One day, you and your kid will stroll through the galleries of the Museum of Modern Art. Your kid will blush as you inform all the gallery-goers of your offspring’s first important MoMA installation.
But before that day comes, you must introduce your baby to the arts and foster a love of all things creative. Start simple; newborns really respond to contrast. OUTSET Art Fund founder Yana Peel found that her baby couldn’t stop staring at the black and white Julian Opie (you’d recognize his Blur best-of album cover) she had hanging on the wall. And so she conceived the idea for the Art for Baby book.
The board book features work from Damien Hirst, Gary Hume, Julian Opie and Paul Morrison, among others. All the artists donated the use of their works and a portion of all the book sales go to the NSPCC. Read more...
Beth Blenz-Clucas blogs about music for kids that grownups will love too
Children hear recorded music almost constantly, whether it be from their iPods or from advertising jingles and jangly kid TV and video game soundtracks.
It is magical, then, to watch a child discover real people playing real musical instruments. More and more, as schools cut funding for the arts, it becomes the parent’s job to be sure kids get to experience this.
Some artists are exceptional in the way that they tailor their performances to captivate young people. Oran Etkin, a master clarinetist with world renown for his 2009 jazz-African music fusion release Kelenia, has spent a lot of time thinking about and practicing ways to foster a love of music. He’s developed a program he calls Timbalooloo, designed to excite the innate musicality of children. Last fall, Oran released his first children’s CD Wake Up, Clarinet, which won several national awards and wide critical acclaim. The songs were developed from his Timbalooloo music classes, endorsed by smart NYC parents like Naomi Watts and Edie Falco. Read more...
It’s no surprise that kids often come out looking much more like one parent than the other, but bi-racial twins who end up looking like they’re different ethnicities from one another is something else entirely. Little Triniti Cunningham has more of her dad’s dark features, while her twin brother Gabe has their mom’s blond hair and blue eyes. Neat. We don’t remember how to work out the punnett squares for this possibility. Via Parentcentral.ca
Statistically, a “normal” family is no longer the nuclear family we’re so often presented with: a married mom and dad and their biological children. Now, more unmarried couples are raising kids, more single women are raising kids without a male partner, more gay and lesbian couples are raising kids, etc. etc.The New York Times wants to know what says, “family” to you. Read more...
Watch the 83rd Annual Academy Awards with your kids
You’ve watched all nominated films (or two of them), you’re curious to see what James Franco and Anne Hathaway have planned and you’ve made bets with your pals as to whether or not Natalie Portman will break out her bizarre laugh. The show itself doesn’t officially start until 8:00 p.m., and we can barely stay awake for the Best Picture announcement, never-mind the kids staying up that late, so why not kick things off early with a pre-pre-game and get everyone involved in cheering on their favourite movies and starlets. (Official pre-game here meaning armchair fashion criticism)
Here’s how to get everyone involved in Hollywood’s biggest night:
Assemble a bunch of dress-up clothes: Old Halloween costumes, sunglasses, random sequined items, clutch purses, oodles of costume jewelry, sashes, ties and vests or jackets
Meri Perra blogs about the challenges she and her partner face in trying to raise their girls with feminist values
If you haven’t seen it, and don’t know the Big Thing that happens in this movie, here is your spoiler alert. Otherwise, read on!
In my early twenties, I lived for three things: weekends in Toronto’s LGBTQ village, drag kings and Tuesday afternoons in my women’s sexuality class. The subtext of all of these activities, of course, was the pursuit of sex with women. The times were good.
My group of friends back then had a re-occurring, inside joke. Because every sexuality class, every one, my professor would say the following: “Sexuality is fluid,” she’d say. “A woman may be heterosexual until, say, she reaches the age of 32 and then she may fall in love with a woman and become a lesbian.”Read more...
Parent-kid movie critic teams review the latest flicks
Check out the review after the trailer
So what did Diane, Hazel and Leo think about Shakespeare reinterpreted with garden gnomes?
Want to be considered to film your own Big Thumb Little Thumb and take your kid to a fancy media screening of an upcoming movie? Email meghan@bunchfamily.com
One day, you and your kid will stroll through the galleries of the Museum of Modern Art. Your kid will blush as you inform all the gallery-goers of your offspring’s first important MoMA installation.
