Summer Programs
Summer Camp 2019 – A Look Back
Every year, with the weather warming and the anticipation of the end of the school year, our CSC team looks forward to the summer camp program. Our Kindergarten Camp is always a favorite, and this year we added the Summer Brain Building Camp, which proved to be great fun for the kids and us!
Kindergarten Enrichment Summer Camp
K-Camp is such a joyful experience for the campers. For many of them, this is their first “camp” experience. That, combined with the anticipation of entering Kindergarten, creates excitement and glee for the children as they embark on their social learning journey.
While playing and making new friends, each camper was actually being challenged to build their capacity for adaptation and flexibility, supporting transitions between our sensory gym and classroom-like environments.
At the outset, each child engendered mindful attention, active listening, and presence to sculpt a grounded infrastructure. Such practices created a platform for social and emotional balance and regulation that promoted “whole body and brain” listening and engagement.
Our focus on learning stemmed from an array of structured, tabletop activities, to less structured, independent tasks that included sound/letter identification and pairing, rhyming, handwriting, word creation, and initial reading practices.
Through a social-emotional lens, we explored group plans and dynamics, problem-solving, expected and friendly ways of being, the sense of belonging, and further developed confidence and competence. Taking a look inward and building on self-reflective practices and attunement, each child began to expand their self-awareness and interpersonal skills. Through such dynamics emerged a child’s sense of openness, curiosity, and creativity to explore and build pathways for learning and academics, motor skill development, play, and social-emotional integration.
Whew! That said, the kids had a blast laughing, playing, giggling, and making friends and memories. Good luck new kindergarteners – you got this!
Social Brain Building Summer Camp
New this year to CSC’s summer camp program, was Social Brain Building Camp. Designed for children entering 1st grade in the fall, this camp invites children to exercise their imaginations, and role play while having fun building dynamic social skills that prepare them for successful relationships in 1st grade…and life!
Campers attending CSC’s Social Brain Building Camp embarked on their social-emotional journey with eagerness to make new friends, enjoy physical activity, and learn the fundamentals of “we-thinking”. These were big challenges that the group worked on through various fun activities, including building a rocket ship to go to the moon, painting and coloring emotions, playing board games, watching interactive social skills videos, having a shaving cream party, and performing space man exercises.
The camp’s goal was to develop social and emotional balance, regulation for first time listening, and cooperative conversational skills. Taking a look inward and building on self-reflective practices and attunement, each child began to expand their self-awareness and interpersonal skills. Campers began to take charge of their own emotions by identifying their feelings, utilizing the “take a break space” when needed for re-centering, and using their words to communicate their needs to peers.
Each week helpful hints were sent to parents to support and encourage ongoing social learning within the home.
Overall, the children at both camps, created a toolbox that shaped the development of the brain and body, enhancing capacity for social relationships, emotional experiences, and cognitive opportunities on the learning journey.
Preparing a Child for Kindergarten-What Parents Need to Know
There is more to preparing a child for Kindergarten than many parents might think.
It is only natural for the parent of a pre-schooler to look forward to their child entering Kindergarten with excitement, pride and perhaps a tear or two. They grow up so fast, right? But what do parents really need to know about their child’s “readiness” for Kindergarten? In preparation for a smooth and successful transition to Kindergarten, parents should first take a look at how their child has progressed developmentally.
Age isn’t the answer.
Age is not an exclusive predictor of kindergarten readiness. While most children are developmentally ready to begin school at age 5, developmental strengths and difficulties vary with each child, and they pass through developmental milestones – physical, emotional and cognitive – at different rates.
What Should Parents Look For in Their Pre-K child?
Social/Emotional Regulation (Social Brain Building) – The kindergarten ready child will be able to communicate about thoughts and feelings, needs and wants, and use language to negotiate and problem solve with peers. He/she should be able to stay connected with peers for up to 30 minutes to play reciprocally. He/she will demonstrate independence in personal care. The child should be able to follow three step instructions, understand rules, and that actions have cause and effect. Most importantly, they will be ready to socialize and learn in a group environment.
A child must be able to walk into a situation and be able to observe and listen, then perceive what is expected of them. For example: a child walks into a classroom where other children are sitting and drawing. The child can then conclude that she is expected to sit and draw.
>Learn more about Social Brain Building
Executive Function – The ability to think as a “we” and follow directions, listen, attend, modify behavior and anticipate change, are the building blocks of executive functioning, a set of processes, or neurologically-based skills, that all have to do with managing oneself (mental control and self-regulation) and one’s resources in order to achieve a goal. A solid foundation of Executive Function skills is imperative to all future learning.
