Borden Family Resource Centre

I feel like I have discovered a gold mine!  Today I took the kids to the Borden Family Resource Centre at Base Borden, and it was fantastic!  I have been looking at their calendars online for a while but have never made it in.  We just did “Stay and Play” today, which is basically use of their centre as you wish, for just $2.00.  They have four large rooms:  A snack room (complete with kitchenette, coffee, tables and chairs, highchairs, and some toys), a Craft Room (where messes are allowed!….painting, sand box, water table, drawing and colouring, cutting and pasting, etc.), a Pretend Room (with dress up, a train table a playhouse and play kitchen) and a Cars Room (where kids can be rambunxious with lots of riding toys, balls, a little slide/playset. 

Brandon played in the Cars room with some of the other kids, and then he made a painting in the Craft room, but unfortunately I forgot to take it home with us.  He then saw the train table in the Pretend room and spent the rest of the time there, even though it is the EXACT same train table we have at home.  I tried convincing him to play with some of the other toys but he just wanted the train set.  Oh well, at least he was happy…..after all, the reason I went there was to entertain him for the morning.

They also have weekly parent workshops, and I signed up for a couple of them.  They have someone there to watch the kids in the activity rooms while the workshop is going on.  The ones I signed up for are “Ages and Stages (3&under)”, “Family Rules and Routines”, and then another one about managing shopping trips with little ones, and one about de-stressing the holidays.  I am really looking forward to them, not even so much for the content but just to hear some new ideas and maybe meet some other local moms. 

They also offer special events such as a field trip to the fire hall, a field trip to the pumpkin patch, and a costume party.  And they have a cooking class for parents and kids once or twice a month as well.  Everything is super affordable ($2 to $5) and all the staff and other moms that were there were so friendly.  I am so excited to go back for more Stay and Play, and get involved in some of the other activities they offer.  Having a place to go during the day makes it so much more manageable having 2 young kids at home, and keeps my house clean too!  Hopefully Brandon will start to explore beyond the train set….