it is interesting to know the different for 2 cities and please add more if you know.
In Vancouver, we have no OB on duty in hospital while Toronto only allowed the in-house OB if it falls on certain time. I have asked my OB and she confirmed that she works with a group of 5 OB and they will take turn to help us. We cannot just go to hospital without telling them your OB.
In Vancouver, Intergrated Prenatal Screen (IPS) is not included and it is extra cost for us while Toronto is part of the initial package.
In Vancouver, we all pay flat medical fee while Toronto are based on your income. But one thing I like Toronto, the plan counts everyone as individual, so no income no need to pay. In Vancouver, it is counted as family, so each month is $108 regardless only single income or not.
the OB duty policy is only based on that particular hospital. It doesn't apply to all hospital.
Ontario vs BC -
We have free education starting in JK (4 years old) in ON - either 4 half days or alternative full days (Monday or Wednesday, Tuesday or Thursday and alternative Friday). BC starts at SK.
PoohPoohMaMa,
It is good that you guys can save 1 year in daycare as we can only wait for 5yrs old!
Just wonder if your daughter has started going to daycare? You will see she will learn alot from there. My daughter learn almost everything from daycare, from walking to speaking, now questioning and say I am "mean" when I dont give her something she wants.
my daughter hasn't gone to daycare yet because her school is still not ready. We are waiting for the update everyday. I think she is happy being home. She starts going to Sunday school in church now. She is doing okay. I can see she should be okay when she goes to school too.
Actually there are more things different between BC and ON. I read an article in Today's Parent that ON has less genetic screening than other provinces, but I forgot what.
How about vaccinations? Recently Prenavr is free in ON. It wasn't free until last year.
PoohPoohMaMa,
Is SUN school for teaching Chinese, or something else? I sent my daughter to SUN school at Chinese church as I want her to meet other Chinese kids. In fact, it is just a teacher to speak in English and that is for the parent who attend church service upstair. They do some craft work and sing some songs. I asked my daughter if she likes it, she said yes, so I just drop her there every SUN for 1.5hrs. Last time she brought one paper about Joseph sitting in jail and asked me why....I have no clue and my husband, who claims he is Christian, said he forgot about the reason as it is too complicated to tell a kid.
What is genetic screening? I dont know any vaccination as my daughter did all in HK and the next one will be before kindergarten which I still not sure where to do it. Will check it while I am on maternity leave.
Yes, my daughter love daycare very much as they have routine activities. The teacher tell stories and have them to interact with the story book. Play games and role play. My daughter told me she is the doctor and I am the patient. She also learn how to write her name and they are going to visit fire station this THU. She said when she is older, she wants to be a teacher. She also learn about healthy food and junk food. She knows candies is red light (junk food) while cereal is green (healthy food).
I think it is good if you can find a daycare which you are convenience and comfortable. All teachers are trained and they will have a big impact on your child as I can see how much my daughter learn from there.
How is your pregnancy? My tummy is 36" and he kicks very often. My daughter is asking why the baby is inside my tummy and when I take him out. She always come to tackle me as she thought it will go to the baby.
any interesting thing happen from your daughter?
Sunday school is for children learn about the Bible. For our church, we have children Sunday school at the same time as the adult Sunday school. They also have worship while we are having worship downstairs.
Well, your husband may need to read the Bible and explain to your daughter why Joseph was in jail (is because his master wife was tempted him and he refused, so she told the master that he wanted to sexually harrassed her). Parent's help is always needed.
My daughter loves role play too. She will set up chairs and pretends to be the teacher. She will also play with the baby doll; cooks for her, put her into sleep. We bought some trains for her because she loves watching Thomas. Trains becomes her favorite toys now.
I went to another detail ultrasound today. The technican confirms the baby is 100% boy. Also he is 1.5 kg big.
PoohPoohMaMa,
See, my husband is very bad on his bible knowledge! Just wonder have you baptist your daughter? I asked my husband but he said he doesnt want to force her into any religion. He hates his parent to force him to go to church when he was young. He said he can pray at home and after watching the Da Vicci Code, I understand why he doesnt like to involve in church service.
Yes, my daughter always force me to listen to her reading story book. She also likes to teach Chinese to her dad. Doll...she seems not interested although we have few at home. Cooking...no as well. It sounds like your daughter has potential to be a good sister, right? My daughter doesnt has that motherhood yet. Yes, Thomas the train is her favourite but she is happy just to watch the DVD which we borrow from library every week.
Speaking of ultrasound, in Vancouver we only have 2 ultrasound, one at 12week and other is 20week, my OB told me the next test just the blood test on my 27week and that is. Is that the different between ON and BC?
I also heard that in BC is normal not to release the gender of the baby as no technicians want to get in trouble if the guess is wrong.
The other day I bought few baby clothes which is super cheap, $1.78 each and it is from Disney which comes with a blanket and hat! I was struggle a bit as it has only pink color, but as my husband said, he wont know at that age and it is brand new clothes! Do you have such cheap deal in ON? I got it from Superstore and the lady behind us while we paid also surprisely said, "it is unbelievable cheap!"
no I didn't baptize my daughter because I believe only when she really understand what she believes, she can choose to get baptized or not.
I could say she is a well-blended child. She loves to play trains and cars, while she loves playing dolls and cooking.
About ultrasound, it's OB's decision. My previous OB only sent me to the lab for 18 week detail ultrasound.
The Superstore here has good deal. We don't have many Superstore, but we have Loblaws. My mom got my daughter some clothes for $0.99 last time. The diaper is cheaper than Walmart too.
