So yesterday I was looking for a St. Patrick's Day craft for an after school program. After spending an hour online I was shocked that I couldn't find anything the caught my interest.
Continue reading...2. September 2009
Every recreation department teaches sports to kids, whether by their own staff or through contract instructors. And why wouldn’t they, the benefits for children are many. But what if you want to offer a sport and don’t have an instructor? Maybe you can’t find a qualified contract instructor to teach the skills and nobody on [...]
Continue reading...2. March 2009
Its been raining off and on here in Northern California so I decided to dig up some of my reference books and find some rainy day activities that I knew were good and have used in the past. Below is an excerpt from a book called Camp Program Ideas, edited and compiled by Janet Gibson, [...]
Continue reading...22. February 2009
I see a lot of parks and recreation department and YMCA brochures. Most of them have one thing in common, the cover is not as engaging as it could be. I would show you examples but I don’t want anyone getting offended. Just take a look at yours or the city recreation departments and YMCAs [...]
Continue reading...17. February 2009
When the youth programs supervisor told me she wanted to do an after school program called Spinners I was intrigued. “Spinners? Is that where you spin the paper and drop paint on the paper making cool designs.” “No Curt, it’s a jump rope program.” “Huh? You want kids to jump rope for an hour of after school programming?” “Exactly. [...]
Continue reading...16. December 2008
A few weeks ago we started an after school program based around fitness. If you have ever tried to plan a fitness program for kids you know that it’s not as easy as having the kids run and do sit-ups. You want the kids to enjoy themselves so that they will continue to be active [...]
Continue reading...12. December 2008
A Drum Circle (a.k.a. rhythm circle) is an empowering group activity which uses a combination of various percussion instruments. The main purpose is to experience the joy of group music making. The facilitator creates an atmosphere charged with excitement – and focuses on developing group cohesion. We have an innate ability to feel and respond to [...]
Continue reading...11. December 2008
About 10 years ago my girlfriend and I went into a toy store and agreed to buy each other a gift under $10, just for fun. I can’t remember what I got for her but she purchased a kite for me. On our way back to camp (where we both worked) we stopped at a [...]
Continue reading...5. December 2008
Transitions from one activity to another can be difficult, especially if there is downtime while your group of kids are waiting for the next activity to start. Camps are notorious for this. There is so much downtime between activities and meals that campers start getting restless during these times. Thankfully, I have a solution. There [...]
Continue reading...4. December 2008
Kids love puppets. Create an after school program that kids can learn and practice puppetry once a week. After 8-10 weeks you’ll be ready to put on a show for other kids and/or their families. A puppet program is relatively easy to run and the kids will really get into it. Kids first learn [...]
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3. March 2010
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