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Lunar New Year Celebration

January 22, 2020 by Melanie

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.

Chinese New Year, January 25th

This year’s Chinese New Year begins January 25th, as we move into the Year of the Rat. Here are a few rituals that are traditionally done to celebrate the Chinese New Year:

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.

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.

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.

You won’t want to miss the festivities in Chinatown this Saturday from 12-5pm: https://www.chinatownbia.com/eventsnews/lny2020/

Come and Celebrate with Us!

We hope you’ll join us this Friday at Creating Together to celebrate with some food and origami mouse activities! Take a look below for a tutorial on how to do this at home!

Happy New Year!

Next month, we’ll be celebrating Tibetan Losar as well, which fall this year on February 24-26. Stay tuned for more information on that!

Tips to Manage Holiday Stress

December 14, 2019 by Melanie

Between the lack of sunlight, family stress, or finances, expectations, obligations…the holiday season can be a stressful time for most, even with the best of intentions. In fact, stress and depression can be at their peak for many parents and caregivers at this time of year.

How do we keep positive when tensions are high?

Witness and Accept Your Feelings are Normal. You can’t force yourself to be happy just because it’s the holiday season. If you can’t be with loved ones, realize that it’s normal to feel sadness and grief rather than try to ignore or push those feelings aside.

Reach out. Creating Together is hosting a holiday party on December 18th – come out and enjoy a meal with us while the kids play! And beyond us here at Creating Together, if you feel lonely or isolated, seek out other community, religious or other social events that are meaningful for you. They can offer support and companionship.

*Sign-up for the holiday party at Creating Together – RSVP required*

Be realistic. Managing our expectations of the holidays is important, so we can be realistic and find ways to celebrate which feel authentic and true. The holidays don’t have to be perfect, or the same as they were in the past. Families, traditions, and rituals change and grow over time. Consider which traditions you’d like to keep and which ones you’d like to create. Find new ways to celebrate together, with the people who matter the most.

Set aside differences. Remember you aren’t the only one who is stressed or depressed – others in your family or friendship circles may be as well, so tensions will be higher than usual. Try to accept family members and friends as they are, and be understanding if others get upset or distressed when something goes unplanned.

Stick to a budget. Money cannot buy happiness, so before you go gift and food shopping, decide how much money you can afford to spend – and keep to your budget.

Take time for self-care. Nurture yourself with a steam, a soak, a walk in the park, or curling up with a favorite book. Taking time out for yourself is a great way to nurture peace and balance in your own life.

November Highlights

November 5, 2019 by Melanie

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!

September Calendar

September 5, 2019 by Melanie

Creating Together staff are back n full swing after a wonderful summer break, and excited to bring families a great September program calendar!

If you anything missing on our calendar that you’d like to see in our program, please come in and let us know!

Inter-generational Programming

Every day, children come with parents and caregivers of every day. In addition, wach month, we spend Circle Time with the senior citizens at White Eagle Residence. We sing songs together, read stories and chat with the residents. This month we’ll be doing this on September 5th from 10:45-11:15am. Meet us there, or walk over with us from Creating Together.

Healthy Eating

On September 12th, we invite you all to join us for a cooking activity at 9:30am. Also, our regular monthly guest, Marcella, will be offering a Toddler Food Prep workshop on September 18th at 10am.

Physical Activity

Busy Bodies exercise cards continues Wednesday the 4th and 18th from 10:45-11:00am and 2:15-2:30, using pictures to prompt kids to get moving! The exercises help to promote gross motor movements, improve posture, and promote concentration while enhancing language and vocabulary.

Rainbow Fun is another activity we will be holding September 16th from 10:45-11:00am, and 2:15-2:30. The Rainbow Fun Physical Activity Program was produced by the City of Toronto & The Grey Bruce Health Unit. We choose different physical activities for each session and adapt them as needed to suit the children’s developmental level. We always start with a warm-up and stretches, and we finish with a cool down.

You also won’t want to miss Scarf Dancing September 6th at 10:45am, and Parachute Play September 20th at 1:15pm.

Public Health and Inclusion

This month, Toronto Public Health Nurse will be returning September 25th so please join us and bring your questions and concerns at 10am.

Also, on September 26th at 12:30, we are welcoming guests from the Glitter Bug Program from the 519 LBTTQ2S EarlyON Mobile Program. They will be joining us for circle and sharing resources with staff and families. Join us and help us create safe, affirming, equitable spaces for everyone!

Literacy

Each Monday from 9:30-10:30am and 1:30-2:30pm is “Literacy Monday”, where children read and sing along with parents/caregivers and a staff member. This program is designed for one-on-one or small group storytelling, featuring developmentally appropriate books and CDs. Children also have a choice to listen to a story with headphones on their own.

In addition, every day at 1pm we gather and read a story together as a group for Story Time, to help children become familiar with sounds, words, language and the value of books. Together, we can build your child’s early literacy skills, helping them go on to read successfully later in life.

Music

We’ll be getting into a groove together with Circle Time with Musical Instruments on Tuesdays from 11:00-11:30 and 2:30-3:00pm.

Annual Summer Picnic Kicks Off Summer Holidays

August 1, 2019 by Melanie

Each year, Creating together welcomes children with their families and caregivers to enjoy a day of food and festivities at our local park.

This year, we’ll be having our annual picnic on August 8th, and hope you can make it!

We also close each year for summer holidays, and this picnic is our way of kicking off our summer holidays with a great celebration together.