Playing Hooky

 

 

Sometimes just for fun I love to give my son a break and we spend the day playing hooky from our responsibilities. My son is in senior kindergarten, and on top of that he plays soccer once a week, hockey once a week, and he has a tutoring session one night a week (not even mentioning all of the birthday parties and playdates that round out his week).

He’s a busy kid, so I make an effort to ensure he gets a day of fun every once in a while.

Once every couple of months we take a day off together from whatever it is we are supposed to be doing. In this case, we took a day off of school to do a couple of his favourite things in Toronto!

Always on his list of favourite things to do is head to Ripley’s Aquarium.

The year I was on mat leave with my son I bought an Aquarium pass for something to do. It turns out we loved it, and so I bought one for the next year as well!
 

 

 

 

 

We love to go on weekday mornings and enjoy a quieter experience. We have gone early on weekends, or even in the evening (the jazz nights are really fun!) and those times have been a great experience as well. My son loves stopping at all of the different interactive stations, and it’s so nice to to wait too long for a turn when we go.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now that he’s reading more he loves telling me what the fish are called and what they eat based on the signs near the tanks, and watching the jellyfish swim never seems to get old!

When he was younger we spent so much time at the play structure near the cafe, but now that he’s old he seems to spend more time checking out the fish. It funny to see his favorites at Ripley’s Aquarium change over time.

Ripley’s Aquarium is opening a new exhibit in March of 2018 in celebration of Robert Ripley’s 100th anniversary called Curious Creatures! It’s included with general admission, and you can find more details on the exhibit here!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up we were headed to across the street to The Rec Room. In the summer we would always visit the trains across the street before heading home, but last summer once The Rec Room opened we couldn’t visit Ripley’s Aquarium without stopping across the street as well for lunch and games.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We started off with lunch because I knew if we didn’t I would never be able to get him away from the games. They do have a kids menu and the prices are a little steep, but the portion sizes are pretty huge. He was clamoring for me to finish up my own lunch so we could play the games!

At The Rec Room you can purchase credits on a wrist band, and this is where your tickets add up as well. If you eat on-site you can also get $5 worth of playing credits on the wrist band. I LOVE that it’s a wrist band instead of a card because it’s easy for my son to scan before playing instead of swiping. For some reason he always has a hard time swiping!

Although some of the better prizes cost quite a few tickets, the prizes are much better than you would find at Chuck-E-Cheese or Playdium.

At the end of our days together like this my son often says “Best Day Ever!”, so I have to admit I’m pretty motivated to keep them going. I love spending the day with just the two of us doing all of his favourite things!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Items in this post may have been provided to me for review, but all opinions are fabulously my own.