Summer camps are a great way to expose your child to a wide range of activities while they develop new skills and create memorable friendships.

Step 1: Decide what you would like your child to get out of the camp
Are you sending them to develop new skills, make new friends, to just have fun, or to expose them to a new activity?  This will help you narrow down what camps fit your criteria

Step 2: Would you prefer a day camp or an overnight camp
Day camps can be a great starting point for kids to cope with temporary separation.  This type of camp works well for very young kids.  For older children, consider overnight camps to build confidence through independence.

Step 3: Attend Camp Expo’s, Open Houses and talk to others who have sent their kids to camps
Shows allow you to become an informed decision maker and in a very time efficient manner as you meet dozens of camp directors all at one time. 

There is a FREE expo happening this Sunday June 2nd, 2013 in Vancouver.
For more information go to: www.kidssumercampexpo.com

Prat Gill, Kids Summer Camp Expo

Ways to reduce sugar in kids lunches!

1. Skip all-in-one lunch products: Convenience lunches (like Lunchables) may include sugar in breads, dressings, and drinks, as well as the dessert. Pack a sandwich using dinner leftovers instead.
2. Avoid “kids” yogurt and yogurt drinks: Fruit-flavored yogurt marketed to kids may contain sugar or sweeteners but no real fruit. Pack a small grown-up-style yogurt instead
3. Skip the fruit chews: Fruit chews and roll-ups are more candy than fruit. Make your own fruit leather or pack fresh, dried, or canned in juice) fruit instead
4. Check the granola bar: Some granola bars feature whole grains and plenty of fiber, but others are essentially candy bars masquerading as health food. Check the label
5. Skip the soda – and the fruit “drink”: Drinks are a huge source of sugar. Pack low-fat milk, water, or 100% fruit juice (not fruit “drink,” which is packed with sugar and has little real juice).
   

Thanks to Vancouver dietitian Gloria Tsang, founder of nutrition network HealthCastle.com for these great tips!

This past weekend Buddings Children’s Garden & daycare celebrated 18th months of serving our community! West Coast Families Magazine was present at the celebration, and more than before, we now understand the reason for their quick success. Lawrence and Talia, two genuine, caring owners put their mind and heart to work and build a warm and safe environment for children to feel at home! They are considered to be the only daycare in town that offers flexible and occasional care. You schedule your time at the centre when you need it! And that is what makes them even more special.

Buddings was chosen by the Vancity Make Good Money Program to be the Business of Impact for 2013 for being the most flexible, environmentally-conscious daycare available in Vancouver.  Watch the video

www.buddings.ca

We asked EAT! Vancouver what was in it for families this year, and we got an earful.  Or would that be a mouthful?!

You can bring the family down to the 11th annual EAT! Vancouver Food and Cooking Festival at BC Place Stadium on May 24-26 to sample, shop, and rub shoulders with your favourite stars from Food Network Canada. This year’s festival welcomes Spice Goddess and mother Bal Arneson, baker extraordinaire Anna Olson of Bake with Anna Olson, Chuck Hughes of Chuck’s Week Off, and Executive Chef Cactus Club Restaurants, Chef Rob Feenie, all on the Food Network Celebrity Stage.

For the kids in everyone, Regal Confections will be presenting fun contests on the International Culinary Stage on May 25 and 26 to see who can hold an enormous bubble for five seconds, build the most original structure with candy blox, and count the number of licks it takes to get to the centre of a Tootsie Pop. Winners will receive prizes, but you can always visit the Regal Kidz Kandy Korner where PEZ, Ring Pop Gummies, Rockets, Tootsie Roll, Tootsie Pop, and Dubble Bubble will be available. If you’re lucky, you might spot the Regal candy girls who will be handing out sweet treats!

Also on the International Culinary Stage, the SuperChefs Cookery for Kids will teach younger kids the importance of healthy eating. Along with local restaurant chefs, children can learn concepts like Marvelous Meatballs and Tasty Indigenous Treats, It Hasta Be Pasta – Traditional Pasta Making for Families, The Art of Sliders and Creative Crepes, and Making Old-World Handcrafted Gelato for Kids.

Finally, EAT! Vancouver has responded to the demand from 2012 for more gluten-free products. Find out more about this year’s gluten-free exhibitors HERE

Tickets are $16 for adults ($14 online), $14 for seniors, $9 for youth 13-16, and free for kids 12 & under. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.eat-vancouver.com

Being welcomed by enormous stilt walkers, delighted by circus aerial dancers hanging from the high ceilings, enlightened by a speech by Keith Pattinson, author of What Every Kid Needs and Money Can’t Buy, and entertained by a well-produced fashion show were some of the many surprises encountered at the Under the Big Top 35th Anniversary Celebration and Fundraiser event for the Marpole Oakridge Family Centre. It was great to see how the community got together to help support this great organization for all the amazing things they have done for families in our community! And of course in a celebration like this a huge cake was a most!

For more information on the Marpole Oakridge Family Place and their programs, CLICK HERE

Music at Science World reached high on Monday May 6. This time it made it all the way to space!

Over 200 local young-students performed the Music Monday song I.S.S (Is Somebody Singing) directed by Maestro Bramwell Tovey of the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and written by Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield who join the fun and played his guitar all the way from the International Space Station!

It was an amazing experience to witness how music met science and technology when putting together a simultaneous musical performance by 600,000 of young musicians from all around Canada to space and back.

This event brings attention to the importance of music education, as Maestro Bramwell Tovey said, “Music is a universal-expressive language that we all should be fluent to be able to express what is inside ourselves. Music brakes down anger and aggression, music makes peace and harmony and those are good enough reason to make music part of everybody’s fundamental education and preserve music programs in our schools”.

Science World also believes in the importance of music in education. With that in mind, they are pleased to announce a complete, immersive musical experience (AMPED) opening October 2013. Get ready to be inspired, interact, make your own music and have creative fun at Science World.

Canadian Space Agency Live Webcast
http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/webcast.asp