Sharing Circle

There is no doubt that child care is an expensive commodity. Many families are spending at least 10% of their income on a service to take care of a child while parents are at their job. This is a stressful situation and you may even be thinking that one parent should quit working to reduce the expenses of child care. Or you may choose to keep your job but have to be satisfied with the small pay check after you’ve paid the child care bill. Is child care worth the cost?
 
Cost of Child Care
Here is what it looks like to employ a care service for the week in 2016

There are big reasons why children want to go to summer camps. Yes, we know that they enjoy the educational activities. They’ll also tell you that they go for the fun. There is a whole gamut of activities that campers are engaged in that contribute to the development of their general well-being. However, one benefit that both campers, camp organizers and parents overlook is how the children develop socially. This aspect of development is crucial because it is where children learn who they are and how to interact with the people that come into their space. Here are some important social benefits for children attending summer programs.

• Children operate in a community environment – From the moment a child enters a camp facility, he or she is thrust into a community of people. It is a very great time and opportunity to meet a variety of people from different places and also cultures. Kids will find that the summer camp environment does not work like the one at school and they have more opportunities to interact with others.

Visiting or living in Albany, New York? Whatever the season, your stay can be a memorable experience with many great adventure activities for children in Albany, New York that are available. The many fun spots in the capital are designed to let your kids delight themselves, while relieving you of so many of the pressures many parents feel.
 
Fun Farm Experience

When parents decide to entrust the care of their children to a child care provider, they are looking for a caring and safe environment where their children can grow and develop away from home. Parents may want to see that the facility is spacious and clean, that there is enough staff to care for and monitor the children, and that their little ones are comfortable. When children in care centers are comfortable, parents have greater peace of mind. When looking for a great program, consider the following elements that can create a lasting relationship between you and the provider.

Health and Safety Are a Priority
Yes, you are not expecting your child to be crawling or running around in messy rooms or play areas. But consider also other key security details that a provider should not overlook, such as installing fire detectors and extinguishers in their facility. A security policy should also be in place that prevents intruders from gaining access to the compound. In addition, children are accident prone and a well-stocked first-aid kit should be on hand.

The early years of your child’s life are the most important as this is when they develop important skills they will need in later years. They develop physical, emotional, and social abilities to be able to deal with themselves and others. One more important aspect of their growth is their cognitive abilities, those skills that allow them to think, learn, remember, reason out things, solve problems and be focused. Quality child care is needed from a very young age to stimulate the proper development of these abilities.
 
What are Cognitive Skills?
 
Cognitive skills may be considered as the special abilities that a child need to be able to learn. The more important ones are thinking, memory and attention skills. A child gets his or her cognitive abilities through family traits. However, you will find that much of what he or she has can be learned.

• Thinking skills. These involve all the thought processes that occur in a child’s brain when he or she sees, hears, touches, smells and tastes things.  The child however uses these experiences to reason out things to solve problems. The child processes the information as he asks questions, develops ideas, makes decisions and plans and organizes.
• Memory skills. These are the skills that a child uses to remember what is learnt and experienced. Young children have very short memory but as they grow, they learn to expand their minds to retain things for longer.
• Attention skills. These are the abilities a child has that allow him or her to be focused on an activity or task. This also includes being able to ignore distractions to complete a task. Very young children have short attention span but as they grow, they are able to focus for longer. Children in quality child care programs can strengthen and enhance these skills.

 
How can Child Care Help?

Summer camps provide a breather for many parents during that long break from school. Children need to be engaged and there are a whole lot of summer camp programs to choose from. Many parents are happy for them but how do first timers go about choosing the best camps? A camp brochure will tell you about the date and time, the location and facilities, and the activities your kids will be involved in. However, many programs are much more than that and it is for this reason that you start early to research the best ones that will make a great impact.
 
Look for Qualified, Experienced and Engaging Staff
The quality of camp leaders used can make or break a summer camp. Leaders who do not have experience in dealing with children possibly will not know group control. Similarly they may not know how to manage conflicts. Therefore one priority question that you need to have answered is the level of experience of the staff. Of course, staffers who have been in the business for a long time will make for a great program.
 
Look for Parents who keep coming back

There is no end of activities for your family if you are vacationing in Albany during the summer. For the kids, there are tons of activities to enjoy and to fill their time. Summer camps are especially popular and your children will not want to be left out. You could also take them to the several museums in the area and they will love the animals at the zoos. Also, experience the many opportunities there are to go nature hiking. There are loads of great summer activities in Albany for you to explore.
 
Summer Camps
Great summer activities in Albany include thousands of camp programs that are held at various centers. Camps are recreational, developmental and educational for the kids. You will appreciate the mental, social and physical skills your child will develop in one of these programs. Kids can join a day or overnight program. Many camps provide an enriching experience where kids get to feed the animals on their farms, go on nature walks, experience horseback riding, team up to plant a garden, and learn nature-based art and craft.  If you are looking for a great summer camp program in Albany, consider checking out TSL Adventures.

Amusement Parks and Fun Centers

Every year millions of children look forward to going off to summer camp. Whether they are going to one of the thousands of day camps over the country, or overnighting away from home at a resident facility, it is usually a time of involvement, learning and sharing. The benefits of summer camp are many. We may not even be aware of their value beyond helping to fill children’s time with fun activities. Summer camps, however helps to build their physical, emotional, educational, social and creative abilities.  The benefits to mental or emotional development are huge and can hardly be measured.
 
Help Overcoming Emotional Challenges

The opportunity for parents to trust the care of their children to qualified professionals while they go to work has been seen as a godsend in many quarters. The business of child care has evolved to a great extent in the last ten years as more providers have flourished all over the country. The industry has become so important that lately the government has sought to intervene, legislating that tax payers contribute to the cost of child care. Here’s how the industry has changed.
 
Child Care Options have widened

Albany has many schools and after school programs dotted across the Capital Region. But what do we do with our children when the school day is finished at 2:30 in the afternoon. This is a huge chunk of the day and your children have not yet used even half of their learning capacities. It’s a whole new world of opportunities for them and good after school programs will just be what they need. There is a list of such establishments in the area and we are helping you to explore them.
 
1. Sidney Albert Albany JCC
The many activities that happen at this center after school make you wish you are a child again. Sidney Albert Albany JCC runs a program dubbed Kaleidoscope that will engage your child for the whole afternoon. Their designated transportation will drop your child off at the center where they are placed in rooms according to grade. Snacks are served and they enjoy games with their friends. What’s more, you and your child can chose any of the specialty classes to engage in. Whether it be swimming, cooking, art, community service, or music, they will find lots of pleasurable moments. If he or she is inclined to sporting activities, or is a lover of languages, there are programs that are designed for them. Best of all, children have the opportunity to complete their homework under supervised guidance. 
 
Here is a typical day in Kaleidoscope:

• At 2:35, children arrive at the center.
• By 3:00pm, the first specialty class begins.
• At 4:00pm, the second specialty class begins.
• At 5:00pm, children are free to play in their rooms until they are picked up by parents.

 
2. Albany Public Schools Extended-Day Programs