a peek inside the fishbowl

My recent post about freeze-tag reminded me of something… when you were a kid and you were playing these kind of tag games, what method did you use to figure out who was going to be “it” ?
In my day someone would quickly call out “KING COUNTER NO HIGHER NO LOWER” and thus nominate themselves [...]

This week’s activity was a doozy, and I was wholly unprepared:
Organize a scavenger hunt in your neighbourhood and recruit a few families to participate. 83% of youth in Canada report that their neighbourhood is safe for younger children to play outside. 
I’m wondering, if the majority of Canadians surveyed think that their neighborhoods are safe, why are [...]

There was a recent Twitter-based discussion which I thought deserved a few more opinions.
Imagine this scene. You’re pushing your child on the swing. You give him/her a big push, the kind that has you walking under the swing while the kid (presumably still in the swing) is overhead.
There is a special term for this.
I’ve always [...]

Mark took the girls with him to Canadian Tire yesterday to pick up a few things we needed. CanTire has a promotion right now called JumpStart. The money from the sales of a special $2.00 tennis ball (pictured here), will help kids in need participate in organized sports and recreation. A great idea.
Customers are given this info at [...]

Supplies needed: chalk or sidewalk paint, stones/bottlecaps or bean bags. Flat stones are best. They don’t roll! 
Playing hopscotch is easy. First, make the paint to create your hopscotch grid.
The one above was made with equal parts cornstarch and water and a few drops of electric blue food colouring. But chalk works just fine too.
If you’re the first player [...]

I was teaching the girls how to play 7-Up (rules to follow) and it occurred to me that these games are (a) fun (b) a part of our culture and (c) in danger of being forgotten.
I have decided that I’m going to try to archive the outdoorsy games that I used to play as a [...]

I’ve been thinking a lot about that list of simple pleasures I posted the other day, and how they affect my sense of happiness in general.
One of the things I forced myself to do that day was strip the bed and hang the sheets outside for a few hours before bedtime. When I got into [...]