as opposed to against each other. Anyone who is finds themselves in a long distance parenting position may feel that there is no way for this to happen, but families adapt and roles sort themselves out.

In my opinion, the hardest part of being so far away from my daughter is the influence of another father figure in her life. Divorced and separated parents are a common occurrence now, but there is a huge difference between being within 20 minutes of your child when she needs a dad, and not even being in the same province. I had a serious pride issue going on, knowing my daughter calls someone else daddy and gets a male role model from him. This is another one of those situations I now know sorts itself out with time. This situation was much harder when she was younger and was more confused on the roles within a family. As she is getting older it is much less painful and pride-wrecking because there is never a doubt to her who is who.

Even though I have had many years of coming to grips with her living so far away, and trying to figure out my role as a parent so far away, I have come to realize that there is a special bond that can be built within a situation like this. Without being the primary caregiver, I feel I know my daughter in a way no other parental figure in her life does. There is a definite excitement in her voice and mine when we talk. Even though we do our best to talk every day or two, there are times when we go a few days with no communication and to hear that excitement is one of the most rewarding parts of my entire parenting experience.

Of course I wish my daughter lived closer to me.  I also wish she lived with me, but sometimes life doesn’t work the way you want it to. The best advice I can give to a long distance parent is that it will only work if you are willing to work for it. I go through a lot of time management and travel costs to ensure my daughter and I have a solid relationship. That is not including the hurdles my family jump through in order to maintain a relationship with her as well. It would be incredibly easy to put in a bare minimum effort and have a so-so relationship, but maintaining a healthy relationship takes work. I know people who have children locally that put in very little effort and to that I have to question: why!?! Maybe it is one of those situations people take for granted until they do not have open access to their kids anymore?  I don’t know.

So to sum it all up, in order to have a successful long distance relationship with your kids, relinquish the parenting control and the dumb pride issues you will inevitably feel, and put in the effort needed. Kids notice whether you are into the relationship or not.   Don’t think they don’t.  They will know and once you have set that precedent it is almost impossible to come back from. Enjoy the relationship you have and remember no matter what they know who their daddy is.  Even if you don’t believe that now, I promise you, it’s true!

Blog entry written by Daryl Nicholson of Pure Chaos Development.  Find him tweeting @PureChaosD.