Social Skills & Wellness
Communication & Self-Esteem
Conflict Resolution and Communication Skills
In today's world, it is important for children to learn non-violent ways of settling disputes great and small. Students are taught negotiation techniques, ways to avoid confrontations with a bully, and how to handle issues with friends or within diverse groups. Participants learn to keep journals as a means of analyzing and managing the patterns of their conflicts more effectively.
Relationships
Respect, trust, and commitment are key ingredients in forging successful relationships. Students discuss the meaning and effects of interpersonal behavior and communication, and learn to recognize power dynamics. Students develop the confidence vital in creating healthy connections with others as they learn how to build, maintain, and improve relationships.
Kids Who Care - Volunteering
In this course, students find the gratification of giving as they participate in service work, at home and through community endeavors. They acquire understanding of the feelings and experience of those less fortunate, and learn how their own efforts lay the brickwork for a better community and world. Students find that by bettering the lives of others, they have in fact bettered their own.
We also provide contacts for groups and associations seeking volunteers.
Empowerment Against Bullies
The social hierarchy of school can be very black-and-white; many students today are victims of bullying, if not bullies themselves. This program teaches victims of bullying to empower themselves and bolster their self-esteem, and to prohibit bullying from impacting their personal lives. Activities such as role-playing, effective conflict-resolution, the proper use of text-messaging, emails, and chats, skill-building games, and group discussions provide participants with insight and guidance. Through the life lessons of this course, students gain fortitude and a positive self-image that will serve them in and out of school, and for all time.
Public Speaking
Public speaking is crucial to nearly every academic and professional field. Students learn to walk and talk with assuredness and purpose, overcome jitters, and deliver speeches with confidence and animation. They will capture interest and attention, sustain audience control, and achieve effective participation in groups of any size! It's the kind of course parents wish they had when they were young.
Building Self-Esteem
The way we feel about ourselves plays a major part in how we treat others and the choices we make. The goals of this course are to become aware of how confidence affects one’s life, to understand the relationship between self-esteem and decision-making, and to recognize how our behaviors and relationships can enhance or undermine our confidence. Through fun projects and group activities, students emerge with a brighter perspective and a new sense of self.
Friendship Basics
As students move through adolescence, friendship dynamics become more complex and more focal in their lives. Friendship Basics explores such matters as: the characteristics of good friendship; the differences between “true” friends and “false” friends; how to prevent conflicts; how to handle change, and ways to cultivate new friendships. Through fun exercises of role-playing, students quickly learn key principles that will help them make and sustain solid relationships throughout their lives.
Mentoring Buddies: A Mentoring Program
In these trying times, it is important for kids to have someone reliable and trustworthy to turn to. This program is an enjoyable and nurturing way to provide students with role models and peers in whom they can trust and confide.
back to top
Etiquette
P’s and Q’s: Basic Etiquette
This etiquette class is tailored to the learning styles of the very young. Hands-on activities help children to appreciate the value of good manners and behavior. Through stories, we demonstrate how practices of etiquette can mean very different things around the world. Adopting the language of good manners will serve children throughout their lives.
back to top
Yoga & Meditation
Meditation and Yoga: Improved Life Balance
In this experiential yoga and meditation class, we discuss holism, balance, and the benefits of body-mind practices. Each session affords ample opportunity to try these techniques and to discuss feelings. This class betters the ability to connect to our centers through concentration and focus.
Wellness
Wellness promotes overall well-being on physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels. We explore nutrition and exercise (physical wellness), healthy relationships (emotional wellness), intellectual development and the value of self-discipline and hard work (mental wellness), and feeling connected to those around us as well as the greater whole (spiritual wellness).
Yoga Kids
A basic experiential yoga class, Yoga Kids teaches children simple yoga practices and invites them to discuss how they feel afterwards. It’s a great way for students to learn relaxation, concentration, and agility through activity!
back to top
|