Kidcast – Children & Travel

Alright – so try this one to amuse your children while traveling this holiday season!

Ingredients:
Take your video iPod.
Get this great product called a ‘Tadpole“.
Add on some great videos and let your child amuse themselves!

Portable, rechargeable and easy to x-change the videos on — have some fun with it!

I made two “Kidcast’s” and posted them to YouTube. One is me reading a book. The other is a “visual” of music.

BOOK:
‘Baby Ant has Stinky Pants’
by Sigmund Brouwer, Created by Don Sullivan, Illustrated by Sharon Dahl

VISUAL MUSIC:
‘I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas’
by Gayla Peevey

So – whatcha think?

“Just give me the coffee and no one gets hurt!”

Alternative title: Time Management and the Working Parent

Time is such an elusive little critter… It stands still, speeds up and is the master of all. So when it comes to having a family and a job – how can you make time work for you?

Here are some things I have found that help out – any other suggestions?

1 – Be Santa.
Make a list, check it twice. Don’t worry so much about the “naughty and nice” part. But checking off an item is just so… accomplishment!

2 – Parse it out.
Get some help from your family. Dad and junior can clean just as good as mom can (although you might have to continually explain to your 3 year old that the swiffer is for floors, not beds or windows…).

3 – “No one has ever died from dust bunnies.”
Many years ago I read a book called “Twenty Minutes a Day to a Greener Planet” (I think – can’t find it any more…). In it the author clearly stated that no one has ever died from dust bunnies. She provided wisdom such as:
“Do you housework on a work day – it will take 20 minutes on a Thursday or 2 hours on a Saturday.”
“At a restaurant, dishes really do clean themselves!”

4 – Ever considered delivery?
Shopping for food is time consuming. There are all sorts of services that deliver right to your door! Currently I am trying out spud.ca (Small Potatoes Urban Delivery). They provide organic produce and deliver a box to your door. You can take “seasonal” selections or check specific items off.
Heck – they even offer free delivery on most orders!

5 – Shop before hand – online.
Target your shopping experience! Shop before hand, online. Get an idea of the items you want to try out/on. Then go to the store or get it delivered.

My two recent online purchases were:
Text books for school. Shopped chapters.ca (notice I stuck with a Canadian distributor – saves border hassle!). Free delivery for orders above a certain $. Ships in 24 hours. Received in 3 days.
Total time spent book shopping: 16.5 minutes.

I needed a winter jacket. Tried shopping online at several stores – some had truly horrible navigation and item information (note to merchants – online shopping also serves a time-management purpose but we still come to the store!). I ended up at mec.ca. Was fast and efficient (thanks largely to the great and specific descriptions of the items – even told me how long the jacket was!). Narrowed my choices to three coats. Checked the store inventory online – they were all in-stock. Went to the store 30 minutes before they closed. Went straight to my items of choice and tried all three on. Got the blue one.
Total time spent jacket shopping: 29 minutes.

I am still analyzing the financials figures on all this – but so far it looks like a benefit – both in time and money. And sanity – never discount sanity!
… like Mastercard says – extra time to build a great choo-choo track is simply priceless…

“You can’t turn back the clock. But you can wind it up again.”
Bonnie Prudden

The Latte Theory

I was listening to a news report on the radio the other day… got me to wondering…

The report questioned why child care is such a challenge. There is money to be made in it – so why isn’t there enough of it? Why aren’t entrepreneurs and big business in the business of child care? One person they interviewed suggested that government interference contributed to the crisis by inserting too much “red tape” in the child care business. The counter-argument was that the government should be responsible but “tries to do it on the cheap” and doesn’t invest enough resources in child care.

You decide:

Here in the mighty Oh Canada we, apparently, have a “dismal” child care strategy. Out of 14 countries ranked by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) we are last.

“Canada spends 0.25 per cent of its gross domestic product on early education child care, which means for children under age 6. Denmark tops the list, spending two per cent of its GDP on early education child care.”

In Quebec – child care is guaranteed and costs $7 a day (note: it is so used there is now loooong wait lists for the service) … Even if you have to pay for all thirty days of the month (which you don’t) it would cost you $210/month. In west coast terms – $7 is about two tall lattes a day…

So (I can hear you wondering – honest I can!) – how much does child care cost in British Columbia?
On average – birth to 3 years of age – $1,000/month
On average – 3 to 5 years of age – $675/month (although this can remain at $1,000/month depending on where your child is). MATH TIME: That means that, if you are paying for 30 days a month at $1,000 – your child care costs you $33.33 a day… In Quebec terms – in 6.3 days you have paid what they pay a month…

– See CBC for the full report.

