Performers from Sol Children Theatre Troupe.
Now that we’re into back-to-school mode – well, once this rain clears! - it’s time to start scheduling those extra-curricular activities, as well.
Fall is a busy season to sign up for sports and year-round activities and clubs.
If you are looking for some new interests for your kids, here is a sampling of the options you can still get into this season:
Sports Soccer season is coming soon. The deadline for registering with the Soccer Association of Boca Raton is Sept. 15. Practices are one night a week with a weekend game. For ages 4 to 18. Registration is $120 a player, including uniform (but not cleats). Register online at www.sabrsoccer.net.
There are still spaces available for East Boca Tackle football cheerleading. Registration continues until Sept. 1 for girls age 6-12. Practice two nights a week, plus one or two games a week. $175 includes uniforms.
The United States Cheerleading Association offers several cheerleading programs at the Sugar Sand Park Field House, starting in September. Get the details in The Recreator.
Performing arts
Several local drama programs are registering students for fall. Sol Children Theatre Troupe is a nonprofit organization that offers weekly classes in improv, acting, musical theater and more for ages 5 to 12 and older. Last call for registration is Sept. 21. Course descriptions at solchildren.org.
The nonprofit Sunflower Creative Arts is revamping and adding some new drama programs, beginning this week. There are classes for ages 4-6, 7-10, 10-14, and an improv class for ages 13-18. Sunflower is also adding a theater class for kids on the autism spectrum, age 7-10. Get details at sunflowercreativearts.org. (More on other new Sunflower programs below).
Showtime Performing Arts Theatre offers group classes in theater (as well as voice, dance and some musical instruments) for ages 4-adult, starting this week. The first show of the season will be Mary Poppins. Get details and register at showtimeboca.com.
Mommy & Me
The city offers several classes for parents with their babies and toddlers, which will be starting again in the next few weeks. Get the details in The Recreator.
Sunflower Creative Arts is expanding its Little Sprouts Mommy & Me class (for toddlers 18 months to 3 years with an adult) to include Saturdays – great for working parents. And it’s starting a new class called Sunflower Babies for infants up to 8 months with an adult. Get times and other details at the Sunflower website.
BocaParent Guru contributor Karen Deerwester is the Mommy & Me director at B’nai Torah Congregation, where classes begin in September. There is still space available for all ages. Get the info at the B’nai Torah website.
Service
Sunflower will also resume its Roots & Shoots chapter this fall. Membership is free. Roots & Shoots is an international service organization for kids. Sunflower offers it for two age groups: 5-9 and 10-16. Members do local service projects that show caring for the environment, animals and people. Registration info at the Sunflower website. You can read about some of the group’s past activities in the BocaParent blog.
LEARN MORE
Find many, many more options for classes and activities for all ages offered by the city, parks and libraries in the latest edition of The Recreator..
Just remember: Don’t overdo it. Kids need down time, too. And so does the mom taxi.
- CHARLENE PACENTI
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Parents often ask how they can get their kids involved in giving back – especially this time of year. The truth is, beyond the holiday food and toy drives, there aren’t many volunteer opportunities where kids can do hands-on work – mostly due to liability issues.
But one organization puts kid involvement front and center: Roots and Shoots. This international service organization for kids was started by Jane Goodall, the famous chimp researcher. The Boca Raton community chapter is run by the nonprofit Sunflower Creative Arts.
You may have seen them in the Boca Raton Holiday Street Parade, carrying Sunny, their big peace dove.
The group aims to give kids the opportunity to implement their own service projects, many centered around an appreciation for nature and the environment. Since the fall, the kids have been working in the Pearl City Community Garden, planting seeds in the lettuce patch, shoveling mulch and packing dirt for tomato plants. They will harvest the food later and donate it to Boca Helping Hands, as they have done for the past couple of years.
On Dec. 17, Roots and Shoots took a field trip to Belle Glade to help C.R.O.S. Ministries glean corn for the hungry. Many commercial farms use machines to harvest their vegetables – a process that misses some of the food. Because it isn’t cost-effective for the companies to harvest the leftovers, some of them allow charities to come in and pick it for donation to families who need it.
Roots and Shoots kids helped other volunteers in gleaning a truckload of corn – by hand.
Later on, they’ll be creating enrichment toys for the primates at Lion Country Safari and attending a primate workshop.
The women who run Roots and Shoots at Sunflower – Susan Caruso, Ellen Stone and master gardener Betsy Pickup – have years of experience in education and child development.
Sunflower offers Roots and Shoots for two age groups – 9 and younger, and 10 to 18. They meet a couple of times a month. Membership is free.
To join, visit SunflowerCreativeArts.org, or call 561-482-3412. (Sunflower also offers a host of other programs for all ages, including an alternative to preschool and discussion groups for parents. Get the details on its website.)
Read more about Roots and Shoots international at RootsandShoots.org.
These local schools also have Roots and Shoots chapters: West Boca High, Claremont Montessori School, Pine Crest, American Heritage and Sunrise Park Elementary. - CHARLENE PACENTI
How many times have you vowed to get your kids involved in a cause, to teach them to give back, to be good citizens of the planet and appreciate all that they have?
