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Cold weather
Hi ladies,
I was wondering, is there a temperature where you decide not to go outside because its too cold? Its been around -15 ( -20 with wind chill) and I'm debating if we are going outside or not! I mean.... It's fregging cold out there! :laugh:
And, when you don't go outside, what do you do to help the kids get some energy out so they dont start climbing on the walls!?
THX!
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Oh poor you ~ it is 12 degrees and sunny here still in my neck of Ontario I am not ready for - anything yet!
Because I have non mobile children my cut off is anything colder than -10 we do not go outside
I do take windchill into account as well but my yard is sunny and fairly protected from wind this time of year so it could be a windchill 'elsewhere' but the backyard be nice.
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Lucky you! I have a crawling baby, so i guess -12 to -15 would be a good limit, and we would not stay for too too long outside! Windchill is BRUTAL where I live because I'm surrounded by fields!
Thx for the comment, it helped alot
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My limit for infants is -10, for toddlers -15 and preschoolers -20. I include windchill and if there is one infant and the rest are older I still follow the -10!
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I don't really have a temperature limit, I just use my best judgement as the parents arrive. If children are coming in frozen just between the car and the house then that's a good indication that we won't be going outside. If it's sunny and not windy then no matter what the temp sometimes it's really nice outside. I believe in common sense.
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I agree that in an ideal world common sense would be enough ~ in centre care we ended up having to have clearly defined 'policy' to avoid constant conflict cause well everyone's common sense comes in different sizes these days and what is common sense to one person is not to another sadly ... we had staff who would argue over if it was too cold the minute it got -0 cause they hated the whole going outside or you had parents would get angry that their child was outside in what they deemed too cold and the other parents angry because their child did not go outside cause they thought it was lovely out there.
I hate conflict and trying to guess what other parents common sense about outdoors might be can be a challenge ~ easier for me to define MINE in my handbook so it is clear upon enrollment that we go outside daily unless certain specific conditions are met .... so send your child prepared for outdoors daily cause chances are we are going outside for some portion of the day rain or shine.
My home town just had an issue this last spring around the challenge of whose common sense to follow when taking kids outside ~ Environment Canada had issued a high wind warning for our city and well it did not seem too windy to the staff at a local childcare centre so they used their own judgement and took the children outside anyway cause the centre did not have a clear policy on what to do in a 'weather warning' and well a big ole tree in the yard got blown down and 3 children were injured by it ... were the staff 'wrong' in their judgement to have gone outside that day? Many parents felt so!
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-10 seems way too cold to go outside! I think my limit is somewhere around -4. I'm wimpy about the cold, tho.