Bunchland’s outgoing editor Amanda Factor shares her favourite posts from the past year
Since Bunchland launched in January, the roster of talented writers blogging for us has grown. Our blogger pool is now made up of a diverse group of people, and I’m really proud of how far the site has come!
I was thrilled when Beth Blenz-Clucas agreed to blog about music for us. Beth runs Sugar Mountain PR, representing kindie music artists, so needless to say she was the perfect choice as our music blogger. Every Monday, Beth’s 2 Tunes 2 Ways posts appear on Bunchland, pairing a kids’ song with a grown-up song that all members of the family can enjoy. Her posts are fantastic and expose us to music we’ve never heard of before, and sometimes they remind us of songs from our childhood that we’d forgotten about. Read more...
The details: We saw this hilarious one-man show last time it ran in Toronto, and we laughed till we thought we were going to pee our pants. It’s a great concept: the audience members are supposed to be “students” watching a school assembly, and Mike McMurtry plays all of the ridiculous characters, including a Bieber-obsessed teenage girl, a cranky custodian and a cop who secretly dreams of being a kids’ entertainer. His interaction with the crowd makes this already extremely entertaining show even more awesome.
New Year’s Eve doesn’t have to mean scrambling to find a babysitter or skipping a night of partying. With a bit of planning ahead, kids and New Year’s can be seamlessly combined to create a fun night for the whole family, full of activities you’ll all look back on.
At a loss for how to pull this off? Presenting the Bunchland Guide to New Year’s Eve, our collection of ideas for having the best lead-up to midnight (and the most relaxing New Year’s Day) ever.
For starters, night tobogganing is a perfect multi-family activity. Round up some friends and neighbours and head for the hills. Enjoy the crisp winter air and the shrieking of your kids as they coast along at lightning speed. With some preparation, you can avoid your tobogganing sesh being cut short because everyone’s too cold. We recommend lots of layers and a thermos filled with hot chocolate or another hot beverage. Read more...
Throughout the Winter Break, we’re rounding up some of our greatest ideas for things to do.
So it’s Winter Break and you’re stuck in your city instead of a tropical resort. Big deal. Being stuck in your city isn’t a bad thing. In fact, we don’t even want you to use the word “stuck” when referring to being in your city.
Even if you think you know your city like you know the Easter eggs in Super Mario Bros. 3, there’s always a little pocket (or two or three or more) your family hasn’t explored yet. And Winter Break is the perfect time to stock up on bus tokens (or buy a day pass), pick the area that interests your family most and head there for a few solid hours of aimless wandering, sampling food from local restaurants and ducking in and out of shops. Read more...
On Salon, writer Kate Haas waxes sentimental about the box of fugly retro maternity wear her mother shipped to her. At first she hems and haws over the collection of unwearable items — like a “thick yellow cotton dress with black buttons and piping (for that pregnant bumblebee look)” — she eventually realizes how meaningful her mother’s gift is.
When one of the Bunchland editors was a kid, she wrote a short story called “The Boy Who Ate a Crayon.” Predictably, it was about a boy who ate a crayon and the resulting aftermath. Several years later, the eating of crayons is close to being an everyday thing. Boing Boing reports on edible crayons made with fruits, nuts, seeds and dried veggies. I think a sequel to the original short story is in order: “The Boy Who Ate a Crayon…And It Was Delicious!” Read more...
The best family entertainment for this lazy, lazy day
Presenting Bunchland’s Guide to New Year’s Day. You ready? Got a pen? Okay, here it is:
1. Sleep in.
2. When you eventually wake up, with the help of no alarms whatsoever, make pancakes.
3. Eat the pancakes.
4. Do not, repeat, do not change out of your pajamas.
5. Watch DVDs. For the rest of the day.
New Year’s Day is the perfect time tear into a TV show or movie box set for a marathon session in front of the tube. A box set is a beautiful thing: no commercials, no planning your life around a TV schedule, and best of all, you can watch as many episodes as you want in one sitting. Read more...
