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

Dear StrongStart friends,

Some of you celebrate Halloween, a fun holiday enjoyed by many children. At Halloween time we carve a pumpkin, dress up in a fun costume, go trick-or-treating door to door. This year it might look a bit different depending on how you choose to celebrate.in a safe way and have fun!

Regardless of whether you are celebrating this year perhaps you will enjoy these two videos. CLICK HERE to watch a video of me singing the silly song There is a Spider on The Floor.

Here is another VIDEO including these little songs: Five Little Pumpkins, I’m a Little Pumpkin and a short song Witch’s Pot that ends with a big BOO!

PS: These videos will be available for watching only until November 10th.

Happy Halloween! Stay safe!

Here is a couple of simple ideas for fun art activities with leaves you can do with your child.

• Rubbing leaves. Put the leaves on a flat suffice (the rough side up, smooth side down) and put a piece of paper on top. Then use some fat crayons and rub them on the suffice of the paper. The leaf lines will start showing up. What a great opportunity to talk about the way leaves get their “food”.
• Painting with leaves. I used also some long leaves from our corn and a tray (to catch some artistic splatter for easy clean-up).

Adding objects from nature to your playdough is always fun and if you add few dollar store animals (in this case dinousaurs), your children will stay focused and enjoy their play for a long time. In addition to twigs and leaves, I also added some cinnamon sticks!

Here is one recipe for the playdough we make in our StrongStart all the time. You can find Cream of Tartar and food colouring in the baking section in your grocery store.

It is chestnut season! With a permanent marker you can turn free chestnuts into “learning” material.  Children can line them up to arrange the  ABC’s. They can find the letters of their name, mom’s name, sister or brother’s name. You can make upper case (big letters) and lower case (small letters) chestnuts  and get your child to match them together.

Children will enjoy a sensory invitations with natural objects: searching, collecting  sifting the dollar store ABC beads and letter chestnuts in a tray full of corn meal or salt or rice.

Here is a deep tub with wooden chips with some chestnuts and acorns, three-tier fruit tray and plastic pet scoops (unused, of course) for interesting sensory play. Flex your imagination “muscle” and use what you find in your home: slotted spoons, tongs, sifters. Beans and lentils can replace the wood chips and they can be re-used later.

As always, feel free to send me your pictures by e-mail, enjoy!

Ms. Lillian

Join me in reading “It’s Pumpkin Time!” and find out how pumpkins grow from seeds. CLICK HERE to read this book  written by Zoe Hall, illustrated by Shari Halpern and published by Scholastic.

Here is a picture from that book that shows how pumpkins start to grow in the ground before we can see the shoots. What a natural miracle!

How pumpkin seeds grow underground (from: It’s Pumpkin Time book)

In our StrongStart we usually carve pumpkins before Halloween to turn into Jack-o-Lanterns. If you carve a pumpkin at home this year, feel free to share a picture with me.

Don’t waste the seeds from inside the pumpkin. They make a tasty and healthy snack for adults and older children (for younger children you will need to open the seeds for them). Perhaps you can save some seeds to plant them to grow your own pumpkin. I wonder how big it will grow?

How to roast pumpkin seeds:

• Remove the seeds by using a large spoon to remove the pulp, stringy fibers and raw seeds.

• Wash seeds in a colander and remove as much of the fiber as you can.

• Dry seeds with a paper towel. It will help them be crispy when you roast them.

• Season the seeds with olive oil (regular cooking oil is good too) and salt. To your taste, you can add: garlic powder, paprika and black pepper. Roast at 350 F until crispy and changed colour to your liking.

• Enjoy!

Dear StrongStart friends,

I would like to invite you to expand your collection of natural objects. You can’t go wrong with collecting shells(these were store bought), rocks – big or small, dried leaves of Magnolia trees (they do not crumble for a long time) etc.  Anything will do, flex your imagination “muscle”. You can always supplement by providing some Dollar Store items like popsicle sticks, wooden blocks, coffee stirring sticks.

What else can children do with natural materials? It depends on their interest and of course their age and the stage they are at. The youngest children will enjoy the sound and feeling of the leaves as you walk through the woods or on the street, they will love scrunching and crumpling them. You can throw the leaves high up in the air for them to watch them float. Show them the pointy leaves, let them feel the leaf lines, watch the wind moving the leaves on the branch.

They would love exploring and touching all the natural objects you provide (in a safe manner).

Some children will love taking their natural treasures in and out containers. For young children this provides endless fun as they master the competence of a “schema” of IN and OUT.

Some children like the toddler in this picture will choose one type of treasure (chestnuts) and line it up while experiencing the smoothness or roughness of the surfaces, weighing them.

Some children will pile them up to enjoy novelty of natural objects. Some will be happily engaged until they used up everything that was provided. This girl was appreciating her land art and was thinking hard what else she could add.

For older children you can introduce the concept of “patterns” by letting them choose one type of object and you choose another one. You can take turns lining  them up, “first me, then you”. After a couple of turns you can playfully ask “What would come next, what do you think? Of course, there are more complex patterns all around us and you can draw your child attention to patterns in nature and real world.  On this picture, for extra fun, I provided interesting lines to follow making the patterns. This adds the opportunity to talk about lines; curvy, loopy, zig-zaggy, spiral…

Some children will arrange the natural objects into land art following their own pattern, simple or complicated.

Some will have an idea of an experience or object close to their heart and will  re-create the image in their head with the objects provided. This boy was re-creating his experiences of airports and airplanes.

Many children created their homes.

It is so important to provide opportunities for children to play in nature but also bring “nature inside” . Being in nature, or touching and feeling natural objects calms children, they learn to marvel in what nature has to offer and they learn about world around them.

Enjoy! If you would like, feel free to e-mail me the photos of of your children’s creations.

Ms. Lillian