kidfriendlycalgary

[kidfriendlycalgary]

A Different Way To Do Board Game Night With Your Family

A Different Way To Do Board Game Night With Your Family #coding #stem

We have a stack of board games in the corner of our living room shelves.

All the usual suspects are tossed on the pile from Sorry to Scrabble, Connect Four to Catan, Battleship to Backgammon. This summer we started adding some card games into the mix like Dutch Blitz, Five Crowns, and Wizard. They’ve been a fun way to spend our quarantine time together.

But there’s a different way to do game…

[kidfriendlycalgary]

How To Save Money On Back To School Apple Tech

How To Save Money On Apple Products for Back To School

Back to school and back to work season comes with a massive list of wants.

As my oldest hits Grade 8 this year, the demands for tech in the classroom are increasing. We buckled last year and got him his own iPhone with the best data plan for kids I’ve ever found. And this year, it’s time for him to take a computer to school to use each day in class.

Having easy access to tech is even more…

[kidfriendlycalgary]

Get Your Kids Some Extra Education With Shaw and EVERFI

Get Your Kids Some Extra Education With Shaw and EVERFI

The school routine during the COVID-19 lockdown has been pretty solid at our house. The boys get their schedules from the teacher the night before, they have set times they need to be in various video calls with teachers, and then they spend the rest of the time crunching out their assignments on their own – or on more video calls with friends.

This system has not been perfect to say the least,…

[kidfriendlycalgary]

The Best And Cheapest First Cellphone Plans For Kids

The Best And Cheapest First Cellphone Plans For Kids

The peer pressure to get that first cellphone plan for kids comes early.

A survey by Childwise in the UK found that most children are owning their first smartphone by the age of 7.

SEVEN?!?

Now I’m guessing these are hand-me-down devices that they’re using for apps or watching shows over wifi networks and not full-blown data plans, but when parents try to keep up with each other, anything is…

[kidfriendlycalgary]

10th Anniversary Means Diamonds?! How I Pulled Off A Memorable Anniversary Surprise

10th Anniversary Means Diamonds?! How I Pulled Off A Memorable Anniversary Surprise #MyMichaelHill #ad

I didn’t know diamonds were on the menu for a tenth wedding anniversary. My wife wanted them, but didn’t see them coming when I enlisted the help of my sons and Michael Hill to re-propose on the top of the Eiffel Tower just like I had done 11 years earlier.

Here’s how we pulled it off!

HOW IT ALL STARTED

My wife had a newly separated friend over for spontaneous wine and girl talk one night and I…

[kidfriendlycalgary]

8 Parenting Lessons From Barack Obama

8 Parenting Lessons From @BarackObama

Barack Obama rolled into Calgary last week for a midday conversation in front of a sold out Calgary Saddledome.

While the conversation weaved around perks of Air Force One to the future of Alberta’s Energy sector, host Dave Kelly also peppered Obama with many questions about family, parenting, and raising great kids.

Here’s what Obama had to say about parenting that left a mark on me:

Supplied by…

[kidfriendlycalgary]

How Avicii Helped Me Rediscover What Being A Dad Blogger Is Really About

On The Eve of @Dad2Summit, How @Avicii Helped Me Rediscover What Being A Dad Blogger Is Really About

The Avicii: True Stories documentary on Netflix is an emotional expose of the life of a creative genius who tried hard to run from the spotlight, but it found him anyway. Avicii loved creating music, but he didn’t want all the extra attention and the lifestyle that came along with it.

He performed some 800 shows over his far too short 7 year career, and all of them were a struggle.

[kidfriendlycalgary]

STEM Classes, Engineering Camps, and Coding Camps For Kids In Calgary

STEM Classes, Engineering Camps, and Coding Camps For Kids In #yyc #codeweek

While many kids’ after school time is scheduled with dance classes, swim meets, and hockey practices, mine aren’t. After a few rounds of indoor soccer, my sons wanted a fresh set of activities this fall. With Charlie deep into teaching himself binary and dreaming of building a robot, I set out to find STEM classes, Engineering Camps, and Coding Camps for kids in Calgary.

