What's On in Parkdale Archives | Creating Together Parkdale

We’re Counting on Your Support this Season

November 24, 2022 by Creating Together

“I bring my son and baby here every week to learn, play, and teach my children. If it wasn’t for this place I don’t know where I would take my children or get the help I need.”
– Parent

We have received some lovely messages from current and past families since we launched our fundraising campaign earlier this month. They have been wonderful reminders of our many community connections, as Creating Together has been supporting families in Parkdale since 1976. With your help, we can continue to offer high quality, accessible support and services to our community into the future!

Please consider making a donation in support of our program through our Canada Helps page.

Curious about how many families drop in each month? Here’s a look at Creating Together by the numbers:

Our community continues to grow – we love seeing new and familiar faces each week!

With over 1,000 visits monthly, we will direct some funds raised towards hiring additional program staff to keep up with our growing community. We hope we can count on your support in the coming weeks!

Welcoming May at Creating Together

May 2, 2022 by Melanie

It’s time to welcome May here in Parkdale – and with it, we mark one successful month of drop-in programs! This month we acknowledge CMHA Mental Health Week May 2-8, 2022. We also wish a Happy Mother’s Day to all of the Mothers in our community, and Eid Mubarak to the Muslim Community! We look forward to celebrating and acknowledging these days in the centre this month. The warmer weather brings some exciting changes at Creating Together. Read on below for further programming updates and news.

COVID-19 Protocol

We have returned to mandatory masking in the centre, and encourage the same for children over the age of two, should they be able to comfortably mask. We will no longer be screening upon your arrival, yet we invite you and your family to self-screen using the following tool or our posted notice at the door. We wish to remind families who have travelled outside of Canada, that Ontario Public Health requires that you wear a mask in public spaces for 14 days, monitor symptoms, and track all close contacts.

For the safety and respect of all of our community members, we continue to ask that you remain at home if a member of your household feels unwell. For families who continue to feel well enough to join us at the centre, please ensure you sign yourself in and out of the program on the attendance sheet.

We are thankful for your continued cooperation.

Program Update

Thank you to everyone who has joined in as we re-opened the drop in program for the first time in two years. The gravity of how important this space is for children and families to gather and connect has never been clearer. We are grateful to rebuild our practices together and build new understandings of what we all need to feel safe, welcomed, and represented in this space as we support young children who are growing and learning within a complex world.

Invitation to Collaborate

As staff and families re-acquaint ourselves with the program we would like to invite more collaboration back into the centre.

Would you like to lead circle or story time?
Would you like to plan a special day or celebration?
Do you have feedback or suggestions on how we can better represent and support you and our community?
Do your children have questions or inquiries they would like to explore at Creating Together?
Help us represent your home language at the centre by making labels for items in the centre!

Over the next few weeks Leah will be checking in with families in-person, emails, and phone calls to connect on how we can meet your needs going forward. Please feel free to connect with Leah during drop-in program for an informal chat about ideas or ways you might want to contribute to the program.

Community Guidelines

With drop-in program re-established we would also like to provide some updated community guidelines:

Please ensure food/eating/chewing takes place at the tables and hands are washed before returning to playtime.
Creating Together is a place for caretakers, parents, and guardians to connect and play with children. Play is an essential way young children learn. We discourage cell phone use and encourage you to instead focus on following your child’s joy, curiosity, and interests while joining our programs.
Thank you for participating in cleanup routines and modelling collaboration. We are looking into the future and considering how we can safely return to a more open kitchen policy for families. Thank you for your patience as we continue to limit kitchen use and take gradual steps to ensure we re-open safely.

New Outdoor Program!

Our new Outdoor Program will begin on May 2nd and will be held on Mondays and Tuesdays. Drop-in program will be provided at 9:00am-10:30am at Beaty Avenue Parkette (66 Beaty Avenue, a two minute walk from Creating Together). Following our outdoor program, we will walk back to Creating Together for snack at 11, followed by indoor programming. See below for our schedule.

Program Schedule

We continue to offer a reduced virtual program schedule (including Science with Sal), as well as in-person program Monday to Friday 9:00am-1:30pm and two Saturdays a month 10:00am – 2:00pm (please note the location of programs below). You can also view additional program details and special events on our monthly calendar, linked here.

