Creating Together Blog

Teaching Children to Love Themselves

March 1, 2021 by Melanie

Self-esteem and confidence is important to nurture in children. It instills a growth mindset, resilience, and the ability to both act responsibly and take accountability for one’s actions. On the other hand, a poor self-esteem can lead to feelings of frustration and sadness, a loss of interest in learning, and becoming withdrawn / non-committal.

So how do we cultivate Self-Love in our children? Well, according to the Child Development Center in Illinois, here are five simple yet important steps that parents and teachers alike can take to build self-esteem:

Listen to and acknowledge your child’s thoughts and feelings.
Create situations that help your child experience success, not failure. Set clear and appropriate expectations, offer reasonable amounts of help, provide adequate incentives and remove obstacles.
Give your child a feeling of reasonable control over their life.
Reinforce that your child is lovable and capable.
Show your child that you have a positive view of yourself.

(https://www.chhs.niu.edu/child-center/resources/articles/self-esteem.shtml)

Self-Love Programming This Week at Creating Together

This week Creating Together is focusing it’s programming on Self-Love, to offer some stories, songs and tools to move the children of our community in the right direction. Apart from our regular science, craft and movement activities, join us for some of these experiences, designed especially for our theme!

Circle Time: Join us Monday and Wednesday at 10am on our Zoom channel for live songs and rhymes about self-love, with a special focus on infant circle time on Friday at noon (also on Zoom).

Storytime: Read along with us through our Facebook page at noon on Monday, Wednesday or Friday for stories of self-love. For example, this Monday Leah shared “I Am Perfectly Designed” by Jason Brown and his Father Karamo Brown (author reading below as well), “One Love” by Cedella Marley (Bob Marley’s daughter!).

Glitterbug Guest Circle: This Wednesday (and the first Wednesday of every month, join us for a live virtual circle time with special guest Jerry from Glitterbug at 10:00 am on Zoom: zoom.us/j/7391226799.

Parent Drop-In Discussion: On Monday and Friday at 2:30, join us on Zoom for a live drop-in parent discussion.

Enjoy the week families, join us if you can, and please reach out to our staff if we can help you with any resources – We are here to help!

Resources:

5 Fun Ideas to Celebrate Family Day Weekend

February 13, 2021 by Melanie

Family Day is celebrated on the third Monday of every February. Though not an official national holiday, we celebrate it across the country, with family festivals and things to do. Between Valentines Day on the 14th and Family Day on the 15th, this time of year is certainly a time for us to appreciate one another.

Each year Creating Together holds a family potluck to celebrate our families. This year, we are all getting creative given the entire Greater Toronto Area is under lockdown until Feb 22.

Here are some ideas for Family Day Weekend:

Go Fishing!

OFFE is a province-wide opportunity for Canadian residents to fish Ontario licence-free. There are four periods throughout the year, the 3-day Family Day weekend in February, Mother’s day and Father’s day weekends and a full 9-days in July, which coincides with National Fishing Week. Give it a try, and fish Ontario waters near you with the kids this family day weekend!

https://www.ontario.ca/page/licence-free-family-fishing

Ice Skating

City of Toronto has 54 outdoor artificial refrigerated ice rink locations, and many of them have the season extended until March, weather permitting. General hours of operation for City-run outdoor rinks are 9:00 am to 10:00 pm, seven days a week. Check them out HERE.

Toboganning

Toboganning never gets old. Timeless, tried and true – enjoy these 50+ Places to Toboggan in Greater Toronto Area

Go for a Family Hike at a Conservation Park

Ontario is filled with unspeakable beauty – and it’s yours for the exploring. Get the hiking boots out, dress warm, and enjoy some of the natural wonders at one of these 50 Nature Attractions & Hotspots in and around GTA.

Vitual Storytime with the Stars!

Burlington Performing Arts Centre invites you to celebrate Family Day by snuggling in with our FREE virtual Storytime With the Stars! Enjoy videos of some of BPAC’s favourite artists, who have each selected a cherished children’s storybook to read to your little ones.

Happy Family Day Weekend

from Creating Together!

Whether it’s sharing food together, helping out one another around the house, spending special time together or sharing memories – we’ve come to celebrate this time of year with love, gratitude, appreciation and fun. From our families to yours, may you enjoy this time together and make it the very best that it can be!

Happy Lunar New Year: Celebrating the Year of the Ox

February 10, 2021 by Melanie

The Lunar New Year, Chinese Chunjie, Vietnamese Tet, Korean Solnal, Tibetan Losar, also called Spring Festival, is celebrated during the second new moon after the winter solstice, usually between January 21 and February 20 on the Gregorian calendar.

The festival is typically celebrated in Asian countries, beginning with the first new moon of the year and ending on the first full moon of the lunar calendar, 15 days later.

Lunar New Year, February 12

This year’s Lunar New Year begins February 12th, as we move into the Year of the Metal Ox. This year, the traditional parades and festivals will not be held around the world because of the pandemic, but here are a few rituals that are traditionally done to celebrate, to help you bring in this renowned celebration with fun and positivity.

Lunar New Year Activities

Visit family and friends – This tradition is so crucial that LNY travel is annually heralded as the ‘world’s largest human migration’. In 2019, 3 billion trips were projected to be made during the holiday season. With the pandemic, getting on zoom and arranging virtual family get togethers is where it’s at.

