DadCAMP

Walking With Dinosaurs For Kids?

Buzz — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:25:15 +0000

Walking With Dinosaurs is an epic live action thriller structured for kids who are crazy about big beasts, but is it too scary? How young is too young for the show?

I went with my 3 yr old and 7 month old and they both LOVED it.

Okay, perhaps Charlie didn’t really understand what was going on, but there were enough bright colours to keep him entertained. Zacharie was equally thrilled, often jumping up to wave to the new dinosaurs when they entered the ring and even growling back at T Rex when the climax took place.

The show does have a bit of gore as 3 dinosaurs pick at the carcass of a dead dino, and there are confrontations throughout the show, but none leading to any big battles.

The big discussion in our house came about whether or not to disprove the mythology of the show. My son was excited to go see “Dinosaurs!” So do we tell him it’s a make-believe dinosaur show or there are real live dinos in the arena? We decided to tell him it was pretend to help allay any fears that might arise (He did, after all, get spooked by the conveyor belt to the melter scene in Toy Story 3).

Sitting down and watching some of the Walking With Dinosaurs videos on YouTube to get him prepared (and excited) for the event also eased him in to the experience.

Walking With Dinosaurs is just real enough to give you a sense of what life was like millions years ago and just fake enough not to totally spook the kids.

Four Fathers on Father’s Day

Buzz — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 19:21:05 +0000

Dads are different. We get it. But Father’s Day is just as important.

This entire website is a dedication to what it means to be a Dad. It’s about compromise, it’s about fear, it’s about leadership, it’s about learning. It’s about patience, it’s about play, it’s about participation, it’s about being last on the list.

Mother’s Day is about brunches, flowers and phone calls. It’s easy to see and appreciate the impact Mother’s make in the world. They are the heartbeat of the family and society. They are the sun around which the planets of the family solar system orbit. Moms matter.

When it comes to economic impact, Father’s Day pulls in about 2/3 of what Mother’s Day makes for companies. It’s not that we love Dad any less, but we just don’t appreciate his work as much.

To help you appreciate the men in your life, here are three other Fathers with stories on Fatherhood.

My dad, Georges:

Becoming a Dad for the majority is the easy part.

Being a Great Dad requires commitment, dedication and giving up a lot of “self” for the good of the child and family.

Balancing work, studies and dad work is difficult. Quality time is important, but so is the quantity of time you spend together.

I’m forever thankful for the many great memories I experienced with my three children. The difficult years of guiding them to adulthood are far behind me but still I worry when a hiccup appears in their life journey.

The important thing now is, that I’m here for them if they need me and they know that.

I’m very thankful that I’ve lived long enough to have three grandchildren which I fully enjoy and take the advantage of visiting them or having them over whenever possible. The neat part of being a Grandpapa is that once you’re exhausted from playing with them, you merely turn around and hand them over to their father.

DadCAMP contributor, Anthony Floyd:

What does being a dad mean? So many things, from primal to modern, mundane to extraordinary: Hunter, gatherer, provider. Fount of information. Teller of tall tales. Slayer of monsters in-the-dark. Medic. Peace-keeper. Good cop. Bad cop. Role-model. Friend. Witness.

It’s that last one that often astonishes me. Witnessing my kids learning something new, doing something new, experiencing the wonder of something new, these are things that often make my eyes go a bit misty. There’s no substitute in the world for witnessing pure joy and excitement in your kids.

An anonymous Dad who is now dealing with the challenges of single fatherhood:

Fatherhood is a slowly walked journey. With each step you divide yourself in half: you one side, your child on the other, and then as your foot touches the ground you put those pieces together into a whole. Repeat one million tiny times.

The beauty of Fatherhood, for me, as a single parent, is that it is the ultimate expression of masculine individuality. I can claim it to be exactly what I want for me and my child, uncompromisingly, and in doing so I model for my child all the things I want for her.

For more thoughts on the day, check out the entry JP Holecka posted yesterday and read Graeme McRanor’s essay in The Vancouver Sun.

Happy Father’s Day.

Warming up to Fathers Day…

JP — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 17:48:52 +0000

Well, I’ll admit that I have never been one for what I have considered to be Hallmark holidays. Those are days like Mothers Day, Fathers Day and well Administrative Professionals’ Day (formerly Secretary’s Day) for that matter.

