Invest in Kids’ Summer Activity Guide Provides Parents with Activities that Promote Healthy Development and Provide Hours of Family Fun

(Toronto, July 2, 2008) - Summer is here and for some parents of infants, toddlers and preschoolers that means two months of fun in the sun. But with the rising cost of gas making vacations and day trips a costly prospect for families, many parents are looking for ways to spend more time at home or in their community this summer. With that in mind, the experts at Invest in Kids have created a Summer Activity Guide, which uses the principles of Comfort, Play & Teach™, to provide tip sheets and activities to help parents enjoy the summer months with their young child.

Comfort, Play & Teach™ is Invest in Kids’ research-based approach to positive parenting. It is built on everyday moments that are already part of a parent and child’s daily routine – it shows the relationship between a parent’s behaviour and a child’s development. If you comfort, play with and teach your child through the everyday moments you will be supporting the healthy social, emotional and intellectual development of your child and ultimately be opening a world of possibilities for both of you.

Split into four easy-to-use sections, the Summer Activity Guide looks at different areas of interest: Adventures Close to Home, Resting and Relaxing, Supporting Your Child’s Physical Development and Learning Through Play. Each section begins with a tip sheet full of ideas and strategies, for example, how to use Comfort, Play & Teach principles to help you explore your community with your child. This is followed by a list of ten ideas to make the most of the activities and a checklist to help you track your progress. Each section ends with several activities based on the theme, which will encourage wonderful, fun moments with infants, toddlers or preschoolers.

Some of the great ideas in this extensive guide include:

Adventures Close to Home:

• Take an ‘Inspiration Walk’ with your toddler or preschooler. Look closely at the different textures and colours and shapes around you. Ask your child questions about what she sees and encourage her to share her observations about things and to use all her senses to explore them (touch the grass, smell the flowers, listen to the wind). When you get home encourage your child to draw a picture of what she saw.

Resting and Relaxing:

• Enjoy sensory activities together like water and sand play, or shaping and squeezing playdough. This will help to release tension your child might feel as he explores the qualities of his play materials.

Supporting Your Child’s Physical Development:

• Invite some of your child’s friends over to learn and play co-operative games such as London Bridge and Farmer in the Dell. This will help your child practice social skills like taking turns and encourage her to enjoy physical activity, as well as games where she is not playing to win.

Learning Through Play:

• Cook with your child. Bake bread, brew tea, freeze popsicles and shake cream into butter. These are all ways to help your child learn about the different foods people eat and how they are prepared, as well as concepts like “change of state,” “hot and cold,” and “liquid and solid.” When children cook, they observe, they compare and problem-solve.

Head to www.investinkids.ca/tips to read the entire Guide and find even more activities and tips to help make the summer months fun for you and your infant, toddler or preschooler.

Invest in Kids is a national charity dedicated to helping parents become the parents they want to be. By translating the science of parenting and child development into engaging, easy-to-understand, relevant resources for parents and professionals, Invest in Kids aims to strengthen the parenting knowledge, skills and confidence of all those who touch the lives of our youngest children to ensure the healthy social, emotional and intellectual development of children from birth to age five.

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Media Contact:
Krista Lamb
Manager, Media Relations & Publicity
416-977-1222 Ext. 224
klamb@investinkids.ca