Adventure Academy is back in business after my maternity leave. Old friends joined us last week and we’ll meet new friends this week. We’ll continue learning “all about me,” as well as learn about our friends and families. Everyone who participates in Mi Families (“my families”) programs (such as Adventure Academy) is a part of our family tree. We’ll be making a family/friend tree with photos in our center this week – if you’d like to stop by and check it out!
prepping back2school
Every member of our family is important to the success of our programs. Most programs are defined by the facilitator, but our programs are defined by the members. Even the youngest members in Adventure Academy choose topics to learn about, jobs to help with and meals to eat. Adventure Academy is an education through recreation program, where we encourage students to make decisions and build confidence in learning and self-growth.
Our last article mentioned our ample supply of learning materials. The video showed how most materials were in easy access for children to reach and use on their own. Children learn where each material is kept so they can help clean up afterwards. Self direction is encouraged and children are praised for taking initiative and helping others. The children are also encouraged to define their own learning goals.
Although we do many group activities, each lesson has individualized goals in mind. Although we are stage before age focused, our goals follow a continuum of learning sequence, which is modeled throughout our multi-age classroom. Those with less developmental skills are not pushed, but often strive to follow the lead of older students. Older students are encouraged to model independence and resiliency.
MGT magnet manipulatives
Resiliency is the ability to recover and continue trying to conquer ones goals. Often attempts to reach goals and learn new skills is stressful for children. Just as an adult can get stressed during tasks at home or work, so do children. School is a child’s work. Play is a child’s work. Play is a time to grow and learn how to self regulate. Learning to regulate behaviors and control emotions is a tough lesson.
As we learn about ourselves, our families and our friends – we learn how our behaviors affect others. We learn how to understand others emotions and feelings. Emotions and expressions are not often easy to understand, so while we make our classroom-family tree, we will also be working on a friends & feelings book this week. We’ll be using Mother Goose Time‘s “me and my family” curriculum for many of our supplies.
“Happy”
“sad”
“angry”
“surprised”
“tired”
Adventure Academy uses top rated curriculums and learning materials for infant through elementary development. If you are near Kingsley, Michigan and looking for someone to help your child meet developmental goals or encourage their talents contact Christi@MiFamilies.com. We still have a couple full day or part time spaces available for our fall child care and tutoring programs.
Also feel free to email if you’d like more information on other Mi Families programs for youth, parents or providers. Feel free to find us on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube … I’m on LinkedIN … You can subscribe above for future articles to see what we’re up to … Mi Families programs are growing quickly and our admins notify members of new resources on our social media outlets. Mi Families is “Reaching out with resources” for families and those who work with families – throughout Michigan!
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