>Learn more about Executive Function
Attention – The child should have the core strength and stamina to sit with a calm body, listen, watch, and focus on an activity for 15-20 minutes.
Pre-Writing Skills – A child’s visual motor integration enables her to draw or reproduce what she sees, and is essential to learning to handwrite. A pre-K child should exhibit consistent hand dominance, dynamic tripod pencil grasp and ease in successful scissor manipulation. They should be able to legibly write their name and multiple upper case letters from memory.
Visual Processing/Visual Memory – Allows a child to give meaning to, and see similarities and differences in visual images, recall letter formation, and recognize subtle differences between letters such as “f” and “t”.
Language Skills – Studies show that kindergarten teachers list communication skills as the most important indicator of a child’s readiness for kindergarten. Language development supports socialization, participation and cooperation, literacy and learning.
Literacy Skills – “Phonological awareness” is the awareness of the sound structure of words. For example, recognizing that the word “cat” can be broken down into individual sounds: “c-a-t”. Phonological awareness in kindergarten is the single best predictor of later reading and spelling achievement.
Supporting Parents Preparing a Child for Kindergarten
It is important to note that approximately 1 in 5 children experience one or more challenges with behavior, communication, body movement and learning. While these challenges are common, each child’s root issues can be vastly different. If your child is struggling in any of these areas as the transition to Kindergarten approaches, it would be wise to seek out a consultation or assessment with a pediatric therapist who can get to the root issue and facilitate a program of occupational, speech/language, educational or multi-disciplinary therapy.
What is a Kindergarten Readiness Program?
A Kindergarten Readiness Program is designed, with the individual child in mind, to best prepare him to successfully enter school and joyfully manage the “job of Kindergarten”. Each summer, Child Success Center’s Kindergarten Enrichment Camp helps children grow and acquire skills in areas of social learning, academic learning, gross and fine motor skill development, verbal communication, imagination and creativity. Our program is facilitated by learning specialists that understand different learning styles and can adapt the K-Camp experience to create the “just right challenge” for each child.
Through a social learning lens, mindfulness-based practices allow the camper to explore group dynamics, practice transitions and develop skills to monitor changes in the environment. Skills are added to their toolbox for attending, being present and listening with their whole body, while creating a foundation for emotional balance.
In addition to preparing kids for a successful entrance into Kindergarten, K-Camp is a great time for socializing, making new friends and having summer fun.
Social Learning Prepares Children for First and Second Grade
Your kindergartner or first grader works hard at school. Not only are there academic expectations, but your child needs to self-regulate in order to manage the various social expectations. Whether following planned group activities, transitioning from one activity to another, using spoken language to share ideas, taking turns, listening when others speak, or managing big feelings and big energy, social brain building is imperative for success.
Your child wants to belong, feel connected, solve problems, share ideas and work within a group, but it doesn’t always happen naturally. Often a child needs the “just-right” support for their individual make up, to be able to build the foundational skills of self-regulation and flexible thinking, then be able to put them into practice within a group environment.
Children who struggle with self-regulation and flexible thinking in kindergarten or first grade often enter the next grade level with anxiety or struggles with:
- Making transitions
- Managing big feelings and energy levels
- Talking out of turn or grabbing
- Negotiating and compromising
- “Plugging in” to group plans and processes
Could your child use a boost in their Social Brain Building this summer?
Child Success Center’s social learning specialist, Patty Ramsey, LMFT, has designed a 2-week summer enrichment camp that will help campers gain the social skills and confidence they need for successful relationships in first or second grade.
With a plan designed and implemented by CSC’s skilled and compassionate occupational therapists and speech and language pathologists, this summertime fun adventure will allow children to make use of their boundless imaginations and the power of play. As a team, they’ll “create” their “campsite” and problem solve camp themed scenarios, like what they would need to pack for a camping adventure, how they’d get there, what they would do once they got there, what they would take to eat and what they would see.
Campers will use their imagination to guide them on their journey –
destination unknown – of fun, adventure and team building!
Are there resources available for parent support of social brain building at home?
Social Brain Building Summer Camp will provide visuals, activities, and education on key ways for parents to help support a child’s ongoing social learning. Additionally, one parent education session, presented by Patty Ramsey, will be available for more in-depth supports.
Learn more about Social Brain Building Summer Camp
Year round Social Brain Building and Friendship Club at CSC
post updated January 28, 2020
Looking Back on Kindergarten Camp Summer 2018
Kindergarten Enrichment Camp – Summer 2018 – A Look Back
The fall school term is fully under way, and here at CSC, we’re thinking back with smiles on our faces, about the wonderful children we shared our summer with, that are now officially Kindergarteners!
