Bunchland

Meet Howard Mount, a neuroscientist at the University of Toronto, who has been canoeing with his two children since they were toddlers.

“Travel a thousand miles by train and you are a brute; pedal five hundred on a bicycle and you remain basically a bourgeois; paddle a hundred in a canoe and you are already a child of nature.” –Pierre Trudeau

Using Trudeau’s logic, Dr. Mount and his siblings have been children of nature since before they finished high school. From short loops through Algonquin Park and multi-week adventures around James Bay  with their father to working at summer camps for disadvantaged youth, they’ve been canoeing all their lives, and to this day, they try to take a trip together every fall. Canoe trips make for the most satisfying vacations, Dr. Mount says, because, since you must pay attention to everything while on the water, you’re focused on the present and are able to connect to your family without distractions. The best conversations are often had in a canoe since it’s okay to paddle in silence, so when you do talk, it’s more likely to matter. And so it’s not surprising that Dr. Mount had his own children on the water almost as soon as they could hold a paddle.  Read more...

Chess do it!

Today’s Postcard from Bunchland comes from Badger416 in Toronto.

Learning to bake is an important life skill.

Today’s Postcard from Bunchland comes from radioflyer007 in California.

Hate to break it to you, friends, but summer is drawing to a close. There is, however, still a string of sunny August days left, and we want you to make the most of it! So here’s the official Bunchland list of things you need to do before it’s back to pencils, books and lunches in the school cafeteria.

1. Get wet

Whether you laze a day away at the beach, practice your doggy paddle in the neighbourhood pool or host the biggest water balloon fight your block has ever seen, you gotta beat the heat somehow, and frankly, turning up the AC just isn’t as fun.

2. Make a new friend

Maybe the whole family’s going gaga over a new pet, or maybe the kids are begging for nonstop playdates with camp friends, but there’s something about summer that makes everyone a little bit friendlier.  Read more...

What we’re reading today:

1. September will be here in just a few weeks, and children across the country will be back in the classroom. With the return to school comes a whole slew of worries for parents – are the kids getting enough sleep? Enough exercise? Too much homework? Healthy lunches? Here’s how you can deal with some back-to-school anxieties.

2. Yesterday, we were reading about what to call stepmoms. Blended family dynamics are popping up on our radar again with the question of distinguishing “full siblings” from “half siblings.”

3. Let’s head to science class with a look at the blurry boundary between fantasy and reality for young children.

4. On an end-of-summer road trip? Don’t let each family member slip away into their iEverythings, but pop in an audiobook. The kilometres will fly by as you explore new worlds all together.  Read more...

This kid is made for walking!

Today’s Postcard from Bunchland comes from lindsey gee via Flickr.

Full Disclosure: Bunchland is working with the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario. Over the next couple of weeks, we’ll be blogging, Tweeting and Facebooking about building better elementary schools for our kids and asking you guys what you think makes a school awesome, whether it’s a principal with a strong vision, parent involvement or beanbag chairs instead of desks. If you’ve got something to say  – say it. We’d love to hear what you think. To get the ball rolling,  we’ve rounded up some examples of schools that take a creative approach to being awesome. Would you like to see your kid’s school adopt any of these ideas?

1. Brightworks: An Extraordinary School

 Read more...