Family Playtime Archives | Page 8 of 15 | Creating Together Parkdale

Nature Play During COVID-19

April 16, 2020 by Creating Together

With everybody inside so much more these days due to social distancing and self-isolating, we’re all getting a lot less time outside. With a bit of creativity though, we can all get the outdoor dose that we need.

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).

In fact, “wilderness therapy” has emerged as an alternative treatment for behavioral and psychological problems in adolescents and teens. One study found that “wilderness therapy” was an effective treatment for teens suffering from attention deficit disorder, alcohol and drug addiction, depression, and other behavioral problems. Afterward, patients showed higher levels of confidence, better organizational and leadership skills, and exhibited fewer problematic behaviors (http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/wrc/Pdf/howwildtherworks.PDF).

For more benefits of getting outside, you can check out Balancing Screen Time with Green Time.

For today though, we’d like to give you some resources to get you and your kids outside in ways that respect social distancing and keeps everybody safe. It has become clear that we all need new and creative strategies for connecting to the natural world, even if that may mean being indoors.

Star Gazing

“If we can’t see the stars, how will we know our place in the universe?”
Trevor Hancock, a professor at the University of Victoria’s School of Public Health and Social Policy

Drops in air pollution have revealed awe-inspiring stars that suburban and urban dwellers would have never seen otherwise. So set a star date for a bright night, bundle up, grab a blanket, and go see what the stars have to offer! Resources: International Dark-Sky Association, and How to Start Stargazing With Your Kids. For the top 10 books on stars, check out bookroo’s list here: https://bookroo.com/books/topics/stars or check out this great list on Stars, Planets and the Night Sky that you can order online from “Start with a Book”.

Get Reading! Bookroo’s top 10 books on stars…

Nature Window

If you can’t get outside, you can still experience moon watching, stargazing (if stars are visible), cloudspotting, bird-watching, and nature in general. Create a world-watching window or a nature window, set up a date, set up all your supplies, and get ready to observe! Things to consider bringing: your nature notebook, field guides (birds, stars, etc), binoculars, a telescope, and a camera – you could maybe even a sound recorder to capture the sounds of the natural world.

Make a Spring Nature Table

A spring nature table is a space in the home used for placing natural items that reflect the season. It is meant to be explored and used as a nature study aid in the home. Nature tables give children the opportunity to play with objects found in nature, helping them notice the little changes that happen when a season shifts, and connect with the natural world. They also create a sensory experience for the child, and can be used for pretend or imaginative play. Check out this lovely table by the Imagination Tree:

Spring Nature Exploration Table by The Imagination Tree

Consider what the season represents for your family’s culture, values, beliefs, celebrations. Then, go around your home with that in mind and you’d be surprised what you can find (rocks, leaves, sticks, acorns, pine cones, seasonal art and crafts, silks and candles in the season, fall books for kids, etc)! Put these together, and voila!

Nature Scavenger Hunt

Make a list of things found in nature around your garden, block, or a local trail. Then go out for a walk or hike with the family and see how many items you can find. The print shops are all closed due to COVID-19 so you’ll need to get creative – make a list on your phone or do some lists by hand. Looking for some ideas? Check these templates out here: https://www.freekidscrafts.com/summer-scavenger-hunt/

Family Bike Ride

According to Cycle Toronto, as long as you are not infected with COVID-19, symptomatic, or otherwise self-isolating. Riding a bicycle is compatible with physical distancing. In fact, the 2 metres (6 feet) is about the distance of a bicycle. According to the City of Toronto, we can only bike in groups if they are people we reside with, and at this point, city parks’ green spaces, including multi-use trails, currently remain open and accessible. Toronto has some really great trails to choose from as well, as per the interactive map here: https://www.toronto.ca/services-payments/streets-parking-transportation/cycling-in-toronto/cycling-google-map/

Need some help planning your route? Check out this great article by Cycle Toronto: https://www.cycleto.ca/how-plan-your-bike-route

Tip: Plan ahead! Many of these experiences are also great as we gear up for Earth Day on April 26th!

Stay healthy and safe!