Monday & Tuesday

9:00am – 10:30am- Beaty Avenue Parkette (Outdoor Program)
10:30 – 11:00 – Family Transition Time
11:00am – 1:30pm – Creating Together (Indoor Program)

Wednesday – Friday

9:00am – 1:30 pm – Creating Together (Indoor Program)

Two Saturdays a month:

10:00am – 2:00pm – Creating Together (Indoor Program)

Special Guests

We are lucky enough to welcome two special guests this May for circle time! Mark your calendar and join us for these exciting guest visits at Creating Together:

Natalija from Parkdale Library, will join us May 4th from 10:00am – 10:30am
Nina from Glitterbug 2SLGBTQ+ EarlyON Program, will join us May 11th from 10:00am – 10:30am
We look forward to being joined this month by an Early Childhood Studies student from Toronto Metropolitan University, and an ECE student from Humber College. Let’s give them a warm-Creating Together-welcome!

Resource Boxes

With the expansion of our in-person services, Resource Boxes will be limited in materials moving forward. Resource Boxes will still be available for families actively using our program, in the first two weeks of May, until May 13th.

To book your pickup time, please contact Creating Together by phone or email: (416) 537-1004 / creatingtogether@rogers.com.

Let’s Keep Connected

To see some of Creating Together’s daily sunshine, give us a follow on our new Instagram account @creatingtogetherearlyon – catch all of our centre updates, shared activities, and unforgettable program moments!

Welcome May! We’re so glad you’re here.

Have Fun and Stay Safe this Halloween!

October 31, 2021 by Melanie

Trick or Treating is Back On!

Last year families had to find creative ways to celebrate the holidays, with trick-or-treating cancelled – and although Creating Together won’t be holding any Halloween events this year, trick-or-treating is back on for 2021 and we want to say to all of you ~ stay safe, have fun, and have a very happy Halloween!

Pumpkin Parade Returns!

Also, when you are finished with your pumpkins, don’t forget to bring them over to Sorauren Park for the 2021 Pumpkin Parade! After being cancelled previously by the City for not having a permit, Councillor Gord Perks has taken out the permit for the parade.

The city is asking for those who come to the parade to share in the community spirit and to also take a moment to help put their pumpkin in one of the bins provided at the park at the end of the night or first thing in the morning. Volunteers from Friends of Sorauren Park will also assist. With more than 1,500 pumpkins on display in recent years, the Parade is a neighbourhood and even regional highlight of the season!

Welcome Back!

September 5, 2021 by Melanie

We are excited to be opening up again this Tuesday, and look forward to seeing your familiar faces (and hopefully some new ones!).

After a much needed break, Creating Together programs open again September 7th. We know that many of our youngsters will be heading to school, and wish them all the best in their adventures!

We will continue to offer Virtual Programming (starting Tuesday), and will gradually be reopening the in-person program again (but not quite yet – stay tuned).

Welcoming Spring’s Rebirth

March 23, 2021 by Melanie

March 21st marks the first day of spring! And with this, families are starting to prepare for the traditional celebration of Easter. However, normally it is a time of opening our doors, reuniting with family members, enjoying community egg hunts, decorating eggs, and for many, a time of sacred prayer and family reflection. With COVID-19 still a very present reality, many of us are looking for creative ways to celebrate the holiday amidst social distancing protocols. Here at Creating Together, we cannot emphasize enough the value and role of traditions in increasing happiness, emotional wellness, and positive self-identity in children.

So – regardless of COVID-19, the themes of renewal, rebirth, and resilience remain. And it becomes more important than ever to uphold the family traditions you hold most dear. From one point of view, we could see this holiday as perfectly timed, to remind us all of the importance of these values and themes in our homes, our families, and our communities. Consider the values that are important to your family at this time of year, and try to find some ways to weave these into teachings for your family. Traditions of Gratitude, for example, fit in beautifully with this time of year.

And don’t forget to have some fun together! According to FamilyEducation.com the top 10 Easter activities for families include:

Egg and Spoon Race.
Jelly Bean Guessing Games.
Read Easter and Spring Children’s Books.
Plant Flowers.
Decorate an Easter Egg Tree.
Make Chocolate Fondue.
Create Easter Crafts.
Give a Gift Basket.

Described in further detail here, you could try a variation of many of these activities in the comfort of your home or yard. Women’s Day also describes some fun Easter activities you can enjoy while practicing social distancing.

At Creating Together, we are getting ready to set you up with some really great crafts, stories, and songs to help you and your little ones celebrate. Check out our virtual program schedule, and join us the week of March 29th-April 2nd!

Certainly during this time of unprecedented unrest and upheaval to the daily routine, holding true to traditions becomes a lifeline that all of our children need now more than ever. Never underestimate the power of tradition. We hope you’ll join us!