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All Things Nutritious: National Nutrition Month

March 15, 2021 by Creating Together

What is National Nutrition Month?

For over 30 years, Nutrition Month has been the most visible public awareness campaign for dieticians, reaching millions of Canadians. It began in the late 1970’s as a “Nutrition Week” with a small group of community dieticians. Local dieticians across several provinces then began planning events and activities in their workplaces, shopping malls, libraries and with the media. In 1981, The Canadian Dietetic Association (now Dieticians of Canada) and all the provincial dietetic associations jointly sponsored the first National Nutrition Week. The primary purpose of the Campaign was to increase public awareness about the importance of healthy eating by identifying dieticians as the most credible source of food and nutrition information.  By the end of the decade, the campaign was expanded to a month. (https://www.dietitians.ca/)
 

Finding Your Healthy in 2021

Each year, a Nutrition Month theme is selected by Dietitians of Canada based on a scan of the environment and with input from members. Themes have varied from the 1994 campaign “Nourishing our Children’s Future” to “Get the real deal on your meal” in 2012 to “Unlock the potential of food” in 2018.

Nutrition Month 2021 will centre on the idea that healthy eating looks different for everyone.

Dieticians will push back against simplified notions of ‘a healthy meal’ and ‘rules’ and share examples of how culture, food traditions, health conditions and personal circumstances influence what healthy eating can look like.

Dieticians of Canada

Culture and Food

Our traditional knowledge and cultural practices are interwoven with how we experience food in our communities. Toronto is often referred to as ‘the most multicultural city in the world, with around half of its population born outside the country, 200 ethnic groups and over 140 languages spoken.

It comes as no surprise that Creating Together has revolved much of it’s programming around the food and culture of the families we serve. Traditionally, we would come together for a potluck or to share a feast in celebration of a religious observance (eg., Diwali, Losar), celebration (eg., International Women’s Day), or cultural acknowledgement (eg., Black History Month).

9 Ways to Get Involved

This year we celebrate Nutrition month through our virtual and remote programming – and here are some things to try out with your family:

New Food Challenge – Each week, commit to trying out a new fruit and vegetable!

Organize a Food Drive – Organize a food donation campaign for a local food pantry or shelter such as the Parkdale Community Food Bank.

Receive – Creating Together has a food program – if you are in need of food, please contact our staff, or stop by personally Monday-Friday before 2pm.

Commit – Plan to eat more meals together as a family during National Nutrition Month.

Cooking Class – Get some friends together and take turns – each week, one hosts an online cooking class with your favourite traditional recipes. Take a look at this Cooking Video offered by Creating Together, to help you out: https://www.facebook.com/CreatingTogetherParkdale/videos/915402069215584

Spark Conversation – Get your friends and family members to share their favourite nutritious cultural dishes, the memories they have about those dishes, and what makes the meal nutritious. Also, you can join Leah for a parent discussion at 2:30 pm (on Zoom) on building healthy relationships with food

Support Food Share – Food Share is doing amazing things to bring healthy food to children. Check out Food Share’s programs, order a healthy food box as a learning program with your family, or take a look at this video they made: Recipe for Change:

Learn – There are some great videos and information on building healthy brains at https://www.healthybabyhealthybrain.ca/?page_id=625. Also, another great way to get informed is to become familiar with the revised Canada Food Guide, and have a discussion about it with your family! Picky Eater? No problem! Take a look at these tips for pick eaters.

Additional Resources

  • Translated Versions of the Guide
  • Use of Food Guide Content in Labelling and Advertising
  • My Food Guide
  • Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide – A Resource for Educators and Communicators
  • Copyright Guidelines for Non-Commercial and Commercial Reproduction of Canada’s Food Guide
  • Eating Well with Canada’s Food Guide – First Nations, Inuit and Métis

Filed Under: Family Playtime, Healthy Eating, Special Activities

Teaching Children to Love Themselves

March 1, 2021 by Creating Together

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:

  • https://insighttimer.com/…/the-importance-of-teaching…
  • https://www.cbc.ca/…/teaching-your-kid-self-love-when…
  • https://biglifejournal.com/…/activity-self-love…

Filed Under: Family Playtime, Tips and Tools Tagged With: online programming, Self-care, Self-Esteem, Virtual programming

5 Fun Ideas to Celebrate Family Day Weekend

February 13, 2021 by Creating Together

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!

