FAMILY
ToyBox Manitoba is a free resource that helps kids develop life skills and bridge the COVID gap, while providing an opportunity for children and their caretakers to connect and bond through learning and play. ToyBox offers literacy and numeracy activities for children aged two through eight and wellness activities for caregivers and their families. The evidence- based learning activities are available for free on the ToyBoxManitoba.ca website and on social media. “I think we took for granted pre-COVID that children just learned naturally, but there’s a lot of people that can influence how they learn and what they learn. Families can do a lot of these activities at home, and those kids are just better prepared,” says Dr. Sheri-Lynn Skwarchuk, who developed the program. Each activity has beginner, intermediate and experienced suggestions, allowing caretakers to adapt to the levels of their children. The activities are Manitoba focused, and Skwarchuk and her team have worked to incorporate traditional land-based knowledge and learning styles with guidance from some directors from the Manitoba Aboriginal Head Start program.
version in the near future. “We want to grow this so that every Manitoba family knows what ToyBox is and that they can support their children to be ready for life,” Skwarchuk explains. For older children, Skwarchuk suggests a few strategies to bolster their literacy and numeracy skills in a fun way.
Six-year-old Niah Jacobs and three-year-old Lexi Jacobs participate in ToxBox activities with grandma Ria Maré. Photo by Darcy Finley
“Primary caregivers know their children best so they’re going to know where to start. They’re going to know at what level and how long to spend,” explains Skwarchuk. The activities don’t require any special
“Playing cards provides a huge opportunity for children of all ages. There are many learning values — keeping score, remembering which cards have been played, counting points, and decisions about keeping cards to introduce elements of probability,” she says. “Other games like bingo or bowling can also be played at home.” The best literacy strategies for older children involve playing some classic games that are geared for the child’s level, Skwarchuk adds. “One example is Hangman, where participants guess letters in a word or phrase, which allows children to dissect parts of words. Charades helps children to communicate ideas in different ways,” she says. “Families can play animal guessing games using 20 questions that require yes and no answers. You will be surprised at what you can learn and what your children know about specific categories of animals, which models the organization of ideas in the brain.” ToyBox Manitoba is also a childhood education research project based out of the University of Winnipeg. Program participants sign up to receive three activities per week for a period of six weeks and can opt to provide anonymous feedback. For more information, visit ToyBoxManitoba.ca.
materials, and Skwarchuk suggests incorporating the child’s interests. “If they are into dinosaurs, then count dinosaurs,” she says.
The activities are Manitoba focused, and Skwarchuk and her team have worked to incorporate traditional land-based knowledge and learning styles with guidance from some directors from the Manitoba Aboriginal Head Start program. In the future Skwarchuk hopes to make the activities available in other languages. “We’re noticing that we have families of refugees and newcomers. They’re actually taking them and putting them into their phones and using Facebook to translate,” Skwarchuk says. She is also working with a teacher from the Louis Riel School Division and a professor from Université de Saint- Boniface to potentially offer a French
MATURE 13
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