Month: November 2020

Young children need to move and challenge their bodies everyday for several hours. Jumping games can offer your little one a lot of physical fun and they are pretty easy to set up – both inside and outside.

• Tape jump – all you need is a roll of masking tape, some open space and some jumpers. Tape a starting line, this is where the kiddos will jump from. You will tape a line to where your kiddo jumps to. Super simple, super fun.  
•  Sidewalk Chalk Jumps – draw different shapes (keep them fairly close to one another for the new jumpers and short legs) on a patch of pavement – take turns calling out to each other what shape to jump to next.  

If you’d like more jumping game activities, check out therealisticmama.com for more.

This was included in the newsletter our Early Childhood Community Consultant Anita regularly sends to families. If you are interested in being on her e-mail list, please e-mail Anita Olson at aolson@fsgv.ca  or phone her at 604-723-9548.

Here are some additional ideas from me.

• You can also use a skipping rope on the ground, moving it around and pretending that is a snake. Wiggle it slow at first and then faster, turning it into silly game. Invite your child to jump over it. If he/she lands on the rope , you can laugh about it: ” Oh, you landed on a snake, funny, snake must be tickled, let’s try again!”
• Use chalk to draw an old fashioned hopscotch, write numbers from 1 to 8 and get your child to jump from 1 to 2 and so on. The older children will learn the number sequence that way, let younger simply jump from one square to the other as they like. This is the game that is popular all over the world. You can do it indoors, use some masking tape to make the hopscotch.

• Have so much fun together pretending to jump like different animals: a frog, rabbit, dog etc.
• Sing and act out the “Jumping, Jumping, Jump!” song we sing during our active circle at the gym.

Jumping, jumping, JUMP!

Join me in reading one of my favourite books about dinosaurs. It is called “Dinosaur Roar!”, written and illustrated by Paul and Henrietta Stickland, published by Scholastics Inc.

CLICK HERE to watch the video.

Here is a fun and “pre-historic” song about dinosaurs. Hope you will enjoy it! CLICK HERE to watch a video.

Dinousaur ROAR!

We are in the rainy season again. As adults, we sometimes view rain as a nuisance, something that has to be endured to get to those clear and sunny days.  Many times I find myself saying: when will this rain finally stop?

For children rain brings joy and puddles.  When you watch a child playing in a puddle you know how delightful that is. Making mud pies and digging in the wet dirt is one of many opportunities when children are learning in nature, immersed in the experience, focused fully and having fun.

CLICK HERE to hear me sing two of our favourite rain songs.

I invite you to also explore nature in the rain. If you dress warmly with boots, coats and hoods (and bring umbrella if you wish), you can happily enjoy the sounds and sensations of the rain. There are many of them: slow, soft sprinkle, pitter-patter of dripping, dropping rain drops from trees, roaring of the pouring rain pounding the ground and tree trunks, quietude in nature after the rain stops.

CLICK HERE to watch a video about Mushrooms in the Rain.

Hope you can  join us for one of our StrongStart outdoor nature explorations on Fridays (by registrations only, no drop-ins please). They will happen rain or shine!

Here is a book called “ Are You Ready to Play Outside? “ with our favourite characters Piggy and Gerald.  It is written and illustrated by Mo Willems, published by Hyperion Books for Children. CLICK HERE to watch the video.

Are you ready to play outside? I am!

Here’s a list of 50 simple ideas  for outdoor rain play from www.mothernatured.com to engage you children with the wet weather.

Ms. Lillian

Most children love hearing about, reading about and playing with dinosaurs. Here are two suggestions for invitations to play with dinosaurs I prepared for our face-to-face playful visits this week.

I used salt instead of sand because most people will have this at home. You can re-use it later and make playdough as well (see previous posts for recipe).

I added a few plastic dinosaurs, rocks, some greenery, small spoons and recyclable containers for scooping out salt and brushes  so that we can”uncover” our dinosaurs much like paleontologists do when they discover dinosaurs. I added a piece of chalk too, as children play they will churn the chalk in the salt, grinding it down and making the salt change colour! Children have fun while building  strength in their hand, enabling different grips and eye hand control. Enjoy their glee once they watch the miracle of salt changing colour.

This invitation to play keeps children focused and engaged for a really long time.

You can also use the coloured chalk to do a bit of art together. You would need a a bottle of glue and a piece of paper. They can squeeze the glue and sprinkle colourful salt on top. Then shake off the access salt and you will have a colourful picture.  As a side note: for younger children glue in itself is a big learning opportunity: watching it pour out, feeling the stickiness, smearing it on the paper.

Here is another fun and playful idea. I placed few dinosaurs and some plastic plants in a plastic bowl, covered with water and put it in the freezer.

This is another way of “uncovering” the dinosaurs. You can provide some objects to scrape or chip off the ice ( I offered some forks, spoons and metallic loose parts).  You can do it again with different plastic or natural objects you collected.