I have reviewed a great deal of the discussions (including the figures) and come to this conclusion:

Child care is something you merely survive. It has been crappy for a very long time. You are stuck in the “child care survival strategy” mode for about 9 to 10 years. As it is so consuming, you start experience battle-fatigue and wander away to survive the best you can. When you finally break free – you never want to look at it again — so you don’t continue the fight for the next generation.

This will not change until “both parents work so they need child care” families form a significant part of the PTB system and can – and will – do something.

The PTB and me

O k a y …

So my blog a bit back – the one about copyright and all? Turns out the PTB (Powers That Be) obviously have REALLY good metadata searches! Who knew that my class project would attract mega-corporation attention! If feel so SPECIAL!

The video clip I made (an animated comment on childcare) fromthe movie “Ice Age II – The Meltdown” has been pulled and I got this notification from YouTube.

… I have been pulled from YouTube …

… oh the shame of it all …

 

YouTube | Broadcast Yourself:

Dear Member:
This is to notify you that we have removed or disabled access to the following material as a result of a third-party notification by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation claiming that this material is infringing:

Ice Age II – Kiddie camp: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nN40GaasLAU

Please Note: Repeat incidents of copyright infringement will result in the deletion of your account and all videos uploaded to that account. In order to avoid future strikes against your account, please delete any videos to which you do not own the rights, and refrain from uploading additional videos that infringe on the copyrights of others. For more information about YouTube’s copyright policy, please read the Copyright Tips guide.

If you elect to send us a counter notice, please go to our Help Center to access the instructions.

Be aware that there may be adverse legal consequences in your country if you make a false or bad faith allegation of copyright infringement by using this process.Sincerely,
YouTube, Inc.

Content with my content

So – here’s the dilemma.

I am writing the blog in the context of childcare resources in Vancouver. So what do you do when your start point content changes?

The website that I started with kinda ended… Now, I’m no Woodward or Bernstein, but the has “shank-the-public” written all over it…
Come for a journey on this particular yellow brick road!

NEWSPAPER ARTICLE:
Oct 22, 2007 – 24 Hrs (Commuter magazine)

“Big-box child care for B.C.?”
“Controversial big-box child-care could be a reality in B.C. if an Australian company has its way.”

Child-care advocates are sounding the alarm since learning an investment firm called Adroit Investments LLC has contacted local child-care operators in a bid to buy them out.
The coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C. traced the company back to 123-Global and A.B.C. Learning Centres, a private Australian child-care corporation that’s gotten flak in several countries for monopolizing child-care and providing minimal services to cut costs. … (Rita) Chudnovsky says child-care operators began receiving takeover bids in mid-September, just before the provincial government announced it would begin to subsidize private child-care providers. ‘We have trouble believing this is a coincidence,” she said (Chudnovsky). (Rita Chudnovsky is the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of B.C. spokesperson).”

According to the website I was working on (Westcoast Childcare Resource Centre)

“On March 16, 2007, Westcoast received notice that Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) was canceling our long-standing contract for provincial early childhood and child care support services.

The contract officially ended April 30, 2007. The end of this contract represented an $800,000 cut in funding. At the same time, the Westcoast contract for the Vancouver Child Care Resource and Referral program was also reduced by $450,000. This resulted in a total reduction of $1.35 million dollars. Obviously this significant funding loss has had a severe impact on services.”

… and this leaves my content where? In the realm of the fictional I do believe… Ah – but think of the creative potential when the laws of internet physics no longer apply!

What George W. did to me…

Damn you George W! Because of you I have….

… I can hardly say it …

.. I have .. o m g ..

– I have listened to the “Dixie Chicks” –

… there are some stains that simply don’t wipe clean …

Snot – How To Cope

Welcome to cold and flu season!

With all the recalls on infant/children’s cold medicines – I thought I might share this lil ditty with you (keep in mind – I have a 2.5 year old boy):

as per a lovely pharmacist: children’s allergy medicine (eg: Allegra liquid) and standard cough syrup. The allergy med will dry up the snot and the cough syrup aids the cough! A bit ‘o’ the Vicks – and perhaps a good night sleep (instead of watching Treehouse ALL night long… we’ve all been there… anyone else horrified by “Wee Three”??)

note: add on usual caveats of “consult your local physician … this is not medical advice.”

tgif’s dreams…

So – this is it. My class blog shall also be my forum!

Randomness eloquently blended into critical thought!

… cause isn’t that life folks?

In theory, my goal is to give my POV of a working (but back in school) mom. And all the crap and delights that go with it. As well, provide some reference for “useful-stuff-that-isn’t-in-the manual”. Again, only my pov…