5 Reasons Children need Outdoor Play

When we think of play, we might think of unnecessary silliness, fun, & games, but do we think of play as an essential learning activity for young children? Many studies have been done on the importance of play for young children’s development, but just as important is play in the outdoors. If you think back to your fondest childhood memories, I’m sure you will think of at least a few outdoor places and activities that played a major role in your childhood. Little did you know at the time, but playing outside was helping you develop essential life skills that you use to this day! Here are 5 reasons children need outdoor play.

1. Develops Gross Motor Skills. By playing outdoors, kids have the space to jump, leap, skip, run, crawl, and more. These activities help to develop the gross motor skills, as well as coordination and balance.
2. Develops Social & Communication Skills. Of course self-directed play is important, but when children are playing with others they learn important skills such as how to behave in a group, how to effectively communicate with others, and more. Inventing games and figuring out rules is important to developing good communication and social skills.
3. Stimulates the Senses. Being outdoors introduces children to a world of new sensory experiences! Bright lights and dark shadows, a rainbow of colours, the smell of grass, rain, dirt, and flowers, feeling mud between your fingers or the rough bark on a tree.. Playing outside lets children experience sensory stimulus they may otherwise not have a chance to experience - developing their appreciation for natural beauty and their vocabulary as well.
4. Vitamin D & Sunlight. Some studies have linked exposure to natural light with better sleeping habits in infants. Exposure to sunlight also gets children their much needed doses of the essential vitamin D.
5. Encourages Safe & Supervised Risk Taking. While many parents sometimes feel the need to over-protect their children, risk taking is an important and inevitable part of life. Teaching children when they are young how to navigate risk and stay safe, allows them to use these skills later in life. Evaluating risk is an essential skill that can be learned through play and practiced like any other skill.

Getting children outdoors improves their lives, health, and wellbeing. It’s easy to put them in front of the TV when you’re busy, but allowing them time to play outdoors will benefit them beyond what we could outline here! Who knows, maybe you’ll join in the outdoor play and experience some of these benefits for yourself!

About Discovery Child Care
Barrie Based Discovery Child Care brings nature into the classroom and takes the classroom into nature, offering an environmentally aware foundation of early learning for children, from infants to school-age. We follow an Emergent Curriculum philosophy which means, your child will be provided with hands-on, play-based learning opportunities that will encourage active exploration, autonomy, choice, problem solving and plain old fun! Your child’s individual interests, abilities and needs will be considered when planning our indoor and outdoor programs. For more information, visit http://www.discoverychild.on.ca

Five Easy Plants Children Love to Grow

April and May are the perfect months for planing new gardens. Small backyard gardens are great opportunities for learning, play, family bonding, and more. Children who grow their own food are far more likely to make healthier food choices. There's nothing we want more than for our children to grow up with the ability to make choices that have a positive impact on their health and well-being.

There are many other benefits to gardening with children - they get a sense of accomplishment, a chance to care for something delicate, and plenty of time outdoors under the sun getting some much needed vitamin D.

While there are a plethora of delicious choices you can make for your garden, there are some plants that are especially easy for children to grow or help grow. Here are 5 easy plants to grow in your garden this year with your children.

Sunflowers
Sunflowers are a great staple in any garden, but especially in a child's garden. They grow quickly and are quite large. You only need to plant a couple depending on the amount of space you have. Sunflowers will sprout in a week, become a seedling in two weeks, and be nearly 2 feet tall in a month.  Once they bloom, about 8 weeks, they will reveal their seed kernels. These can be roasted for a tasty snack. Be sure to get the confectionery sunflower variety so the seeds are edible.

Lettuce
Lettuce is hardy and easy to grow, making it a great option for kids. The leaf varieties mature faster, and like part-shade. They take 7-10 days to germinate and mature in about 30-35 days. They are sure to get your child interested in making a salad with their own lettuce!

Cherry Tomatoes
Cherry tomatoes are very fun to grow, and delicious to eat right off the vine. It's better to plant them from seedlings as opposed to from seed. You can drive a 2' stake beside each plant and loosely tie them to keep them upright. They like full sun and compost, and will mature in about 50-75 days.

Snap Peas
Snap Peas are popular among kids because of their fresh sweet flavour. The seeds are easy to handle for kids, and they grow quickly. They will germinate in about 2 weeks and be ready to pick and eat in a month or two. When harvesting, teach kids to pick them gently (a great learning opportunity!) so that they do not pull the entire plant out of the ground with the peas.