Minding Screen Time: Tips and Strategies

February 11, 2020 by Creating Together

This generation, the digital generation, has never known life without a computer or the Internet. Screen time use has doubled in children over the last 20 years, and studies have linked high levels of screen time with delayed development in children. Dr. Aric Sigman, an associate fellow of the British Psychological Society and a Fellow of Britain’s Royal Society of Medicine, says:

Too much screen time too soon is the very thing impeding the development of the abilities that parents are so eager to foster through the tablets. The ability to focus, to concentrate, to lend attention, to sense other people’s attitudes and communicate with them, to build a large vocabulary—all those abilities are harmed.

But it isn’t easy to just unplug – parenting in the digital age also requires that we recognize our own habits. Not only do children mimic our own digital attachments, we also know from previous studies that limiting this face-to-face contact via extensive phone use could cause problems with development and reduce the level of bond between a parent and a child. A more recent study shows us that parents who spend more time with their phones have a greater tendency to shout at their children, while children also feel an increase in frustration, moodiness, and attention-seeking.

Information Session at Creating Together

In the face of this, Creating Together is offering 2 information sessions on Screentime for Children – one on February 10th at 1:30, and the other on the 28th at 10am.

Tips

Apart from the Information Sessions this month, here are a few tips:

Set Limits to Screen Time – Limits help build healthy habits for the future. Create rules to limit screen time and share them with the other adults in your child’s life as well to ensure consistency. There are plenty of apps that provide parental controls to block sites, and enforce time limits (no screen time for children under 2, and less than 1hr / d for children ages 2-5).
Be a Good Example – Children are more likely to act-out in order to get your attention when you’re distracted. Model healthy screen habits by engaging your child with play and books that build their brain and social development.
Create Healthy Habits – Keep devices in a common area so you can monitor age-appropriate use, while watching and talking to them. It’s also a healthy habit to turn off all screens an hour before bed to ensure a better sleep hygiene, and turn it off during mealtimes.
Get Outside – be it the snow, the rain, or the sun, there are plenty of games to enjoy outside to help you replace screen time with green time.

Continue the Conversation!

Interested in learning more, and sharing some strategies with other parents and caregivers? Speak with your family and friends to gauge tips and trends – and bring them with you to our next information session on February 28th at 10am.

See you there!

Nurturing Art in Childhood

November 27, 2019 by Creating Together

“Imagination is more important than knowledge.”
Albert Einstein

Art is vital to the mental, emotional, and psychological development in children. Children benefit from discovering art by doing and exploring an array of art materials. They are naturally curious and love to experiment with colors, textures and art tools. Using, safe, non-toxic art materials, toddlers can get messy using their hands to feel and apply paint; scribbling with markers and crayons; painting with sponges, brushes and other tools; squeezing safe modeling materials; cutting all types of paper products with safety scissors; gluing materials to create something new; and playing with shapes. These types of activities help toddlers to develop fine motor skills and cognitive abilities while promoting creativity and building fine motor skills.

“Research indicates that a child who is exposed to the arts acquires a special ability to think creatively, be original, discover, innovate, and create intellectual property—key attributes for individual success and social prosperity in the twenty-first century.”
International Child Art Foundation

How Parents and Caregivers Can Encourage Artistic Play

*Stencil Art Table at Creating Together*

Set Aside Space

Having a specific area in the home that always has a variety of art materials available for children is a great way to interest and encourage children to experiment with art. Don’t put everything out at once, as it can be overwhelming and distracting for a young child. Supply paper plates, recycled paper, old magazines and such to encourage creative clipping and for making pictures and collages.

Practice Non-Judgement

Resist the urge to direct a child’s art creation or judge it. Creative expression and making choices builds independence in young children, as they naturally learn to do more and more by themselves each day. A child may experiment with colors and end up with something that looks muddy – yet this unintended outcome is a great opportunity for a child to learn by doing.