Filed Under: Family Playtime, Special Activities, Tips and Tools, Traditions Tagged With: family traditions, nature discovery

Happy Lunar New Year: Celebrating the Year of the Ox

February 10, 2021 by Creating Together

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!

Filed Under: Celebrating Diversity, Family Playtime, Special Activities, Traditions Tagged With: Celebrating Community, Culture and Diversity, family traditions, traditions

Get Outside with Parkdale FitPlay!

January 27, 2021 by Creating Together

Getting children outside to enjoy time for free play in natural environments increases attentions spans, creative thought, and the desire to learn through exploration (https://www.asla.org/ContentDetail.aspx?id=39558). It also helps their motor, sensory, social and cognitive development – and is great for their general health and well-being (https://www.learningpotential.gov.au/the-benefits-of-outdoor-play).

Finding ways to be active in colder winter months can be challenging, and even more so with physical and social distancing measures in place. The Parkdale Village BIA is proud to support a local community initiative; Parkdale FitPlay! The Parkdale FitPlay Campaign provides a fun affordable way for Parkdalians to be active outdoors safely throughout the winter months. Kicking-off on Wednesday, January 27 for 4 weeks, and with the support of local fitness leaders and personalities from Parkdale’s diverse Black / BIPOC communities, you’re invited to get outside, get fit and have fun!!

Challenge yourself and you could win a prize!

The FitPlay

Community members are encouraged to visit designated public park locations and participate in self-led physical exercise and play, inspired by the FitPlay letter key.

How it works

Each letter of the alphabet, A to Z, is associated with a simple exercise most can perform some variation of safely. E.g. A = 10 high knees on the spot.
Participants self-select a word or phrase and perform the exercises associated with each letter. E.g. P A R K D A L E = 10 squats, 10 high knees on the spot, etc.

Mix up your FitPlay by choosing a new word, a new park  or a new challenge each time and invite your Parkdale friends and neighbours to do the same!

Here is What You Need To Do

  1. Video tape yourself, children or family doing some physical activity in a park near you
  2. Upload your video on the dedicated Parkdale FitPlay Facebook event page and Instagram page
  3. Personalize your post! (eg., “Hey Parkdale Friends! I’m so excited to be part of the Parkdale FitPlay – a fun way to be active outdoors safely through the winter! I just FitPlayed at (name of park) and am challenging you to do the same! Take a break, get outside, get outside, get moving then tag a friend! Follow @parkdalefitplay for the exercise key, demo videos, chances to win and more!
FitPlayed on Facebook
FitPlayed on Instagram

Full Details

ParkdaleFitPlay-PosterDownload

FitPlay Contest Details (Article by Anna Bartula)

Hashtags: #parkdalefitplay
Instagram/Facebook Tags: @parkdafitplay@supafitmama

Filed Under: Announcements, Family Playtime, What's On in Parkdale Tagged With: FitPlay, Parkdale

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Creating Together Parkdale Family Resource Centre

Our mission is to support the healthy social, cognitive, emotional and physical development of children 0 to 6 years and their families. We welcome children aged 0 to 6 years and their families/ caregivers to relax and connect with each other and with the greater communities through our many programs.
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MON 9:00am - 2:30pm
TUE 9:00am - 2:30pm
WED 9:00am - 2:30pm
THU 9:00am - 2:30pm
FRI 9:00am - 1:30pm
SAT 10am - 2:00pm (twice monthly)
SUN Closed

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Creating Together
1342 Queen Street West
Phone: (416) 537-1004
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Charitable Registration Number:
12947 6248 RR0001
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