Welcome to Have a ball together!

Raising Healthy Kids is Child’s Play!         

The Best Start Resource Centre is launching in early October, a provincial campaign on physical activity Have a ball Together, focusing on parents and caregivers of children 2-5 years old. Most parents believe their child is active. Unfortunately, the majority of children are not!

• The time children spend being physically active begins to decrease by the age of three;
• Preschoolers watch close to two hours of TV per day;
• Increasing numbers of children between the ages of two and five are overweight or obese.

The good news is that we can change this! The goal of the campaign is that children aged 2-5 years in Ontario will become more physically active for healthy growth and development.

The campaign objectives are: 

• To increase knowledge about the benefits of unstructured active play;
• To motivate parents / caregivers to spend more time being physically active with children through unstructured active play; and
• To motivate parents/caregivers to decrease the amount of time children spend watching screens (TV and computer).

The 3 key messages are:

• It's fun and easy to be active with children;
• There are benefits to engaging children in unstructured active play; and
• Less screen time means more time for children to be physically active.

The campaign strategies focus on three areas:

1) Parents and caregivers:

The campaign will provide parents and caregivers with information and simple creative suggestions for physical activity and interactive ideas that can be easily implemented with 2-5 year olds. The campaign resources include:

• Parents Resources Activity Cards that can be attached to the strollers, diaper bags, wagons, or backpacks;
• Creative stickers illustrating physical activity with 2-5 years old that can be used on a calendar to schedule time to play;
• A brochure, Have a ball together!,  providing information on physical activity;
• A Have a ball together ! website where parents can find additional information and creative physical activities ideas.

Note: All the above materials will be available in both English and French. The activity cards, brochure and stickers will also be culturally adapted for Aboriginal communities

.

To support service providers working with parents, packages of the campaign resources will be distributed to Ontario Early Years Centres, public health departments, Community Action Program for Children / Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program and the Aboriginal Head Start Program. In addition, the resources will be available for order until mid-November.

3) Provincial Mass Media:

Best Start arranged for media coverage across the province of Ontario through a variety of methods:

• Comprehensive media kits distributed to Ontario newspapers, radio and TV stations;
• Transit bus advertisements in selected communities;
• Bookmarks in selected community libraries;
• Paid advertisements in selected parent magazines; and
• A launch event in early October.

Planning your own local activities to support the campaign?

The Best Start Resource Centre invites you to take part in the provincial campaign by planning local activities in your community. Check our site regularly for more details and let us know about your physical activities events/activities.
We'll share ideas, information, and on-line resources to help you develop local strategies that will complement the provincial initiative.

The campaign material and strategies were developed with input from:

• Physical activity organizations, consultants and promoters (Participaction, Parks and Recreation Ontario, OPHEA – Physical Activity Resource Centre);
• Education, Health & Social Services Community organizations ( Public Health Units of Ottawa, Toronto, North Bay and NorthWestern; Ontario Early Years Centers, George Brown College School of Early Childhood; McMaster University Children’s Exercise and Nutrition centre,  Algonquin Child and Family Services) and the
• Funders: Ministry of Children and Youth Services and the Public Health Agency of Canada

For more information contact Sylvie Boulet
Have a ball together!   Raising Healthy Kids is Child’s Play
October 2009