How to Manage TV

• Watch tv with your child.  Discuss the program, plot, values, and commercials.  Help them distinguish between what is real and what is fantasy.
• Limit the number of hours.  Log how many hours your child is watching tv, and then gradually decrease viewing time.  Model the behaviour you want  – in other words, don’t be a couch potato yourself!  Don’t choose vacation time or a stressful time to decrease tv watching.
• Provide fun alternatives to tv watching.  Don’t turn off the tv, and then request that the child clean his/her room.  This is the time to buy some craft supplies or a new board game.  Invite friends over or visit the library.
• Do not use tv as a reward.
• Turn off the tv when you are done watching a show.  Don’t just watch anything.  Choose only top-quality shows.
• Try not to use the tv as a babysitter.
• Put the tv in a remote area or cover it up.  Never put a tv in a child’s bedroom or near the dining area.
• Keep puzzles, games, and building toys near the tv.  They have a greater chance at being chosen over watching tv.
• Cancel cable to limit viewing options.
• Do not serve snacks or meals in front of the tv – this only reinforces the tv habit.
• Listen to the radio or story cassettes instead.  Listening to a story requires active participation from the child as they create  their own mental images.
• Realize that even though your child says he is bored, you do not have to entertain him/her or turn on the tv.  Boredom can teach your child how to be resourceful or just give him time to think and work things out.
• Plan activities that reinforce a program’s content.  For example, visit a shoe store like the one you saw on Mr. Rogers.  Encourage them to make their own railroad station, store, etc.
• Extend the learning through art activities and books.  Draw pictures of things they saw on tv.  Find books that teach you more about sharks, etc.
• Promote active viewing.  Encourage your child to sing and dance along with the tv and express their reactions to what is happening.

Happy Canada Day

Wise Words

“I believe that every parent wants the best for his or her child.  If the best is not being provided, it is because of some barrier – such as inexperience, depression, illness, aloneness or poverty.  It is our goal to help lift this barrier and bring joy to both parent and child.”

Wise words from the founder of Childreach, Dr. John McKim, to mark the 25th anniversary of Childreach in the fall of 2000.

Summer Boredom Busters Part V

Physical Activity

• With children, plan and set up an indoor or outdoor obstacle course.
• Plan races, “Who can run/hop/slither/skip to the fence and back the fastest?”
• Armed with a list of things from around the house or yard, have children rush to find things in a scavenger hunt.
• Let children go through their toys and decide what they have outgrown or don’t use, then help them set up a yard sale and sell lemonade too.  The next rainy day, plan a “shopping day” to spend the money they earned.
• Walk to a nearby park, and have a picnic.  Let children help prepare the food.
• Have children decorate their bicycles, and have a bike parade.  Invite the neighbourhood children to join in the fun.
• Find local trails, and go on a family hike.
• With bubbles in hand, have a bubbly fun day.
• Visit an appliance store for very large boxes, so they can build a castle or a rocket ship.
• Buy a cheap magnifying glass, and take your children on a backyard safari.
• Equip everyone with gloves and bags, and plan a community clean-up of litter.
• Buy or make a pinata, and plan a party with neighbourhood children.
• Visit or volunteer at a local seniors’ residence or nursing home.

