Kids five-years-old and younger will soon have a new place to play and learn about their food in the South Bay: Toddler Town.
The facility is part of the Beach Cities Health District’s attempt to revitalize the toddler program at its AdventurePlex on Marine Avenue in Manhattan Beach.
It’s also a continuation of the work the health district has done in Redondo Beach teaching kids about nutrition and where their food comes from.
“Because if you live in the Beach Cities, you may not know,” said Cristan Higa, BCHD communications director.
The organization is branding the idea as “farm-to-table fun” for toddlers.
The upstairs play area has three main parts: A farm, grocery store and kitchen/home.
The area, which opens to the public on Jan. 16, was getting a test run the morning of December 30 by the AdventurePlex’s campers.
Kids pulled plastic lemons from fasteners attached to a lemon tree painted on the wall.
Some stood at electronic cash registers in the grocery store. (The smaller pieces, such as a credit card, had to be removed, for fear of swallowing, said Higa.)
Others crawled around on the carpet in front of a fireplace painted on the wall and played at the kitchen cabinets and counter.
Although staff will be on hand, parents must accompany their children and play with them in Toddler Town; no drop-offs are allowed.
Another component will be nutrition and exercise classes for parents and kids, such as Stroller Fitness.
An outdoor garden will supplement lessons. Although dormant, it still had a few tiny heads of cauliflower and what appeared to be a couple of eggplants.
When AdventurePlex opened in 2002, toddlers were a strong focus, with instructor-based classes, according to Higa. However, after the instructor left, the program petered out. Until now, the only toddler-specific area at the complex was a small reading corner.
Big kids can dominate the jungle gym, Higa said, so Beach Cities Health District wanted to create a safe space for the younger kids. It began planning Toddler Town about two years ago.
The space it has taken over was formerly a gym for adults and kids that wasn’t well-used, Higa said.
The concept was modeled on the LiveWell Kids and LiveWell Tots programs that the organization has facilitated with the Redondo Beach Unified School District since 2004 and 2010, respectively. Each elementary school has a real garden. Activities include tasting the produce and making a dish with the group. Students are then given the recipe to take home and make with their parents. Since the program’s start in 2004, the rate of obesity in Redondo Beach schools has dropped from 20 to nine percent, according to the Beach Cities Health District.
“They’re developing healthy habits early, and hopefully it sticks with them,” said Higa. ER
