Hey {{first_name | Friend}}! 👋

Hope you're soaking up this sunny week, frosty windshields and all. If your kids are at a YRDSB school they're home all next week for Mid-Term Break, and then the clocks fall back on Sunday, so the early mornings are about to get earlier. 🕰️

This week's scoop has a free forest open house built for little kids, a hidden-pumpkin hunt on a Rouge trail, and a Halloween weekend at the railway museum with the last mini train rides of the season. Plus break-week ideas and a Halloween section, including a night built for practising trick-or-treating.

Note: This is your YORK Edition. Reply HALTON to switch. Or BOTH to get both editions.

PS: See all events on our event page.

Newly found or rare events

📍 Stouffville Hollidge Tract, York Regional Forest · SAT Oct 24 and SUN Oct 25 · 10 AM to 2 PM · 💰 Free

A forest open house built mainly for kids 6 and under: nature crafts like a journey stick, and tours of the forestry centre. The guided Halloween nature walks need registration. → Register

📍 Markham Northeast Trail, meet at 10725 Reesor Rd · SAT Oct 24 · 9:30 to 11:30 AM · 💰 Free

A Parks Canada family walk where kids hunt for hidden pumpkins, each one carrying a fact about the park. Cancelled in bad weather. → Details

📍 Toronto Toronto Railway Museum, Roundhouse Park · FRI Oct 30 to SUN Nov 1 · 12 to 5 PM · 💰 $8 kids, $18 adults, under 4 free

A pumpkin train craft, a scavenger hunt with Halloween prizes and a train simulator. On the weekend you can catch one of the last mini train rides of the season ($10 a rider). Costumes welcome. → Details

📍 Toronto Roy Thomson Hall · SAT Nov 14 · Time TBA · 💰 Price not posted yet

A relaxed symphony: move, make sounds or step out any time, with a quiet room, headphones to borrow and empty back rows. About 37 minutes of music. → Details

Sat Oct 24 to Sun Oct 25

📍 Vaughan Sugarbush Heritage Park · SAT Oct 24 · 2 to 3 PM · 💰 Free

A Birds Canada guide teaches basic birdwatching outdoors. All ages with an adult. Register on Eventbrite, and load the Merlin app first. → Details

📍 Markham Flato Markham Theatre · SAT Oct 24 · 2 PM · 💰 $20 youth, $58-$68 adult

A family magic show mixing violin, guitar and illusions, about 90 minutes. Note: it's high-energy and pulls kids on stage, not a relaxed performance. → Get tickets

YRDSB is off Mon Oct 26 to Fri Oct 30. YCDSB elementary has a PA Day Mon Oct 26.

📍 Markham Unionville Library · MON Oct 26 · 10:30 AM to 12 PM · 💰 Free

Drop-in mini crafts, a scavenger hunt and a colouring station. → Details

📍 Richmond Hill Central Library · WED Nov 4 · 4 to 5:30 PM · 💰 Free

Drop-in dinosaur crafts and activities for families. → Details

📍 Vaughan Carrville Community Centre · FRI Nov 6 · 1:30 to 2:30 PM · 💰 $20 for 4 weeks

Small group swim lessons from Lifesaving Society instructors for autistic kids 3 to 8, each with a caregiver in the water. Runs Nov 6, 13, 27 and Dec 4. Registration was open on Wednesday. → Register

Also from Rouge's free walk list: a twilight family walk on the Woodland Trail, THU Oct 29, 4:30 to 6 PM (no washrooms on site).

Sensory-friendly and scare-free, Oct 24 to Nov 1

📍 Richmond Hill Hillcrest Mall, Entrance 4 · MON Oct 26 · 4 to 6 PM · 💰 Registration required

Trick-or-treating in a sensory-friendly, accessible setting for kids and youth with disabilities or developmental needs. A second date runs FRI Oct 30, 4 to 7 PM, at the Richmond Hill Multi-Service Hub (free, siblings welcome). → Register

📍 Minesing Simcoe County Museum, near Barrie · WED Oct 28 to FRI Oct 30 · 6 to 8:30 PM · 💰 $5 kids 4 to 11, $10 adults, under 4 free

Built for kids 3 to 10 to practise trick-or-treating around the museum grounds, plus potion-making, face painting and a not-so-spooky mystery tour. Note: there's a live DJ, and most of it is outdoors. → Details

📍 Vaughan Carrville Library · SAT Oct 24 · 2 to 3 PM · 💰 Free

Kids mix liquids that fizz and bubble. Grades 2 to 5. Repeats SAT Oct 31 at Dufferin Clark (10 AM) and Woodbridge (2 PM). Register for each session on Eventbrite. → Details

📍 Toronto Pocket Planet (formerly Little Canada) · SAT Oct 24 at 11 AM or 2 PM, SAT Oct 31 at 11 AM · 💰 $25 plus admission ($28 kids, $44 adults)

A one-hour workshop where kids paint and assemble their own miniature Halloween scene, tiny pumpkins and trick-or-treaters included, to take home. Ages 6+, 30 spots a session. → Details

📍 Toronto Roy Thomson Hall · SUN Nov 1 · 1:30 PM or 4 PM · 💰 Ticketed, price not listed online

An hour-long kids' concert of spooky classics like Night on Bald Mountain and Danse macabre, for ages 5 to 12, with free instrument try-outs in the lobby an hour before. Costumes encouraged. Not a relaxed performance, and the 1:30 show is nearly full. → Get tickets

📍 Toronto Bata Shoe Museum · SUN Nov 1 · 12 to 4 PM · 💰 Free (Sunday admission)

Halloween crafts, a trick-or-treat scavenger hunt through the museum, iSpy cards and a shoe try-on station. Costumes welcome. → Details

Still on: Autism Ontario's inclusive trick-or-treat at Upper Canada Mall SAT Oct 31, 10 AM to 12 PM (registration); a second Spooky Sunday at Dog Tales SUN Nov 1 ($5); Brick-or-Treat at LEGOLAND Discovery Centre, Vaughan Mills, to SAT Oct 31 (with admission, from $21.99; the 4D movie has motion and effects); and the Newmarket Pumpkin Parade at Mulock Park SUN Nov 1, 6:30 to 8:30 PM.

Thank you for being here and read this far! This list only exists because you keep telling me what your family actually needs.

Hit reply and tell me one thing you are hoping goes smoothly this week. I read every single one.

See you next week!

Stella

Sensory Scoop · sensoryscoop.ca