Creating Together Blog

Increasing Happiness and Well-Being through Traditions of Gratitude

October 7, 2019 by Creating Together

The chill in the air and the changing leaves tells us winter is coming. As the autumn season blossoms around us, it’s a great time to reflect on our autumn traditions.

With the Canadian Thanksgiving around the corner, this becomes a beautiful time of year to celebrate gratitude and thanks for the bountiful harvests in our lives.

Gratitude is Key to Well-Being

Evidence from our research at Berkeley suggests that grateful young adolescents (ages 11-13), compared to their less grateful counterparts, are happier and more optimistic, have better social support, are more satisfied with their school, family, community, friends, and themselves, and give more emotional support to others.

Research has also shown that gratitude plays a major role in our well-being and success. For example, one study links gratitude to greater social support and protection from stress and depression over time.

How Can We Cultivate a Tradition of Gratitude in our Youngsters?

Whether it’s Sunday dinners, birthdays, or family game night, having routines that you do as a “family” is important on many levels. Research since the 1950s shows us that no matter which language you speak or where you are from in the world, traditions and rituals in family life are linked to increased happiness, emotional well-being, and a greater sense of identity in children. So how can we cultivate a tradition of gratitude in our families, so we can give our children the best possible foundation?

Harvest time is the perfect time of year to begin.

Traditionally at this time of year, people give thanks for the sunlight and the fruits of the earth, recognizing that we must share those fruits as we enter the harsher months, and prepare to turn inward in the winter darkness. It’s the perfect time to get started on a family routine to cultivate gratitude – and it won’t only benefit the kids. We could all use a little more happiness and well-being!

Join us this Friday for our annual Thanksgiving Potluck Lunch – make a dish with your young one and join us in gratitude and celebration!

The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley has done a lot of work in the area, and published an article with 7 suggestions for fostering gratitude in their “Greater Good Magazine” as part of their “Expanding Gratitude” project, summarized here:

Model and teach gratitude: Expressing gratitude through words, writing, and small gifts or acts of reciprocity are all ways to teach children how to become grateful. Adults can promote gratitude directly in children by helping them appraise the benefits they receive from others—the personal value of those benefits, the altruistic intention of people providing them, and the cost to those people. This helps kids think gratefully.
Spend time with your kids and be mindful when with them: Being mindful helps you maintain empathy toward a child, and this provides important modeling of empathy, the most important emotion for developing gratitude and moral behavior. It will also give you and your child a heightened sense of appreciation for the things both of you love and for your relationship.
Support your child’s autonomy: Using an authoritative or democratic parenting style, which is firm, yet flexible, sup- ports children’s autonomy. This will enhance family relationships, improve the atmosphere at home, and help bring out their strengths and talents, all good for making grateful kids. Also, limiting children’s media consumption and guiding them to use media in prosocial ways protects them from commercial influences that discourage the development of the authenticity, self-development, and social interaction necessary to grow into positive, purposeful, grateful individuals.
Use kids’ strengths to fuel gratitude: After you’ve identified your children’s top strengths and you know their unique strengths profile, you should encourage and help them to use those strengths whenever possible. Not only does this open up opportunities for others to contribute to the things your children love, but it also enables your children to strengthen their ability to be helpful and cooperative toward others, which will make them more grateful.
Help focus and support kids to achieve intrinsic goals: Steer children away from pursuing extrinsic goals and toward pursuing intrinsic goals, such as engaging in activities that provide community, affiliation, and growth. Not only will successfully achieving these goals fulfill children’s fundamental human needs of competency, belongingness, and autonomy, but their personal development, happiness, success, and gratitude depend on it. To amplify their gratitude even more, remember to savor their accomplishments with them along the way, and encourage them to thank those who’ve helped them meet their goals.
Encourage helping others and nurturing relationships: When children lend a hand, especially while using their strengths, they feel more connected to those they’re helping, which helps them to develop and nurture friendships and social relationships. A great way to do this is by teaching them through your actions that other people matter and that tending to relationships should be a priority. To help children strengthen their relationships, you should encourage them to be thoughtful of others, to thank others regularly, and to be cooperative, helpful, and giving.
Help kids find what matters to them: The deepest sense of gratitude in life comes from connecting to a bigger picture, to an issue that matters to others and doing things that contribute to society down the road.

Whatever it is that you choose to do, cultivating gratitude in your family will give everybody a lift, and will create long-term impact for individual family members but also for communities to become more compassionate, caring, and content.

How Gratitude Helps Through Hard Times

9 Gratitude Activities for Children

Gratitude Traditions for Thanksgiving Dinner

Scarf Dancing

September 30, 2019 by Creating Together

The music turns on, the scarves are passed around, and the parents, caregivers, and kids go wild. Toss it. Twirl it. Throw it and catch it. And we kick off every month with it at Creating Together.

Benefits of Scarf Dancing

So what is scarf dancing and what makes it so great?

