Update April 2, 2012.. and the winners are:
Gigi: Gardiner Museum
Christine: Frilly Girly Hair Acessories
Nancy (OMG Nancy you need to play the lottery, you are so lucky!): Stickers
Congratulations ladies! You will be receiving an email from me shortly so please check your inboxes. And a big thank you to Frilly Girly and Gardiner Museum for donating prizes, and to everyone who participated!
Contest is running Thursday March 8- Monday April 2!
Prizes will be geared more for girls aged toddler and up this time so you’re not disappointed if you win hair accessories and you have a boy. Of course, you could always give it as a gift 
Contests with prizes for babies and boys coming soon!
These are the prizes:
1) Hair accessories from Frilly Girly
*Frilly Girly has a special on right now – $1 shipping for 10 items or less!
2) Two Free Admissions to the Gardiner Museum
Gardiner Museum is also on Facebook!
The Gardiner Museum in Downtown Toronto has a ceramics collection, clay classes and summer camps for children aged 7- 14 years, and they also hold birthday parties! Every Sunday they have special activities for children from 12- 4pm that are free with admission (children under 12 are free when accompanied by an adult). First Sunday of the month is a movie and specially-themed scavenger hunt, second Sunday is thematic paper crafts, third Sunday is a guided kids’ tour and the fourth Sunday you will see visiting musicians and storytellers putting on a show.
3) Stickers!
55- 75 stickers per sheet! Dora, Ariel, Winnie the Pooh, fish, teddy bears, dogs, ladybugs, and party stickers.
Here’s How to Enter:
Contest runs Thursday March 8th to Monday April 2nd until midnight (I’m extending the end date!).
To enter, leave a comment below with the following:
1. What was a kids’ place you went to that you or your child loved or was disappointed with?
If you specify a place you didn’t like, please feel free to give a suggestion for improvement! For example, I took my son to Funnelz Party & Play Centre in Scarborough when he was 10 months old. I paid $6.25 and there was barely anything there for him- only a small play structure and small ball pit. Given that there’s really nothing for babies (and not much for toddlers), I would have expected to pay much less, or I’d suggest somehow expanding the baby/ toddler section.
I promise to do my best to make sure your feedback is heard by the business if you give a suggestion for improvement.
2. What’s your child’s age?
Please make sure your email address is correct (it will not be displayed on my website) so I can get in touch with you if you win!
If you would like one extra entry into the draw, you can give any place in the Kids’ OTG Directory a quick rating/ review. If you have done a review since the last contest, it counts! Maximum one extra entry only!
Note: If you’d like to rate/ review a place not in the OTG Directory already, just send me an email at mel@melanieotg.ca and I’ll add it. Thanks!
Winners will be announced on Tuesday April 3 at 1pm!
View previous contests here: Jan/ Feb 2012, Nov/ Dec 2011.
Click here to see businesses who have donated to previous contests!
My daughter loves going to Whittamore’s Farm. She enjoys the strawberry picking as well as the play area. No charge for parking, but I’m not sure how easily accessible it is by TTC. You pay for what you pick – bring your own basket/bucket or you can buy one of theirs. The play area is also very reasonably priced. They also have a hot food counter and a market. The only thing I don’t like about going there having to use their washrooms (septic). Great place for kids of all ages.
My daughter also loves going to Whittamore’s Farm, we go every summer – it’s a family tradition!
She loves the strawberry picking (and this year I hope to go pick some green beans & sweet peas too). She loves to play area and can spend upwards of 3 hours trying everything out.
I wanted to say that the 3 times we have been there, the hot food counter was ALL OUT of food! And this was on weekdays, not on special event days or weekends. So I suggest everyone bring a back up plan in case this happens to them. And also, look for a coupon in the free parenting newspapers that you can pick up in the stores. You can get one free admission per family to the play land ($6 value).
Thank you Nancy and Shy! Nancy, I know you’ve already left a review for Whittamore’s. Shy, if you’d like to give it an activity, amenities and value rating, I can transfer your comments to their listing: http://melanieotg.ca/m/directory/dir-location/markham/whittamores-farm-2/
Or you can save it for an upcoming contest
I took my 14 1/2 month toddler to the science centre for the first time this past Monday. Although he loved to run around all over the place, he’s still too young to understand what’s going on and to enjoy what’s available. He did love to look at the frog and turtle tanks as we’ll as taking a picture with Sparky the dog while the March break special with the fire department had their 2 hour appearance and demonstration. Also, this week’s special appearance of the PC Superdogs running all week for March break. I think the times were 10am, noon and then 3:30pm. My toddler was way pass his nap time so was fuzzy to sit still to watch the dogs plus we had corner spot as we didn’t get there early enough, despite being there 1/2 hour before show time, guess we have to get there almost an hour. All in all, we would go back when he’s a couple months older when he can understand more and lot less crowded, guess I picked a bad week to go. It’s good place for children 2 and up with lots to do plus they even had bubbles. Who knew, more glycerin will allow the bubbles to not pop so quickly and even stick on you for a while. We experience this at the Little Gym in Vaughan which was fun too, place was just too far and pricey.
