This year, instead of using our own free printable theatre reviews to respond to the plays we saw at the Stratford Festival, we decided to ask the kids for shorter, impromptu responses. Inspired by their dad’s season-long toronto #bluejays haiku project, or his #jaysseasonhaiku, we asked the kids to write haiku responses to the plays they saw at Stratford this summer. […]
Last week, we had a fantastic time at the Stratford Festival in Stratford, Ontario. We took in four great productions from the 2015 Season: Hamlet, The Sound of Music, The Adventures of Pericles*, and The Taming of the Shrew. The shows were fabulous. The kids, who had never seen Hamlet before, were quite intrigued by the source […]
It’s been a little cold and grey, so I thought I’d get the kids interested in some indoor fun. Since we love surrealist games, I thought I’d come up with a few variations on old favourites. Here are the Three Surrealist Games for Kids we played! Exquisite Corpse Supplies Blank Paper Pen, Pencil, Crayons or Markers Method […]
Summer of Funner Family Film Fest 2014: Super-Anatomy in Space and Time Night One: Double Feature! Dark Passage (1947) and The Man Without a Body (1957) Happy Independence Day to all of our Friends and family in the USA! This year’s Summer of Funner is all about the fabulous ABILITY of the human body and […]
Last year, we had quite a formal Summer Film festival. We made tickets and produced a “Film Review” worksheet for the kids. This year, our Film Festival was fairly casual, but we still managed to produce quite a dialogue about each movie. There was a nice mix between new, popular releases and older classics. Many […]
Today, I read the kids a large section of Book 9, Paradise Lost [from about l. 415 to the end]. In their Yesterday Books, I asked them to write down any particular words or ideas they liked and to sketch as I read. Mostly, though, they just luxuriated on the couch and listened. Tobes loved […]
Today, we had a long train trip home from our trip to High Park, so I took the opportunity to have the kids both create and play story-telling games. They had their markers with them already. And, thinking ahead, I had brought along a big deck of blank white cardstock that I cut into small […]
“Don’t be led away by those howls about realism. Remember-pine woods are just as real as pigsties and a darn sight pleasanter to be in.” L.M. Montgomery, Emily of New Moon. Each year, the kids keep journals to document all of their Summer of Funner activities. We call these “Yesterday Books.” In the Summer of 2011, […]
Since this edition of the Summer of Funner is coming to a close, we thought we’d use our final post to list the movies that we saw and “reviewed” this summer. The theme of this Summer’s Movies was “Colourful Movies.” This year, we added a few new releases to the mix. And, for the at home movies, we made some […]
August 13, 2012 Last year, we traveled to Riverdale Farm to sketch the farm animals, not knowing if the city and its mayor would pull financial support from the farm or if it would remain open to the public. We called these our Save the Riverdale Farm Sketches. With the farm saved from the chopping […]
July 20, 2012 Each summer, my husband chooses a list of films for us to watch, once per week. We call this our “Summer of Funner Film Festival.” The last few years have featured classic Marx Brothers films, Fred and Ginger dance pics, Philo Vance flicks, and a bit of old fashioned Shakespeare. This year’s […]
July 18, 2012 Each summer, the kids create and fill up their “Yesterday Books” with pictures and stories of their Summer of Funner adventures. Sometimes, these are illustrated journal entries, and others, fantastic fictional histories. So, each July, we start off our Summer of Funner by choosing notebooks and decorating the covers, transforming them into our famous Summer of Funner Yesterday Books! […]
September 5, 2011 Over the past few days, I have been supposing that this last entry for our Summer of Funner 2011 would be something like one of those top-ten lists the media produces over the lazy days of the new year. I thought that I would write an overall assesment of our highs and […]
I’m strictly tourist But I couldn’t care less When they parlez-vous me Then I gotta confess…That’s for me! – from Funny Face August 18, 2011 Got in the car with aunts Peggy and Dori and headed to Niagara Falls. We’re the honorary tag-alongs on their delayed honeymoon. On the road, Peggy told us an hour and a […]
August 17, 2011 Today we made Rob Ford Protest Posters inspired by the artists of the Ghosts of Gone Birds! _____________________________________________________________ This morning, I received a tweet from @GoneBirds with a link to a brand new poster advocating for the Spoon-billed Sandpiper. You can also find this picture on the Ghosts of Gone Birds Facebook […]
August 10, 2011 Did he ever return? No he never returned From the library that day He may circulate forever ‘Round those queer old stacks & bookshelves He’s the mayor who never returned Today we made t-shirts to show our love and support of our local public library. Then, in further support of books and […]
August 4, 2011 Thanks to @MargaretAtwood for retweeting my “Save the Riverdale Farm” Sketches! A record number of visitors checked out the site yesterday! I hope you come back and visit us again! Please help Toronto save its farms, zoos, libraries and bike lanes! Write to your councillors! Get on the phone and call them, too! This Friday, […]
Thursday, June 30thToday was “Play Day” – our official day to knock around doing crazy things to mark the beginning of the summer! While I’m not keen on supporting the kids’ desire to shop, the first thing they wanted to do this morning was to go to the dollar store to pick up new markers to […]
