by Heather Egger
Mom hack 1: Run the wiggles out every day. Mom hack 2: Kids learn best when they’re having fun. Here are a handful of extra-fun cultural activities in Edmonton to keep your busy kids learning themselves silly. [Image credit: iStock.com/monkeybusinessimages]
The Art Gallery of Alberta is a swervy silver building – inspired by the dancing northern lights – right on downtown’s main square. Besides major international exhibits and shows by local artists, the AGA offers drop-in art classes every Wednesday morning for tots aged three to five. Kids and their families play with line, colour and texture, explore the galleries and learn how to express their boundless creativity.
Every December, the Alberta Ballet performs the classic Nutcracker Suite. Be swept away to the magical Kingdom of Sweets – where a girl falls in love with a nutcracker prince, gingerbread soldiers battle the mouse king’s tiny army and glittering fairies pirouette in the sparkling snow. The popular production is a favourite holiday tradition for Edmonton families – make it one of yours. Also, your snow princess can finally wear her tutu and tiara and fit right in.
The Edmonton Public Library is one of the city’s best resources for families – with free borrowing cards, daily baby and parent programs and mentoring writers and illustrators in residence. Bring the whole gang for family story time, pick a pile of books and movies, and play in the cutting-edge Makerspace. Visit the downtown Milner library to join in board game nights, make a podcast, print your own book or anything else your wild imagination unleashes.
The historic Metro Cinema in Edmonton’s Garneau neighbourhood has brought back the family matinee. Most Saturdays, kids under 12 get in free for activities in the lobby and a classic children’s movie at 2 pm. This heritage building, constructed in 1940, is the last modernist theatre still operating in Alberta – so grab bag of popcorn from the round lobby and find a plush seat on the very cool raised terrace.
Have a little chef in the making? Encourage their love of food with a cooking or baking class offered by the City of Edmonton. Register together for an afternoon of cupcake baking and decorating or introduce your culinary wunderkind to food from around the world with Kindercooking every Monday for a month.
Festivals are a central part of Edmonton’s local culture – we throw parties for every occasion here – especially winter. Come out for family snow games, glowing lanterns and skating races. Thousands of flickering lanterns glow for Luminaria at the Devonian Botanic Garden’s Japanese garden in December and colourful circles of light shine up the skating lane on the Victoria Park Freezeway. January brings the annual international ice sculpture competition (and zippy ice slides) Ice on Whyte – and the city’s longest running winter celebration in February, the Silver Skate Festival, combines skating races, a winter triathlon, roaming theatre troupes and fire sculptures.
Set aside time to learn about the world together – read, paint, laugh, dance, play – and your kids will have so much fun they won’t even know they’re learning.