Hi Christine, Glad to hear you made it to the Science Centre! Sorry to hear it was very crowded when you went. We completely missed Sparky the Dog when we went! Kai would have loved taking a picture with him
If you would like to let me know your rating for activities, amenities and value for the Ontario Science Centre, I can transfer your comments to their listing so more parents can see your review. Thank you! 
I have mixed feelings about Just Ducky.
What I liked: it’s close to us/convenient to get to, there were quite a few obstacles/toys/games/stations to entertain my 14mo old, overall he really enjoyed it and we were there the better part of 2 hours
What I didn’t like: I think $10 entrance fee is outrageous considering it is just one relatively small room (although I did only pay the $6 meet-up group rate which I thought was more reasonable), parking can be challenging and adds to your total cost if you can’t find side street parking, I’m not sure how many times I could take my son there before he would start getting bored.. I think there are other places that provide better value – but they are further away, so there’s the trade-off.
All that considered, I would happily go again.
Hi Vanessa, Thank you for your review and for transferring it over to Just Ducky’s listing. (I’m working on automating this!) Hope to see you soon!
My daughters, 7 and 3 years old, love to go to the “Sugar beach” in Toronto in the summer.
It has splash pad, white sand and more, and it’s all FREE!
Check it this summer
http://www.thestar.com/yourcitymycity/article/835601–welcome-to-sugar-beach-toronto-s-latest-sweet-spot
Hi Gigi, This looks great. I’ve added it to the directory if you’d like to go in and give it a rating: http://melanieotg.ca/m/directory/dir-location/toronto-central/canadas-sugar-beach/
I’ll be sure to check it out this summer, thank you for sharing!
One place that I really loved is All for Fun & Fun for All, however, since my son got a little older (he is now almost 3) I found the wooden play structure a bit dangerous as it has many open places where he would need to slide down a pole, or find difficult foot placement to make it down safely which at his age isn’t possible……. so I haven’t been in a long time due to that factor……. I would suggest they close off the areas where toddlers could fall through if they are running around (especially since they must be wearing socks…. very very slippery on the wood)
This is really good feedback Anna. I was thinking the same thing for Kai now that he’d be interested in climbing around the structure. It’s really hard to accompany a child up there ourselves. I’m not sure All for Fun would want to close off the openings since it’s great for maybe a 4 year-old & up, but I wonder if they could make add mats around those areas to cushion a fall just in case. In any case, if you’d like to give All for Fun ratings again, now that your son is older, I can transfer your feedback to their listing. Regardless I will make sure your comments are seen by them so they can address your concerns. Thanks Anna!
River dale farms, ONLY because he as too young to enjoy it. He was 18 months when we went and couldn’t care less for the animals. We took three TTC vehicles to get there, and the best part for him was running up the path and climbing th stairs. Now he likes pointing out animals (he’s two now), so I’d go again. I on the other hand love farms and animals, so I was disappointed he didn’t love them too on our first trip. Nothing they could’ve done so no improvement suggestions, just a matter of timing on my part. Although, I definitely wouldve found it ” worth it” if it didn’t take so much work to get there, so go check it out!
Now I’m curious to know how you’d rate Riverdale Farms since it sounds like you would recommend it overall
A place that did not meet my expectations was Kids Fun City. And I was so disappointed because it’s the closest play centre to our house and was hoping to buy a pass and go once a week during winter/fall, and once every 2 weeks during the summer & spring.
I went with my 3 year old and the only thing suited for her age was 1 slide and the dance room. Those are the only things she played with, and so we left after about 1:30 hours since she was getting really borred.
What went wrong? Here is the lowdown from my point of view:
- The “baby/toddler” section was boring for her since most of the toys in there are for crawlers. She didn’t play in there for more than 10 minutes.
- They have 2 cute play kitchenettes, but absolutely no play toys to go along with it like play food or pots & pans. So she lost interest in that after 2 minutes.
- They have a little farm house, but again: no animals to play with in the farm.
- The 2 ride on toys they have are for babies under the age of 1 year old, and my daughter kept asking “where are the big cars?” since she also wanted to play on a ride on.
- The mini-golf and bowling is also for older kids ($) so we did not play with that ether.
Thank you Nancy for your feedback. I know you’ve already added your review to Kids Fun City and I’ll be contacting them this week. Hopefully they will take your suggestions into consideration and improve their playground so you can make better use of it!
My daughter loves Lionel’s Farm and so do I. It’s a great place for her to see live animals in their farm setting. I love that it’s payment by donation so we can go for a quick drop by and donate, unlike other places where you pay a hefty adult fee for admission then have to stay the entire day or a few hours to make it worth it. The animals all look well taken cared of and loved.
Thank you Jennifer for suggesting Lionel’s Farm. I’ve added them to the directory. It’s great that there are places (other than City-run) that are free. I’m looking forward to bringing my two kids here when the weather is warmer, and I’m sure lots others will as well so thank you for sharing! If you’d like to provide a rating, I can transfer your comments as well to the listing.