Pumpkin
Pumpkins are a must have for any child's garden as they have so many uses. Pumpkin seeds are delicious roasted as a snack. The meat inside can be used for baking, soups, or other treats, and the outer part can be used for carving! Pumpkins will be ready to harvest in about 80-120 days.

As we said above, there are so many benefits to including children in your gardening. Giving them a sense of responsibility, ownership, and care at an early age will set them up for success at other endeavors in the future. They will also grow an appreciation for where food comes from. There are also science and nature lessons to be had!

For further reading on gardening with children, check out our other blogs below!

• 10 Ways Children Benefit From Nature
• Tips for Gardening With Kids
• Our Kinder-Garden Grows Healthy Food
• Why kids Need Time in Nature
• Why Playing Outside is So Important

About Discovery Child Care
Barrie Based Discovery Child Care brings nature into the classroom and takes the classroom into nature, offering an environmentally aware foundation of early learning for children, from infants to school-age. We follow an Emergent Curriculum philosophy which means, your child will be provided with hands-on, play-based learning opportunities that will encourage active exploration, autonomy, choice, problem solving and plain old fun! Your child’s individual interests, abilities and needs will be considered when planning our indoor and outdoor programs. For more information, visit http://www.discoverychild.on.ca

An Early Spring Scavenger Hunt

We are all aching to spend more time outdoors as the weather starts to warm up and change. Hopefully we can soon ditch the boots and heavy winter jackets for some lighter outdoor wear! While we wait for the days to warm up, it's a great time to take children outdoors to witness the changing season first hand. Birds are out and chirping more often, and many animals are scurrying about, waking up from their winter haze in search of food.

It's a great learning opportunity to go on walks this time of year as nature stars to stir and become more active. We thought a spring scavenger hunt would be a great way to pay attention to the subtler signs of spring that otherwise might be missed. These don't have to be found all in one day, in fact, it would be better to take all of spring to spot everything on the list. Feel free to add or change anything on the list. You can even turn making the list itself into a craft project by getting the children to draw pictures on a poster-board of everything they'd like to spot.

An Early Spring Scavenger Hunt:

• Spot a Butterfly

• Spot 3 Different Kinds of Birds
• Find something naturally RED (flower, ladybug, leaf...)
• Find something naturally PURPLE (flower, butterfly...)
• Find something naturally YELLOW (Flower, plant, butterfly...)
• Spot a Puddle
• Spot Someone Else Enjoying the Weather ( jogging, biking, playing in a park..)
• Spot a Seed (acorn, helicopter, pinecone...)
• Find Some Animal Tracks
• Spot Some Green Grass
• Find a Wiggling Worm
• Spot a Bird's Nest
• Spot Some Buds on a Tree
• Spot a Squirrel or Rabbit
• Hear a Bird Song & Try to Mimic it
• Find Something Smooth & Something Rough
• Spot a Fluffy White Cloud
• Find Some Flowers Budding

We hope you find lots of time to get outside and explore nature using this scavenger hunt as a guide! Happy hunting!

Discovery Child Receives Letter of Recognition from Early Intervention Council!

We are really proud of our work and cooperation with the Simcoe County Early Intervention Council. From participating in their campaign and helping to develop processes, to hosting educational events, we have played a huge role in this program. We are pleased to share with you a letter we recently received from them, recognizing our efforts. You can read the letter below.

“Dear Karen,

The Early Intervention Council members would like to recognize you for demonstrating key Council values. These values include the support of system integration, family centred service deliver, early identification and education, teamwork and change championing.

Right from the inception of Early Screening Matters, you were quick to demonstrate leadership. You were in fact, the person, who named our initiative! You not only participated in the “name our screening initiative campaign, but your suggested name also received the most votes. We now proudly refer to our initiative as Early Screening Matters. You demonstrated leadership and teamwork by being instrumental in the co-creation of the “Welcome letter” to be used by child care centres at registration.

Your adoption of Early Screening Matters was swift. You have a solid process for sharing information with families at registration by discussing our screening initiative with them and including a welcome letter and red flags for speech and language in your enrollment packages. You have shared that the inclusion of the “welcome letter: and related conversation at registration is key for parents.

You successfully established a clear process for your staff to follow when they have concerns about a child in their classroom and you have built a strong support system for them. Staff are encouraged to complete the Early Screening Matters module series and you frequently forward the names of new staff to be added to the Community Learning Library. Another effective method for building capacity and supporting your staff is your invitation to role play administration of an ERIK with a supervisor to increase confidence. What a fabulous idea!