Most kids love dancing and involving a scarf makes it even more fun. Whether your child is a baby or toddler, there are so many great benefits to scarf play. KinderMusik, an organization committed to empowering young children to learn through music, describes a number of benefits to dancing with scarves (KinderMusik.com):

Sparking imagination as we explore all kinds of ways to play with our scarves
Teaching directional tracking as we visually track our scarves’ movement
Improving eye-hand coordination as we play catch or peekaboo
Increasing vocabulary as we verbally describe what we are doing with our scarves
Sharpening listening skills as we move our scarves based on musical or verbal cues
Practicing inhibitory skills as we start and stop our movements with the scarves

It may not sound like much, but kids love it – and there are so many different games that can be brought into the mix, to keep in changing each month.

Scarf Games and Activities to Try at Home

12 Educational Games to do with scarves at home, from Birth to Age 4 – ParentHub.com

Scarf Play at Home – KinderMusik.com

Scarf Activities for Kids – TheInspiredTreehouse.com

Understanding the Picky Eater – And Tips for What to Do

September 23, 2019 by Creating Together

This month’s information sessions have been dedicated to a topic we can all relate to as parents and caregivers: Tips for reducing “picky eating”.

We’ve all seen it – children refusing to eat certain foods, textures, colours – and their preferences changing like the wind from one day to the next. How do we as parents and caregivers help our children create healthy attitudes and behaviours around eating?

“Being creative, staying patient and continuing to offer new foods without a fuss can help your child enjoy mealtimes and develop lifelong healthy eating habits”.
Nutrition Matters, Toronto Public Health

What Causes Picky Eating?

Let’s understand why this is happening in the first place, and shed some light on what “picky eating” is about. According to Toronto Public Health, there are a number of reasons your child eats less or refuses foods:

Growth – There will be days when a child is more or less hungry because of their growth rate.
How they’re feeling – If a child is tired, upset, sick or stressed, this will affect how they eat.
Distractions – They may rather play than sit and eat!
Pressure – Any kind of pressure to eat does not work.
Taste – Young children have a high sensitivity to taste, smell, shape, and texture – or they simply may not like it!
Fear of something new – Young children commonly are afraid of new or unknown foods.
Independence – Young children prefer feeding themselves, and showing their independence by choosing what to eat.
Attention – Refusing can sometimes gain them the attention they seek from their parent or caregiver.
Role modelling – Your child may be coping the behaviour of another child who refuses to eat a particular food.
Drinking lots of fluid – Filling up on milk or juice will impede their interest in eating.

3 Tips for Success

There are a number of tips to support parents and caregivers in feeding a picky eater, and creating healthy eating habits. One thing to remember when reading through these tips: your child decides how much to eat and whether or not they’ll eat, while the parent / caregiver decides what foods to offer, when, and where meals take place. It may take them 15 times for your child to like a new food, so be patient and try to have fun with these tips and strategies:

Offer a variety of foods: Try using Canada’s Food Guide to plan meals and snacks, making an effort to make food be interesting and fun. You might try serving different shapes, colours and textures of food, ensuring lots of finger food options. When introducing a new food, try offering it alongside something familiar.
Set regular times: Children do well with routine, so serve 3 meals and 2 snacks at the same time daily. Keep portions to a child-size amount, and leave enough time between meals to allow their appetite to build. Offer water between meals to satisfy thirst (rather than juice or milk), and limit milk to no more than 3 cups a day. Juice is best to avoid or limit altogether. Why not incorporate morning circle and snack at Creating Together into your daily routine?
Make mealtimes enjoyable: Healthy eating is made so much easier when families sit down and enjoy meals together. This is an opportunity to be a good role model: eat a variety of foods yourself, turn off devices and tv, and bring your attention to your tummies and your time together. Other ways to make meals fun are to involve your child in meal planning, meal preparation, grocery shopping, and setting the table. Keep stress low by allowing preschoolers to leave the table when they are full, and not having rules be too strict at the table.

Looking for some fun activities to do at Creating Together, to make meals fun? Join us for the monthly Toddler Food Preparation Workshop with Marcella from FoodShare, and bring a dish to celebrate Thanksgiving at our Potluck Lunch next month!

Resources and Information

Toronto Public Health: 416-338-7600

EatRight Ontario: 1-877-510-5102 Ontario.ca/EatRight

Ontario Early Years Centres Information Line: 1-866-821-7770

Canadian Pediatric Society: caringforkids.cps.ca

September Calendar

September 5, 2019 by Creating Together

Creating Together staff are back n full swing after a wonderful summer break, and excited to bring families a great September program calendar!

If you anything missing on our calendar that you’d like to see in our program, please come in and let us know!

Inter-generational Programming

Every day, children come with parents and caregivers of every day. In addition, wach month, we spend Circle Time with the senior citizens at White Eagle Residence. We sing songs together, read stories and chat with the residents. This month we’ll be doing this on September 5th from 10:45-11:15am. Meet us there, or walk over with us from Creating Together.

Healthy Eating

On September 12th, we invite you all to join us for a cooking activity at 9:30am. Also, our regular monthly guest, Marcella, will be offering a Toddler Food Prep workshop on September 18th at 10am.

Physical Activity

Busy Bodies exercise cards continues Wednesday the 4th and 18th from 10:45-11:00am and 2:15-2:30, using pictures to prompt kids to get moving! The exercises help to promote gross motor movements, improve posture, and promote concentration while enhancing language and vocabulary.

