Festival Theatre by the Avon River, Stratford , Ontario

The Stratford Festival has been going on since 1953 in Stratford, Ontario.  Many of my colleagues and friends have visited and made weekend trips or annual holidays out of going to the festival.

A nice an hour and half  drive from Toronto to Stratford

A pleasant an hour and forty minute drive out of Toronto, Stratford is a beautiful city on the Avon River in southwestern Ontario.

We drove there last Sunday, after the early morning Sunday service. It was a sunny day with a blue sky and mild temperatures.

The Town of Shakespeare, just a few kilometers outside of Stratford, Ontario

We talked a little bit, grabbed a coffee from the Cambridge Enroute Station and drove past  rural scenery.




Before we even realized it, we reached a little town called Shakespeare, just a few kms outside Stratford!

After living in southern Ontario for nearly forty years, I did not even realize that we have a little town named after the famous English playwright.







We got to Stratford around 1:00p.m. therefore we had a few minutes to look around before the 2:p.m. show. After parking our car in a parking lot not far from the Visitor Centre, we strolled leisurely and enjoyed the activities in the park.
( Note: parking right at the Festival Theatre would have cost $12.00 - 18.00)  Our parking spot was only a stone throw away and it was free! )

Stratford - "The Prettiest City in the World"

View of the Avon river

 It was a lovely walk along the bank of Avon River! What a picture perfect scenery!

No wonder, Stratford was crowned as the " Prettiest City in the World"by Nations in Bloom in 1997!
Wow! ( We are even better than Paris?)


Ducklings and swans swimming on the river while birds hovering along the river banks and a few peddle boats passing by.

Avon River - A perfect place for a picnic!

With an abundance of  picnic tables and park benches placed throughout the river side park, many visitors brought picnic lunches, spread their tablecloth,  throwing their heads back, munching on goodies while sipping wine from their wine glasses, enjoying a quiet and unhurried moment.

Swans - a symbol of the city of Stratford

I could not get enough pictures of this tranquil and breathtaking scenery!

Art in the Park

There was also an Art in the Park event going on with many artists displaying and selling their work in the park.

Many artists displayed their work in the park

We could have easily spent a whole afternoon relaxing in the park and admiring all the art displays.



















 However, we were here for the afternoon show, and must arrive at the Festival Theatre a few minutes before.

Festival Theatre - One of the four theatres in Stratford, Ontario

Brilliant flowers in bloom - Festival Theatre gardens

 With the Stratford Festival, there are four theatres with different plays going on during the annual season. I think the Festival Theatre is the prettiest one.  I was glad that we were watching King Lear at this venue.

There were gardens with brilliant colour flowers in bloom in front of the Festival Theatre.

There was even a formal English garden with the Statue of Shakespeare welcoming audiences to the plays he wrote five hundred years ago!

Look delicious?  These were props displayed in the theater's  lobby

Before we went in to the theatre, we had some refreshments and took a look at the props displayed in the lobby.

Parts of the costume display

Audience Waiting for the King Lear Play at Festival Theatre, Stratford

The Festival Theatre is a three level theatre with quite a large seating capacity.

It was a full house for this play.

I studied King Lear years ago in high school and forgot most of what the play was about.

The King Lear Cast - Stratford Festival, Ontario

Though there was not a lot of physical change of scenery on the stage, the actors/ actresses brought the play to life!

The audience was very respectful  as there were no cell phones ringing nor flashlight pictures taken during the entire play.

 A beautiful sunset accompanied us during our drive home to Toronto

 ( I only took a picture before the play and at the very end when the entire cast came out for the audience.)






 It was lovely to spend a summer afternoon at the Stratford Festival!

I am glad that we did allow ourselves extra time to visit the town and enjoy the beautiful parks and gardens.

Garden in front of the Festival Theatre

We will make it our tradition to come to the Stratford Festival every year!

R.T.
September, 2014
Stratford Festival
Stratford, Ontario

How to Do a School Presentation about Yourself?

How to Do a School Presentation about Me?

Summer is almost over!

Summer is almost over.

Welcome back to school!

September - Back to school time for kids

September is an exciting time for kids who are back to school  and looking forward to another school year . Eager to learn and full of enthusiasm,  many children do take their school assignments seriously.

One of the most common topics for numerous school age children, and at times can cause anxiety for both students and their parents is the topic presentation on:

 Introducing Yourself to Your Class   or

All  About  Me

Here are some thoughts on helping students what to include and how to tackle their very first oral presentation assignment in September:

1. Keep the topic presentation no longer than 5-7 minutes – this is a long time and students can talk a lot about themselves within this time



Our Family Pet - Yoda

2. Preparing for an oral presentation is like writing a short essay. It should include:

            A.      An introduction  

B.      A Middle Part

C.      An Ending 

A.   During the Introduction part , students can tell classmates about their family members such as how many siblings they have,  their age and where they go to school, who they live with, what kinds of pets they have,  name of their  family pets etc

B.    A Middle Part –  This is the content part of the presentation.

 What makes a presentation interesting is having a focus.  Students doing the All About ME project can focus  on a couple of things that are really important to them such as about their pets – how long they have the pets and the cutest , funniest things that the pets have done or happened to them.