We’re smiling remembering all the fun we had, but also because we know that after a few weeks at Summer Kindergarten Enrichment Camp, these little bundles of energy are prepared and ready to take on the challenge of a new environment, new adults, new peers and new experiences.
The Kindergarten setting requires young students to spend more time sitting, listening, and following direction. They need more refined motor skills to create letters and numbers. They need to be able to integrate sensory input and self-regulate and self-monitor in order to respond appropriately to changes in the physical environment of the classroom as well as the social landscape of the classroom and playground. Summer K-Camp gave our little pre-Kindergarteners the tools they need to meet all these challenges successfully.
Hanging out in our large sensory gym, campers, using mindfulness as a platform, engaged in myriad positive social learning experiences, built phonological awareness, and began to build their desire for lifelong learning. Mindfulness practices during circle time and moments of stillness, taught campers to pause and recognize sensations, impulses and the need to think and plan. They learned about positive self-talk, and how to build a loving relationship with their inner selves, a critical first step to developing successful social relationships with others.
Using the methodology of “whole-body” listening and the “Zones of Regulation”, campers fostered the self-awareness needed to be social and open, and to be able to ask for help and verbalize needs and experiences. Working these social-emotional “muscles” resulted in our campers gaining strength in social and educational learning, allowing it to happen organically and with meaning. Working those muscles also required “flexibility” in thinking during activity transitions, like from the fully active gym to table-top time, which required children to attend and be more on task.
Our camp facilitators loved seeing the kiddos learn while they played with letters and sounds. Who doesn’t love to hear little voices boisterously “moooooo-ing” like cows to match the sound with the letter? Every year, it seems, the sensory activity the kids like the most is using their fingers to form letters and free form shapes on the “shaving cream table”. Messy, but fun!
Like any summer camp experience, each child took away his/her own set of “nuggets” of fun and learning, but we know that all of them left with a tool box full of skills that will help them have the best start possible to their academic career.
Learn more about Kindergarten Enrichment Camp at Child Success Center.
Summer Slide and Your Child’s Social Skills
The “summer slide” can affect your child’s social skills as well as his academic skills.
You’ve probably heard of summer slide – the up to 30% loss of academic skills that many children experience over the summer school break. And, perhaps you’ve enrolled your child in summer academic enrichment programs like the SPARK Reading and Math Programs here at Child Success Center, to help keep your child’s academic skills sharp and ready for the fall school term. But you might not know that children can also experience summer slide when it comes to their social skills. Long term, this may be a more far-reaching issue that can hinder your child’s success as an adult.
A study published in 2015 explains that social skills observed in kindergarten showed significant correlation with well-being at age 25! Kindergarteners who were socially competent were more likely to graduate from high school, go to college, get a job and stay out of jail than those who exhibited a lower level of social competence.
Children tend to “grade” each other on their social competence. The child who just naturally is well endowed with social skills, makes friends easily, is outgoing and at ease around people may be rewarded with a higher level of status amongst his peers. The child that is shy or feels awkward and uncomfortable around people may get far lower “grades” from his peers that can result in a diminished sense of overall confidence and interfere with the child’s ability to attend and focus on the process of learning academics.
This can present a conundrum to parents who face school entry requirements weighing heavily on high academic achievement. Parents may opt to cut back on activities involving play and social interaction, and fill that time instead with additional academic endeavors. This scenario, coupled with the myriad digital opportunities for children to play and communicate, can create a detrimental imbalance in the development of the whole child. Fortunately, the school environment is one that not only teaches academics, but also provides various opportunities for children to learn to get along with other people, peers and leadership, and develop social skills. The feedback they get from these social interactions is vital to learning skills like how to play well with others, how to problem-solve, how to label and recognize feelings, how to be empathetic and helpful, how to control impulses, how to be a “we-thinker”, and how to use and understand verbal and non-verbal communication.
For many children, those social learning opportunities greatly diminish during the summer school break. Once out of the school environment and routine, children may spend more time alone or engaged in digital entertainment/communication, which research has shown may interfere with a child’s ability to recognize emotions in the people around them. It can become a slippery slide for a child from being a “we-thinker” to thinking in silo.
Social deficits can pose a lifelong problem, making it imperative that they be identified early and addressed, similarly to the approach that would be taken with a learning disability. Under the guidance of skilled pediatric occupational and speech/language therapists, children can learn through peer-to-peer experiences and roll playing, acquiring vital social skills in a fun, engaging, and active environment. Even those children who have exhibited social competency thus far can be greatly served by a summer program to help keep those skills sharp and prepare them with additional social skills tools that will cross over into academic learning success.
