A child care operator in Norton is encouraging people to put teddy bears in their windows.
Shawnee McConchie, co-owner of Wonderland Childcare, said she thought the idea of a teddy bear hunt would be a good activity to keep kids’ engagement up.
“It’s great exercise for the kids but it’s nice to have something to do while you’re out and about. Or it could be you’re going for a drive at two or three in the afternoon because maybe the little one needs to have a nap but the older ones don’t want to,” she said.
She said normally she works with her sister and 24 other educators at the child care centre and they were searching for ways to stay connected to the kids while the centre is shut down due to COVID-19.
McConchie said she got the idea for the bear hunt from some researchers in the U.K. who asked families to put bears in windows for the educators still going to work. She thought it might work well since some families are going on multiple walks a day.
“And then the families, when they’re getting ready to go for that walk, they can say, ‘let’s get our boots on and let’s go on a bear hunt and see what we can find.’ Maybe they won’t find any one day, maybe they’ll find five another day,” she said.
McConchie said the daycare also hosts online events to keep connected to the kids who are staying at home, which is how word got out about the bear hunt.
“Someone who runs two centres in Petitcodiac messaged me and asked if they could share the idea with their families too because again, they’re quite rural, but there would be areas where people would go walking,” she said.
McConchie said she encourages everyone to put a bear in their window to help with the great bear hunt.