If you ask my wife she will tell you that I have even said things like “Valentine’s Day is every day and I don’t need no stinking third party to force me to express my love for you on a certain day of the year…bla, bla, bla.”. I know pretty lame right? I will say that I have not lived a double standard and always downplayed the idea of fathers day too.

Well as I get older, and I guess wiser for that matter, I have warmed up to these days of celebrating and appreciating others hard work. I have come to realize that if we did not have them spelled out a lot of folks would pretty much never get any official recognition or appreciation for what they do. The other fact is we now are running at a non stop pace and are working longer hours and the emphasis on our home life and parenting has really been de-prioritized.

It is that last point that has been most at work on me in recent years because I have been running a business and it seems like every waking hour has been dedicated to just that, work. Sure I become a dad in the mornings when I make my son breakfast and get him ready for school and then again and at night when it’s bath time etc. Weekends too have been shortened with regards to having time to be a dad. Sunday has usually been split with work and family and I am quite often prepping for the busy week ahead. I rarely even had time to take off during the week to go and see my son’s school activities.

Well I decided this year to change that and I have also changed my idea on the Hallmark holiday thing too. I am now making time to leave the office and go to my son’s events at school, I made sure mother’s day was a bigger event in our house [I need to up my game there even more I think.] and will except the fact that I can be recognized as a father on fathers day too.

My first official Fathers Day event was yesterday at my son’s school at 2pm. Yes that’s right in the middle of my work day and normally I would have rebuffed the event to complete the weeks work and would have somehow justified it as a necessity, you know providing for the family and all. I decided that I would ask my wife to stay home even though she was invited to the school event. She always goes and I knew that I would have hid behind her when I got there. This was a Fathers Day event and I was going to go full force on it and that meant solo.

When I got there there were a ton of other dads and they all brought their wives. Slightly rattled that maybe I should have done the same I pushed on. The agenda included snacks, making a home made sailboat and racing it, songs from the kids and a few marginally fatherly related things. It was pretty fun and I must admit making the boat with my done and totally over engineering the sail was fun.

I took pride in the fact that I went solo and was in full “dad mode.” The work that needed to be done in that time? Well, I just put the hustle on in the morning and made sure I had it all done in time to go to the event.

Now tomorrow is Father’s Day and I will enjoy what my wife and son have planned for me. I may not be the dad in “My Three Sons” but I am a dad none the less and I am making sure that more time in the day is spent as such.

Balancing Your Needs And Theirs

Buzz — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 21:00:46 +0000

Being a dad isn’t always about doing what you want to do. Actually, it rarely is. It’s about compromise.

I received a last minute invitation to see Mitch Joel and Gary Vaynerchuk speak today. The invite would mean I would heave the two boys on my wife to take to a busy doctor’s office and would skip an afternoon gymnastics class.

These are two of my favourite social media, marketing and branding guys. They get it. I see a lot of myself in the messages they preach and very often they speak or write about topics I myself have laid out in my media blog, cyberbuzz. I’ve even written about both of them on this site, as each is a father.

So you could say I’m a fanboy.

So I called my wife to start last minute negotiations. Quickly I realized I could juggle half the day, but wouldn’t be able to pull off the whole thing. I could see Mitch, but I would have to skip lunch watching the Italy / Paraguay soccer game and I’d definitely miss Gary’s talk as it was the exact same time as gymnastics.

So I saw Mitch, was inspired, bought his book, had a quick chat with him and ran off to take Zacharie to class – and it’s a good thing I did: today was the day they handed out the medals.

He takes his gymnastics at a venue home to a few Olympians. There are flags and awards adorning the lobby and so they take “graduation” seriously. A mini podium was set up and each student received a medal.

I didnt watch Gary Vee pump the crowd up and Crush It! I didn’t watch Italy claw back against Paraguay. I watched a 3 year old bounce on a trampoline and win gold.

That’s the best day ever.

The DadCAMP Workout

Buzz — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 16:10:51 +0000

Sure, having a beer belly is a side effect of having children, but if you mix in the right amount of play with your kids, you can get a pretty effective workout. It’s not going to get you into the Olympics anytime soon, but it will help you fight the aging effects that are soon to follow when they grow into aggravating teenagers.

A trip to the park is an easy excuse to demonstrate your masterful skills on the monkey bars. Okay, I can’t make it one from one to the other, but make that trip a daily occurrence and you never know the progress you can make.

