Month: December 2020

Dear StrongStart friends,

I am hoping that you are finding ways to keep your hopes and spirits high in these stressful times. As always, in good times and bad times, in happy and stressful times, being with people you love makes for the best holidays no matter what you are celebrating!

As we are heading into Winter vacation (StrongStart’s last day is Tuesday, December 15th), I am wishing you a lots of happy, joyous times together, even if it means just being with your immediate family. Whether you are celebrating religious or secular holidays, Diwali (that was celebrated recently), Bodhi Day, Hanukkah, Winter Solstice, Christmas, New Years or Kwanzaa or any other holiday that is coming up, it is always about light, people close to our heart and love.

My wish is that we all find ways to make happy memories with our family, filled with light and love.

As some of you are counting the days ’till Christmas, CLICK HERE  to watch a video of me reading a book “Counting to Christmas” by Nancy Tafury, published by Scholastic. I will be also singing a song “There Was a Man in Big Red Suit” (to the tune of BINGO song).

Here is another book called “The Reindeer Christmas”, my favourite, that explains how Santa got to ride a magical sleigh pulled by reindeers and deliver many presents around the world. It is written by Moe Price, illustrated by Atsuko Morozumi and published by HMH Books for Young Readers. CLICK HERE to watch the video.

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and best wishes for a STRONGSTART in a New Year, and a healthy and happy 2021 year! Hope to see some of you in person next year or during our Zoom storytimes.

Much love,

Ms. Lillian

Many families celebrate traditions during the winter months – Diwali just passed, Bodhi Day, Hanukkah,Winter Solstice, Christmas, Kwanzaa, New Year’s (secular) and many other celebrations are to come. Because of Covid, this year has been a significant year of ambiguous grief and loss: loss of freedom, time with family, of financial security, jobs and loss of loved ones, to name a few. It is no doubt that how we previously celebrated our beloved holiday traditions are going to look and feel differently this year as the pandemic lingers on.

Firstly, it is totally okay to feel that it’s not fair we can’t celebrate like we did last year, with parties and family gatherings – it isn’t fair. But we also recognize the importance of keeping our loved ones healthy and safe. We can expect that staying in for the holidays without the neighbours, the in-laws and the funny uncle will feel different, because it is. The family traditions we hold dear and celebrate are like long terms routines – and routines help us feel settled, we know what to expect and look forward to them in anticipation.

This year our family traditions, or routines, are hardly anything we were expecting – and that can cause uneasy feelings. Not knowing what to expect can feel scary. But luckily there are two sides to this
unexpected coin. When we don’t have a set routine to fall back on, we are nudged to flex our creative muscles! Not having a set holiday script opens up opportunity to create special new traditions for this time of year. And it may be surprising that by refreshing old traditions, new found appreciations for the holiday season pop up.

There are lots of festive ideas on how to spend this winter holiday while easily following the BC’s health minister’s guidelines – here are a few ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

• Bake your favourite treats while singing along to your favourite music. Ask others to join virtually and have a bake off!
• Dust off those board games and play a few.
• Have a house hold clean-out – donate old toys, clothing, kitchen gadgets to your local shelter.
• Reflect back as a family on the events you are grateful for, write them down, put them in a gratitude jar and read them out loud on a holiday you celebrate over the winter.

For more ideas like this and more, check out The Parenting Place blog.

No matter how you plan to safely spend the winter break, this year will most definitely be a memorable one. Happy Holidays!

Anita Olson works for Family Services of Greater Vancouver as Burnaby’s Early Childhood Community Consultant. Anita shares information, strategies and practical tools with parents through this free program. Focusing on the parent/caregiver and child relationship, Anita’s work with families aims to create and preserve loving connection and curiosity. Anita holds a current ECE licence, BA and MEd from Simon Fraser University. Contact Anita at aolson@fsgv.ca or (604)-723-9548. 

This was a guest post by our community partner Anita who you remember from her monthly visits to our StrongStart centre. Please do not hesitate to call her for support. Ms. Lillian

Music illuminates and enriches our lives and the same is true for children. Children love listening to all sorts of music, they like dancing to different rhythms and in different tempo, playing instruments, real or home-made, and singing familiar songs over and over again.

Music helps us express our emotions and maintain emotional balance, and in turns calms our brain (lullabies and calming songs) and keeps us upbeat. It brings joy and delight to children’s everyday life and aids creativity and imagination too. Music can help ease transitions, children respond much better to directions in songs and chants (that is why clean-up songs or goodbye songs work so well). An active toddler will likely follow parents and be willing  to “cooperate” and join a parent to move from one place to the other if playfully engaged in a song or a march, like the one we use in our Centre: Let’s go marching, 1, 2, 3, Let’s go walking you and me!

What about learning? How does music help your child’s development?

You will be glad to know that you are already doing many things to support child’s development in all the areas. Simple songs sung in your home language or English, nursery rhymes sometimes passed  from generation to generation, playing instruments, and dancing all help the physical, social-emotional and intellectual development in ways too numerous to mention here.

So during this upcoming winter holiday, enjoy the sound of music!

CLICK HERE to watch the video of me reading Usbourne Little Children’s Music Book by Fiona Watt and enjoy a little music concert.

Here are some simple ways to add a rhythmic instrument to your child’s life. In our StrongStart centre we often use wooden rhythm sticks. At home you can use two wooden cooking spoons, or metallic spoons, a pair of chopsticks, two sticks found in nature or even two flat rocks.

CLICK HERE to watch me read another fun, rhyming book  called “Animal Music” by Julia Donaldson and Nick Sharratt, published by MacMillan Children’s Books.  You can also hear me”play” the rocks while singing “When You’re One” song.

You can also make some shakers with your child from everyday objects: empty plastic containers, recycled empty fruit cups or even empty and thoroughly washed hair dying bottles (I got many donated by a SSC family long time ago, and I still use them). You can put beans, rice, bird seeds (for a softer sound), beads or whatever else you have handy inside. Secure them with some tape, I prefer several rounds of black electrical tape but you can use masking tape or even scotch tape. If you wish, you can put some stickers or decorate however  your child likes it.  And you can sing: We gonna shake shake, our sillies out… jump our jiggles out etc. shaking your shakers.

If you want to enjoy fun physical activity with music here is a link to Decoda’s HOP_Freeze_dance. 

Have fun playing, listening and enjoying music together.

Ms Lillian