Making Healthy Eating Fun

May 26, 2018 by Creating Together

Parents and Caregivers work tirelessly to make food fun, nutritious and educational – which is great, because they play a critical role in improving children’s health. Yet with picky eaters, healthy eating can be quite the challenge. Here are a few ways you can get a healthy eating program moving in your home or community:

1. New to Canada? Join the Peer Nutrition program – designed for newcomer women and their children and is hosted by Parkdale CHC, Toronto Public Health, and West Neighbourhood House. It offers an opportunity to cook and share a nutritious meal, engage with peers on settlement challenges for women parenting, and other issues.

2. Visit the Sorauren Farmers’ Market, which runs every Monday from 3-7pm. Farmers are often thrilled to share their food inspiration with children, and you might consider turning it into an adventure with a scavenger hunt. Ps: the market is currently seeking volunteers for the summer!

3. Get involved with Greenest City. In particular, you might find the Great Garden Adventure program fun – it’s a program run by the Toronto Green Community, and is supported by Greenest City. The program is aimed at kids ages 5-10 and runs every Monday from 2pm – 4pm, starting in July and finishing in late August.

4. Turn healthy snacks into a learning experience at Creating Together’s weekly “make your own pizza” day – an opportunity to learn how to make a fresh, wholesome pizza that kids love!

5. Offer healthy alternatives at events, and have your child get involved in it’s creation!

6. Become a hub coordinator for Food Share, and involve your children in understanding what is in season, what is local, and discover some new recipes you can create with new foods together.

7. Make snacks and meals a routine, offering them at scheduled times throughout the day.

8. Make food the focus by turning off the TV and other devices, and putting away toys during mealtime. New research suggests that cooking family meals and avoiding TV while eating them may lower the chances of becoming obese.

9. Attend a Toddler Food Prep workshop at Creating Together. Each month, Marcela from Foodshare offers parents and caregivers a hands-on toddler food preparation workshop. She shares fast, easy and healthy meal ideas and participants will get to help make and sample the food prepared, including recipes to take home!

10. Lead by example. Your children are more likely to try new foods if you eat them too!

Extended Hours Closed May 28th-June 1st

May 24, 2018 by Creating Together

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Extended hours program (the 3-5pm program) is CLOSED for the week of May 28th.

For the week of May 28^th to June 1^st regular program continues:

Monday to Wednesday – 9:30 am to 3:00 pm
Thursday & Friday – 9:30 am to 2:00 pm

Extended Program Hours resumes the week of June 4^th 2018.

Thank you,

CT Staff

For the Love of Reading

May 15, 2018 by Creating Together

Some interesting facts…

Did you know that the greatest amount of brain growth occurs between birth and age five? In fact, by age 3, roughly 85% of the brain’s core structure is formed. In contrast, the majority of our investments are made in the traditional education years of K-12, which begin at age five. (“Lifetime Effects: The High/Scope Perry Preschool Study Through age 40.” Ypsilanti, MI: High/Scope Educational Research Foundation, 2005).

Here’s another interesting fact: Reading aloud to young children is not only one of the best activities to stimulate language and cognitive skills; it also builds motivation, curiosity, and memory (Bardige, B. Talk to Me, Baby!(2009), Paul H Brookes Pub Co).

What are you waiting for?

Creating Together is here to help – each Monday Creating Together hosts “Literacy Mondays” – where reading is a community event! Designed for one-on-one or small group storytelling, our Literacy Mondays feature developmentally appropriate books and CDs for children to enjoy – and they also have the choice of listening to a story with their headphones all on their own!

Some reading tips for the road

If you’re looking for reading tips, here are some great ones provided by Reading Rockets:

Don’t expect your toddler to sit still for a book

Toddlers need to move, so don’t worry if they act out stories or just skip, romp, or tumble as you read to them. They may be moving, but they are listening.

Recite rhymes, sing songs, and make mistakes!

Pause to let your toddler finish a phrase or chant a refrain. Once your toddler is familiar with the rhyme or pattern, make mistakes on purpose and get caught.

Choose engaging books

Books featuring animals or machines invite movement and making sounds. Books with flaps or different textures to touch keep hands busy. Books with detailed illustrations or recurring items hidden in the pictures are great for exploring and discussing.

Keep reading short, simple, and often

Toddlers frequently have shorter attention spans than babies. Look for text that is short and simple. Read a little bit, several times a day.

Encourage play that involves naming, describing, and communicating

Set up a zoo with all the stuffed animals. Stage a race with the toy cars. Put your toddler in charge and ask lots of questions.

Every day is an adventure when you’re a toddler

Choose books about everyday experiences and feelings. Your child will identify with the characters as they dress, eat, visit, nap, and play.

Ask questions

Take time to listen to your toddler’s answers. Toddlers have strong opinions and interesting ideas about the world. Encourage your toddler to tell you what he or she thinks. You’ll build language skills and learn what makes your toddler tick at the same time.

Play to their favorites

Read favorite stories again and again. Seek out books about things your toddler especially likes — trains, animals, the moon. These books may extend a toddler’s attention span and build enthusiasm for reading.

Not having fun?

Try a different story or a different time during the day. Reading with a very young child is primarily about building positive experiences with books, not finishing every book you start.

Reading tip sheets in other languages:

Here are some tip sheets for parents of children in preschool to grade 3 in a number of different languages:

Spanish (471K PDF)*
Arabic (964K PDF)*
Traditional Chinese (959K PDF)*
Haitian Creole (950K PDF)*
Hmong (943K PDF)*
Korean (446K PDF)*
Navajo (578K PDF)*
Russian (646K PDF)*
Tagalog (943K PDF)*
Vietnamese (945K PDF)*

See you Monday!

Science Activities for May!

May 2, 2018 by Creating Together

Creating together is committed to making learning fun – and each month, we feature a couple of science activities to encourage your children to have fun learning about science and nature.

When children are engaged in learning about science and nature, they are also learning strategies for active exploration, thinking and reasoning and develop working theories for making sense of the natural, social, physical and material worlds around them.” (Nurtured at Home, theimaginationtree.com)

What’s in store for May?

On May 9th, Tanya will be taking the kids through a “sink and float eggs”. What happens when you put an egg in a glass of regular water?Are there other liquids you can add to make the egg sink or float? What else can you dissolve in the water to make the egg float?

And on May 23rd, we’ll be learning about static electricity with plastic spoons!

Have we peaked your curiosity? Join us!

Looking for more? Encourage your children to have fun learning about science and nature using some of these activities from “under5s” which are easy to do at home:

Join us at our AGM

April 28, 2018 by Creating Together

Creating Together is holding it’s Annual General Meeting on May 4th at 10am. Refreshments will be provided!

Come learn all that Creating Together has accomplished over the course of 2017, and join us as we honour the hard work of our staff, Board Members, and community supporters. We have so many things to celebrate – we do hope you’ll join us, and help us bring in a new year of serving the families of Parkdale.

See you there!