How does ice feel? What happens if we put some salt on the ice? What If you use some eye droppers to put some water on the block of ice? Where does the ice go? Children can learn about world around them by discovering  science through play.

Enjoy!

Since the pandemic began many changes have ensued steering families to make decisions they never thought they would ever make. Working from home with little children banging on the door demanding fishy crackers may not exactly be what you thought going back to work would look like. The low level anxiety people are faced with everyday as the pandemic lingers on, just shouldn’t be – and yet, here we are.

Children feel stress too and are really good at letting parents/caregivers know through their behaviour. Play dates are postponed, grandma and grandpa need to stay safe and can’t help out like they use to. Parents are concerned about their children’s social and emotional development and screen time. The list goes on. Stress and anxiety are real and present for many families – all members included.

Now, I am not one for magic bullets, but that’s kind of what I’m going to share with you here. Being in nature and the benefits it creates may be as close to a magic bullet as we can get. There is an ever growing body of evidence based research pointing to the power of nature for adult’s and children’s well being.

Children 3-4 years old are recommended by the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology to engage in 3 hours of physical activity spread over the course of every day. Young children need to move and challenge their bodies. Parks, gardens, beaches, forests, even the back yard are perfect spaces for children to get their move on. Children who engage in nature tend to be physically healthier because:

• Heart health is better – they move more and sit less
• Have better eye health – children who spend more time outside reduce the risk of myopia (nearsightedness)
• Sleep better as the sun helps regulate sleep patterns
• Improves the immune system

If you are feeling low, being in nature may give that needed boost. There is a vast body of research on how spending time in nature actually reduces stress, anxiety and depression for children and adults. Being in nature calms the brain by reducing cortisol (the stress hormone) and boosts endorphins and dopamine (happy hormones) in the body. Walking though a forest is call, shinrin-yoku, in Japanese, which literally means, “forest bathing” because of this calming effect it embodies.

Playing in nature offers children unstructured play where the possibilities are seemingly limitless to choose and design what and how to play. By engaging with their world by their own accord, children have the opportunity to make meaningful discoveries about the world promoting creativity and imagination.

Discoveries on colours, patterns and shapes found in nature make the great outdoors the perfect place to begin learning about early math concepts and language development. Research on learning outcomes for school aged children with regular access to outdoor lessons show significantly stronger reading and writing skills than for children without these nature experiences. The sights, sounds and smells of nature help calm the nervous system cultivating better focus and concentration, both key factors to learning. There are also many studies linking time spent in nature reducing ADHD symptoms. Being outside matters!

Getting outside and into nature has benefits for the entire family. Family programs held outside, such as Strong Start, offer families a special gift. These outdoor programs allow for multi-generational shared learning and exploration in an environment rich with information that promotes physical and mental well-being. So, it may not be the magic bullet – but it’s close!

This is the article from our Community partner Anita Olson.  All pictures are from our first Outdoor Exploration day at Twelfth Avenue StrongStart. Hope you will join us next time we go to explore nature. Ms. Lillian

Anita Olson works on the traditional, ancestral, and unceeded territory of the Coast Salish peoples for Family Services of Greater Vancouver as Burnaby’s Early Childhood Community Consultant (ECCC). She has been working with families and young children for well over a decade and as a parent herself recognizes the challenges, complexity and delight parenting brings. Understanding the foundational importance of infant and early childhood development, Anita shares information, strategies and practical tools with parents as they begin and continue their parental journey. 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 license, BA and MEd from Simon Fraser University. If you would like to speak with Anita, email her at aolson@fsgv.ca or call 604-723-9548

Dear StongStart friends,

In our StrongStart we’ve often enjoyed the felt story about the Little Red Hen. This time, I will share “The Little Red Hen” book with you, written and illustrated by Byron Barton. The book is published by Harper Collins Publishers. This story reminds us – it is good to work together and help each other!

Click here to watch the video.

Hi StrongStart Friends,

Join me in reading “The Mouse Who Reached the Sky”. It is a funny and silly book written by Petr Horacek, published by Candlewick press.

Click here to hear about Mouse and his friends who reached for the sky.

Enjoy,

Ms. Lillian

Dear StrongStart friends,

Here is a write up from from Fraser Health Public Dental Program:

We continue to support COVID response here at the Burnaby health unit. Also, we have scheduled dental clinics as follows:

• Dental Clinics are provided at Burnaby Health Unit clinics on Wednesday mornings from 9-11:30. (The Burnaby Public Health Unit address is: #300-4946 Canada Way. BBY)
• New Westminster Health Unit clinics are on Mondays from 9-3:30 and alternating Thursdays from 9-3:30. (The New Westminster Public Health Unit address is: #218-610 6th Street. New West).

Our program is focused on families that have children under the age of three that are unable to get to a dentist. For booking an appointment, please call our central booking, phone number is 604 476-7087.

If you have children that are 3 years and over (who do not see a dentist) and you need help with resources or help with dental issues, please call or e-mail me  and I could put you in touch with our community dental hygienists.

Ms. Lillian