Roots & Shoots can help.
This international service organization founded by famed chimpanzee researcher and United Nations peace ambassador Jane Goodall is all about facilitating kid activism.
“They can do something that empowers them to make the world a better place,” said Ellen Stone, who leads the club for members age 7-18 based at Sunflower Creative Arts in Boca Raton. “Their world is global.”
It can be difficult to find meaningful ways for kids to contribute to the community. Many established organizations don’t have the space, the resources or the time to let children “help” – and some are prohibited by liability issues. At Roots & Shoots, the kids can follow their interests and see how their work makes a difference.
The Roots & Shoots Sunflower chapter meets once a month to make plans and do art and nature activities. One Saturday morning a month, the kids and teens work in the Pearl City Community Garden. They have already harvested a load of greens, which they delivered to Boca Helping Hands to feed those in need. They have rows of robust tomatoes soon to ripen on the vine. Broccoli has sprouted.
Under the eye and instruction of master gardener Betsy Pickup, a retired Saint Andrew’s environmental science teacher, the kids and teens have cleared plots of ground, planted seeds and built owl houses.
Roots & Shoots members have also helped a local church set up beds to house homeless families. And they are helping students at Don Estridge High Tech Middle School create a nature preserve.
Last fall, they marched to the ocean in Delray Beach in honor of the UN’s International Day of Peace.
Earlier this month, Roots & Shoots members visited the primate research facility at Lion Country Safari, where they made toys for the chimps. Stone said that was an important field trip to connect them to Goodall’s work. The famous scientist has visited the facility near West Palm Beach, where the chimps’ behavior, interaction and personalities are studied.
Goodall started Roots & Shoots in Africa in 1991 and it has since spread around the world. Stone started the Sunflower group about three years ago, after Goodall gave a speech at Florida Atlantic University. It is funded with a grant from the Marie Graber Martens Fund of the Community Foundation for Palm Beach and Martin Counties.
The two Roots & Shoots groups – Re-cycos for kids 10-18 and Shooting Stars for kids 7-9 – meet once a month in Sunflower’s space, located at the rear of the Unitarian Universalist Church on St. Andrews Boulevard. Registration is free and there is plenty of room for new members.
Besides the Sunflower chapter, these Boca schools also have Roots & Shoots clubs for students: West Boca Raton High School, Claremont Montessori Center, Pine Crest and Sunrise Park Elementary. TO LEARN MORE
Kids from the Boca Raton chapter of Roots & Shoots, a worldwide organization of young activists, marked international Peace Day with a gathering and parade across the Intracoastal Waterway.
The kids made peace posters, clay peace signs, decorated bandannas and made their own instruments alongside a lively junk band at Veteran’s Park in Delray Beach on Sunday afternoon.
A local Raging Grannies group sang for an end to war.
Then the kids – from babies in strollers to teenagers and their parents – paraded across the Intracoastal carrying “Sunny,” a giant peace dove puppet, chanting, “Peace for all! Peace for all!”
The event helps kick off a new year for Roots & Shoots, started internationally by the noted chimpanzee researcher Jane Goodall, to get kids involved in local activism.
Susan Caruso, director of Sunflower Creative Arts, brought the program to Boca to give kids an opportunity to do hands-on projects with tangible results.
“I wanted kids to be able to have an impact on their community”, she said. Kids are very concerned about homelessness, the environment and other issues.
Last year, Roots & Shoots planted a community garden in Pearl City. The harvest was given to Boca Helping Hands, which helps feed those in need. The kids will plant it again this year, as well as work with the primate center at Lion Country Safari and help FamilyPromise, which serves homeless families in south Palm Beach County.
Register your kid for Roots & Shoots (two age groups: 6-9 and 10-18 – it’s free) or learn about Sunflower’s other programs at the organization’s website. See more photos on its Facebook page.
If you see a giant puppet flying over the Intracoastal Waterway bridge in Delray Beach on Sunday evening, that’s a Boca kids group marking international Peace Day.
The local chapter of Roots & Shoots will be joining children around the world in marking the United Nations International Day of Peace.
You can join them at 4 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 19, at Veteran’s Park, on the Intracoastal at Atlantic Avenue, for music and crafts. At 5 p.m., kids and adults will parade over the bridge, flying a giant peace dove puppet.
Roots & Shoots is a global kids activist group founded by Jane Goodall, the famous chimpanzee researcher, to get kids involved in community projects. The local chapter was formed by the nonprofit Sunflower Creative Arts, supported by a grant from the Marie Graber Martens Fund of the Community Foundation of Palm Beach & Martin Counties.
Last year, Roots & Shoots members planted a community garden and helped out with the animals at Tri-County Humane Society.
The program has two age groups – 9 and younger (Shooting Stars), meets the first Wednesday of the month; and 10-18 (Re-Cycos) meets first Fridays in Sunflower’s space at the back of the Unitarian Universalist Church, 2601 Saint Andrews Blvd.
Sunflower also offers a host of drama programs for children and adults, as well as a parents co-op alternative to preschool. Call 561-482-3412 for more information.
