“The building blocks of self-esteem are belonging, learning and contributing. Camps offer unique opportunities for children to succeed in these three vital areas and even beyond home and school.” —Michael Popkin, family therapist and founder of Active Parenting

“The biggest plus of camp is that camps help young people discover and explore their talents, interests and values. Most schools don't satisfy all these needs. Kids who have had these kinds of (camp) experiences end up being healthier and have less problems which concern us all.” —Peter Scales, noted author/educator and Senior Fellow, The Search Institute

Both of these quotes come from the American Camp Association, which shares the benefits of summer camp for kids, including social development benefits. To be successful in life, according to the ACA, children must learn to be resilient, and that includes developing self-esteem and self-reliance, life skills and strong social behaviors. Summer camp provides this development because children get to participate in a true community environment. These camps encourage and facilitate healthy development that includes large doses of fun, where children “interact with positive role models who have time to listen, talk, relax, and reflect.”

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Topics: summer camp, social interaction

The social skills we learn as children prepare us for adult life. Socialization techniques learned during early play and daycare experiences– sharing, taking turns, forming friendships, playing well with others, problem solving, etc.—form the foundation for later relationships with family members, friends and co-workers.

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Topics: social interaction, day care, day care center

If you are a natural social butterfly, it may be hard for you to understand why your child is content to play by himself or herself. Your child may or may not display signs of social anxiety – and in fact may feel none. He or she just is okay playing alone. What do you do to prepare your child for preschool?

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Topics: child development, preschool, social interaction

Perhaps, when you drop off your preschooler at his or her school, it seems as though every child in the group eagerly begins greeting one another and engaging in play – all, that is, except yours. Yours is the shy child.

Maybe you’re shy yourself and so you don’t want your child to struggle to make friends, or maybe you’re the life of the party and so you can’t understand why your little one isn’t more like you. In either case, it’s important to remember that there is nothing wrong with a child – or anyone else for that matter – because he or she is shy. It’s a personality trait, not a problem.

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Topics: preschool, social interaction, preschooler, social behaviors

Whether you're interested in educational programs, after school care, low-income day care, or after school programs, there's one thing each has in common; kids can learn and reap the benefits of sharing, interacting and socializing.

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Topics: toddler, social interaction, social activity

Siblings may sometimes be best friends and at other times detest each other. As a parent, it can be frightening and frustrating to watch your kids rave and rant about each other. Thankfully, you don’t have to witness these squabbles and fights for the rest of your life. We, at Horizon Education Centers, have developed a few family tips to instill camaraderie into your family, so that your kids will be more than willing to help out each other.

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Topics: child behavior, horizon education centers, social interaction, siblings

Helping your children develop the social-emotional skills of empathy and kindness are essential to helping them become successful adults. Child development techniques that help children understand how their behavior affects others offer a life-long payback, helping children realize they are not the only person in the world and giving them greater insight into the perspectives of others.

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Topics: children, child development, social interaction, social behaviors

The social skills we learn as children prepare us for adult life. Socialization techniques learned during early play and daycare experiences – sharing, taking turns, forming friendships, playing well with others, problem solving, etc. -- form the foundation for later relationships with family members, friends and co-workers.

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Topics: horizon education centers, social interaction, day care center

Family Night

The focus of North Olmsted's February family night was anti-bullying. It featured a special not-really-guest-speaker , AJ Long, who focused on the idea that "The End of Bullying Begins with Us." Mr. AJ works with Maple Intermediate School and coordinates the afterschool activities in North Olmsted. He shared some of his experiences at both locations and called for all students to make the promise. “The end of bullying really does begin with us.” he said, “and it will not end until everybody makes this promise.”  

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Topics: school age kids, social interaction, afterschool

Video games have come a long way since your youth when your parents may have taken a dim view of your fascination with Donkey Kong or Space Invaders. For a long time parents seemed to draw a clear distinction between educational, or “good,” video games and entertaining, or “bad,” video games. Seeking to justify your fascination with virtually speeding around a racetrack or annihilating alien spacecraft for hours on end, your parents may have consoled themselves with the thought that at least you were building eye-hand coordination. But most of the time parents – and educators, psychologists and sociologists -- worried that video games were too sedentary, too anti-social, and too violent to be healthy for children.

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Topics: child behavior, developing skills, child activities, social interaction