With all that modern technology has to offer, there is still nothing that can replace the gratification and lifelong effects of a successful and meaningful person-to-person encounter, and the learning that goes along with it.
Therapeutic Social Learning Options
Individual and Paired Peer Therapy Sessions
Kindergarten Enrichment Camp
This popular CSC program helps children develop confidence when taking the first steps toward reading, writing, attending to a new routine and making new friends. CSC’s huge gymnasium is turned into a fun learning camp with swings, a trampoline, a climbing wall and monkey bars to take children on an adventure while building up their kindergarten social skills.
Summer Friendship Club – Social Skills Enrichment Program
Designed for children, ages 4.5 – 11, who are having a difficult time navigating the social landscape of the classroom or group setting and/or building and maintaining friendships. The small group environment of Friendship Club works well for the child who needs a structured social environment to strengthen and master communication skills.
Preventing Summer Slide
Help your child avoid “summer slide” with some fun summer learning.
Summer slide, unfortunately doesn’t refer to that cool new apparatus on the playground. Summer slide is what happens when students forget academic skill sets over the summer break. In fact, statistics show that a child can lose up to 30% of their math and reading abilities, putting them behind about 2 years by the 5th grade.
Now while that sounds dramatic, it is also avoidable. The summer is meant to be a fun break from the rigors of academia, but there is much learning that can be accomplished during summer fun and down time, leaving your child ready to tackle the beginning of a new grade in the Fall.
Some children naturally love to read, and will find the time during the summer to relax with a good book. Other children who may have reading challenges, and therefore don’t really enjoy it, can benefit from a reading skills program, where highly trained educational therapists get to the root of the reading difficulty, and help a child, in a fun and engaging way, to develop that skill.
Also, look for ways to practice reading, letter and number recognition in everyday summer activities. The signs at the farmers’ market while buying farm stand produce, street signs and license plates during car travel on vacation, and reading a recipe for a session of cookie baking are all examples of ways to keep those reading skills polished.
Math isn’t always thought of as a “fun” subject, but think of all the wonderful things that could be counted in the summer. Stars in a dark sky over a campground, seeds in a juicy watermelon, fish in a clear cool pond, popsicle sticks, water balloons, sea shells on the beach and cherries in a bowl.
Some children have a more difficult time with numbers, and again, a well trained educational therapist will be able to identify the root problems of the difficulty, and work with a child to develop the skills needed to succeed in this area.
This summer, support your child’s learning by making it part of the summer family activity plan, or by allocating just a few hours a week to an enriched summer learning program – leave the summer sliding for the playground.
Child Success Center SPARK Summer Program for Reading
Child Success Center SPARK Summer Program for Math
Clinical neurologist Jerome Schultz, PhD, discusses how summer programs can help kids with learning disabilities by providing academic support during months without school. Watch video.
Is Kindergarten Camp a Fit For Your Child?
Kindergarten Camp will help your child discover his love for learning!
Kindergarten Camp is for any child that has one (1) of the following needs:
- Support in the transition to kindergarten
- Skills when adapting to a new environment
- Creation of meaning and enjoyment while learning
- Development of handwriting and fine motor activities
- Identification of phonological awareness and early reading processes
- Focus on academics while being at a developmental preschool
By taking an educational therapy approach and incorporating research-based programs, the Child Success Center Kindergarten Enrichment Camp offers your child a unique, summer learning experience, while having great fun in our state-of-the-art sensory motor gym in Los Angeles, California.
K-CAMP is an individualized experience, with highly trained learning specialists looking at the “whole child” while meeting the specific needs of each child. Campers will work with a learning specialist to explore their learning journey. During the K-CAMP learning adventure, each child will be helped to develop confidence when taking the first steps toward reading, writing, attending to a new routine and being socially involved. Our approach allows visual and auditory integration, providing the child with a thorough learning experience and understanding from many areas of the brain.
K-CAMP provides a balance of educational, classroom-like experiences and positive social development opportunities. Our team utilizes the hugely effective Social Thinking® (Attributed to Michelle Garcia Winner as creator of the Social Thinking Methodology) curriculum that builds the body & brain awareness that is supportive to learning exploration. Our gymnasium provides a fun, interactive and comfortable learning environment for children. With success comes the joy of seeing your child adapt to new circumstances, thrive socially, develop the necessary skills to succeed in school and learn effectively and happily.
K-CAMP will ignite your child’s learning journey whether the goal is remediation of skills and/or enrichment, all while having great summer fun!
Much of the CSC Kindergarten Camp program is based on the following areas of learning and acquisition of skills.
