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| 'Lil' Vampire' pacifier: thinkgeek.com |
Cindy McGlynn
Movie Entertainment
June 2010
Life heats up in June when the end of the school year is so close that kids can smell it. (Hint: It smells like ice cream.) It’s time for them to start tearing up soccer fields, swooning over vampires and preparing to sparkle at summer drama camp. From wizarding worlds to World Cup soccer, there’s plenty to get excited about this month.
WIZARDING WORLD OF HARRY POTTER
There’s only one place for Muggles to be this month: the grand opening of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Orlando Resort. The highly anticipated theme park is inspired by J.K. Rowling’s stories and characters, and features worldly thrills like state-of-the-art rides and roller coasters. It also offers otherworldly thrills like the revolutionary “Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey” attraction, where guests wander through an interactive version of Hogwarts in what designers describe as the first combination of live action, advanced robotic technology and innovative filmmaking. All that and more – including a wand store where your wand, of course, chooses you. Opens in Orlando, Fla., on June 18.
LIL’ VAMPIRE PACIFIER
Baby might be too young to choose between Team Edward and Team Jacob, but she’s old enough to join the fun with this fab-tastic “Lil’ Vampire” pacifier that gives your baby vampire fangs. Baby becomes simultaneously quiet and awesome! Exclusively on Thinkgeek.com.
GOT GAME?
Community soccer programs kick off nationwide this month for kids as young as 4. Hats off to Tim Hortons for sponsoring 200,000 children each year in minor-league sport, including soccer. If the Timbits whet your appetite for something more serious, tune into FIFA World Cup 2010 South Africa. Matches start June 11 and run for one nail-biting, rowdy, raucous month. “Some people think soccer is a matter of life and death,” British coach Bill Shankly once famously said. “I can assure them, it’s much more serious than that.”
TEAM EDWARD? TEAM JACOB?
These terrific Twilight fan sites should help Twi-hards pass the endless days until this month’s movie release of Twilight Eclipse, the third instalment of Stephenie Meyer’s unstoppable vampire franchise.
Twilighters.org
Extensive news and updates site covers all cast members.
BellaandEdward.com
One of the largest Twi-sites online: fun layout, loads of photos, lots of love.
Twilightlexicon.com
Meyer calls this encyclopedia of everything Twilight “the brightest star in the Twilight online universe.” If you don’t want to miss a thing, check out this site.
BOOKS FOR DAD
Delight Dad’s inner geek this Father’s Day with a pair of books designed to foster parent-and-child togetherness – in the most ingenious and troublesome ways.
Geek Dad
The book’s subtitle says it all: Awesomely Geeky Projects and Activities for Dads and Kids to Share. Written by Wired.com blogger and science geek Ken Denmead, Geek Dad is a guide for digital-age dads who want to share their love of science with their kids. Projects include things like launching video cameras on helium balloons and building a working lamp with LEGO and old CDs. (Gotham Books, Penguin Group)
Fifty Dangerous Things (You Should Let Your Children Do)
Take this book with a grain of salt and a word of caution. But if you want to know what all the fuss is about, this wildly popular (and controversial), anti-over-parenting advice doesn’t disappoint. Author Gever Tulley encourages parents to let kids off the leash by doing things like Superglueing their fingers together, flattening pennies on railroad tracks, throwing spears, licking batteries and taking apart a washing machine. Tulley insists it’s about teaching kids to identify and measure risk, not danger for danger’s sake. (Tinkering Unlimited)
DRAMA CAMPS FROM COAST TO COAST
Got an Angelina Jolie junior or a little Leonardo DiCaprio in the family? Let your young thespian spend the summer in the spotlight at drama and cinema camps across the nation.
Lorraine Kimsa Theatre For Young People, Toronto
Teamwork, drama skills and friendship at an intensive camp experience.
www.lktyp.ca
Maritime Conservatory of Performing Arts, Halifax
Musical theatre, dance and other creative camps for elementary, junior and senior levels.
www.maritimeconservatory.com
Stagecraft, Vancouver
Performance-oriented camps at B.C.’s largest dedicated children’s musical theatre school.
www.stagecraft.ca
McGill Conservatory Day Camp, Schulich School of Music, Montreal
Two-week, intensive artistic sessions for various age groups in dozens of disciplines, including video, cinema, sound, lighting and garage-band camp. www.mcgill.ca/conservatory-camp.
Cindy McGlynn is a Toronto-based writer and editor.