Family Trip is a good topic to be included in s school project

     Other things students can focus on can be:

  -     Their hobbies / interests

  -     Things they love to do during their spare time such as a particular sport, a stamp collection, growing things at home etc

  -      Favourite books, songs, singers, movies etc

  -     Favourite subjects in school

  -     Recent experiences such as a family trip, summer camp, a favourite craft project etc.
-    After school activities etc

C.      An Ending – The students can conclude the  About Me presentation by telling the        audience:

-           What they hope for  in the new school year

-          What  they look forward to learning and doing both at home and school

-          Thank the audience for the attention during the presentation

Props add interest to a presentation

D.      Props – Students can bring things to the presentation to make it more interesting .

Things such as pictures of their pets,  souvenirs  from family/ school trips, their favourite craft projects would be good too.

Bring an interesting craft item you've made to the presentation

 Please keep the presentation within the 5- 7 minute time frame.

Anything longer than that would be too long and may become boring for others unless the presentation is exceptionally interesting and exciting.

Music or crafts are topics that can be included in the presentation

Remember to practice the presentation well before hand so that students can be confident standing in front of their classmates.

 Students can write some notes on cards to help them remember if they are worried that they may forget things during the presentation.

Most important of all – have fun while doing this project about you! The more you seize the opportunities to do oral presentations, the more you will become confident about speaking in public!

Have fun and always try your best!

R.T.

Toronto, Ontario

Sending Kids to Camp - A Great Way to Keep Kids Away from Video Games

Kids love to play games outside!

It is August, summer time in Canada! It's also VBS time for me and many kids in Toronto and the GTA! I have been running summer camp as a volunteer community service for children in my community some twenty five years ago.

Teen Leaders performing and having fun at VBS camp

This year I ran a youth leadership camp in early August for  a dozen youths in Waterloo.

We did safety training, prepared songs, read bible stories,  prepared crafts, games and sports activity.

Presenting bible stories in a play

 In order to utilize the strengths of the youth, we did a strengths and weakness analysis, and assigned each one tasks and responsibilities accordingly.

In order to provide the youths opportunities for leadership, I assigned two seniors leaders, Michelle and Joe to be assistant directors for the VBS.

Some counsellors are adored by the campers!

I am very proud to know that three teen leaders who volunteered at the camp for the last few years have gained enough work experience and developed confidence  that enabled them to gain full time summer paid jobs at various camps in Ontario.

Our VBS camp provides opportunities for youth to become leaders!

They told me it was because of the experience they had gained from volunteering at the camp that helped them to get their very first summer paid job.

Fum social time for teens volunteering at the camp

Many parents have asked me how to get their  kids away from their computers,  ipads and video games!

 The best way is to send them to camp, either an overnight camp, sports camp or a day game will be fine.! However,  not everyone could afford their child to overnight camps which could be pricey for some.

Constructing a sturdy structure using marshmallows at our camp

A day camp in the city such as the ones run by the local churches, YMCA, Parks and Recreation. or school board would be a good choice.

Fun with marshmallows!

Since I am running a VBS camp in Waterloo, I have decided to make this camp electronic/ computer games / wifi free and help the children and teens to rediscover the joy of doing other things and playing board games.

With the help of my team of volunteers we set up five tables around the room and placed various material on them to create five Activity Centres which included:

Story sharing time

1. Reading  Centre

 I got a collection of books from home and from some second hand stores such as Value Village and Salvation Army's Thrift Stores and got these books at very cheap princes.

 We sorted these books, put them into different categories, labelled them and set up a Reading Centre at  a convenient location of the room.

Kids loved the Monkey Madness Game at our VBS camp

2.  Junior Game Centre - For kids aged 4 - 10, we put the following games on a low table:

-  two Memory Match Games
-  a couple of Giant Floor Puzzles including an Alphabet Floor Puzzle
- a Pop Up Game
- a game called Monkey Madness
- a guessing game called Guess Who?
- a quick connection game called Rapid 4




3. Senior Game Centre - For kids aged 8 and up, we placed the following games on a regular height long table:

- Connect 4
- Junior Scrabble
- Canada & US Geo Puzzle
- Block Tower
- Chess Game

Drawing time!

4. A Drawing / Writing Centre - To encourage campers' creativity and their desire to draw and write, we placed a table right in the centre of the room with  the required drawing and writing supply at their finger tips - writing paper, lined and graph paper as well as boxes well labelled with pencils, pens, pencil crayons, markers of various sizes.




