Passport 2 Pittsfield

On May 7, explore Pittsfield Township, learning
about the community while finding many fun family activities and freebies!

Another weekend event for the whole family is the Passport 2 Pittsfield Event. This free event on Sunday, May 7, from 1:00–4:00 p.m.allows families will explore Pittsfield Township as they fill their "Passport".

Families will collect stamps and goodies as you travel throughout the Township stopping by each of the locations to tour the buildings, share your ideas, and learn about the services that Pittsfield Township has to offer. Activities you can encounter along the way include:

• Free line dancing
• Play Earth Day Bingo
• Free coloring book for the kids
• Make a flower art sculpture
• Get crafty creating a box city
• Get your own tree to plant with a free state tree seedling
• Kids will get their own Police Badge, Firefighter hat, and Child ID Kits (for mom and dad) 

There is no lack of fun with games, parachute fun, emergency vehicle displays, and photos with Sparky the Fire Dog and McGruff the Crime Dog! Families can also get into drawing for prizes from many local restaurant and shopping establishments.

Building Life Skills with Summer Camp

Summer camp was a right of passage for me which is why my kids attend!
My kids are stronger, better team members and excellent problem solvers
in part due to what they have experienced in going away to camp.

Every summer growing up, my parents sent me away for a week of summer camp. It started  with Girl Scout camp then ended up as a week away at overnight camp where horseback riding was the focus. In fact, I ended up becoming a wrangler at that camp! I remember my summer camp experiences fondly.

Those experiences helped me mature in many ways. I became more self-confident. As a child I marched to the beat of my own drummer and did not feel the pressure to give in to some of the bad habits many of my friends fell into as teens. The American Camp Association calls this the four "C's" of the camp community: compassion, contribution, commitment, and character! And certainly, going away to summer camp helped build that in me.

I've had a similar experience in sending my children away to summer camp. My kids started attending camp their summers before they went into 2nd grade. It was very clear in my daughter though.

Girls CAN do anything!

Overcoming Separation Anxiety

During my daughter's 1st grade year she had a terrible episode of separation anxiety. She would cry hysterically each morning, clinging to me in the drop-off lane. Often she would need to be pried off of me and carried into school. It was horrific for me. No one needs to start their day that way, not her or I!

She insisted though that she wanted to attend Girl Scout horseback riding camp. As a compromise, I choose a 4 day camp, where she would only be away 3 nights. I prepped her in the best way possible then hoped for the best. She was a bit apprehensive when arriving, but cried when she left and begged to stay longer. The changes in her after camp though were phenomenal. She came back more confident and ready to take charge.

Building Character

My son had a similar experience. In Cub Scouts you don't go solo to camp until you are a Webelo. After he completed 3rd grade though I sent him to the church camp. He has gone away to camp every year since then and has attended several weeks of camp since he's been a Boy Scout. In fact last summer he was away 4 weeks! FOUR!

I experienced the biggest growth from him after he went to scout camp. He came home more mature and composed and asked to cook dinner once a week and even to do some of his own laundry. Um, OK, who are you and what did you do to my son! That program had all older boys and they clearly rubbed off on him.

Kids who attend summer camp will try new things,
learn team building skills and become more resilient! 

Is My Child Ready?

"But is my child ready to go to sleep-away camp?" 

There is no age that is ideal for starting camp. Each parent will need to make individual decisions. The first thing to consider though is what TYPE of summer camp you are considering? Parents should also consider their child's development. Ask others about the summer camp their children attend.

Parents may even consider interviewing the camp or perhaps sending their child with a friend. I will say though that the year my child attended with a friend she did NOT have as much fun. The other little girl only partnered with my daughter and hung off her constantly hampering any growth for either child.

Is my child ready to
attend summer camp? You bet!

Foundations for Adulthood

Attending summer camp really will help your child build their foundation of adulthood. They will gain independence, and gain skills. They will be in a team-building atmosphere and learn resilience. They will learn to make decisions and try new things. Your child will mature in ways that will wow you and have memories that will last a lifetime.

What Are You Waiting For?

When children do well at school, they earn good grades. But when children succeed at camp, they learn valuable lessons. Attending summer camp will teach your child character-building skills that are good for life. I know it has done that for my kids!

Stridepost Family Motivation Game

I wanted to share with you Stridepost, a new family motivation app for today’s technology-driven families. They are launching this week with a 21 Day Motivation Game. I like the idea that it is a simple, fun way to reward your kids n getting them motivated to do chores. Your children Kids use technology more than ever, so why not use this as an advantage to bring your family together, while staying organized and getting things done.

