cheers for that... glad to hear that in winter, all is as good as can be. Will, i guess, base our judgement on a car when we get there.

Seem to remember that one of the big tyre/ exhaust fitting companies (Kwikfit) did an excellent deal where they fitted baby car seats which you could return when the child outgrew it.

A number of european car manufacturers also have an option of a child car seat either built into the seats, or they provide one ,( for a figure of course!)

Just wonder if these options are available in Canada.

Thats interesting, some of the minivans here have built in booster seats (Pontiac Montana for one), but I've never seen a car or service company provide actual child seats. If I had to guess its probably a case of the company lawyers being scared of getting sued if the instalation was incorrect.

Iain

Snow clearance... lol. In our neighbourhood, Bridgeland, the roads were covered in snow nearly all winter. They don't clear them around here - no matter how often the residents complain. Snow clearance issues have been in the local rag plenty of times, so its not just me having a moan.

It's also quite amusing that we're expected to clear our paths (fair enough), but go outside a school or city property and it will be slippery with ice or snow.

I guess this could be one of the joys of living in the low tax conservative west over the tax happy liberal east / center???

Iain

right, does this mean the snow clearance is confined to the cities where traffic is at its greatest (makes sense), or just occurs in certain districts?

Does anyone know how quebec fares?

I wouldn't worry too much about snow clearance. It doesn't take too long to get packed down, and then its easy to drive on.

The first day of snowfall is always the bad one - 200 accidents recorded within the first couple of hours when we had the first major snowfall in 2003! Amazing how quickly people forget how to drive in snow - and they still tailgate like madmen.

I think that the company do a check on anchorage points etc, to ensure that the seat is safely fixed.
Found the following website that might be some help to Drivers in Canada.

http://www.tc.gc.ca/roadsafety/childsafety/menu.htm

Thats the same link I posted yesterday!

whoops!!! sorry!

Getting back to the toddler theme... at present we go weekly to Gymboree here in the UK, we've seen its also found in toronto and vancouver, but not montreal (unless someone can correct me here?!)... is there an equivalent of this playgroup in Montreal? Otherwise can anyone recommend somewhere.

Also on a similar note, for playgroups, daycare or nurseries, what is the system? so you need to book a place well in advance, we're talking a year plus?! is it based on location, ie where we live in relation to the nursery? Does anyone know relative costs?

Thanks in advance

Two great publications for everything kid related in Montreal are:

1) Montreal Families, a freebie that is published monthly and can be found in libraries, shopping malls, kids places. Lists events and has articles and adverts for all sorts of kid-related stuff.

2) A book called 'THe lobster Kid's guide to exploring Montreal' by John Symon (http://traveltonorthamerica.com/sear...By-Author.html)

I bought this in the 1st week we were here and it was really useful in terms of where to go, although it doesn't help with playgroups etc.

We go to Wimgym which is like Tumble Tots but it is on West Island, the library for storytime, a co-op playgroup, swimming and other stuff.

A lot of activities have to be signed up for in advance and for the course, you can't just drop in occasionally.

I know the Y have lots of things on for kids including pre-school and swimming.

I'm afraid I have no experience of day care/nurseries but you always see adverts for them, there are the private pre-school style ones or childminder in her home sort.

You might want to look at these previous posts where I answered another family's questions about moving here with kids:

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...hreadid=203970

http://britishexpats.com/forum/showt...hreadid=203965

HTH

Penny

Thanks again Penny,

all that info is really helpful... Wimgym sounds like something we're definitely interested in if its like Tumble tots, though need to find one nearer to where we would like to live. You don't by chance know if there are other branches in Montreal?

Will need to hunt down that book... seems like a godsend for those trying to keep a toddler preoccuppied!

thanks again

Unfortunately Wimgym is a one-off and is run in a proper gym which has older kids going on worldwide competitions etc. but I am sure similar things must exist around Montreal, it's just finding them!

The book really is good. It contains stuff that could probably all be found on the internet but only with a lot of searching and some luck so it's good to have it all in one place.

The Montreal Families is excellent too, not only for the adverts and articles on all things kid-related but they always have a listing of 'what's on' for the month which includes a wide range of stuff across Montreal.

Every saturday in the Gazette newspaper they list 'what's on' and that includes museums, kids stuff, special events etc so is handy too. Also garage sales, open houses (for if and when you want to buy a house) and places to rent.

Penny

Shame about Wimgym but as you say, i'm sure there's others out there!

Is Montreal Families available online? have search with google and found it linked to http://www.calgaryschild.com/ which in itself seems like a good site... others as a magazine, (when i get there) where would i pick it up? local news place?... need to subscribe? where?

Anyway, thanks again Penny... some very useful hints