HRM Parent Blog

What’s a party without cake?  Watch this video for step-by-step instructions for a really cute and easy school bus cake.

This is a really cool idea for a neighbourhood breakfast celebration to get everyone prepped for rising early again.

Such an inspiring party to celebrate the End of Summer.  The little apple and watermelon boats are adorable!

The name alone gives this party an A+, get your child’s classmates together before school for a meet and greet treat party.

This site has some fun ideas for invitations, cool décor, food and more.

This amazing back to school party gets top marks from us.  Seriously brilliant ideas! (be sure to check out subsequent blog posts for tutorials and detailed info on the party details)

Special thanks to Deirdre Evans for this great post on getting your kids out in the garden for a little late summer planting!

It’s time to think about Fall planting, and what better snack to plant with kids than sugar snap peas. Peas are an all time favourite in our house. Not only do my kids love picking and eating them straight off the vine, but they are one of the easiest seeds for children to handle because of their size.

To plant the peas, begin by having your kids poke a little hole in the loose soil with their finger or a stick, drop the pea seed straight in the ground and then water. They can plant the seeds 1 to 1-1/2 inches deep and one inch apart. With all of this rain, they should see the first little leaves appear within a week. Once the leaves appear have your child stick a branch in the soil about an inch away from the seed, the plant will climb up the branch as it grows.

Here in Halifax, seeds planted now will grow into the Fall, and hopefully bring you fresh peas by end of September.  The Farmer’s Almenac gives October 20th as the first frost date for Halifax, so this gives plenty of time for your peas to grow.

Short on space?  I’ll stick peas in planters on the balcony, at the ends of my raised beds and even as a border behind my flower beds. You can plant the peas along the edges of your garden and then use branches as a trellis that peas will climb.

You can likely still find pea seeds at Halifax Seed or even Canadian Tire.  My favourite spot though is Vesey’s in PEI as they have many different varieties, are local and will ship.   I really like their Sugar Snap Peas as they are very sweet with a great crunch.  

My children love picking and eating fresh from the garden. In fact, it’s a great way to give them a snack as I get dinner ready.  They will head out to the vegetable patch and search for hidden peas, it’s always a game to see who can find the big pods that have made it without being picked.

Deirdre Evans, is an HRM mom who is passionate about urban gardening and introducing kids to healthy foods through gardening projects.    For more information on urban gardening, recipes and ideas for backyard gardening with kids, visit her website .

Keeping the kids active during the summer is so important for their health and well-being, not to mention the fact that it’ll help them sleep better at night!  Just remember, it’s doesn’t always have to be structured or scheduled and can be as easy as a run around in the backyard.  Here’s 10 great ideas to keep the family moving this summer:

1. Make a splash – set up the sprinkler or head to the splash pad at the Westmount playground for some water play.  Guaranteed to keep the kids running around for hours.

2. Tennis anyone?  Even if your kids don’t know how to play – grab a spot at your local tennis court and have fun hitting the balls around.  Little kids can even get involved by running around to collect all the balls.

3. Hopscotch, Simon Says, Red Rover – bringing back any memories? Dust off some of the classics and get the whole family playing.

4. Walk the Dog.  Rover needs the exercise too so bring him, and the whole family to your nearest park for a walk that will keep everyone moving.

5. Run!  You can’t beat a family run, but it’s even more unique when it’s on the bridge!  Join in the 17th Annual MACPASS Miles Race across the bridge this weekend. The kids will be talking about it for weeks!

6. Gardening can be a family affair with little kids in charge of pulling up the weeds and older kids helping to mow. Even just having fun digging in the soil will keep them active. 

7. Hello Hula.  Warning – this one may cause uncontrollable laughter. Pick-up a few hula hoops and see who can keep it up the longest.   So fun.

8. Get your wheels on.  A bike, scooter, rollerblade or skateboard are all great ways to get out and get active.   Let everyone pick something different with the only rule that it has to be on wheels.

9. Hoop-la…not only does it help with their hand-eye coordination but shooting hoops is a great way to keep your kids’ heart rate up.

