How Art Classes Help Your Child to Relax

Posted on July 29, 2016 by heartsoulkids

Creating art is a safe and effective way for children to learn how to express their inner thoughts and emotions to others. Art also encourages creativity, coordination, and mental focus, while reducing stress for improved mental health and daily function. Learning to control stress and worry through the act of creating art is a valuable skill that will aid your child throughout his lifetime.

Art Is Meditative

Activities such as drawing, painting, sculpture, and coloring have meditative qualities that allow both the body and mind to relax. Through the act of creating art, the mind is encouraged to release stress and worries that may be hindering a healthy outlook or causing frustration, distraction, and restlessness. Additionally, focusing on the details of his environment teaches your child to enjoy the moment and the location he is occupying right now, rather than feeling anxious or antsy about events and activities that might take place in the future.

Art Builds Confidence

Stress and worry are often tied to feelings of self-consciousness and inadequacy. By allowing your child to take part in non-competitive and creative art classes, you are also allowing him to build up his self-confidence through personal expression. Furthermore, encouraging your child to talk about his art is a great way to boost his confidence by showing your interest in his feelings and accomplishments. When your child feels more confident, he will also feel more relaxed and able to face the challenges of everyday life.

Heart & Soul Kids Activity Center is dedicated to enriching the lives of Tucson’s next generation. Our full- and half-day Kids Camps are the perfect setting for your child to discover the joys of learning, artistic expression, and physical activity with rotating schedules that include arts and crafts, obstacle courses, games, and free play. You can learn more about our camp sessions, gymnastics classes, dance classes, and skill clinics when you take a look at our website or give us a call at (520) 818-7974.

Why Young Children Learn Through Movement

Posted on July 15, 2016 by heartsoulkids

Movement and physical activity play an important role in a healthy lifestyle at every age, but movement is especially important for children for another key reason. The acts of moving and playing allow young children to develop a sense of connection between concepts and actions, serving as a valuable learning and developmental tool during the early stages of life. It is through the actions of dancing, practicing gymnastics, play-acting, and other activities that children learn how to bridge the gap between intentions and follow-through.

Memory and Movement Are Linked

Medical studies have found that the condition and state of the body are linked to the ability of the mind to learn, process, and remember new information. Just as songs and rhymes can make memorizing facts and learning information easier, the spinning, jumping, gesturing, dancing, and tumbling of young children also appears to be a valuable memorization and cognitive tool. By performing actions associated with leaning new concepts, these concepts are better cemented in the brain and retained with much higher quality and longevity.

Movement Improves Attention Span

As a parent, you likely know that your child’s attention span can be quite variable. Children often become restless after short periods of time spent stationary, after which they frequently experience difficulty concentrating on and remembering learned concepts. By contrast, children who have the opportunity to move and play frequently experience lower stress, anxiety, and distraction during periods of stationary learning, which improves the quality of the time they do spend in a classroom or performing other learning-based activities, such as reading or homework.

At Heart & Soul Kids Activity Center, our non-competitive gymnastics and dance classes offer highly-structured and character-building activities that allow children to learn and grow in a supportive environment with their peers. We invite you to find out more about our Tucson facility on the web or by calling (520) 818-7974 today.