My five year old gives Boulderz Climbing Centre a try!

Location:
1444 Dupont St. Unit #16
Toronto, ON, M6P 4H3
Website
416.516.6666

My son's teacher recommended that he take up rock climbing to strengthen is fingers and assist with his fine motor development as a way to improve his printing skills. After a search and phone call to Boulderz I decided we were ready to give rock climbing a try. We arrived after school one day and the owner was there, he was extremely helpful. Showed us the ropes so to speak... took us to the kids area complete with a slide. We played around in there for a while, it isn't a place where you can spend hours upon hours as it is relatively small but my son loved climbing up and then sliding down. After we mastered this we headed to the larger open area and the owner was kind enough to let my son try out the harness and hit the wall. He did pretty good for his first try.

What I liked about rock climbing for kids:
1. Fun
2. Allows them to concentrate and learn to follow directions
3. Great for boys who are trying to strengthen their fingers for writing skills
4. Exposure to something new and different

More Info:

Child & Youth Programs
Note: All of our child and youth programs qualify for the "Children's Fitness Tax Credit".

The "Little Rock" Program is available Wednesdays 5:30-7pm and Saturdays 10-11:30am to children aged 5+. This is a 10 week program that focuses on movement, technique, fitness and confidence building.

Our Competitive and Pre-competitive Program runs Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4:30pm-6:30pm for children 7 years and older. This program runs from September until the end of June, however, new participants can join at any time.

Drop-in kids klimb! Every Sunday from 10am-1pm, children youth under 18 years old climb for $10. This price includes harness and shoe rental as well as unlimited climbing until 1pm. A great way to introduce indoor rock climbing to your child! Children under 12 years old need a parent to stay with them, and all participants MUST have a waiver form signed by their parent.

Read More

H1N1 Virus Update - October 30th as reported from Inside Toronto

H1N1 clinics for priority groups only next week (Content courtesy of Inside Toronto) Date written: October 30th

Province confirms shortage of H1N1 vaccine next week. A Toronto public health nurse injects a youngster with the H1N1 vaccine during an innoculation clinic held Friday at the Scarborough Civic Centre. Staff photo/DAN PEARCE

In light of a shortage of the H1N1 flu vaccine from the supplier, provincial Health Minister Deb Matthews said flu shot clinics across Ontario will have to be scaled back next week.

Matthews made the comments Friday, Oct. 30 afternoon, and by 5 p.m. the City of Toronto's chief medical officer of health Dr. David McKeown announced that next week's clinics in the city would only be for priority patients.

"We will be asking healthy people who are not in the priority groups to be patient and to not attend those clinics," said McKeown.

Originally, next week's clinics were to be for members of the general public, but that is now no longer the case. Only priority groups will be given the vaccine.

Priority groups are pregnant women, children aged six months to five years, people under 65 with chronic conditions, people who live with or care for infants under six months and immuno-compromised people and health care workers.

Matthews said the federal government told the province there are only 500,000 doses of the vaccine available next week from the manufacturer for the entire country.

Ontario, which received 700,000 doses of the vaccine this week, will now be receiving just 170,000 doses during the coming week instead of the one million it was expecting.

Toronto clinics on Oct. 29 and 30 for priority groups were inundated with those looking to receive the vaccine. Lines snaked outside civic centres for hours until most clinics were forced to close early.

The following is the schedule for next week's clinics for priority patients in Toronto:

On Saturday, clinics will be offered from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Timothy Eaton Business and Technical Institute at 1251 Bridletowne Circle, the Melody Public School gym at 24 Strathburn Blvd., the East York Civic Centre at 850 Coxwell Ave., and the Etobicoke Civic Centre at 399 The West Mall.

On Monday, clinics will run from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the East York Civic Centre, the North York Civic Centre, the North Toronto Memorial Community Centre at 200 Eglinton Ave. W., the Etobicoke Civic Centre, Melody Public School, the Masaryk-Cowan Community Centre at 220 Cowan Ave., the Scarborough Civic Centre, the North Kipling Community Centre at 2 Rowntree Rd., and the Timothy Eaton Business and Technical Institute.

Starting Tuesday, all clinics will run from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. until Friday and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Given the rapidly changing situation and new information coming in, please visit the city's public health website at www.toronto.ca/health

Read More

My Fun Night at the ROM

I just got back from the ROM to see the Vanity Fair Photo Exhibit. I really enjoyed it. I paid $11 for my ticket- Price of a movie! You can visit the ROM on Fridays, from 4:30 pm to 9:30 pm for $11 - a real steal. For more info on prices visit here.

Personally, I find the price of culture these days so expensive. So finding a deal like this makes me feel better about our society in relation to the arts. Culture should be available to everyone regardless of your economic situation. I find the prices of these activities expensive to say the least- it makes me sad to think that there are children who because of cost are not exposed to the arts. On my journey to the ROM via subway I noticed that there is an organization advertised called Arts for Children of Toronto. I would like to see this type of program available in all schools! Really neat. Anyway, check out the ROM on Friday nights. Don't be alarmed by the line up - it goes really fast although the membership sales lady is awfully tempting with her lure of "don't stand in line and buy a membership" - which by the way costs $139 for a family/year. Also, I should mention that ROM also does have a program called Royal Ontario Museum’s Community Access Network (ROM CAN)- which provides free tickets to communities and individuals who may not otherwise visit the Museum. The United Way Toronto distributes tickets through its network of health and social service agencies. The Institute for Canadian Citizenship distributes Museum family passes to new Canadians during citizenship ceremonies each month, as part of its Cultural Access Pass Program.

Read More

99 Libraries in Toronto - A Bloggers' Quest

Check out this interesting blog written by a teacher who has given herself the quest to visit 99 Toronto libraries in one year. Her blog gives you interesting info on all of Toronto's wonderful libraries. Here is the link: http://c-raine.com

Read More