Rainbow Fun is another activity we will be holding September 16th from 10:45-11:00am, and 2:15-2:30. The Rainbow Fun Physical Activity Program was produced by the City of Toronto & The Grey Bruce Health Unit. We choose different physical activities for each session and adapt them as needed to suit the children’s developmental level. We always start with a warm-up and stretches, and we finish with a cool down.

You also won’t want to miss Scarf Dancing September 6th at 10:45am, and Parachute Play September 20th at 1:15pm.

Public Health and Inclusion

This month, Toronto Public Health Nurse will be returning September 25th so please join us and bring your questions and concerns at 10am.

Also, on September 26th at 12:30, we are welcoming guests from the Glitter Bug Program from the 519 LBTTQ2S EarlyON Mobile Program. They will be joining us for circle and sharing resources with staff and families. Join us and help us create safe, affirming, equitable spaces for everyone!

Literacy

Each Monday from 9:30-10:30am and 1:30-2:30pm is “Literacy Monday”, where children read and sing along with parents/caregivers and a staff member. This program is designed for one-on-one or small group storytelling, featuring developmentally appropriate books and CDs. Children also have a choice to listen to a story with headphones on their own.

In addition, every day at 1pm we gather and read a story together as a group for Story Time, to help children become familiar with sounds, words, language and the value of books. Together, we can build your child’s early literacy skills, helping them go on to read successfully later in life.

Music

We’ll be getting into a groove together with Circle Time with Musical Instruments on Tuesdays from 11:00-11:30 and 2:30-3:00pm.

Self-Care for Children

August 29, 2019 by Creating Together

Life can get hectic, and remembering to take care of ourselves can easily fall to the bottom of the priority list. We have offered a few blogs to help parents with Self-Care for themselves, be it Prioritizing Self-Care in the Summer Months, or 10 Self-Care Tips for Moms. However, self-care routines are just as important for children. The earlier your child learns self-care, the more likely they are to maintain those good habits into adulthood.

Practicing self-care routines at a young age can reduce the risk of developing mental health conditions like anxiety and depression.
Ashleigh Louis, Ph.D., LMFT, Psychotherapist and Yoga Instructor (Laguna Beach, CA)

What are self care skills?

For children, self-care skills are the everyday tasks that help children participate in life activities, such as dressing, eating, and cleaning teeth. While adults support young children with these, it is expected that as children mature, they develop independence in these. When self care skills are difficult, this can limit other life experiences, be it difficulty with sleep overs at a friend’s, going on school/preschool excursions, or eating and toileting on their own at birthday parties.

Self-care habits are also things they can practice regularly, which provide stress relief and body-mind-spirit wellness. From painting and running to journalling and meditation, you can make it your mission to find a self-care habit your child can get excited about.

What can be done to improve self care skills?

Visual schedule of the steps involved
Reward chart for independent completion of tasks (or attempt at, in the early stages).
Small steps: Breaking down self-care skills into smaller steps and supporting the child through each step so that, in time, they can do more for themselves.
Routine: Use the same routine or strategy each time you complete the same task to help them learn it faster.
Consistency: Be consistent with the words and signs used to assist the child, and keep instructions short and simple.
Allow enough time: Ensure that there is enough time available for the child to participate in self care activities without feeling rushed (e.g. practice dressing on the weekend to start with before then doing it before rushing to preschool or school).

What activities can help improve self care skills?

Here are 10 activities to help you support your child in developing their own self-care routine:

Family Time: Regular daily routines that emphasize consistent wake up, eating, homework, bedtime, play, and chore schedules will provide the structure they need to understand and predict their world.
Slow Down Time: One of the overlooked elements of family routines for children, is building in “slow down” time (eg., yoga, deep breathing). Regular, built-in “slow down” time during the day allows children to learn how to make mindful choices.
Small parts of activities: Practice doing a small part of a task each day as it is easier to learn new skills in smaller sections.
Nature Time: Taking this time outside in nature has been found to specifically reduce depression. Carve out time in the week to go on a hike or walk around the neighborhood.

*Sign up is open now for our upcoming trip to Chuldeigh’s Farm!*

Observation: Have your child to observe other family members performing everyday self care skills.
Sleep: Sleep is one of the most crucial ingredients for learning, performance and mental health and good sleep starts with a consistent and early bedtime. For tips, see our earlier blog on Sleep Hygiene for children.
Role play: Self care tasks such as eating, dressing or brushing teeth with teddy bears. Doing it on others can help learning it before then doing it on yourself.
Expressing Feelings: Identifying and expressing feelings is a learned skill. Teach feeling words, discuss the emotions of characters in your child’s favorite stories, and encourage journalling. These strategies reduce stress, help them build relationships, and help them understand their feelings.
Timers to indicate how long they must tolerate an activity they may not enjoy, such as teeth cleaning.
Taking care of others: Altruistic emotions are associated with better health and well-being, and build family connection. Allow the child to brush your hair or teeth first, before brushing their own. Go out and volunteer as a family, be it delivering a meal to a neighbour or writing a kind note for a friend or teacher.