You have hosted many educational events to build capacity, Learning Language & Loving It™, Effective Classroom Strategies for the Preschool Child with Autism Spectrum Disorder, and Calm, Alert, & Ready to Communicate in a Child Care Centre are just a few of the workshops hosted. Intake at RVH has received a total of 7 ERIKs from screeners in your centre. Thank you!

Council members believe your work has made a significant difference in the lives of children.

Thank you Karen, your contributions are truly appreciated,

Kim Latour & Michele KapteynEarly Intervention Council Co-Chairs”

We are so glad to be a part of this effort, and to be recognized for making a difference in the lives of children. Thank you!

10 Indoor Activities for Snow Days

Nothing spoils the fun of a snow day like the weather being too nasty to play outside. No one likes being cooped up indoors with nothing to do! That’s why we’ve come up with a list of 10 great indoor activities to beat boredom!

Indoor treasure Hunt

Put some toys or snacks in a shoebox and and hide it somewhere in the house. Make a treasure map with clue and riddles for your child to solve and find the hidden treasure! You can even make it more fun by dressing up as a treasure hunter!

Dance Party

Need to expend some extra energy? Throw on some tunes and clear out a space to use as a dance floor! Challenge your children with different types of dance moves or have them make up their own! Once this is done they’ll be ready to settle down for a snack or maybe even an afternoon nap!

Photo Challenge

If you have a small disposable or inexpensive camera around the house, this is is a great scavenger hunt type of activity. Make a list of things your child has to find and photograph. You can do this straightforward such as “find a yellow toy”, or you can turn them into riddles for older children who might want more of a challenge!

Create Your Own Board Game

If you’re looking for a unique craft for school-age children, this one never fails! All you need is a large bristol board or cardboard sheet, some markers, some bingo chips or small toys, some dice, and possible construction paper and scissors. Have your children think of a setting or theme, and make up some game rules. A simple board game basis is to create a path of squares on the game board, and roll the dice to see who can get to the finish first! Make it a little more interesting with some game cards with different actions you have to complete to move on.

Masking Tape Play

Masking tape is extremely versatile for play! You can tape out a hopscotch pattern in the carpet,  or tape some different size circles for a bean bag toss! You can also tape out some “roads” for toy cars to drive on, or play tic-tac-toe!

Make Your Own Pizza

Hungry yet? Pizza is a great menu option for new little chefs. You can get some pre-made pizza kits to make it easier. have your child spread the sauce and pick out their own toppings to go on top! They can spread the toppings randomly or make a picture or face! They will love eating the pizza THEY made, and it’s a good learning opportunity for kitchen safety.

Puppet Show

If you gave your own puppets that’s great! If not, you can make some simple ones with characters cut out from construction paper and glued to a popsicle stick. Tale a cardboard box and cut out the middle to make a “theatre”! Have your child put on a show for you and some stuffed toys as their “audience”.

Make a Rainy (or Snow!) Day Jar

Get a big mason jar or other container. Get some popsicle sticks or scraps of paper, and think of a bunch of fun ideas to write down on them. SOme examples might be, play go-fish, play a board game, color/draw, or play hide-and-seek. You could also  include some of the ideas on this list! When you’re done, you now have a whole jar-full of rainy day activities you can bust out when you're stuck inside!

Build a fort

This was one of my favourites as a kid and would keep me entertained for hours on end. Take the cushions off the couch and grab a blanket. Set them up into a little fort in the family room. throw some stuffed toys, some books, and a flashlight in there and you’ll have hours of imaginative play!

Sensory Table

Kid’s love these and they are great for learning as well as play! Get a large tupperware and fill it with different things! You could get some snow from outside, and add some food coloring, cups, and beach shovels. You could also get several different bowls and put different things inside like dried beans, cooked spaghetti, grapes etc.. then blindfold your child and have him describe what he feels in each bowl. You can even ask him to guess what each item is!

We hope you can use some of our indoor activity ideas the next time you and your child are stuck indoors because of bad weather.

Making New Year’s Resolutions with Children

As 2016 approaches you might be thinking of making some New Year's resolutions! If you have a young child it might be the perfect time to introduce the idea of making resolutions. Young children are only starting to develop habits and take responsibility for themselves. New Year’s is the perfect time to start a new ritual of creating New Year’s Resolutions together as a family. We have some ideas to make things go smoothly!

