Tracy Hanes
March 30, 2020
In this time of social distancing and self-isolation, some Toronto and GTA families are finding creative ways to spread cheer and connect with their neighbours.
They are transforming their front windows into amateur art galleries and exhibit spaces – even pop-up classrooms – and sidewalks have become asphalt canvasses for inspiring messages. Some neighbourhoods and communities have organized window scavenger hunts to provide children and their parents with an activity to pass the time.
Take a look at the windows on your street – you may find a few surprises.
At June Mantle’s home on Station Rd., in Mimico, stuffed animals including a snowy owl, Teddy bears and Garfield the Cat and a Cabbage Patch doll are gathered around a positive hand-written message: ‘Hi Everyone! Have a nice walk. Be safe.’
Mantle, a retired Toronto public library assistant, has two young grandchildren (Sophia, 11 and Simon, 9) and knows they are limited to strolling up and down their street in Dundas, Ontario. That got her thinking that little children in her own neighbourhood would enjoy having something to see on their walks to make them more interesting.
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“I have a lot of toys and stuffed animals for my grandchildren and ones that belonged to my two kids when they were young,” says Mantle. “I plan to add something to the window every day or change up the stuffed animals. Today I added a balloon with an emoji happy face. I will leave the message the same but I’ll change the background, colours and lettering.”
The ‘Be safe’ message is one close to Mantle’s heart, as Sophia has cystic fibrosis and Covid-19 poses a serious risk; her son Jason Fedwick is an emergency doctor in Calgary and working on the frontlines in the fight against the virus.
Mantle’s neighbour Sophie Morin, a Grade 3 French Immersion teacher at Millwood Junior School, is using her front window as a teaching platform.
“There are two French Immersion schools in our neighbourhood and I know it might be difficult for parents who don’t speak French to home-school, so I decided to post math problems in French,” she says. “My current poster is a Grade 1 level math problem. I’m planning on changing it daily and maybe adding some French spring vocabulary for reading.”
Morin misses being in the classroom. “I hope this small contribution can help keep the kids engaged in learning while getting some fresh air walking around the neighbourhood. I would love for other teachers to do the same. Let’s keep those kids learning!”
Lauren Cole noticed online postings in a community social media group of neighbours posting their children’s artwork in their front windows so got her daughter Carter, 3, busy to create a masterpiece for the window of their Ledbury Park house in the Avenue and Wilson Rd. neighbourhood.
“She loves painting and will paint every day and I thought it was a really cute way to keep her engaged,” says Cole. The first artwork is a painting of a rainbow that “I might have helped her with” and more Carter creations may soon find their way to the window, along with perhaps some handprint paintings by her baby sister, Evan, 1.
“Seeing paintings in the neighbourhood windows gives us some purpose to our walks,” says Cole.
In Whitby, Brandie Merrill and her daughters Gracie, 8, and Brookelynn, 6, scoured Facebook and Pinterest for inspiration and decided to create their own ‘stained glass’ window at their house.
“We simply mixed acrylic paint with dish soap and a little water, cleaned the window, stuck painter’s tape on the window and the girls painted the spaces in between,” says Merrill. “Then we peeled it off. The girls had so much fun!”
Families and communities are also coming together to devise their own events to put a little fun into social distancing.
Neighbours in Enniskillen, a village in north Clarington, held their own Chalk Walk where kids and parents drew pictures and wrote inspirational words on their driveways that passers-by could admire as they walked by.
In Markham’s Cornell neighbourhood, a Shamrock Walk was held on St. Patrick’s Day with 100-plus homes sporting shamrocks taped to their windows. Community groups in Hamilton, Bowmanville and Ottawa have also held themed window scavenger hunts to keep kids – and their parents — amused and stimulated.
This article was from The Toronto Star and was legally licensed by AdvisorStream through the NewsCred publisher network.