Engaging in a game of tag with your kids is a great way to burn off some steam in a field. You’re zigging, zagging and starting and stopping. Even with a 3 year old, I can work some masterful magic.

Sports in the driveway are a great way to raise your heart rate. From shooting hoops, to tossing a pass or chasing down a frisbee, you can burn a few calories in just a few minutes. And the younger the kid, the easier the workout. Trust me, 3 year olds can’t throw a frisbee with accuracy, you’ll be chasing it all over the neighborhood.

I also like to pretend to do weights with my infant son. He’s 5 months old, about 16 pounds and reaching him up in the air is a great arm and chest workout. When I need harder sets I lift up the 3 year old.

Bike rides and running can be worked in to the workout mix too. I have a bike seat for my son to sit on the back of my mountain bike and we’ll ride around the nearby neighborhoods checking out geocaches and searching for new playgrounds to explore. An after dinner ride can go for an hour and it’s fun for both of us. Running with a stroller like a Mountain Buggy is easy to do too. The kids love the breeze on their face and the extra weight of the stroller extends the benefits of your workout.

When it comes right down to it, being an active and participating parent is the best way to get a workout. Running your kids will give you exercise, will tire them out for a better night’s sleep and will bond the whole family together.

YouTube stars Rhett and Link demonstrate some other ways kids can be used in your workout.

What’s your DadCAMP workout?

His Name Is Zacharie, Not Zach.

Buzz — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 03:03:11 +0000

It inevitably happens immediately after we introduce our son to someone new.

“This is Zacharie,” we say.

“Hey, Zach! Give me five!” they immediately respond.

I’m sure we’re not the only ones that cringe at the shortening of our son’s name by someone trying to sound friendly and hip with our son. We introduce him as Zacharie, we identify his name as Zacharie and it becomes Zach. It’s nails on a chalkboard for my wife.

If you named your son Benjamin or your daughter Jennifer, you know the pain. My wife and I spent weeks negotiating the name and the one we settled on was not Zach. It’s Zacharie.

Things are different for number 2 though. His birth certificate says Charles, yet we call him Charlie. I insisted on Charles for the official name so it would fulfill my wish to have children with french names, my wife insisted on calling him Charlie because that’s the name she likes. It’s our compromise and we introduce him as Charlie.

Sure, there are other nicknames for our boys. Charlie has become Choo Choo, Chooch or Charlie Choo Choo.

Zacharie is also known around the house as Bunny, Chicken Man or Spider Man. None of them make sense, but they’re the pet names we call our children and you can be guaranteed I’ll never introduced you to them with those names.

I will introduce you to my boys Charlie and Zacharie and expect them to be called that, not Chuck and Zach.

Do you have issues with people shortening your kids’ names?

Giving Your Kids Character Without Characters

Buzz — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 20:33:31 +0000

I just bought tickets for Z and I to check out Yo Gabba Gabba Live this fall. It will be his first live concert tour type show and the first time we’ve really buckled under the pressure of commercial characterization.

Sure, he has a train set and a few pieces are from that train, but most of the track and cars are from Ikea or the generic wooden track bin in the toy store.

Sure, we re-enact lines from The Backyardigans Save The Day episode every night in the bath, but he doesnt have a complete bed sheet and towel set plastered with Pablo, Austin, Uniqua and Tyrone.

Yes, we brought him to a baby fair to get his picture taken with Max and Ruby when he was younger, and he and I will run around the yard pretending to be Super Bunny and Zoom Zoom, but the gear associated with the characters hasn’t infiltrated his toy chest.

Go out and try to buy your kids a bike helmet at WalMart and you’ll be hard pressed to find anything without Cars, Dora, or Elmo on it. Wander the aisles of toys and they’re all tied to Bob The Builder, Thomas The Tank Engine or Diego.

Try and buy diapers without Winnie the Pooh or Elmo or Nemo on the waist band – you can’t. From the minute our children are hours old, the message of characterization starts to weave into their lives.

Two weeks ago, Thomas arrived at our local train yard. The crowds were huge, the tickets were more expensive than usual and there were tantrums from the target audience.

The week after that show, we took Z to the same yard and for $3 we rode a full sized train. It was vintage engine pulling the cars, not a bright blue one, but you couldn’t tell that from the inside and all that mattered was the whistle blew and steam chugged.