Share wealth with family – Red packets carrying cash gifts are given to friends and family. It is also tradition for children to give a gift to their grandparents / elders. Take a look at the history of the Red Envelope HERE.

Clear out last year’s clutter – In the days leading up to the Lunar New Year, the last year is washed away: windows, walls and furniture are all cleaned and dusted. However, all cleaning stops on the first day of the Lunar New Year, so good fortune is not swept away.

Hang red decorations – it is said, according to lunar new year mythology, that red is hung to ward off Nian – a lion-like monster that is afraid of the colour red.

Watch a traditional dance – Further to the red decorations, Nian also doesn’t like loud noises, so drums and cymbals accompany a flying lion dance outdoors. This year, enjoy the dance from home through youtube!

Enjoy this Gallery – and discuss with your loved ones what the lunar new year means for you.

Gallery: Lunar New Year celebrations from around the world

Create Origami Oxen!

A very happy Lunar New Year to you all!

The Future is Now

February 2, 2021 by Melanie

Every February, people in Canada are invited to participate in Black History Month festivities and events that honour the legacy of Black Canadians and their communities.

The 2021 theme for Black History Month is: “The Future is Now”. As parents and caregivers of the next generation, it is indeed the future that we are creating.. Black History Month gives us all an opportunity to honour where we come from and look to the future.

What is Black History Month

Black History Month is about honouring the enormous contributions that Black people have made, and continue to make, in all sectors of society. It is about celebrating resilience, innovation, and determination to work towards a more inclusive and diverse Canada—a Canada in which everyone has every opportunity to flourish.

Black History Month in Toronto

The City of Toronto Archives is proud to share its Black History in Toronto webpage, which was launched in November 2020. Created with the support of the Ontario Black History Society and the City of Toronto’s Confronting Anti-Black Racism Unit, the webpage highlights the history of Black communities, activists and leaders, service organizations and much more!

The Toronto Public Library also celebrates Black History with year-round events and programs that honour Black heritage and consider the historical significance and contemporary contributions of Black activists and artists from around the world. In fact, our very own Parkdale Library is home to The Rita Cox Black and Caribbean Heritage Collection, featuring over 16,000 books, DVDs, CDs, newspapers and magazines for adults, children, and teens. The materials focus on the Black and Caribbean historical and cultural experience, with a special emphasis on Canadian content.

Take a look at upcoming events, reading lists, videos, and podcast episodes tpl.ca/blackhistory, such as this reading list for young readers: https://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/kids-books/2019/01/20-canadian-childrens-books-for-black-history-month.html

Additional Resources for Children

And, for those of you who would like to take the conversation deeper, CBC has a great feature to help parents and caregivers walk through the history and key messages around black history month:

https://www.cbc.ca/kidscbc2/the-feed/all-about-black-history-month

Staying connected to each other during these challenging times is more important now, than ever. Stories have the power to build connections when they are inclusive of all voices.

So take a look at these resources, dive into the stories, and have some discussions with family and friends. Together we can create a different future, and it starts now.

Welcome Leah!

February 1, 2021 by Melanie

Join us in welcoming Leah, our newest addition to the team at Creating Together! Leah begins today, and we are so thrilled to have her. Below is a letter from Leah, introducing herself and sharing her background, interests, and passion for community.

Hello Creating Together Community!

This is Leah Shoemaker, my pronouns are she/her and I am writing you from my home in Parkdale, Tkaronto/Toronto. I am so excited to be joining the Creating Together community although I admit it is one of the strangest times to start a new job. Not being able to physically introduce myself and get to know you all is going to be a challenge, but it is not impossible. I will be making an introduction video for the Facebook page and would love it if you left a hello comment for me to read! I would love to hear from you on what kind of support I can provide for your family as we move through the pandemic.

I moved to Toronto just over two years ago to continue my education in the field of early childhood studies. In my studies I focused my own research on children’s relationship with nature and continue to think about the ways that children build relationships with more-than-humans such as plants, sky, rocks, animals, etc. and how these aspects of the world are important and valuable.

As I get to know you all over virtual programming, I hope to share with you the different aspects of nature in Parkdale that have helped me heal from the trauma and difficulty that has come with living through a global pandemic. My work with children and families prioritizes joy and healing and I know that it is important to recognize the difficulty that we are all collectively going through currently. We don’t have to pretend everything is okay when we get together online – but we can think about how important it is to come together to build community in new and different ways.

Before living in Toronto I worked in childcare centres and as a librarian in the small, rural town of Invermere B.C. situated in Ktunaxa Nation nestled between the Purcell and Rocky mountain ranges. I will tell you more about my home town during virtual programming and introduce you to my cat, Tara, as well as some of my houseplants! I am also a big Toronto Raptors fan – Go Raps, Go! I can’t wait to read stories, sing songs, play games, and share moments with you over the coming weeks.

Outside of my time working with the Creating Together team I am also an advocate for national universal childcare, children’s rights, and anti-racist, anti-oppressive education in the early years! Families and children are such important parts of community and contribute so much to society. I look forward to spending time with and learning from you!

I hope to see you online!