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The Playground - Week 44

Welcome to The Playground, a place for Vancouver families. Every week I post a roundup of upcoming family-friendly events and activities.

Welcome to The Playground, a place for Vancouver families. Every week I post a roundup of upcoming family-friendly events and activities. I’m always on the lookout for fun stuff to do, so if there’s something happening that you think I should know about, contact me.

Artwork by Evan, age 4

Artwork by Evan, age 4.

In The Playground for the week of May 18-24: Insect-O-Rama, Learn to Fish at Green Timbers Lake, the Chinatown Night Market, the Summer Night Market, a Family Streetwise Cycling course and the Western Canadian Regional Return Top Championships.

Tonight the Surrey Nature Centre at the Green Timbers Urban forest is hosting Insect-O-Rama."Learn about the little creatures that call Green timbers Park home and see amazing insects up close." Wednesday, May 18th, 6-7:30PM. Pre-registration is required: 604-502-6065.

Also tonight—and also at the Green Timbers Urban Forest—the Freshwater Fisheries Society of BC is running a Learn to Fish workshop. It's open for kids aged 5-15, parent supervision is mandatory and all equipment is provided. 6-8PM, please arrive on time and pre-registration is required: 604-588-6825. Also, a $5 donation is suggested per participant.

This Saturday night, the 16th Vancouver Chinatown Night Market opens between Main & Columbia on Keefer St. "Folk dancing, singing, magic shows, martial arts, lion dance, bands…" and obviously shopping and eating. 6:30-11PM and it runs every weekend until September 11th.

If the Summer Night Market in Richmond is more your thing, it's already opened. Plenty of entertainment, shopping and fantastic food from all over Asia. This weekend, the Market is open 7PM-12AM, Fri-Sun.

This Saturday, the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition and Giant Bicycles are running a Family Streetwise Course, a family orientated course "for parents who would like to be more comfortable riding on city streets with their children." The course is for children 8+ and registration is $100 per parent and child, $40 per additional child. 12-4:30PM at the Kitsilano Community Centre.

This Saturday will also see the first Western Canadian Regional (WCR) Return Top Championships. What's a return top? A Yoyo™ of course. "WCR is a family-friendly event bringing top Yoyo™ players from all over BC, Alberta and Ontario together to compete for prizes, glory and the title of REGIONAL CHAMPION!" The event runs from 9:30AM-2:30PM at the National Nikkei Museum & Heritage Centre in Burnaby and admission is free.