Overly Shy Kid? How Summer Day Camp Can Help

As a parent, you know your child has a vibrant personality that is just waiting to be shared with the world. But their overly shy nature can make it difficult for them to allow their best characteristics to shine. Naturally, you may be worried about how they will survive at camp when they find it hard to squeak out more than a word or two in new social situations. The great news is that you can set aside those worries. Summer camp is designed to help youngsters break out of their shell by offering opportunities for developing social skills.

Form Instant Friendships with Cabin Mates

The first day at camp is a flurry of activity as kids begin arriving at their cabins. Although some campers will be reuniting with friends from years past, there are also many kids who are brand new. Returning and new campers all quickly begin to make friends with each other. A kid’s cabin group becomes an instant family. From creating inside jokes to planning special events together, even the shyest kid at camp gets to be part of a friendly group.

Discover Hidden Talents and Strengths

Shyness sometimes reflects a lack of confidence that is normal in children. Building your child’s self-esteem in other areas allows them to feel as though they have something valuable to share. At camp, kids learn that they can do anything they set out to do. It can be finally getting up on the wakeboard or performing a complicated dance routine. Camp activities are designed to encourage kids to share their talents as they make progress. Be ready for your shy youngster to suddenly project serious confidence when demonstrating a new gymnastics skill.

Participate in Fun Group Activities

Shyness often melts away as kids lose themselves in fun activities. For instance, youngsters simply can’t help but return a splash at another camper when they are swimming in the lake. Group activities also give them a chance to be included in friendly competitions or a night full of fun camping on a nearby island on the lake. These shared experiences allow kids to form bonds that make those early days of shyness seem like a distant memory.

Take on Leadership Roles

Camp staff members quickly recognize kids for their contributions to the group. And every counselor is adept at identifying those kids who need a little encouragement to take on leadership opportunities. From leading the group on a hike to being team captain during a sports competition, your shy camper will transform into a leader who can handle greater responsibilities. The positive reinforcement provided by their camp counselors and fellow campers allows them to feel bold enough to take on leadership roles even after they return home from camp.

Parents often marvel at how much their child has changed after a summer away at camp. Not only is there the potential for your son or daughter to grow an inch or two in stature, but they also may come back with a more outgoing personality. One that reveals all those great traits you know and love. After a summer at camp, your biggest challenge will be keeping your newly outgoing child stimulated during those months until camp reopens again.

Let your kids enjoy day camp fun at Maplewood Summer Day Camp. Experienced staff will keep your child both safe and busy with arts and crafts, games, water sports, gymnastics and more. Visit the site at http://maplewoodyearround.com/summer-camp/summer-camp-activities/  to see the fun your child will have at Maplewood Summer Day Camp.

The Importance of Early Learning

Early childhood is a time that is often viewed as a moment in life where children are free to just play. While this is true, it is also important to realize how critical these early play experiences are for a child’s development. Children are naturally curious about the world and love engaging in new experiences that offer them a new perspective. While it may look like a child is just playing, they actually are picking up valuable skills in language, science and mathematics that may not be obvious to others at first glance. As your child enters these amazing years full of wonder, provide them with these educational activities that stimulate learning by tapping into their interests.

Develop Social Skills Through Dramatic Play

Dress up may be cute to watch from an adult’s perspective, but children engaged in imaginative play truly allow themselves to try on new personas. Helping to put out a fire in an imaginary village or pretending to serve food to their friends in a restaurant promotes a sense of the importance that each person has in a community. It also gives young children a chance to practice social skills such as asking for help or ordering food in a restaurant. And, as they talk to each other, their language and vocabulary skills also rapidly improve.

Teach Science by Nurturing a Love for Nature

Children are fascinated by science, and real life experiences are critical for creating an environment that satisfies their curiosity. For young children, planting a seed and watching as it grows into a fruit-producing plant is a lesson about the cycle of life that they will always remember. Helping to water the plant or feed an animal teaches responsibility and the importance of caring for the environment. Nature walks through the wilderness also give kids the chance to examine rocks, flowers and other types of natural elements as they develop their skills in scientific exploration.

Promote Creativity and Self-Expression Through Art

Finger paints and play dough are staples of every early childhood program, but the teachers do not use these materials just to keep the children busy. These types of experiences promote sensory awareness, which is important for helping kids learn how to express themselves and make sense of the world around them. In addition to strengthening their fine motor skills, using a brush to swirl paint across paper gives young children a positive experience with self-expression.

