Don Tai (Canada) Blog

One of the many benefits of having kids is that you get to reexamine many aspects of life you easily take for granted. Because of the low level of driving skill and sometimes reckless attitude of local drivers, teaching my Little Weeds to safely cross the street terrified me. In our sleepy suburban neighbourhood in Scarborough, Ontario, it is not too bad, but when it comes to major intersections the concequences for a miscalculation are dire. No matter how well you teach your kids, they also rely on drivers to keep them safe. Here in Scarborough we have terrible drivers. Teaching my kids how to safely cross traffic intersections has been long in the making, Here is what I tell them.

GUM Red-cote disclosing tablets tint plaque bright red, showing your kids where they missed brushing. I want to buy some.

My little weed, when it comes to brushing his teeth, is really lazy. Other more interesting pastimes attract his attention, such as watching tv, fighting with his older sister, playing with whatever, anything is more interesting than properly brushing his teeth. Our dentist can attest to his lack of vigilance, which also reflects on the parent’s vigilance. That would be me. Disclosing tablets are chewed and use a red dye to colour plaque a brilliant red, showing my little weed where he was hasty. Recommended both by my family dentist as well as orthodontist, I cannot seem to find GUM Red-cote disclosing tablets here in Toronto, Canada.

Crime, especially juvenile crime, is widespread throughout Toronto, Canada. A swarming, while somewhat uncommon in my area of Toronto, does occur. This morning while at the local park for preschool kids, I talked to a ~70 year old Grandmother who was looking after her five year old grandson. She told me that yesterday September 18 2010 at around 7:30pm she was at the local park for older kids, some 50 meters away and was swarmed by a group of 6 Black kids, ranging from 6 to 14 years old. The incident left her feeling vulnerable, afraid and unsafe in her Glendower neighbourhood, where she has lived for the last 20 years. When I explained to her that I was also a victim of swarming by local Black kids, she was also surprised. Her reaction and remorse did not surprise me because I had the same feelings after my swarming.

McDonalds recalls Shrek glasses over fears of toxic cadmium levels

Fear not the monster Shrek, for he is not to blame. But if not Shrek then whom? The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) warned consumers early Friday to immediately stop using the glasses available for purchase from McDonalds, on concerns about toxic levels of cadmium. Twelve million glasses are recalled. Who is to blame? There are at least three parties involved: McDonalds, ARC International, of Millville, NJ, and presumably the Chinese factory that produced the glasses. So common is the fact that China makes most of our products and the fact that so many toxic products have been traced back to China in the past makes this a very good educated guess.

These are math word problems for kids in grade 2-4. I collect them as I find them. I think that kids should be able to think about the situation and figure out the math question to solve. This is not as easy as it sounds, and kids can easily get confused. Practice makes perfect. I find that reading math problems in workbooks is not as effective as real life situations.

1. I bought a Singer sewing machine, which was made in August 1958. How old is it?
2. Bag one is 15 lb of potatoes and costs $1.99. Bag two is 10 lb of potatoes and costs $1.33. Which bag is cheaper per pound and why? Show your work.
3. A 5 lb bag of tangerines costs $3.77. A 12 lb box of oranges costs $4.99. Which one is cheaper per pound and why? Show your work.
4. You want to borrow the book “Diary of a Wimpy Kid”, vol 2 from the library, so you place a hold on it. You are 473d out of a total of 701 holds. Each hold can be borrowed for one week. How long do you have to wait? Answer in years, months and weeks. You are 8 years old. How old will you be when you can borrow this book.
5. Your Big Sister sells Girl Guide cookies. She has 2 cases. Each case has 12 boxes. Each box has 12 cookies. How many total cookies does she have? She then sells 4 boxes. How many cookies does she have left? Show your work.
6. Heinz ketchup in a fancy bottle is on sale at $2.99 for 1.25L. No Name ketchup costs $1.99 for 1L. Which ketchup brand do you get more ketchup for you money. Do not base your answer on which ketchup tastes better. Show your work.
7. I bought 3 bottles of Gummy vitamins that contain 190 vitamins in each box. There are two kids in the family that take one vitamin each day. How long will the three vitamin bottles last?

Toronto is nearing 1 month of no garbage pickup

Toronto is in the midst of a municipal worker’s strike. We’re coming up to almost one month without city services such as garbage and recycling pickup. To tell you the truth, though I would like to take the kids to the swimming pool on a hot day, the lack of garbage pickup has not bothered me much. Then again we do live in the suburbs. Yesterday a new temporary garbage dump has opened less than a kilometer from my house, so maybe I’ll change my mind within the next month or so.

Dollar Store toys are terrible quality that breaks easily, is unrepairable and disappoints your kids

I have never been a fan of Dollar Store* toys for my kids. They return home with plastic toys of very low quality, even by Chinese standards. The recent Toronto city garbage strike brings home the need to reduce our consumption because the city, temporarily, will not pick up our trash. I continue to press my case to both my parents and my kids that Dollar Store quality is false economy.

As usual the little one was bored. The boring list includes: full internet and computer games, more Lego than you can shake a stick at, robots, Hotwheels, books, the list goes on and on.

I suggest tobogganing. What could be more Canadian than tobogganing? At -10C the weather is not too cold nor too windy. ‘Bogganing is healthy and relatively safe. We head off to the local large and medium hills, side by side. The sun is shining and we climb and make one on the medium and four on the large, all great runs.

Almost his complete collection of Hotwheels

Hotwheels. So many cars, picked up from here and there. Does he really play with them all? Not. Nevertheless there are all sorts of cars, trucks, emergency vehicles and a couple of motorcycles. We needed 2 cases to put house all his cars, and we keep finding more in the house. They’re like weeds. It’s all for fun.

Hotwheels ramps down stairs, blurry

Guess who took the blurry photo, that’s close in height to the handrail?