I’ve heard stories of mall appearances by the likes of Dora where parents offered mall security hundreds of dollars to skip the line and give their children access. Working at a radio station I’ve received calls from frantic parents when The Spice Girls were on tour saying they needed to get their 3 year old tickets to the show.

Z’s 3rd birthday party last weekend featured a blue cupcake cake. The streamers and noisemakers and loot bags were bright and colourful, but there was no Buzz, Woody or Shrek to be found anywhere.

Parents Magazine reports that some birthday parties are becoming extravagant like weddings. Ours was burgers and chips and carrots with our family and neighbours. The star of the show wasn’t a bouncy castle or clown – it was my friend’s 5 pound pug.

I’m trying to give Z a balance in his life. Yes, characters will be involved – it’s inevitable. But we’ll let him choose the ones he enjoys and we won’t over expose him to the marketing of the characters. He’s 3 – he doesn’t know that Yo Gabba Gabba is on tour and wouldn’t really miss it if we didn’t go, but it’s a show we watch together, so we’ll enjoy it together.

What’s your parenting policy when it comes to characters? Is your playroom filled with major players or is it a more generic state of play?

Flip For Mom

Buzz — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 23:55:04 +0000

Hey, look! It’s a big celebratory contest for the 100th post at DadCAMP!

Here at DadCAMP, we love mothers. (Not exactly in that SNL way)

If you’re a mother lover, here’s a chance to show the special mom in your life how much you appreciate her. In celebration of our 100th post at DadCAMP and Mother’s Day, we have a Flip Ultra HD to giveaway.

The Flip UltraHD camcorder combines Flip Video’s signature shoot-and-share simplicity with the power of vivid, vibrant HD video. With 2 hours of record time, you’ll never miss another minute again. And because of UltraHD’s pocket-sized portability, you’ll truly be able to capture HD video anytime, anywhere.

I love my Flip Mino HD. It’s handy to tuck into a pocket and it’s what I use to shoot most of my videos. Having a dedicated film camera that’s portable let’s me keep the camera settings on shots while the Flip is on standby for video.

Winning is easy.

Simply post a comment below telling me about a mother you love and why she should have the super easy to use Flip Ultra HD to make movies about the ones she loves.

OR you can tweet up this contest with the hashtag #dadcampflip

OR write an open letter to a mom you love on your own blog and link back to this giveaway.

Simple!

You need to have your entry online before May 8, one winner will be selected at random.

Photo by Brian Daniel Eisenberg

A World Without Grandparents

Buzz — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 20:44:20 +0000

We’ve just moved to a new city that’s 1 time zone away from paternal grandparents and 2 away from maternal grandparents. There is no more quick phone call to get them to drive the 20 minutes to look after the boys while we make a Sunday run to Costco. There’s no date night to go and see Date Night.

I’m not saying grandparents are only good for babysitting, but when you have a newborn and a toddler, pawning them off on family is a lot easier than leaving them in the arms of a stranger.

I did a random Twitter poll asking people when they first grabbed babysitters for their newborns and most agreed it was until a year that they were comfortable leaving them with someone else.

What do you do when you’re all alone? How do you recharge your batteries away from your kids and nurture your relationship when there are no grandparents around?

Admit it – sometimes we need a break. Date night for us is now a family weekend breakfast at Dennys. Nothing wrong with that, but its still a family time and not a grown up time. I work the morning shift at a radio station, up at 415a each day, so even the quiet time after the kids go to bed doesnt exist since most nights I’m falling asleep at 8p right alongside them.

We’re in a new city alone. We’ve made some friends with parents in the neighborhood, but haven’t reached that “I’m going for a hair/pedicure/dentist appointment this afternoon, can you watch my kids stage” – it’s all a juggle.

How do yo do it?

Geocaching For Beginners

Guest — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 21:20:32 +0000

This article was written by Sean Funk.

Have you ever wanted to explore your city? Go to new places? Have fun with your kids? Geocaching is for for you.

What is geocaching??

According to geocaching.com the definition of geocaching is…

Geocaching is a high-tech treasure hunting game played throughout the world by adventure seekers equipped with GPS devices. The basic idea is to locate hidden containers, called geocaches, outdoors and then share your experiences online. Geocaching is enjoyed by people from all age groups, with a strong sense of community and support for the environment

I just started caching a couple months ago, and my family loves it. What person doesn’t like hunting for treasure? My children eat it up, they love to find the cache and then argue over what they are going to trade for.

