Creating Together Blog

Welcoming Fall

October 1, 2020 by Melanie

This year, the autumn equinox fell on September 20th, marking the first day of autumn. It’s a beautiful time of year, when the leaves start to change, we celebrate the harvest, and we start preparing for the colder days to come.

As a family or community, what are some ways we can celebrate and honour this time of year?

A time of balance…

Equinox literally means “equal night.” And during the equinox, most places on Earth will see approximately 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. This time of year can be celebrated as a time of balance. Play with the themes of balancing opposites, especially the symbolic senses of light and darkness in balance. It’s a great time to purge and let go of things you no longer need, restoring balance and peace in the home.

Getting curious about the science of it…

On the autumnal equinox, the sun is at zenith (it appears to be highest in our sky) over the Earth’s equator. The Earth’s axis tilts neither toward nor away from our sun, and the sun’s center is directly over the equator. After the northern hemisphere’s autumnal equinox, the subsolar point—the point on our planet’s surface that’s directly underneath the sun—travels into the southern hemisphere, gradually casting us into shorter and cooler days.

Here are some fun activities to do with your child, to help them understand the meaning of the fall equinox: https://www.kidzworld.com/article/2526-autumn-equinox

Why do leaves change colour?

When days begin to grow shorter, deciduous (green leafy) trees begin to signal to their leaves to stop producing chlorophyll, the green pigment responsible for the leaves’ color and photosynthesis. Because the color change is more dependent on light than temperature, it takes place at basically the same time year after year.

This fall, try making a game of watching the leaves turn in Parkdale. Gather them up for your nature table, or make some beautiful autumn art together. Check out these videos together, and have fun learning more about the mystery of changing leaves:

Why do leaves change color in the fall? from DNews
Why do autumn leaves change color? from Scientific American
Why do leaves change color in the fall? from Super Scienced

Celebrating the harvest…

Traditionally Autumn Equinox was a time of great celebration. The harvests were coming in and food was plentiful. Celebrations focused on gratitude and thanks for the bountiful harvests. In different traditions, the autumnal equinox takes on several names, including Mabon, Harvest Home, and Alban Elfed.

People give thanks for the sunlight and the fruits of the earth, recognize that we must share those fruits as we enter the harsher months, and prepare to turn inward in the winter darkness, to which they pay their respects. To celebrate, you could make a gratitude list, visit a local farm or farmers market, eat a fall harvest meal together, and decorate your home for the season!

Books to read together…

Here are a few great family books to read together for the autumnal equinox.

Grace Lin’s Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival, Deborah Heiligman’s Celebrate Thanksgiving, and many other excellent picture books explore different cultures’ autumn traditions.
We Gather Together: Celebrating the Harvest Season (Wendy Pfeffer) introduces the science, history, and cultural traditions surrounding the autumnal equinox. This book also includes projects and recipes to try at home.
Pat Zietlow Miller’s Sophie’s Squash and Dahlov Ipcar’s Hardscrabble Harvest playfully bring our attention to the bountiful fall harvest we get to enjoy.

Orange Shirt Day: Because Every Child Matters

September 26, 2020 by Melanie

September 30th is Orange Shirt Day, “a day when we honour the Indigenous children who were sent away to residential schools in Canada and learn more about the history of those schools”. (CBC.ca).

Between the 1860s and 1990s, approximately 150,000 Métis, Inuit and First Nations children were sent to church-run residential schools. The schools harmed Indigenous children by removing them from their families, forcing them to speak English or French instead of their ancestral languages, disconnecting them from their culture and traditions and forcing them to adopt Christianity in order to assimilate into Canadian society. The government has since acknowledged that this approach was wrong, cruel and ineffective, and offered an official apology to the Indigenous people of Canada in 2008.

Why an Orange Shirt?

The legacy of Residential Schools is still felt by survivors (former students), their families and communities, and on September 30th, the time when children were taken to these schools. But why an orange shirt?

The “orange shirt” in Orange Shirt Day refers to the new shirt that Phyllis Webstad was given to her by her grandmother for her first day of school at St. Joseph’s Mission residential school in British Columbia. When Phyllis got to school, they took away her clothes, including her new shirt. It was never returned. To Phyllis, the colour orange has always reminded her of her experiences at residential school and, as she has said, “how my feelings didn’t matter, how no one cared and I felt like I was worth nothing. All of us little children were crying and no one cared.” The message that Phyllis wants to pass along on Orange Shirt Day — and every day — is that every child matters. Orange Shirt Day was started by Phyllis to educate people about residential schools and fight racism and bullying.

What You Can Do

Share Phyllis’ story. You can watch it on YouTube or below:

2. Continue learning about what happened to Indigenous Peoples. Take a look at Phyliss’ book “The Orange Shirt Story“, written for younger people, and these 12 books, recommended for adults by CBC.

