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Happy Thanksgiving!

October 5, 2021 by Creating Together

It is the time of year to reflect on all that we are grateful for, in our families, homes and communities. When hard times hit, Gratitude has the power to energize, reduce stress, and align with optimism – and who doesn’t need that?

While several factors go into emotional resilience and optimism, studies show that cultivating a sense of gratitude can help you maintain a more positive mood in daily life and contribute to the greater emotional well-being and bring social benefits as well (Very Well Mind). Evidence from research at Berkeley suggests that grateful young adolescents (ages 11-13), compared to their less grateful counterparts, are happier and more optimistic, have better social support, are more satisfied with their school, family, community, friends, and themselves, and give more emotional support to others. If you’re looking for ways to cultivate traditions of gratitude in your family, take a look at this blog we shared: Increasing Happiness and Well-Being Through Traditions of Gratitude.

The Board and Staff at Creating Together would like to take a moment to say how grateful we are for the honour of working with you and your little ones. Never doubt your impact on our lives, the meaningfulness of this work for us, and the impact of nurturing the children of our communities on creating a bright future.

Blessings of Gratitude and Abundance to you all!

Filed Under: Announcements, Traditions Tagged With: Celebrating Community, family traditions, Gratitude

Celebrating Reading Month with Gratitude

March 3, 2021 by Creating Together

Literacy is one of Creating Together’s big focus points. We understand how early exposure to books and stories has lasting impacts for our communities.

Benefits of Reading

Did you know that early literacy begins before a child can read? According to research by the Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network, children who are successful readers have usually engaged in many early language and literacy activities before starting school. In fact, hearing and engaging with books read aloud to them is one of the most important activities for infants, toddlers, and pre-school children.

Until the last 30 years, children were seen as non-readers until they entered school. Now, children’s attempts to read and write before they reach school age are seen as important steps in developing reading and writing abilities. For more information about the benefits of early reading and some tips to engage young readers, check out For the Love of Reading.

Celebrating National Reading Month with Gratitude

March is National Reading Month, a month to celebrate reading, for all ages! And during this month, we would like to join us in an expression of gratitude to a very special program and a very special person, who have been instrumental in ensuring our families have access to reading material.

The Children’s Book Bank was founded by a small group of dedicated individuals who saw the importance of ensuring that all children have access to books. Since 2008, the Book Bank has grown and reached more families as a result of the generosity of individuals, corporations and foundations who have donated funds, books and their time. Creating Together families have benefitted greatly from these donations of books, and would like to give a shout out to The Children’s Book Bank and their supporters for their generosity and commitment to their mission. For more information about their programs, or how to donate, read more HERE.

The Outreach Coordinator of the Children’s Book Bank also deserves special thanks. Dave Page has been our main contact at the Children’s Book Bank, and has attended Creating Together to read stories to the children, while also ensuring Creating Together receives an abundance of books to give to our families. When our families come to the Centre to pick up their craft supplies and food donations, they are also able to pick up some free books for their children thanks to Dave and the Children’s Book Bank. Dave has been working with children’s books and family literacy programs in Toronto for 25 years, and his passion for early literacy is contagious. Please join us in thanking Dave for his work, his passion, and his commitment to young readers.

From our community to yours,

thank you Dave and

the Children’s Book Bank

for all you do!

Filed Under: Literacy Tagged With: early literacy, Gratitude, literacy program

Increasing Happiness and Well-Being through Traditions of Gratitude

October 7, 2019 by Creating Together

The chill in the air and the changing leaves tells us winter is coming. As the autumn season blossoms around us, it’s a great time to reflect on our autumn traditions.

With the Canadian Thanksgiving around the corner, this becomes a beautiful time of year to celebrate gratitude and thanks for the bountiful harvests in our lives.

Gratitude is Key to Well-Being

Evidence from our research at Berkeley suggests that grateful young adolescents (ages 11-13), compared to their less grateful counterparts, are happier and more optimistic, have better social support, are more satisfied with their school, family, community, friends, and themselves, and give more emotional support to others.