To get started with geocaching all you need is a GPS (preferably a handheld model) and a membership to geocaching.com. (It is free to join but can upgrade to a $30/year membership which has some “advanced” features that you might be interested in if/when you get addicted.) If you have a GPS enabled phone, like the iPhone, there are “apps for that.” We used a great geocaching app that can be downloaded here.

After you sign up for your account I would suggest entering your address in the “search for geocaches” section of the homepage. You would be amazed to see how many caches are within walking distance from your home.

Click on a few and read the description.

There is a difficulty and terrain levels that are something to consider, especially when caching with kids. I have never done anything harder than a difficulty 2 and a terrain 2 when caching with small children. Also take a look at the cache size which can sometimes increase the difficulty. There is sometimes a hint which can be very helpful. Reading through the recent logs section can sometimes help you along.

Ok so you have located a cache and you want to go find it. Now what do you do?

You can enter the coordinates in your GPS and off you go. With the geocaching iPhone app you can also “find nearby geocaches” or “search by GC code” which is also very handy. Once you get to the coordinates of the cache you usually have to search around. (Remember GPS can be out a few meters.) Search up, down and especially under. My kids especially like this part and I truly think they are better at it then I am. They have better “caching sense” than I do.

Don’t be disappointed if you don’t find the cache right away. Reread the description, read the hint, and read the recent logs. All of these will help you look in the right direction.

Ok I found the cache, now what???

The cache will usually be some type of plastic container of varying size and will contain at minimum a log book. First things first, sign the log book. And then, this is the fun part, you can trade for whats in the cache with something of equal or greater value.

My kids love to trade stuff. We have a cache box that we bring along that has little toys and such that we scrounged from the house. Somehow there is a lot of McDonalds toys in that box

Now all the trading is done and the log book is signed, you need to put the cache back in the same spot for the next geocacher to find.

Remember to watch out for “muggles” while caching.

These are non-geocachers who may not understand why you are looking under stumps and such. The last thing anyone wants is for a cache to be stolen or destroyed by a muggle. So be secretive, the kids also like this. Our family was once searching for a cache in a playground, there happened to be another family playing there. My children weren’t so secretive as our oldest decided to scream across the playground “Did you find the cache yet?”. Kids will be kids.

When you get home you can log your find on geocaching.com if you haven’t done so already on your GPS enabled phone.

Some things to help you along.

The forums on geocaching.com are awesome and there are many fellow cachers just waiting to help.

Also if you arrive at a cache site and there is someone else staring at a GPS, say HI, we are mostly friendly. I have met lots of awesome people while caching.

I have had many unique experiences while caching. As a father it is always a quick way to get the kids out of the house and away from the TV. When ever we see or receive a small toy the children always say “hey we can put that in the cache box” . It is great to see them excited about something that everyone in the family enjoys. We once ran into a fellow caching couple and they said one of my favorite quotes “if we weren’t caching we would just be sitting in front of the TV”.

Caching also brings families together that have similar interests. Once when caching with another family we found a very interesting cache. It was a empty 3ft. long artillery shell that was wrapped in tree bark and then was leaning against a tree. It was just a couple feet from the trail but you would have never noticed it unless you were looking for it. There are many caches in the city hidden in obvious places like under bus stops in a small magnetic micro container. No bigger then your thumbnail.

No matter how young or old you are, geocaching is a awesome way to explore your city or others. On our first caching experience I discovered a huge duck pond at a park I had been to a thousand times. Remember you never know what is in you own backyard. As a parent I find that when geocaching there are many opportunities to teach my children. Whether it is about local plants or wildlife or how to deal with personal interactions with people we see on our day.

Have fun caching. See you on the trail.

Sean is a busy dad to two girls aged 7 and 6 and a very active 2 ½ year old boy. Sean’s day are spent changing the big tires for Fountain Tire while nights are spent along side his wife Sarah as a super-parenting duo, chauffeuring kids, making school lunches and conquering the bed time routine. Sean’s love for gadgets, technology and Geocaching can be followed on his twitter feed @seanfunk.

Photo by BobnRenee on Flickr