10. Playgrounds are always great for keeping kids active – but dial it up a notch and try to visit 3 in one day.  Then you can cross #37 off our Summer Challenge list!

It’s a big world out there, and it’s our job at the Discovery Centre to help you “discover it”! And to help us do just that, we’re proud to introduce our new blog – Let’s Discover! In this blog, we will talk about interesting and fun science-based activities and ideas for you and your children. As Nova Scotia’s only hands-on Science Centre, it’s our mandate to make science and technology interesting, interactive and most of all fun – and we’ll keep those basic principles in mind in this blog.

So, what’s a cool thing to discover? How about astronomy?

On the next clear night in the HRM get outside and find the Big Dipper. Right now, it’s a little left of the North Star, and about the same distance on the other side and just below, there should be a big W shape. That constellation is called Cassiopeia. The reason you want to find her is that she’ll point you to some cool things. In the wee hours of the morning on August 13th, the Perseid meteor shower will peak in intensity. The showers appear to originate from near the constellation Perseus, which is just below Cassiopeia (she’s much easier to find, though) – and you can see a few of them for yourself, between July 17th and August 24th. It’s worth getting the kids out of bed, and you don’t even need a telescope!

Not sure where to look in the sky? Then bring the whole family to the Discovery Centre on any Wednesday or Friday in August, and check out Nova Scotia’s only digital planetarium for an up-close and illuminating introduction to astronomy.  

For more great things to discover - visit the Discovery Centre on Barrington Street in Halifax, check out their website  or join them on facebook.  

by guest blogger Deanna Cogdon Miller

For as long as I can remember, I spent weeks during the summer visiting my grandparents at their cottages in Ontario. My days there were filled with swimming, playing in the sand, running around, making up shows, trying to catch chipmunks, lying on docks reading and spending time with friends and family.

So you can imagine how happy I was when I met my husband and found out that he too had spent summers at a lake. Even better was the fact that for him the lake was local, he was there every week and he was still going. It didn’t take long for us to start spending our summer weekends there – enjoying the water, a few drinks, sunshine and campfires with friends in the cottages around us. Life changed (for the better) with the birth of our really good friends’ daughter in 2004. The circle of life at the lake was continuing and between our three cottages there are now 11 kids.

We pack up every Friday in the summer and hit the road right after work so that we can have supper there. The lake is pretty deep in the woods and it’s impossible to describe the feeling of peace that comes over you as you round the last corner of the dirt road and the water comes into view. I remember how proud we both were when our first daughter – then two – started squealing and hyperventilating when we’d round that corner. Knowing that she loved it there as much as we did meant so much to us.

We started out staying at my in-laws cottage, then moved into a trailer across the road for a couple of years and then the cottage next door to my in-laws came up for sale and we quickly snagged it. I hesitate in calling the places ‘cottages’. They’re really ‘camps’ as we have no running water, no electricity and our fridge, stove and lights run on propane. What this really means is no television, no video games, no Internet and cell phones only work if you’re standing in the right place and the wind is blowing the right way.

From the time we get there to the time we leave, the kids are outside and on the go. They’re swimming, fishing, tubing, running in the woods, learning to waterski, going for boat rides and making up games like flutterfly, daycare, baby and swim teacher. If it’s raining, we’re playing Twister and Trouble and Crokinole or we’re reading, drawing, making crafts and jumping in puddles. We tend to pool our suppers with the other families and all BBQ at one place and share our side dishes. The kids then bath in the lake, get their jammies on, sometimes enjoy a campfire and other times just have a bowl of cereal together before crashing from all of the fresh air.

I’ve realized that these kinds of experiences are really some of the greatest gifts we can give our kids. They’re outside, they’re active, they’re creative and they’re surrounded by other kids and adults who love them. Whether it’s every weekend like we enjoy or a week here and there like I enjoyed as a kid, the sounds of campfire giggles, splashing water and kids having fun outside warms the heart and I know from experience, the memories will last a lifetime.

Deanna lives in Dartmouth with her husband and three children. When she's not reading stories, dancing to ABBA or burping a baby, she works in communications for Bell Aliant.