Our family steadfastly refuses to permit a television set at the cottage. Crickets, whipporwills, loons, geese… these are the preferred sounds. Books are a major activity. Paddling and rowing are the preferred transportation. In the hush of silence, we let in slowness. Board games and euchre happen after dinner and it’s one of the happinesses…

Nearly 80% of patients sitting in doctors’ offices are there for stress-related disease. So says the American Medical Association. That’s a signal for Liane Gallant. It’s a signal she’s doing something about. “If you remove some of those stress-related illnesses, think of the improvement to our medical services,” she says. And so, for the second…

Words are my tools. Really, since I was 12 and selected my career as a writer, words have been my tools. Of course, there have been typewriter keys, dictionaries, thesauruses, various publications which are ancillary tools, but I’ve chiefly relied on words to do the trick. So, imagine if you will that you go to…

It was September, 1973. Tuesday. And the 24 kids that called Weldon Crescent home were rounded up, tall at the back, short at the front. Smiles showed the missing teeth of a 7 year old. Smiles hid the fear of a new Kindergarten student. They were all headed off to Codrington School. And behind his…

There’s no doubt that after school activities CAN enrich the soul. And depending on the activity and the child, they can destroy the soul, too. Take the artistic child who loves to be alone who gets plunked into the middle of a hockey team. Or the kid who’s interested in technology but her well-meaning parents…

Sixteen years ago, my bright-faced, smile-to-the-world, cherub of a last child toddled off into the arms of Mrs Dick, Mrs Donnelly and Mrs Dawson at Creative Child Nursery School. Juggling home-based self employment with raising of children, I’d happily succumbed to two mornings of nursery school and Kid Two responded with glee. As she put…

It’s a funny thing how a “no” can turn into the best thing in the long run. That’s what happened to Peggy McGee. She wanted to take her four year university honours program concurrently with her teaching degree. And though she applied repeatedly, she was never one of the few selected. Fate has a funny…

“Let’s get those mosquitos with larvicide!” “West Nile will get you if you’re near standing water!” Mosquitos will carry this deadly disease; don’t go outside at all this summer!” No doubt you’ve heard these fears and more as our Canadian summer’s unique character traits get swatted about… My friend Tim Cruise listened to all the…

“You can use almost any measure when speaking of success. Some measure by the size of their house or the net worth of their portfolio. However, the measure of real success is one you cannot spend… it’s the way your child describes you when talking to a friend.” With these words, the Children’s Aid Society…

It’s worthwhile to stand out in front of the Innisfil Antique Mall and look across the street to the Simcoe District Co-op’s Feed Mill. Just look. It sits on 3.5 acres of land and holds in its boards a 55-year history. It was built by the Simcoe District Co-operative Services, an organization devoted to extending…