*Huge gratitude to our funders for this new art station we were able to bring in*
*for the children of Creating Together!*

Ask Questions

Parents can show interest by asking their child about the story behind the artwork. “How did you make it?” What is it all about?” “What do you really like about it?” Listen up! When a child asks a question, encourage the child to solve it by him/herself. “How do you think that might work?” “What can you try?” What would happen if….” Parents and caregivers can reinforce language by discussing colors, shapes, patterns and all aspects of the creative process.

Displaying Artwork

Displaying a child’s artwork is also a great way to encourage a child to create art because it shows how much a parent values the child’s very original creation!

November Highlights

November 5, 2019 by Creating Together

The November Calendar is now out, and we have a lot of amazing things in store for the parents, caregivers, and children of Parkdale. Read below for some great highlights!

Fun With Nature

Join us on November 11th and November 22nd to enjoy the benefits of nature, at our local parks.

Researchers and natural environmentalists have been studying the effects of exposure to nature on children, and have found some interesting results: Engagement with nature has huge benefits for children physically, mentally, emotionally, and socially.

For instance, Adams & Savahl (2017) discovered it has a significant influence on children’s emotional and social well-being, while Pensini, Horn, & Caltabiano, (2016) discovered that early exposure to nature improves one’s mental health as an adult. Would you like to help improve your child’s short-term memory and ability to focus? Another study shows that being in nature for extended periods of time promotes the development of attention skills, while protecting against inattention-hyperactivity symptoms such as (Ulset, Vitaro, et al, 2017). There are also a number of physical benefits, such as improved vision, and reduced risk of obesity.

Keeping Active

Twice a month, we create healthier communities by bringing in the Busy Body Exercise Cards twice per month.

Did you know Adequate levels (60 minutes/day) of physical activity helps children:

develop cardiovascular fitness, strength, flexibility, and bone density
maintain a healthy body weight
reduce the risk of chronic disease and health problems
lessen the likelihood of tobacco, alcohol, and drug use
feel better every day, through improved mental health and well-being

Scarf Dancing is not only fun, but it’s incredibly good for children, and can be practiced at home as well. Here are some benefits:

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

Fun with Food

Join us at 9:30am on November 5th for some family baking, or the 28th at 9:30am to make oatmeal, raisin cookies. And don’t forget our monthly Toddler Food Preparation workshop with Marcella from FoodShare!

Supporting Literacy

Every Monday is Literacy Day at Creating Together. From 9:30am to 10:30am a staff member will read with a small group or one-on-one, and introduce songs and stories on CDs as well as a variety of stories.

Also, storytime takes place every day at 1pm. Parents and caregivers are encouraged to bring a special book from home that can be shared during this time.

Our Family Support Worker can share with you some strategies on how to read to small children. Every two months a professional literacy consultant provides educational workshops for families. In fact, this month we are very happy to have circle with the Parkdale Public Library Librarian on the 29th at 11am.

Did you know? Books with CDs and headphones are available for use with the children and a variety of children’s books can be borrowed for use at home through our Resource Lending Library.

Encouraging Inquiry

Children learn so much through science. So, each month we facilitate a fun learning science activity. This month’s science activities are the “underwater volcano” on November 8th and “the orange experiment” on November 25th. Curious? Come out and enjoy!

Family Baking: Healthy Muffins

October 14, 2019 by Creating Together

This week, parents and caregivers came together at Creating Together to enjoy family-time baking together making “Healthy Muffins”. We shared a great basic muffin mix, that you can change up by adding whatever dried fruit your little ones prefer! Scroll down for the recipe, and mark your calendars for our upcoming Toddler Food Preparation Workshop on October 16th at 10am!

Did you know…

You can freeze any muffin! Bake, completely cool and freeze in any air tight container for up to 3 months. Thaw on a counter for 3-4 hours or overnight.
Have an egg allergy? Want to try a vegan option? Substitute eggs with mashed banana, pumpkin, or applesauce (one-fourth cup of the purée per egg). Another option is ground flax or chia seeds (whisk together 1 tablespoon of ground chia or flaxseeds with 3 tablespoons of water until fully absorbed and thickened).

Try it at Home

If you couldn’t make it to family-time baking this week, enjoy the muffin recipe below and try it at home! Feel free to save and print this recipe card and add it to your cookbook 🙂

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