'Tis the Season...

For active play presents, family walks and Jump! hibernation  

Good old-fashioned play goes the farthest towards ensuring that young children are getting all the movement they need in a day. The reason: unstructured play offers a huge variety of movement and children’s enthusiasm rarely wanes.  So, since  ‘tis the season when new toys flood into the house, how about including some “active” toys in the bunch, just to give them a nudge in the right direction.

A few ideas we like:
Step to it from Gamewright which takes the usually sedentary card game format and turns it into a hopping, jumping, fun time on your feet - with the added benefit of getting young kids to start estimating spatial distances.
Alex Toys has a great range of active toys for young kids such as their Jungle Bean Bag Toss, Monkey Balance Board and, for the reluctant walker: Monster Clompers.

And, it's a great time of year for family games. Why not invest in that cheesy party classic Twister to get everybody moving? (You can make your own 'house' version with felt squares and a coloured dice). Also try animal charades, hide and seek or sardines (hide and seek in reverse - 'It' hides and is joined by seekers as they find him/her, the last seeker is 'It' for the next round).

Walking in a Winter Wonderland
Speaking of reluctant walkers, we're sure you've noticed that the more they have to look at while walking the less they notice how far they've walked. The big attraction this season of course is the lights. Do a tour of lit up houses in your neighbourhood just after dusk. For a special outing take the whole family to Van Dusen's Festival of Lights (through Jan. 4th), the Trinity Street Light Festival (Dec. 14th, 6:00-8:00 if you want your lights accompanied by cocoa and carols, otherwise through Jan. 1st) or watch the Carol Ships sail by.

We're hibernating
Leanne, Lindsay, Zoey, Mizuka and Jennifer will be settling in for a long winter's nap from December 21st to January 3rd. That means the doors will be closed, the lights will be out! Happy holidays to all our Jump! families and we'll see you in 2009!

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