Set A Good Example

Children will look up to you and follow your example. You cannot ask them to do something you haven’t done yourself. If you make resolutions with them, and let them know you intend to stick to them, you can not only help hold each other accountable, but you lead by example. Making

resolutions can be a fun time for bonding at the end of every year. You can make resolutions as a family to be more active, learn something new, eat healthier, be kinder, or listen better.

Follow Up

You should try to follow up with your children throughout the year on the progress of their resolutions. Try to do this without nagging them. They will not want to participate if it feels like a chore they have to complete.

Be Positive

Try to word the resolutions in a positive way.  For example, rather than “Stop eating junk food”, you could try “Make healthier choices”. Or instead of “Don’t be greedy”, you could phrase it as “Share and be more generous”. By keeping it positive you set the tone for their resolutions right at the beginning

Here are a few child-friendly positive resolutions to give you some ideas! (These also make excellent adult resolutions too!!)

• Make healthier choices
• Get exercise every day
• Read x amount of books by the end of the year
• Learn or try something new
• Be kinder
• Listen better
• Share or be more generous
• Draw a drawing each day
• Spend more time outdoors

We hope you like our tips and suggestions for family New Year’s resolutions! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!

6 Fun Snow Activities For Children

What child doesn’t love a snow day? You get to bundle up and head out into the yard to play (and learn!). With winter fast approaching and the weather getting colder, it might be time to start thinking about what exactly to do on those days. Playing in the snow can be an excellent opportunity to develop fine motor skills and encourage outdoor learning while still having loads of fun.

What are some benefits to playing in the snow? 

Building A Snow Creature!

Coordination 
Walking through the snow is in itself a test of coordination and balance! Add in activities like jumping, rolling snowballs, throwing piles of snow, etc and you have many opportunities to develop coordination skills in the snow!

Math 
Counting snowballs and measuring the height of snow drifts or the depth of snow are great ways to develop some math skills.

Language 
Winter is the perfect time to introduce or reinforce some great adjectives such as icy, cold, wet, warm, hard, fluffy, crunchy, soggy etc

Science 
Have the children look around at how winter changes nature. What do the trees and plants look like? Can you spot some winter animals, or do you notice any animals missing? You can also talk about the life cycle of ice, icicles, snow, and snowflakes.

Winter Activities 

Here are some great ideas for some activities to do in the snow that will incorporate the benefits mentioned above.

1. Tobogganing is a great way to develop coordination as well as safety skills. Pick a safe hill away from traffic with a clear path. Make a safety checklist with the help of the child. Once all the safety rules are met (helmets are always a great idea!) you can start sliding!

2. Snow Sculptures! This isn’t your dad’s snowman! try making all sorts of different shapes and figures. Animals, critters, monsters, castles, etc… let the imagination fly! Develop artistic/creative skills, language skills, and coordination.

3. Snow Colouring. Fill a few spray bottles with water and food colouring. Have them create works of art in the snow or on snow drifts. Add some plant life back into the scenery by painting some flowery imagery. Or you can even use the spray bottles to give your sculptures some colour!

4. Snow Angels. Almost everyone knows how to make a snow angel. Lay down in the snow and move your arms up and down to create an effect like wings. Laying down in the snow also gives your child a new perspective. Have them describe what they see!

5. Fort building is a great way to develop math and coordination skills. Make blocks out of packed snow and pile them up to build a wall. Remember to be safe when digging any tunnels as the snow can collapse and cause injury.

6. Winter Walk. Take a walk through the neighbourhood to see the holiday lights, or through the local park to observe how nature changes in the wintertime. What plants and animals can you spot?What winter treasures can you find? You could even plan a scavenger hunt and have the child look for branches, winter birds, etc..

 Remember to stay safe through all of these activities. 

• Never play outside if the temperatures are below 25 degree celsius, as skin starts to freeze at this point. 
• Make sure children are dressed warmly- especially fingers and toes. 
• Avoid dressing too warmly as activity in the snow quickly warms up the body and sweat can make a child cold if when they stop moving. 
• Avoid aiming snowballs at cars or people, instead try lining up a few bottles or pin a target to a tree! 
• Be aware of roads and traffic. Icy roads make it harder to stop and icy windshields make it harder to see. 
• Wear sunscreen on exposed skin and eye protection as the sun is reflected off the snow and can cause skin and eye damage even in cold weather.