STARTING THIS MONTH - NEW SOCIAL SMART KIDS SKILLSHOPS - SOCIAL SKILLS GROUPS WHERE KIDS WILL LEARN HOW TO MAKE FRIENDS, SPORTSMANSHIP, CONVERSATION SKILLS AND MORE! ENROLL TODAY! 10 Tips for Making New Friends Starting a new school year is so exciting and yet, anxiety-provoking. Kids spend considerable time contemplating teacher selection and classmates and often worry that they won’t know anyone in their class. Familiarity with others helps us all feel more comfortable in new environments so it’s certainly understandable that kids would feel anxious about this aspect of a new school year. This time of year can be particularly stressful if a child has general difficulty forming new friendships. Here are some tips on how to help guide your child through the first weeks of a new school year
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|  | I love hanging out around fire pits. It’s like camping but without having to sleep on the ground. The crackling fire, Jiffy Pop, marshmallows, s’mores (quite possibly the best treat, ever!), it’s all so…summery! I especially love it if the yard is full of kids playing flashlight tag with some adults to keep me company (I’ll be the one nice and toasty by the fire). When I was a child, all the kids in our neighborhood used to play hide and seek every night in the summer... [_LEARN_MORE]
|  | Learn About Life, Make New Friends Imagine eight middle school-aged girls at a restaurant giggling over silly jokes, carefully examining the menu to make their selection, feeling a little nervous about placing their order with the wait staff, and generally excited to be out dining together. Some are very talkative and ask a lot of questions of their friends while others are quieter and usually provide limited answers. Their parents, in this case mothers, are not with them but only a table away having their own brand of good time. All the girls are happy to be there with friends. This night out is a manners lesson for Learning for Life Troop #65. What is Learning for Life? It’s an amazing organization which I have been part of for nearly 3 years that provides social opportunity for children while also teaching them life lessons. [_LEARN_MORE]
|  | Each day, children look forward to relaxing and rejuvenating during recess. It’s a chance to chat with friends, run around, relax, and prepare them for the second part of the day. Some kids who don’t have a friend group to join or who aren’t comfortable with the usual group play that occurs at recess have a hard time figuring how to enjoy this free time. For them, there is a lot of stress with recess. They wander around, visit the nurse, and hang out in the bathroom and so on. They are lost souls without a plan as to how to make the most of recess. [_LEARN_MORE]
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