I was surprised at the…

[kidfriendlycalgary]

This Winter, Make Sure You Have Tires With The Right Gription

This Winter, Make Sure You Have Tires With The Right Gription

Gription isn’t a word in the dictionary, but it is in Zacharie‘s world.

I don’t exactly remember how the word was coined, but he just started using it in his own young kid way to explain friction. If he slipped on ice, he’d talk about not having enough gription when he walked. If he saw a car stuck in the snow he’d say they needed more gription to get going.

The best way I can explain his word is…

[kidfriendlycalgary]

Busting the Stigma Around an Embarrassing Problem

Busting the Stigma Around an Embarrassing Problem

This post is sponsored by Bayer. To make sure these products are right for you, always read and follow the label.

Our bodies are complex. They can do incredible things, like heal themselves and tell us when something isn’t quite right. When our bodies are trying to send us a message, it can be uncomfortable, but these symptoms are nothing to be embarrassed about. A change in bodily functions can…

[kidfriendlycalgary]

Fall Is The Best Time To Make A New Year's Resolution

Fall Is The Best Time To Make A New Year's Resolution @Tangerine #ad

Back-to-School season feels like a new year to me.

Fresh lunch bags, new shoes, crisp notepads are all being collected for my kids to head back to school and, I’ll admit, a few of those fun new supplies are making their way into my home office too.

After a summer of relaxing, camping, vacationing, and living without a schedule, fall means getting things back in order. The kids are registered for…

[kidfriendlycalgary]

When Your Kids Can't Wait For Summer To Be Over

When Your Kids Can't Wait For Summer To Be Over #BecauseYouTeach #ad

My kids might be in the minority, but once the midway point of August rolls around, they’re done with vacation and they ache to be back in school.

“I wish it was only a month,” Zacharie says of the summer break. “It’s too long. I miss my friends and teachers.”

I don’t know for how many more summers he’ll have this sentiment (he’s entering Grade 6 this year and the tween bitterness and angst is…

[kidfriendlycalgary]

Four Signs Spring has (Almost) Arrived

Four Signs Spring has (Almost) Arrived

This post is sponsored by Bayer. To make sure these products are right for you, always read and follow the label. Spring is the worst season on the Canadian prairies. While friends on the west coast share blooming daffodils, I’m still dealing with 3 feet of snow on the front lawn. (above is actual photo from my actual kitchen window – we use plastic plants to keep the green around) It’s been no…

[kidfriendlycalgary]

Do You Hope Your Kids Follow Your Career Path?

Do You Hope Your Kids Follow Your Career Path And Keep With The Family Business? #DisneylandCA #press #media

There are Sutters, Tkachucks, Nylanders and Stastnys in the NHL this year. There are a lot of second generation NHL players in the league now. It’s the 90s all over again. Claude Lemieux and Louie Debrusk got to see their sons score in the big league as rookies this year. It’s one thing for us to fulfill our own dreams and make…

[kidfriendlycalgary]

Take A Deep Breath

Take A Deep Breath

Sunsets weren’t quite the same this summer. I’ve been spoiled the past few years I’ve lived on the prairies. While winters can last longer than I’d like, and it gets colder than comfortable too often, the blue sky days go on forever. Where trees touch the sky on the west coast where I grew up, the prairie reaches out on an eternal horizon in Alberta. “Wow, that’s a lot of sky,” I remember saying…

[kidfriendlycalgary]

Starting A Blog Taught Me How To Balance My Needs With Family's Needs

Starting A Blog Taught Me How To Balance My Needs With Family’s Needs

This week, DadCAMP turns 8. I started this dad blog to archive diaries about adventures with my sons and as a way to meet other dads. I had just lost my job and with a toddler at home and another on the way, I thought it would be a great place to network and meet other guys with a similar life experience. Everyone talks about work/life balance, but there’s not much talk about personal/family…

[kidfriendlycalgary]

If You Build It, They Will Vlog

If You Build It, They Will Vlog

For the past year I’ve been talking about taking my video content to the next level. Bit by bit I’ve been amassing the gear to make it better. This weekend I finished the set up and a funny thing happened: my youngest son came out of his shell. It started last year at Dad 2.017 when I won a Canon EOS T5 in a random draw. From there I got a tripod. Then I renovated our spare room in the basement…