Get That Little Body Moving in Fun Exercise Classes

Energetic preschoolers may look like little wiggle worms as they run around a room, but all that activity is critical for their physical development. During these formative years, participating in age-appropriate exercise classes is perfect for helping kids develop gross motor skills while learning how to work with others as a team. Whether your child loves tumbling with other tots or learning how to climb on a rock wall, testing their abilities at an early age fosters the development of self-confidence.

Looking in on a preschool class is likely to make you look back with fond memories of the days when you spent your days playing with clay. Yet, it is easy to forget about how important these types of experiences were for your healthy development. Today, much is understood about how much learning truly goes on in the early childhood years and, by filling your child’s day with a wide range of educational activities, you can nurture their interests while providing them with the experiences they need for healthy development.

Let your kids enjoy the birthday party experience at Maplewood Summer Day Camp. Experienced staff will keep your child both safe and busy with arts and crafts, games, water sports, gymnastics and more. Visit the site at http://maplewoodyearround.com/year-round-programs/school-year-programs/ to see the fun your child will have at Maplewood Summer Day Camp.

Should You Sign Up Your Child For An After School Program?

Parents often struggle with time - between the time their kids get to school and going home. Although trusting kids with homework is a good way to practice their responsibility, staying safe after school is one issues parents are worried the most. This is where after school programs come into the scenario. These programs are designed to help out worried parents. Here’s an enumeration of after school program benefits:

Why LEGO is the Best Toy for Kids

From big, toddler friendly DUPLO block towers to the intricately designed pirate ships and race cars of regular LEGO sets, the super-cool LEGO brand of construction blocks has been a timeless favorite of kids and kids-at-heart for over fifty years. 

Tots and teens and everyone in between have spent happy hours building cities, playgrounds, spaceships and castles to house enchanting miniscule astronauts, knights and Harry Potter characters, creating unforgettable imaginary worlds. 

Whether sprawled on the living room floor on a rainy day or taking a happy construction break with pals at summer day camp, kids around the world have enjoyed decades of building bliss and imaginary adventures with these incredible toys.

Fine Motor Skills

While they’re absorbed in the kinds of creative play that experts adore, totally unconnected to their various techie screens, kids are developing the fine motor skills and dexterity that will serve them well in everything from academics to art. 

From the moment your two-year-old first gets the red and blue DUPLO blocks to connect to the day your pre-teen actually completes his treasured Harry Potter castle, kids are improving these all-important skills while having a building blast. 

As anyone who has built a LEGO Star Wars spaceship can attest, it’s not easy to figure out how to build these intricate buildings and vehicles. Kids have the option of following enclosed instructions, much as an engineer would follow a blueprint, or they can strike out on their own, designing and building boats, skyscrapers, Ferris wheels and wagon trains of their own. They can plan, design and figure out how to build endless, delightfully detailed little worlds.

Amazing for Academics

Kids who play with building blocks and other construction toys are also hard at work developing creative problem solving talents, spatial skills and mathematical abilities. 

Once your little one decides he simply must modify his LEGO pirate ship to add a mast or a few canons, he has to figure out the design and how to make it work effectively, an absorbing, sometimes frustrating and (hopefully) ultimately rewarding task. 

She learns to be persistent and think outside the box (literally), skills that translate well into the academic world. The design and construction process itself is of course a super and fun-filled way to build on working with shapes, configurations and measurements.

Endless Creativity

Particular in today’s digital age, when kids spend hours glued to computers, televisions and smart phones, LEGO toys have managed to survive and thrive with their timeless appeal to the creative creature that lurks somewhere in all of us. 

Whether your youngster wants to build a whole town of his own design or follow the steps bit by bit to the perfect working robot, these inspiring toys that appeal to the child in all of us.

Wonderful World of Imagination

Whether they’re building a futuristic world of their own or re-creating the otherworldly adventures of Star Wars, kids at day camp and in playrooms around the world are exercising their imaginations in a big way when they pick up these tiny blocks and their equally tiny people. 

Anyone who has watched a child chatter away while playing with the little worlds of LEGO knows that the toy can magically transport young and old to the world of long-ago kings and castles, into the pages of a favorite novel or far out into the futuristic world beyond the stars.

Let your kids enjoy the Lego Experience at Maplewood Summer Day Camp. Experienced staff will keep your child both safe and busy with arts and crafts, games, water sports, gymnastics and more. Visit the site at http://www.maplewoodyearround.com to see the fun your child will have at Maplewood Summer Day Camp.