PoohPoohMaMa,
That is what the ultrasound technician told me, if you have a daughter and a son, you need to buy 2 trucks and 2 barbies. He has a daughter first and a son and he was telling me Walmart will welcome us as we will be a big spender later on!
Just wonder do you have lots of toys at home? Now I hardly buy any toys and she seems move to computer. She loves the seasame website and Dora website. She loves watching DVD in her room, playing UNO with us and Domino. Eventhough when we go to ToyRus, she rarely asks me to buy her toys. She seems happy what she has and our house has less junk.
Is something happen for your pregnancy? Why OB sent you to another ultrasound?
Loblaws is same as Superstore I guess. Do you have collect PC points? So far, we have collected over $400 by redeeming the points and I go there almost every week. From what I look at the flyer, it has different style although it sells similar products. In BC, we have more Asian and the product seems target us more. They also sell Asian vegetable, such as "bai choi" "choi sum" and durian. Is it easy to get that in ON?
T&T is so big here and my husband just discuss how smart T&T does the marketing here. It is so crowd everyweek and many customers are actually non-Chinese. They have a large section of deli product, cold and hot and they even has its own food court with Chinese dimsum. They have lots of promotion counter and my daughter loves to try those things. Now Superstore also copy that idea and offer free sample of food, but it is not that much compare with T&T.
we didn't get her a lot of toys because many of them are given by friends and used toys passed on by others. She has a lot of toys, kitchen, tricycle, lego table, dolls, etc. She loves to play the train set so much that she doesn't watch TV anymore which is good.
Loblaws has chinese veggies too, but it's more expensive than the Chinese supermarket. We usually go to Chinese supermarket for Chinese veggies. T&T tends to be more expensive than the regular Chinese supermarkets. I didn't collect PC points although I am using PC Financial to pay bills and banking.
My pregnancy is smooth, but my OB just send me to find out the size of the baby.
PoohPoohMaMa,
I dont stop my daughter watching TV, in fact, I think she learnt alot from there. Treehouse is a good channel as there is no violence or bad cartoon. All cartoons are are educational. She likes me watching TV with her and I always use the cartoon character to explain something as I think she can easily understand.
T&T actually has very competitive price. I dont like Chinese grocery shop as I like one-shop shopping.
Do you have PC credit card? You can only collect points through that. Normal banking doesnt get points.
Just wonder if Toronto has higher living standard? I saw the other lead about daycare, it is $1500+ for small child. Who can afford to pay so much? In Vancouver, I know it is just over $1000 and currently I just pay $600/month. Is those price is common charge in ON?
Treehouse is good, but still watching too much TV is damaging the concentration of a child. Also even though most of the programs are educational, we still have to watch it with the child in case we need to clarify some concepts.
Overall the child care if from $600 to 1000 depending on the age and location of the daycare. The daycare in the business core (downtown) will cost up to $1500 from age 12 to 18 month.
I can't tell you the living standard in ON if it is higher than BC because I have never lived in BC before.
Lily,
Only Alberta has one tax, BC has 2 taxes and total of 13%. It is just 1% less than ON and I dont think it can make a big different in our living standard. Besides, I heard some shopping centre can waive the taxes if you shop there. In Vancovuer, only one tiny shopping centre in Chinatown will do that.
How about COSCO, do you guys find it cheap? In here, we need to pay annual fee $ 50 to get into member first. We went there once and found the things is not that cheap.
Just wonder can you find all sort of Chinese veggies in ON? In Vancouver, we have farm close to us run by Chinese and they grow almost everything includes the exoitic veggie, "kau kei"
PoohPoohMaMa,
Personally I like use the visual aid to learn and that's why I dont see any harm to watch TV. I also bought a LCD TV in my daughter's room in order to reduce radiation.
During my study in Australia, it is so hard to understand English and I used to borrow different types of tapes and watch it in order to improve my listening skills, it works very well for me.
Lose concentration...I dont see that happen but I can see how much she understand from asking her questions. I will say it is good way to practise her listening skill. Sometimes I will use the character as a example, eg, Max and Rudy, Max doesnt like egg and she used not like egg before, I said if you dont like egg, you are Max, then she said NO and she will eat the egg. See, I dont see TV has caused any harm.
Speaking of childcare, it really high for $1500! I never seen any place charge so much in Vancouver.
One more thing, if the JK start at age 4, why people still spend so much on daycare if the child is over 4yr?
I have no choice as kindergarten only start at 5 here.
Alberta and the 3 territories have only the GST but no PST.
Shopping center will waive the taxes during the promotion saying they will pay the GST/PST, but officially they can't do that..
Costco products will be cheaper if you buy in the bulk... but for family of 2 or 3, not really worthwhile, as for us, we want varieties... so small purchase suit us best.
some of the no frills and price chopper do carry chinese section, where we could buy most of the chinese veggie , meat and other stuff (like mushroom and misc chinese herbs for the soup making.)
People still send the child to expensive daycare after 4 year old. I can think of some reasons: government kindergarten only offers 2 full days and alternative Friday, or 5 half days. If you work full time, you have to arrange daycare for the other off days. If the cost if similar, why not paying a little more and let the child stay at the same place all day/week.
Another reason may be people isn't happy with the system that government provide and want to get a better education. And that's personal choice and perceptions.
About the provincial tax, my parents who moved from AB to ON, they said sometimes the item is priced a little higher in AB, so one tax doesn't mean the item is cheaper in AB.
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