a peek inside the fishbowl

CAUTION: This post may prompt you to do something for you or your kids that will increase creativity, develop lateral thinking, improve social skills, increase confidence and help you learn how to work as a team.

Mark and I were chatting with the girls recently about schoolyard bullying and teasing, about what they should do if someone aimed a barbed remark in their direction. Our advice was this: Be tough, and act like you don’t care even if you’re cringing on the inside. If you show bullies that their teasing has an effect they’ve never leave you alone.

One of the mottos I live by is this: act brave, because no one can tell if you’re not.

See? Drama.

The Ottawa School of Speech and Drama (OSSD) is an established not-for-profit charitable organization located in Westboro, and I’m very pleased to report that they’re coming on board as a patron. The OSSD offers many different classes for children, youth, adults and professionals as well as drama classes for individuals on the autism spectrum.

Drama is an excellent way to develop literacy, speech, movement, self-confidence, and sense of community. With knowledge of drama and theatre arts come all kinds of skills, lifelong skills that can be applied across the board.

OSSD is the kind of place where kids and adults who love the dramatic arts in all of its forms can find their home away from home. Here’s a little known fact (I had no idea!); the OSSD has scholarships and bursaries, and their outreach programs bring a series of drama workshops throughout the city for children of need, youth at risk, and seniors.

The dramatic arts are serious business here. The Ottawa Theatre School (OTS), a division of OSSD, is an accredited private career college offering a three-year diploma program. You see, this place means business, yet at the same time the OSSD is also very much about learning through play.

I was perusing their programs and I was really surprised by the wide variety of course offerings. There are 29 different classes, and there is truly something for every age:

• An introduction to dramatic play for pre-schoolers
• Music, musical theatre and drama for school age kids. (This class sounds amazing: OSSD’s Introductory Musical Theatre class “lets young students learn how to tell a story through words, movement and song. Students get a chance to act, sing, dance and work chorally as a group. Musical theatre themes and songs are selected based on the needs of the students.”)
• Show Choir for teenage Gleeks (!)
• … and many many interesting adult classes. There are too many to list but you can see them all here. (Use the links on the left-hand side of the page.) I love the sound of this intro to acting class: “The ability to improvise is a life skill — reacting spontaneously to external stimuli can help you entertain a crowd, get a date and get you through a job interview. It’s a very important part of teamwork, creativity, writing, listening, public speaking, corporate presentation skills, and acting. This course gets to the heart of improvisation by tapping into the secret powers that everyone possesses but few utilize. No experience necessary. Be ready to play.” Doesn’t that sound awesome?

And OSSD program are now eligible for the Federal Child Arts Credit. Yay!

Interested? There’s an open house coming up on Saturday September 10, 2011. Go! It’s a great opportunity to meet the instructors and get a glimpse at some of the different programs available.

Thank you OSSD for your patronage!

ALSO: we have a really awesome giveaway coming up next week that you won’t want to miss. Stay tuned for more information!

Oh, library.
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

Regular readers might already know how much I love the Ottawa Public Library. I’ve written about it here and there on the blog, as well as in an article for SavvyMom.

The library is a godsend, and it’s an incredibly important (and large!) part of our lives.

The library helps promote literacy and learning and provides all kinds of amazing programs for a whole range of different people. Everyone is welcome at the library. It’s a place for newcomers to get help, for seniors to find support, for teens to get a hand with their homework, and more. It’s a portal, it’s a hub, it’s a meeting place.

We’ve benefited from our local library so much. We’ve borrowed stacks upon stacks of books and movies. Long family road trips have been made easier because of their great digital audiobook collection. We’ve participated in countless family programs (especially over March Break!) and I am in awe of their interlibrary loan and reservation system, as well as their cool new app which allows me to have the catalogue and reservation system at my fingertips and manage my account (which includes helpful “at a glance” knowledge of my holds and fines). This is a mixed blessing because sometimes I don’t want to know how much we owe. :)

There is so much going on at Ottawa libraries – so much available – and it’s truly mind-boggling. And it seems like they do it quietly and without much fanfare. They host birthday parties, lend museum passes, pedometers, give people access to all kinds of online publications and databases (including Consumer Reports!), and that is just scratching the surface. You really need to poke around the site and see for yourself.

It’s clear that the people behind the Ottawa Public Library are innovative, helpful, and passionate about all that they do. That’s why I’m thrilled to bits that they’ve come on board as a Fishbowl patron.

As kids head back to school the OPL is launching their Every Kid a Card campaign. They believe, as I do, that student success begins with a library card. The library card is a key to a great big world of fun and learning.

The girls each got one a couple of years ago, and I can’t tell you how much having their very own card means to them. To have that card in hand, along with the ability to check out library materials under their own name, is a big deal. And at the Ottawa Library, card-carrying students can receive homework help and benefit from the expertise of librarians, use the computers, and participate in book clubs as well as all kinds of other great activities.

So card your kids! Visit your local branch or bookmobile stop to get your children carded and ready for school. It’s free, and it’s a very quick and easy process. And once your kid has that card in his or her hot little hands, stand back and watch the sparks fly.

Thank you OPL, for everything that you do!

This may seem like a rather bold assertion to make, but I think the next best invention after sliced bread is bottled wine. (And wine delivery, but I will get to that in a bit.)

For some reason I have a pathological inability to make it to the LCBO before closing. As a result, Mark and I have had a few too many lovely steak dinners without a lovely glass of wine to go with it. This seems wrong to me, and awfully sad.

I’m very pleased to welcome a new patron to the Fishbowl: SavvyCompany!

I want to clarify, I’m far from being an aficionado. I like wine, but I don’t know wine, but I’m keen to learn, and, um, enjoy it as much as I can. :)

The Savvy team of accredited Sommeliers design fantastic wine, beer and food events. Some of you may remember a cheese tasting event I went to earlier this summer. It knocked my socks off. It was a very fun, casual, non-intimidating way to learn about some great local cheeses from a real cheese expert. (A cheese sommelier! Wouldn’t you kill for that job?) Here’s a free tip: get on the invite list by emailing cheers@savvycompany.ca because they can sell out quickly.

Want to extend your wine know-how? Check out their upcoming Savvy Events and get introduced to the people behind some of the best wines, beers and foods you’ll ever encounter. (Check this one out! Eep!) You can also enroll in Savvy U appreciation classes to quench your thirst for learning. (Haha. Pun intended.)

Last but not least, you must check out the Savvy Selections wine of the month club. Our first shipment arrived on my birthday. I think I may have hugged the poor delivery guy. (Imagine: “Ding dong! The wine is here!”) It’s a great way to discover hard-to-find Ontario wines that are not available at the LCBO. What’s more, they can be delivered straight to your home or office. It occurs to me that this would make a fantastic gift for the hard-to-buy people in our lives. The Savvy folks also send out a newsletter to go with each delivery, so you can impress your tablemates with witty phrases like: “I really appreciate the value of using New World technologies and traditional winemaking techniques.” :)

And if you make it to the LCBO before it closes (I count myself lucky when this happens) and are wondering what to buy, have their blog “If I only had $100, I would buy at Vintages…” at your mobile fingertips and read up on their Savvy Sommeliers’ wine tips before you buy. There’s tons of great information there, especially for people like me who are often attracted to bottles with pretty labels. (Shhh! Don’t tell anyone.)

Thank you SavvyCompany for your patronage. I think we make a great pairing, and I look forward to much more wining and dining in the near future!