Research has also shown that gratitude plays a major role in our well-being and success. For example, one study links gratitude to greater social support and protection from stress and depression over time.

How Can We Cultivate a Tradition of Gratitude in our Youngsters?

Whether it’s Sunday dinners, birthdays, or family game night, having routines that you do as a “family” is important on many levels. Research since the 1950s shows us that no matter which language you speak or where you are from in the world, traditions and rituals in family life are linked to increased happiness, emotional well-being, and a greater sense of identity in children. So how can we cultivate a tradition of gratitude in our families, so we can give our children the best possible foundation?

Harvest time is the perfect time of year to begin.

Traditionally at this time of year, people give thanks for the sunlight and the fruits of the earth, recognizing that we must share those fruits as we enter the harsher months, and prepare to turn inward in the winter darkness. It’s the perfect time to get started on a family routine to cultivate gratitude – and it won’t only benefit the kids. We could all use a little more happiness and well-being!

Join us this Friday for our annual Thanksgiving Potluck Lunch – make a dish with your young one and join us in gratitude and celebration!

The Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley has done a lot of work in the area, and published an article with 7 suggestions for fostering gratitude in their “Greater Good Magazine” as part of their “Expanding Gratitude” project, summarized here:

  1. Model and teach gratitude: Expressing gratitude through words, writing, and small gifts or acts of reciprocity are all ways to teach children how to become grateful. Adults can promote gratitude directly in children by helping them appraise the benefits they receive from others—the personal value of those benefits, the altruistic intention of people providing them, and the cost to those people. This helps kids think gratefully.
  2. Spend time with your kids and be mindful when with them: Being mindful helps you maintain empathy toward a child, and this provides important modeling of empathy, the most important emotion for developing gratitude and moral behavior. It will also give you and your child a heightened sense of appreciation for the things both of you love and for your relationship.
  3. Support your child’s autonomy: Using an authoritative or democratic parenting style, which is firm, yet flexible, sup- ports children’s autonomy. This will enhance family relationships, improve the atmosphere at home, and help bring out their strengths and talents, all good for making grateful kids. Also, limiting children’s media consumption and guiding them to use media in prosocial ways protects them from commercial influences that discourage the development of the authenticity, self-development, and social interaction necessary to grow into positive, purposeful, grateful individuals.
  4. Use kids’ strengths to fuel gratitude: After you’ve identified your children’s top strengths and you know their unique strengths profile, you should encourage and help them to use those strengths whenever possible. Not only does this open up opportunities for others to contribute to the things your children love, but it also enables your children to strengthen their ability to be helpful and cooperative toward others, which will make them more grateful.
  5. Help focus and support kids to achieve intrinsic goals: Steer children away from pursuing extrinsic goals and toward pursuing intrinsic goals, such as engaging in activities that provide community, affiliation, and growth. Not only will successfully achieving these goals fulfill children’s fundamental human needs of competency, belongingness, and autonomy, but their personal development, happiness, success, and gratitude depend on it. To amplify their gratitude even more, remember to savor their accomplishments with them along the way, and encourage them to thank those who’ve helped them meet their goals.
  6. Encourage helping others and nurturing relationships: When children lend a hand, especially while using their strengths, they feel more connected to those they’re helping, which helps them to develop and nurture friendships and social relationships. A great way to do this is by teaching them through your actions that other people matter and that tending to relationships should be a priority. To help children strengthen their relationships, you should encourage them to be thoughtful of others, to thank others regularly, and to be cooperative, helpful, and giving.
  7. Help kids find what matters to them: The deepest sense of gratitude in life comes from connecting to a bigger picture, to an issue that matters to others and doing things that contribute to society down the road.

Whatever it is that you choose to do, cultivating gratitude in your family will give everybody a lift, and will create long-term impact for individual family members but also for communities to become more compassionate, caring, and content.

Read More:

How Gratitude Helps Through Hard Times

9 Gratitude Activities for Children

Gratitude Traditions for Thanksgiving Dinner

Filed Under: Tips and Tools Tagged With: family traditions, Gratitude, Happiness, Well-being

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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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Hours

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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