Check it out CLICK HERE

Cost $10

Location: Kits Neighbourhood House – Sun Room

Time: 7-8pm

To register email nlott@notchhilllearning.com

Nicola will be presenting a series of four, one hour workshops starting February 4th, 7-8pm entitled “Setting Children Up For Success”.

WORKSHOP TOPICS:

1. Supporting Your Young Learner —February 3rd In this fun and interactive seminar you look at how to make your home a learning centre, and how the techniques you will use are different to those used at school.
2. Choosing A Great Toy For Your Child—February 10th Come along to this play filled workshop where you will learn what your children need in order to assist in their development and discover some budget saving tech-niques to help you prepare for their next birthday.
3. Prepare Your Preschooler for Kinder-garten—February 17th In this seminar you will cover simple things that you can do in the home to ensure that your preschooler is ready to thrive in kindergarten.
4. Starting Your Child in Reading and Writing—February 24th In this workshop you will cover the practical tools that you need in order to make learning to read and write a fun, positive experience for your child.

Workshops are $10 each or all four for $30. All proceeds go towards Kitsilano Neighbourhood House.

For more information click here.

To register, please contact: Sandra at 604-736-3588 x-25 or sandra@kitshouse.org

The study followed the play habits preschoolers and toddlers over 5 years and found that 87 percent of the time children don’t play with equipment provided and when the children did play with the equipment they didn’t play with it “in its intended purpose.”

The study concluded that the equipment “lacked challenge” and that children are drawn to natural materials like mud and trees in lieu of the multi coloured plastic megaliths that we are erecting as playgrounds.

Is it me, or is this another study telling us things we already know? Is it a newsflash to any parent out there that kids like digging in the mud?

First of all, let’s address the fact that children aren’t playing with the equipment for its intended purpose. Frankly this is a good thing, this means that children are using their imaginations, creating their own worlds using their curiosity and abilities to learn more about their surroundings. As parents we see our children using imaginary play all the time. The playground is a great place for children to create new worlds and play as they see fit.

Let’s look at the other issue here. Frankly, if kids want to play in the playground then that’s great; If they want to play in the mud, bushes and grass then that’s great. I think most parents are with me on this, I doubt that there are many parents out there who would force their children to stay within the bounds of playgrounds. Most playgrounds are in parks and so are surrounded by nature any ways, so an idea could be to plan to spend 50% of your time in the playground and 50% of your time available playing in the park.

I do agree with the study, in that we have over-safety proofed our  playgrounds. Where have all those high slides of my childhood gone? Children learn so much from meeting physical challenges at play. I agree that more nature is better in the play environment. Hopefully from this study, some really fun, natural play spaces will emerge in a park near you!

We will be presenting it at the Mom Connection event happening on Dec 9th at South Vancouver Neighbourhood House. For more information see www.momconnection.ca