Over the past year we’ve met, connected with, and worked with so many amazing families and built an amazing community of Super Parents. We often find that YOU are our best resource, so we thought, why not collect and share all of your fantastic knowledge with the entire Superfam.
Meet Nikolene, mother of an 8-year old Super Camper. She’s a full-time WFH parent based in Pennsylvania.
The silver lining has been finding new creative activities that we can do as a family that still allow us to socially distance. During this time we have enjoyed things like rockhounding (where we go hunting for crystals), a game we invited called ChaCha Koala (played by kicking balls uphill to have them roll back down through goals constructed of arched pool noodles), and, of course, Supernow for our daughter.
Our biggest challenge has been the isolation, boredom, and loneliness that comes along with appropriately socially distancing. Unfortunately, we were never really able to create a "bubble" with friends or family who were isolating to the same level that we have been, so even outdoor interactions have been few and far between. In all honesty, this is something that we haven't truly found a way to overcome completely, but at least for our daughter Supernow has been a social lifeline.
We have learned that we are resourceful and resilient. Some days are more challenging than others, but we continue to push forward together.
2020 definitely reminded us that in order to take the best care of our daughter (physically, mentally, emotionally), we also needed to make sure we were taking care of ourselves. We made sure to be honest with ourselves, as well as our friends, family, coworkers, and healthcare practitioners about our general wellbeing and what we needed through this difficult time, so that we could give the best versions of ourselves as parents.
We try to get out as much as we can. Although we have always been nature-lovers, we now have a much deeper knowledge of our local parks, walking trails, and streams than we did before. Prior to COVID-19, we had very strict screen-time policies for our daughter that we have since had to amend. While that was, and sometimes still is, very difficult for us to have to come to terms with, we both agreed it was necessary for her mental health. So now, even though we have temporarily had to pause her in-person sports/clubs, we have found opportunities for her to still engage with others through online venues like Supernow, online theatre classes, and clubs/classes through Outschool. This has also helped provide structure to her schedule and gives her things to look forward to.
According to our daughter, "Supernow is exciting and full of alien and mermaid drama! It's exciting and when I feel tired at the end of a school day it lifts my spirits up and gets me energized!" We honestly cannot imagine what life would have been like for us if we had never found Supernow. It provided our daughter with a link to the outside world and gave us structure and peace-of-mind during the most tumultuous period of our lives.
Her favorite moment was when her counselor, Jessica, showed them a picture of herself photoshopped as a mermaid. As parents, it warmed our heart to know that her counselor thought enough of her campers outside of their virtual cabin time to create something from their private inside joke. That is the level of genuine dedication we have come to know and love from her counselor and the Supernow family as a whole.
We practice joy by being active and laughing together every day. We try to live in the knowledge that life is what we make it, and as long as we are being safe and kind, we get to actively choose how we express ourselves in life.
Our daughter would love for Supernow to continue even after her school returns to exclusively face-to-face learning. In her own words, she wants to have a "Supernowtastic fourth grade and 2021."
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Supernow is a virtual program designed to teach kids ages 5-10 important social and emotional skills and supercharge their development into happy and healthy future grown-ups.
Learn more and sign up for a free trial here: https://www.campsupernow.com/f/free-trial
