Finding creative ways to entertain children in Vaughan

Backyard Camp, a free newsletter, helps program children’s activities

Yorkregion.com
July 3, 2020
Simone Joseph and Lisa Queen

Michael and Diana Bernknopf had their children’s summer all planned out.

Their two boys, two-year-old Shay and five-year-old Ethan, were going to Markham’s Camp Robin Hood.

Then the COVID-19 outbreak happened, and suddenly the couple were left with few options.

They had scheduled four weeks at Robin Hood and two weeks at a Vaughan swim camp for Ethan. Shay was signed up for half-days at Robin Hood.

Both in-person camps were cancelled.

Bernknopf’s reaction: “What do we do now? Everyone seemed to be vying for the few options for kids.”

They signed Ethan up for one week of the bicycle riding camp Pedalheads, and bought a blow-up dinosaur that’s over six feet tall and spits out water.

Bernknopf says he would be interested in taking his children to a splash pad, as long as it is not too crowded.

“We don’t want to go to an area where the kids are crammed in because they all want to get into the water,” he said.

The family will be kept busy moving from their Markham home to Vaughan at the end of July.

Having their plans completely change was obviously disorienting, but Bernknopf is optimistic about the summer.

“It’ll be a very different summer,” Bernknopf said. “Kids are adaptable. They’ll have a memorable summer. Kids are so resilient.”

Vaughan resident Mark Silver has come up with a different solution for keeping children entertained.

He and a group of ten friends and family created a backyard camp seven weeks ago.

Silver’s research into children’s programming started out as a self-serving exercise: he has three children ages 10 to 15.

“I needed to do it for myself, for the kids. They needed programming,” Silver said.

He was directed to blogs that had a wealth of information, but found he had to keep going back to sites to take notes and write spreadsheets.

“I realized for a lot of people, it may be overwhelming,” said Silver, co-founder of Backyard Camp.

In April, Silver and his group realized that many camps would be cancelled. They knew they wanted to create a resource to help parents.

Backyard Camp is a free, daily email newsletter to help with programming children’s activities. The newsletter is meant to be personalized, tailored for factors like the child’s age, activity preferences, the number of children and whether they’re living in a house or apartment building.

Backyard Camp’s organizers want to launch a program for older kids. Children in grades 6 to 8 often spend a lot of time playing video games, so Silver wants to structure games around video games.

Backyard Camp starts June 29.

With families thinking about how they can entertain children from home, store managers and employees across York Region have noticed trampolines, pools and backyard camping equipment flying off shelves.

Sales of in-line skates have shot up 300 per cent at National Sports in Newmarket.

“In-line skates, as a category, had almost disappeared for us, and all of a sudden it became the hottest thing,” said manager Jenilee Goncalves.

People are picking up baseballs, baseball gloves and soccer balls to have casual fun with their kids at home, the Bradford resident said.

Another hot item is backyard summer games such as badminton and volleyball sets.

“I’m a mom, too, so we want to keep them safe, but we also don’t want to eliminate their recreation entirely, so I know I see parents trying to set up some safe, physically distanced activities that their kids can do or that families can do together, that they wouldn’t have in the past, and create a kind of destination at home,” Goncalves said.

With schools and gyms closed, Evolution Cycles of Richmond Hill has seen “an uptick in people looking for bikes, for sure,” said sales manager Ricky Do.

Parents don’t have to provide a backyard carnival to keep children entertained, said Stephanie Ellis, the York Region District School Board’s chief of physical and occupational therapy services.

The most important consideration is finding activities that create joy and meaning while growing relationships, she said.

Ideally, Ellis continued, some activities can be done outdoors or in nature as a way of promoting physical and mental health.

“We really hope that families can find an activity or activities that work for them this summer, and that there is some opportunity for them to take a break,” she said.

“It’s been a really long period and families, I think, have been incredibly resilient and adaptive and innovative with the way they’ve managed this, but I do hope people can find some joy and calm and fun with their kids over the summer.”