5. A Stationery Supply & Basic Craft  Centre - with the essential stationery and basic crafts supply easily accessible and within the reach of every child regardless age.

Leave the electronic games behind; rediscover the fun of board games!

This set up in intended to encourage children to use the art and games supply in the activity room.

On the first couple days the VBS , there were two campers who kept taking out their cell phone and asking us for the wifi password.

We got the puzzle done!

We calmly told them that our facility was a wifi and video game free environment and that camp participants were encouraged to engaged in other games and social plays with others.

Puzzles and board games encourage kids to collaborate together

It took the campers a few days to get used to the idea before stop asking.

We were  firm but kind in our replies. It warmed my heart today as I quietly observed that both the junior and senior groups of our campers pulled out the puzzles, word games and collaborated together to solve their puzzles and had fun at the same time!

Teens playing games and looking after the little ones

                                             From our camp's experience, we found that the effective ways of keeping kids away from computer and video games were:

1. Sending our young people to a good quality summer camp; for older teens, encourage them to volunteer at camp

2.Getting kids to engage in outdoor activities as much as possible

3.Setting up a mixed of activities for kids to do at home

If parents wish to prevent their youngsters  from the computer and video game addiction,  be sure to put your children/ young people with others of the same age. People including kids are social beings. Given the supplies they need for activities, children will play and entertain one another. When kids are having fun doing other activities, they would not need their computer/ video games.

Sending you child/ young person to an electronic device free camp will be a good  first step to take if you are trying to help with the young person's addiction to video games.

R.T.
Director - TECA
Toronto Education &
Communications Associates
Conducting VBS Camp
Waterloo, Ontario
August, 2014

  

Stratford, Ontario - a Pretty Little Town Full of Music and Culture

Visitor Centre and a Water front Cafe, Stratford, Ontario

We have been living in Toronto for over thirty years. However, we travel every summer outside of Ontario and hardly have the time to visit the cities and towns in our own province.













This year, we have promised ourselves to spend more time and explore Ontario's little towns.

We did just that this weekend and drove to Straford, Ontario - an hour and forty minute drive from Toronto.

Lots of historic buildings in the town

Since I was already in Waterloo for the week, the drive was only forty minutes from where we were. It seemed like no time at all before we got to Stratford.


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Entrance to the Shakespearean Gardens with the Court House in background

Lucky for us, it wasn't  too difficult finding a parking spot downtown.

To get more information about the town, we went straight to the Visitor Centre located right at the waterfront of Stratford.

 Armed with the information and self guided brochures given to us by the friendly Visitor Centre staff, we went to explore the town on our own.

Free music performances by the Stratford riverfront

There were a couple of free concerts scheduled on this Saturday afternoon.

Concert by the river front

We took advantage of it, ordered some food by the waterfront cafe and enjoyed our lunch serenaded by musicians playing live music.

Shakespearean Gardens

The music performance went on for about an hour and it was a beautiful day sitting on the grass just listening and enjoying the sunshine.












Though a small city with a population about 30,000 inhabitants, there were quite a  few things to see in Stratford.

Beautiful flowers and paths in the gardens

After enjoying a free concert in the park, we strolled over to the Shakespearean Gardens, a stone throw away.

In the Shakespearean Gardens, we admired  flowers and plants described in the Shakespearean  plays.

Shakespearean Gardens, Stratford, Ontario

Though  I regret that I do not know much about flowers and shrubs, the gardens were beautifully  designed and the brilliant flowers have been carefully and lovingly planted.

Gazebos and stone arches dotted the gardens adding to the charm of the Shakespearean Park.

Unique art pieces in one of the downtown art stores

After spending a good couple of hours by the river front, we wlaked up to Ontario Street, the main street in downtown Stratford.

Ontario Street is a pretty street lined with interesting shops and historic buildings.








 We saw some unique art work in one of the art shops and spent some time there admiring the art pieces.

Visitors could rest and play a game of chess for free outside a downtown toy store

 What I really liked about downtown Stratford was that it was very family and kid friendly.

Outside a number of shops, there were areas set aside for visitors to just rest and relax.

One of the toy stores had tables and chairs set out for people to play chess and for kids to play with some of their toys.

What a thoughtful gesture for tired moms and dads with kids in tow!

Kyle and his pet -Naraleen, entertaining passerby 

At the corner of Ontario and Downie Street, we were entertained by Kyle, a street musician playing classical music on his violin while Naraleen, his faithful dog waiting patiently by his side.

Kyle came from Texas, traveling across Canada and earning some money by buskering and taking part in various busker festivals. 

Beautiful Strafford,  the hometown of our Canadian teen idol - Justin Bieber,  is truly a lovely place to visit!
















We were glad that we finally took the time and visited this  famous little Canadian town!

R.T.
Stratford, Ontario