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Adventure Guides & Trail Blazers
Location:
Twin Lakes Family YMCA
204 E. Little Elm Trail
Cedar Park, TX 78613
(512) 250-9622
Questions / Register:
Jaime Solis
(512) 615-7411
ADVENTURE GUIDES & TRAIL BLAZERS
The YMCA of Greater Williamson County is pleased to offer these two special parent-child programs to the community we serve. YMCA Adventure Guides and YMCA Trail Blazers are parent-child programs designed to help children in kindergarten through sixth grade foster a lifetime of understanding and companionship while strengthening the relationship between them and their parents. As "YMCA Guides" and "YMCA Explorers", parents and kids explore adventures of fun, learning and mutual understanding. The immediate gain is evident by spending time together, but the long-term gains are even more significant. Not only will you build a solid foundation for a friendship that will last a lifetime, but you'll also be helping to build and develop a set of skills and patterns that your children will carry with them into adolescence and adulthood.
YMCA ADVENTURE GUIDES
YMCA Adventure Guides is designed for a parent and his or her child in Kinder through 3rd grade. In YMCA Adventure Guides, the focus is on the parent's role as a guide in a child's life. Parents lead, direct, supervise, influence and teach while presenting opportunities for children to explore the world around them. They lead by example as they set their children on a path through life. The program experience begins as a side-by-side journey for a parent and child, until the child is launched into more advanced, independent activities. This journey happens within the context of a small Circle community. The Circle is the program's basic unit, providing a structure, a sense of community and support for all group activities. Adventure Guides (parents) and Explorers (children) meet in Circles once or twice a month and participate in a variety of Expedition Adventures (such as overnight camping) throughout the year. Purpose: To foster understanding and companionship between parent and child. For registration, contact Jaime Solis at the Twin Lakes Family YMCA either via phone (512-615-7411) or e-mail jsolis@ymcawilliamsonco.org
Motto
Friends Forever
Pledge
“We, YMCA Adventure Guides and Explorers, through friendly service to each other, to our family, to this Circle (or Expedition) and to our community, seek a world pleasing to the eye of our creator.” Leadership: YMCA staff members and program volunteers run the program. Volunteers are recruited or elected by Circle members and assume a variety of offices and responsibilities for different roles.
Goals
- Foster companionship and understanding; set a foundation for positive, lifelong relationships between parent and child.
- Build a sense of self-esteem and personal worth.
- Expand awareness of spirit, mind and body.
- Provide a framework to meet the mutual needs of parents and children for spending enjoyable, constructive and quality time together.
- Enhance the quality of family time.
- Emphasize the vital role that a parent plays in the growth and development of a child.
- Offer an important and unique opportunity to develop and enjoy volunteer leadership skills.
Aims
- To be clean in body and pure in heart.
- To be friends forever with my dad/mom/son/daughter.
- To love the sacred circle of my family.
- To listen while others speak.
- To love my neighbor as myself.
- To respect the traditions and beliefs of all people.
- To seek and preserve the beauty of our creator's work in forest, field and stream.
Activities
The YMCA Adventure Guides program is based heavily on rituals and traditions that bring a sense of continuity, community, intrigue and magic to the program. These rituals and traditions include: Program Names, Circle & Expedition Property, Program Attire, Rites of Passage, Awards, Ceremonies and more, depending on each YMCA's choices.
Themes
At the forefront of the program are the compass points. The compass points lend an inspiration for activities but also provide a framework from which to build an adventure theme. The compass-points approach retains the program's focus on strengthening parent-child relationships through small Circle communities while participating in activities that help meet the program's objectives. The four main directional points on the compass are the essential components of the program:
- The Family is True North—the focal point of the program.
- Nature and the camping experience are integral parts of the program.
- The spirit of the program is experienced through belonging to a small community called a Circle.
- Fun is the magic of the program.
YMCA TRAIL BLAZERS
The YMCA Trail Blazers program, which is a continuation of YMCA Adventure Guides for a parent and his or her child in 4th through 6th grade, is dedicated to developing the parent/child relationship by using the many opportunities presented by the outdoors to immerse both parents and children in an exciting new environment where they can laugh, learn and play together. YMCA Trail Blazers also offers these older children more challenging and varied experiences, while teaching leadership and responsibility. This journey happens within the context of a small Wagon Train community. The Wagon Train is the program's basic unit, providing a structure, a sense of community and support for all group activities. Adventure Guides (parents) and Explorers (children) meet in Wagon Trains once or twice a month and participate in a variety of age-appropriate outdoor adventures throughout the year. Purpose: To further understanding and companionship between parent and child while placing a focus on leadership and responsibility. For registration, contact Jaime Solis at the Twin Lakes Family YMCA either via phone (512-615-7411) or e-mail jsolis@ymcawilliamsonco.org
- Strengthen bonds of companionship between parent and child.
- Expand wisdom, intellectual curiosity and independence.
- Develop reverence and appreciation for the diversity of others and the world around us.
- Serve others, young and old, who are in need.
- Improve in body, for mine and spirit.