Stridepost’s four main features not only help to keep your kids motivated and excited to complete tasks, but also your whole family organized and on the same page:

• Allowance & Rewards Tracker – Set points or an allowance budget for your kids to work toward as they check off their to-dos. Each task completed earns points, and on Sundays, these points are deposited into kids’ accounts. Kids can redeem points for things you agree upon.
• To-do List Tracker – Keep track of your kids’ and family tasks while teaching kids how to prioritize their responsibilities to develop strong management skills.
• Family Wall – All members of your family can communicate in one place through private in-app messages.
• Online Family Calendar – Use the master Online Family Calendar. You can even import a Google Calendar or iCal into Stridepost’s Family Calendar!

Now through June 15, families can participate and enter the Family Motivation Game. The winning family will receive a Family Fun Pack valued at $300, which will include gift cards for a family night out, including a special activity and dinner. So what are you waiting for, improve your family communication and organization while having fun, with special daily challenges. I know I am excited to see my kids play (even if they can't win!).

To enter, sign up for Stridepost online for a free 90-day trial. Parents will need to can download the Stridepost Parents app (iOS and Android) and while adding the Stridepost Kids app (iOS and Android). to the devices their children use!

Free Spring Movies

Free movies are a wonderful thing. They give us something to do when spring is muddy and gray. Weekends, through April 2, your family can enjoy free movies at local Goodrich Quality Theaters. Showtimes will be available the Tuesday before and tickets are only available at the door. Tickets for adults are just $1 but kids 12 and under get free admission to the movies!

In Ann Arbor, that gives us a choice of two theaters for free movies this spring:

Goodrich Quality 16
3686 Jackson Rd., Ann Arbor

Goodrich Canton 7
43555 Ford Road, Canton Twp.

Trolls (PG) – March 11 & 12 

Middle School (PG) – March 18 & 19 

Storks (PG) – March 25 & 26 

Sing (PG) – April 1 & 2

It's hard to pass up a free movie no matter how much concession stand goodies you purchase. So one of these cold, wet or dreary late winter early spring weekends, be sure to sneak out with the kids and enjoy your free movie!

One Glove Wonder? Taking Care of Your Things

I must be the worst mom in the world tonight, or at least one that needs to re-examine disciplining her child and her own very bad reaction to a trivial problem. I actually yelled, very loudly and in a not-so-nice way, at my son for losing a glove. A glove!

I should say though, that after my son’s break-down just last week over losing one of his new Iron Man gloves, I thought he’d have learned a lesson. This entire school year I have been drilling home that his gloves and hat need to go into, and stay, in his backpack when they aren’t on his hands. So why this should even have been an issue. He’s old enough to know better. His crying and carrying on last week over this glove was terrible! I thought of telling him not to worry, since a single Iron Man glove would be of little interest to anyone. However, since the lost and found box has yet to belch out the aforementioned single missing glove, I now have to wonder if there was another little boy missing HIS Iron Man glove… But I digress.

This post is about discipline, both mine and his. It’s also about teaching a child how to care for their own things and about handling the repercussions when they don’t.

I have been asking my son to keep everything in his backpack since the start of school. I have also told him that HE is responsible for his own backpack and lunch bag. However I may have set a bad example when the dog ate through both the backpack and the lunch bag when my son left his bag out where the dog could get at it.

What did I do? Went right out and bought him a new backpack and lunch bag. I suppose I didn’t think about what message this would send my son, after all he needed both, as the backpack and the lunch bag were beyond repair. But what does that say to a child? Don’t worry mom will just buy more, right? How would it have better been handled? He did pretty well too until the missing, well-loved glove incident of last week. Mostly though this is due to my constant reminder for him to be aware of his things.

Today my son was emptying his backpack and yet again said the dreaded words, “Mom I lost a glove.” What makes this even worse is that it is actually 3 missing gloves since his (also new) Batman gloves were double-layered gloves that included two black full gloves with two fingerless gloves on top. I was going to suggest that from now on he would have to wear one Iron Man glove and the now single Batman glove, the problem is the remaining Batman glove is the fingerless one!

I told him that tomorrow he and his father would have to go out and buy two new pairs of gloves, with HIS money. I just can not discuss the gloves again. I still think I missed the mark though. My biggest concerns as a parent though are ‘why should missing one glove cause such an eruption of my emotions’ and more importantly, since it did, what will happen when my son truly does something “bad” and I get mad? I also need to consider him coming to me with his real issues; if I react so poorly won’t he choose to not come to me as a parent?

So here I am stuck between a rock and a hard place, and knowing fully well that I handled the entire situation very poorly. I know I am not alone as there are at least 20 single gloves in the lost and found that would likely produce likewise unhappy parents, I just need to re-examine my own behavior over the missing glove incident tonight as well as how to handle my son’s need for new gloves.

If you have any thoughts or suggestions, I am currently reflecting upon some of the following questions:

How do you teach your children to respect personal property? How do you teach a child the value of ‘things”? At what “age” should children be expected to be responsible for belongings? How do you discipline a child when something “necessary” is lost or damaged?

republished from annarbor.com 2010