- Social Thinking® & Whole-Body Listening – develops skills in focusing, listening, auditory cohesion and attending to the body in group and learning situations. Addressing whole-body listening can allow the child to understand the role of their brain in an array of experiences. (this is incorporated in all learning endeavors)
- Auditory Discrimination – increases the understanding and ability to discern between the differences in sounds. Sounds make up words which make up sentences and passages. Discrimination is important in all areas of learning- reading, writing and visual/auditory integration. Understanding discrimination can often bring about comfort and confidence in the reading process.
- Auditory Memory – increases ability to develop phonemes, words and sentences and retain and recall information that is presented orally.
- Phonological Skills – evolve through learning sounds and developing phonological awareness through sound-symbol relationship, blending and segmentation, and incorporating visual, auditory and motion into the learning process.
- Handwriting – includes letter and number formation, sequencing, and development of healthy, adaptive handwriting practices.
EXPECTATIONS OF SCHOOLS
Common Core Standards have clearly upped the stakes when it comes to what skills your child will need to have in his academic and social tool belt upon entering Kindergarten. The expectations for these young children are high and include age appropriate proficiency in reading, writing, listening and collaboration. The CSC Kindergarten Camp program addresses all of these areas while maintaining a fun and stress-free environment your child will look forward to each day.
This program, including its teacher or leader, is not affiliated with, nor has it been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by Michelle Garcia Winner and Think Social Publishing, Inc.
Kindergarten Readiness Summer Camp 2015
Is your pre-schooler ready for Kindergarten in the Fall? Child Success Center is happy to announce our 6th consecutive summer of Kindergarten Readiness Camp!
While you might not even be thinking about summer vacation yet, it is definitely the time to start asking yourself if your pre-schooler will be ready for the move up to Kindergarten in the Fall. There’s more to it than you might imagine. Many parents are under the impression that Kindergarten is somewhat akin to preschool and that significant academics really don’t kick in until 1st or 2nd grade, but in newer times that is far from reality.
In recent years, California Kindergarten curriculum has shifted to become far more academically skewed than in past decades and now more than ever, it’s very important to have all children properly prepared for these greater new challenges. To successfully excel in their new setting, children must achieve and master certain educational and social skills to adequately adapt and grow in a more accountable and often faster paced setting.
Additionally, there are many aspects of kindergarten that will be new for your child. The school is bigger, there is more time sitting at a table, more focus on letters and numbers, time spent learning handwriting skills, more time listening and a lot more structure. The days are longer and there is often more independence required.
Parents might consider seeking counsel or advice from teachers or experts and possibly even have an evaluation for their child to ensure that educational and social skill development is on track for entry into Kindergarten in the fall. To help those who may need additional support, Child Success Center is happy to announce our 6th consecutive summer of Kindergarten Readiness Camp. This camp is designed to not only teach and prepare little ones, but also provide tons of fun while they’re learning.
Presented as individual weekly camps or a 2-week session, campers, in small groups of up to 8 children, will spend over 20 hours involved in activities designed to help them develop the foundational learning needed to feel confident entering Kindergarten. The program will help children develop confidence when taking the first steps toward reading, writing, attending to a new routine and making new friends. The huge gymnasium at Child Success Center will be turned into a summer fun learning camp with the aim of turning “learning” into “play”. The camp will feature swings, a trampoline, climbing wall and monkey bars, which will take children on an adventure and build up their kindergarten readiness skills. The program will also feature art, music and science activities that will inspire creative interests and will offer hands-on fun through touching, exploring and games.
Parents can enroll their children in a single weekly program, but enrollment in two or three week sessions will build stronger, lasting skills. Also, as a bonus, multiple week enrollees and those who bring a friend may be eligible for special discounts, so be sure to inquire when you call.
Each Week-long Session Will Teach Your Child To:
- Recognize letters and match them with a name and sound
- Master holding a pencil, marker or crayon
- Develop attention and listening skills
- Socialize and communicate
- Enjoy learning
DATES: Dates: Session 1: July 27 – July 31, 2015
Session 2: August 3 – Aug 7, 2015
Session 3: August 10 – August 14, 2015
TIMES: 8:45AM – 1 PM, Monday through Friday
AGE: Starting Kindergarten in the Fall
ENROLLMENT: Call the Child Success Center on 310.899.9597 or email: officemanager@childsuccesscenter.com
COST: Full Fee is $574 per week.
DISCOUNTS:
- Early Bird Discount: $495.00 per week, if registration and payment are received by Friday March 15, 2015.
- Multiple week discounts are available. Call for details.
- Discounts are also available if you bring along a sibling or friend. Call for details.
