Hat’s Roving Gyms return to provide winter play options

By Jeremy Appel on October 25, 2018.

jappel@medicinehatnews.com @MHNJeremyAppel

The Hat’s Roving Gyms are back for the 2018-19 year.

The project was initiated by the Medicine Hat Early Childhood Coalition in 2013 to provide a place for families with children who are six and younger to play from October to March.

“The intention is that families have somewhere to play in the winter,” said Jennifer Usher, chair of the MHECC.

Since 2016, the city and Medicine Hat Family YMCA have taken over Roving Gyms.

The program is offered Sunday mornings at the South Ridge Family YMCA, Wednesday evenings at the downtown YMCA and Friday evenings at the Family Leisure Centre.

“That was really intentional,” said Usher. “When we first started, we were in the school and church gyms. But when the Y and the city took over, we decided to use their facilities.

“We’re spread across the city, making it easier for families to get to the Roving Gym. We don’t want transportation to be a barrier.”

They recently received a $6,000 FCSS grant to go towards gym revitalization — with some of the funds going to training site supervisors, who may not have a background in early childhood education, while the rest went to materials.

“Things started to get old,” said Usher. “We needed to breathe some new life into it.”

She said the trend in early childhood education has moved towards more natural materials for play.

“For example, if you have a stick, it could be a flagpole for a pirate ship they created out of blocks. It could be a spoon that they’re using to stir their soup,” Usher said.

“Using some of those natural, loose-parts materials really makes it so that kids can be more creative and they can use the materials any way they want to.

“There’s no wrong way to play.”

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