3. Join over 10,000 teachers and over 500,000 of Canadian youth on September 30 to honour Residential School Survivors, their families and communities at an extraordinary virtual event to support and encourage meaningful Reconciliation across Canada. For Grades 5 through 12: https://education.nctr.ca/

4. Wear your orange shirt on September 30th – not only because of the pain and tragedy that was caused, but to recognize the strength, resilience and healing of the indigenous peoples and our commitment to creating a better future, where every child matters.

Virtual Programming at Creating Together

September 8, 2020 by Melanie

Creating Together staff are committed to ensuring families are supported and having fun. Our doors may be closed, but our virtual programming is fully open!

Take a look below for a snapshot of our Virtual Programming offered on Facebook and Zoom, and download the pdf file here to access the embedded links to connect you directly to our facebook and zoom channels. Each week we explore a different theme, and there’s something special planned for you Monday through Friday so enjoy – and let us know if you need anything!

Virtual-Programming-Poster-Final Download

Tanya’s Farewell Party

September 3, 2020 by Melanie

Hello families! We hope you are enjoying these last weeks of summer.

We have a staffing announcement to make: our long-time Program Manager, Tanya Jean-Baptiste, is moving on from Creating Together to take on new opportunities. In the 15 years that Tanya has been a staff member at Creating Together, she has led countless circle times, supported hundreds of families and been a positive part of so many children’s early lives.

Please join us on Saturday 5th September between 10-10:30am for a Virtual Farewell Party for Tanya. Drop in via Zoom at any time between 10am and 10:30am to say goodbye to Tanya and wish her well. See our Event page for the link to join.

Please message us if you have trouble joining.

The link to join via Zoom is in our Event page.
Meeting ID: 711 6746 7261
Password: FAREWELL

Enjoying the Benefits of the Arts from Home

August 25, 2020 by Melanie

Toronto is known for being a mecca of art and culture, and many arts and culture buffs (young and old alike) can’t wait for the theatres and museums to open again! That said, you’d be happy to know that the City of Toronto website offers an extensive list of free arts activities for all ages to enjoy in the comfort of your home.

That’s right – even with COVID, you can absolutely get your art on. Check it out for yourself in the link below, for a full table of activities to choose from for ALL ages:

https://www.toronto.ca/home/covid-19/covid-19-protect-yourself-others/covid-19-reduce-virus-spread/covid-19-stay-play-learn-at-home/

From weekly virtual art classes and theatrical performances to interactive maps of street art from across the city, there are pages and pages to choose from!

Developmental Benefits of Arts and Culture

Apart from the apparent fun that’s ready to be had when exploring art and culture, there are so many developmental benefits of art for children as well:

Motor Skills: According to the National Institutes of Health, developmental milestones around age three should include drawing a circle and beginning to use safety scissors. Did you know that many preschool programs emphasize the use of scissors because it develops the dexterity children will need for writing?

Language Development: Making art gives children opportunities to learn words for colors, shapes and actions. As they get older, children use more and more descriptive words to discuss their creation or how they feel about them.

Decision Making: Over the process of creating art, children need to carry out a number of decisions and choices, and this skill can help them in other areas of life. The act of exploring, thinking, and experimenting can’t be underestimated!

Visual Learning: Children are very visual, taking in information and cues from pictures or objects and learning from what they see are the building blocks for reading, drawing, and sculpting!

“Parents need to be aware that children learn a lot more from graphic sources now than in the past. Children need to know more about the world than just what they can learn through text and numbers. Art education teaches students how to interpret, criticize, and use visual information, and how to make choices based on it.”
Dr. Kerry Freedman, Head of Art and Design Education at Northern Illinois University.

Cultural Awareness: Especially in cities like Toronto and neighbourhoods like Parkdale, we live in a very diverse community. When looking at a piece of art or cultural piece, try to have a conversation with them to help them see the choice or point of view an artist is portraying.

Academic Performance: In an article by the Art and Music Centre a student involved in the arts is:

4x more likely to be recognized for academic achievement.
4x more likely to participate in a math or science fair.
3x more likely to win an award for school attendance.
3x more likely to be elected to class office.

Did you know that lower income or socioeconomic students experience even greater benefits from the arts? It’s true: Low income students highly engaged in the arts are more than twice as likely to graduate compared to their peers with no arts education, and have a 5x lower dropout rate!

Arts and Crafts with Creating Together live on Facebook!

Don’t forget to join us on facebook for some great online arts and crafts activities with Creating Together staff!

https://www.facebook.com/CreatingTogetherParkdale/

So what are you waiting for? Get creating!