Summer Boredom Busters Part IV

Creative

• Show children how to make tree bark rubbings with paper and crayons pressed sideways.
• Set recycled boxes aside for one week, then let children “build” box creations (car, train, house, instrument, etc.).
• Provide children with wide paint brushes, paint rollers or spray bottles,  and show them how they can “paint” the house or fence with a bucket of plain water.
• Give children sidewalk chalk and pavement limits to create beautiful murals.  Wait for the rain to wash them away, and start all over again.
• Let children put up stage sets outdoors, buy a couple of throw-away  cameras for a day of  “say cheese please”.  After photos are developed, let the children scrapbook them into an album or book.
• Collect old magazines, coloured flyers, scissors and glue for children to create collages.  This could be done outdoors as long as it is not too windy.
• Don’t wait for Christmas to build those gingerbread houses, buy some graham crackers for walls, shreddies for roof tiles, icing to hold it all together, and candies for decoration, and have your children build “summer cottages”.
• Have children join you in making playdough, and let them create a playdough zoo or bakery.
• Bake cookies with children.  They can make Peanut Butter Puppy cookies for the family pet by mixing 2 cups of whole wheat flour, 1 tbsp baking powder, 1 cup peanut butter with 1 cup milk.  Roll out dough to 1/4 ” .  Cut out shapes with cookie cutters, and bake until lightly brown (20 minutes) on a greased sheet at 375 F.

Summer Boredom Busters Part III

Science

• Lie down on the lawn and watch clouds.  Make up stories about what you see.  Try it again at night on a blanket, and gaze at the stars or watch in style in a hammock.
• Find big garden pots or a little piece of land to show children how to plant a garden.  Remember to water it.
• Borrow (available in our ECE Resource Library) or buy a bug kit and go on a bug safari.
• Ask children to collect leaves, flowers or clover, and help them iron the items between two pieces of wax paper.
• Feed the ducks or birds at the park.
• With yard sale buckets in hand, spend time together gathering rocks, leaves, and outdoor goodies.  Return home to sort them in different shapes and sizes.
• Create a time capsule at the beginning of the summer by filling an empty chip can or shoe box with drawings or written wishes of summer activities your children want to do.  Open it late August and have fun remembering the highlights of those summer activities.
• Plan a visit to the library once a week to stock up on summer reading material.

Summer Boredom Busters Part II

Imagination

• Plan a tea party with old tea cups and saucers.
• Provide kids with old shoes, hats and clothes to play “dress up”.
• Help children decide on theme days.  Make food and activities related to the theme.  For example, on Pyjama Day, serve breakfast foods throughout the day, and on Zoo Day, create habitats for stuffed animals and learn more about them.
• Collect teddy bears and stuffed animals for a teddy bear picnic.
• On a rainy day, break out a deck of cards, and play a game of Crazy Eights or Go Fish.  Or let your children create a new card game.
• Announce a talent show date and time.   Ask your children to prepare something for it.  Set up a stage curtain (could be an old sheet tacked up on a doorway) for their grand entrance.

Summer Boredom Busters Part I

Play with water.

• Get the bucket, soap & sponges out and let them wash the family car, patio table and chairs, bikes or sticky toys.
• Put on the bathing suits, put water in washed out spray bottles, and let them spray each other or just about anything outside.
• Gather up sponges and buckets of water to cool down with a “sponge toss”.
• Take the family to a nearby splash pad.
• Don’t forget the gardens!  Let children water flowers and vegetables with small watering cans.

Is it raining?

• Play in the rain with bathing suits when there’s no lightning or thunder.
• Put on music and encourage children to do a rain dance.
• Have children sprinkle powder tempera paint on sturdy paper, hold it out in a gentle rain, and presto!  Instant painting!
• Put down a wide, long piece of plastic sheeting on the grass for a wet slide in the rain.

Why Should You Join a Toy Library?

Here are some of the many advantages to belonging to our toy library. 

• Your child has a variety of toys from which to choose as their interests and skill levels change.
• You can borrow toys that are no longer available in stores. 
• You help the envirnoment by not adding more toys to the junk yard.
• You save money purchasing  fewer toys
• You and your child(ren) can test a toy before buying.
• Your child learns to take care of toys and take responsibility for them.
• Your child learns to make decisions.
• You can learn what toys interest and challenge your child.
• You can ask a qualified toy librarian for advice on choosing toys that match your child’s skill development.

For more information about our toy library, please visit our website!

Building a Community

I found this ‘poster’ out in cyberspace, and it spoke to me. 

Sounds easy, doesn’t it?  

Nadine Reeves, Administrative Assistant