"R"

The next four weeks will be devoted to explaining what our program emphasizes. This includes much of the everyday workings of the program but also the philosophy of the program that was started by the grassroots group several years ago.  R.E.A.L. is an acronym created to include the four aspects of our program and was created much before I came on board but states exactly what I feel should be included in an educational program.
 
The "R" in R.E.A.L. stands for recreation.  To tell you the truth, I often want to say it stands for "respect" or "responsibility."  In reality those concepts can come under  "leadership" or even "education."  Recreation is extremely important on many levels of  education especially in an after-school program.  We want the children to enjoy coming, because when they come then they can learn.  They can learn life skills, manners, behavior, and traditional educational subjects.  Recreation is also part of instruction for the physical body.  If the body is relaxed and focused much more learning can take place.  This can be demonstrated in the concept of the wiggle room that we are in the process of creating and that I wrote about last week.

Recreation starts from the moment the children sign in at the Center.  They get about twenty minutes of free play in the gymnasium before snack.  This affords them time to unwind from school and the bus trip.  It also gets them ready to shift to Center mode and away from school mode.  At the Center they interact with children from all grades, so they get to reconnect with the Center "family."  Currently in the gym they may play with hula hoops, jump ropes, moon shoes, footballs, basketballs, Frisbees, soccer balls and cones and several other types of equipment.

After snack and homework time, the children return to the gym.  This time is usually used for  more structured activities.  They may play kickball or octopus tag or red light-green light.  It is important for this more structured play as they learn rules and regulations and how to get along with others and problem solve.  We, as facilitators, can also learn more about the students and see better what some of their socializing needs may be.  We learned with kickball that not all children understand the concept of running bases and being called "out."  This lead to a short tutorial.

Another phase of recreation is the cafeteria time.  The children call this "stage" time.  This is only because the pool table, ping pong table and foosball is on the stage.  This free play is also important as they are quite creative here as well. I have witnessed them coming up with all kinds of variations on traditional pool.  Occasionally, they get a bit wild with balls flying, and we have to reel them back in.  They are also able to play board games at this time, and, usually, this time affords more time to play than after homework.

We also have a recreation component when we travel to the "ocean" room or our main classroom.  Here they can play with play dough and moon sand.  They are also able to roll on the exercise balls and work out on the exercise equipment.  It is a room for relaxation, recreation, creativity and learning.

As one can see, it is very important for recreation to be an integral part of our program.  We want to offer as many avenues of expression and creativity as possible and we can only reach that if many are offered.  We would like the children to use the opportunity to find what they are truly good at and build on those strengths.  We are so blessed that we are able to offer as much as we do and that we continue to grow.  We will see this concept in our exploration of the other components of our program.

Until next week:  Keep it R.E.A.L.!