a peek inside the fishbowl

If you are the kind of person who’d enjoy an opportunity to chat with writers about their ideas and inspirations in a small, friendly setting you might be interested in The Writer’s Room, an intimate evening of story, song, food and wine to benefit the Ottawa School of Speech and Drama’s scholarship program. It’s going to be on Saturday March 31, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. and only 70 seats are available.

This year’s roster of writers includes:

• Brian Doyle “Angel Square”
• Sandra Nicholls “And the Seas Shall Turn to Lemonade”
• Phil Jenkins “An Acre of Time”

… aaaaannnnnd yours truly. :)

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It’s Friday, and that means I’m posting over at Canadian Family Magazine today!

You know, I love crafts that go the extra mile to encourage creativity (and literacy!), so this week we made our own magnetic word kit. It’s very easy to do AND we managed to toss a whole stack of magazines into the recycle bin at the same time. You can see how we did it over here.

Hey. I just had an idea. You can do this in any language! How about a French-language magnetic word kit for those of us with kids in French immersion? Or maybe Spanish! ¿Qué piensa usted? Que pensez-vous? Co si myslíte? ;)

Some of you probably already know about the Children’s Fitness Tax Credit, but did you know there’s one for Arts programs as well? (Confession: I did not know this before now!)

Parents with children under the age of 16 can receive a credit for up to $75 per child. Artistic and cultural activities include literary arts, visual arts, performing arts, music, media, languages, customs and heritage.

What programs are eligible? Well, good question. I was wondering that too. Here’s how they lay it out.

Eligible activities include an activity that:

• contributes to the development of creative skills or expertise in artistic or cultural activities;
• provides a substantial focus on wilderness and the natural environment;
• helps children develop and use particular intellectual skills;
• includes structured interaction among children where supervisors teach or help children develop interpersonal skills; or
• provides enrichment or tutoring in academic subjects.

That means that things like piano lessons and drama camp are eligible. Cool eh?

This video explains it all, clear as a bell. You really should watch it, because it explains things better than I can. Besides, numbers and taxes make my head hurt. Especially when I haven’t had a coffee.

You can find more info about the Children’s Arts Tax Credit on the Canada Revenue Agency website. And if you’re not sure if a particular program your child is enrolled in fits the bill, I recommend you call and ask the organizers.

Now the giveaway part! kbs+p (the advertising agency for the Canada Revenue Agency) has sponsored this post but I’m flipping the income over to you. Awhile back, on the Fishbowl Facebook page I asked you guys to vote on what kind of gift card you covet most. I thought you’d go for groceries (I would have bought $100 worth of cheese myself) but the majority rules here. Chapters.ca won!

So:

• This giveaway is for one (1) $100 gift card for Chapters.
• This giveaway is open to Canadian residents but is void in Quebec. (Here’s why.)
• To enter this giveaway, all you need to tell someone else about the Children’s Arts Tax Credit. You can blog about it, send out a tweet (mention me @missfish!), post a quickie Facebook status update with a link to this post, whatever! You MUST let me know what you did in the comments below otherwise your entry will not qualify.
• I will do a random draw of all qualifying comments at noon EST on Thursday March 8, 2012 and mail the gift card to the winner.

Sound good? Over to you!